extinction debt

2019 / Highlighted papers

Anthropic plant extinctions differ quantitatively and qualitatively between biodiversity hot- and coldspots

In a paper recently published in Current Biology, an international team led by C·I·B research associate Jaco Le Roux and postdoctoral fellow Heidi Hirsch contrasted the patterns and dynamics of plant extinctions between biodiversity hot- and coldspots.

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23 August 2019

2015 / News

No time to waste in dealing with a biodiversity-debt crisis

Recently there have been a series of debt crises in economies around the world, from Greece to Argentina to the U.S.A. Unfortunately we also have a global biodiversity-debt crisis. These debt crises share one important feature in common—managers need to respond to the emergency.

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18 August 2015

Read more about the article The impact of human activity on biodiversity may be greatly underestimated

Onosma helvetica ssp. austriaca is an Austrian endemic restricted to dry rocky grasslands in the Wachau region near Vienna. Formerly, it‘s habitats were extensively grazed, but after World War II this extensive land use has been abandoned. Since then, most of its former habitats have been lost due to succession, and currently only three populations are left. Thus, ongoing losses of populations have been triggered by land use changes occurring more than 60 years ago. © F. Essl

2013 / Highlighted papers

The impact of human activity on biodiversity may be greatly underestimated

The effects of environmental pressures on biological extinctions may not be evident for decades after the events, a study finds. Stefan Dullinger, Franz Essl (C·I·B Research Associate), Petr Pyšek (C·I·B Research Associate) and colleagues compared the current number of threatened species in 22 European countries, with contemporary and historic levels of human-caused environmental pressures on biodiversity.

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29 May 2013