To begin simply, plants equal life. They are the primary producers that
sustain all other life forms. They regulate air and water quality, shape
ecosystems and control the climate. They provide food, medicine, clothes,
shelter and the raw materials from which innumerable other products are made.
These benefits are widely recognised but poorly understood. Because of this plants
are both a vital part of the world’s biological diversity and an essential economic
resource for human existence. Yet plant extinctions are occurring at a rate unmatched
in geological history, leaving ecosystems incomplete. Current extinction rates
are at least 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates, with a
quarter of the world’s coniferous trees known to be in jeopardy and as many as 15,000
medicinal plants under threat. Whilst the extinction of a species is the
ultimate loss, the process of extinction itself has serious consequences for
local ecosystems. Plant to plant interactions effect both resource availability
and habitat structure, and play an important role in mediating the responses of
natural systems meaning the loss of any one species weakens an ecosystem’s
ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world.
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