. You are a conservation biologist and have just completed a conservation review

Question

. You are a conservation biologist and have just completed a conservation review project focused on a single mammal species. You are taking your research in a new direction, looking for a study system with diverse species. You begin by evaluating four groups of potential study species, using data from the 2008 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, shown in Table 1 below

Compare the four groups to determine how our knowledge of conservation status differs across the groups.

i.) Calculate the percent of described species for which conservation status has been evaluated and enter your data into a new table (this will be referred to as Table 2).

ii.) Which group has been most thoroughly evaluated and which group has been least thoroughly evaluated in terms of conservation status?

Table 1 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Number of species Number of species Number of species Group described evaluated threatened Vertebrates 61,259 5,966 26,604 6,161 2,496 Invertebrates 1,232,384 8,448 11,995 Plants 288,468 3 3 Lichen /Fungi 47,000 Source: Data from the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, as reported in Vie et al. (2009).

Explanation / Answer

1. Percent of described species which have been evaluated:

Vertebrates (26604 x 100) / 61259 = 43%

Invertebrates (6161 x 100) / 1232384 = 0.5%

Plants (11995 x 100) / 288468 = 4%

Lichen/Fungi (3 x 100) / 47000 = 0.01%

2. Thus, vertebrates have been most thoroughly evaluated as they have got max species evaluated.

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