a.
SAO
PAULO — The vast majority of the Earth's estimated 13 million species are
still unknown and to
describe them all would take up to 2,000 years,
according to a leading Brazilian scientist.
"We estimate that there are a total of around 13 million
species (known and unknown) in the world," says Thomas Lewinsohn, a
renowned professor of ecology at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Sao
Paulo state.
"Out
of these, roughly 1.75 million species, including
micro-organisms, plants, insects, bacteria and animals, have been
described," he told AFP in an interview.
And there is actually no consensus on the exact number of species, with
experts relying on extrapolation based on known data.
Lewinsohn presented his findings at a forum organized here last
week by FAPESP, a local research foundation focusing on Sao Paulo state's
biodiversity.
b.
He said a major
problem was a lack of
data in countries with the greatest biodiversity such
as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico,
Indonesia or South Africa.
"Most species have been discovered by amateur taxonomists (scientists
who classify organisms according to their physical or cellular characteristics)
in Europe," he noted. "That is not the case in Brazil and countries with high
biodiversity where we do
not have an army of amateur taxonomists."
He stressed the importance
of understanding the biodiversity of smaller species such
as microbes to map out conservation strategies that can preserve the ecosystem.
"You cannot base conservation decisions solely on
well-studied groups," he noted. "If we are concerned about
maintaining functioning ecosystems, we must
study further the biodiversity of smaller organisms such as
insects and microbes."
Countries such as Brazil need international assistance to build and regularly monitor reference
data to "come up with reliable estimates of changes in biodiversity".
c.
"It requires
a different mindset, a rethink of how money is
allocated," Lewinsohn noted.
Describing
all species, he said, might
take up to 2,000 years and the cost could range
between $25 and 50 billion over
50 years.
Lewinsohn said this compared
with the $1.738 trillion the world spent on arms just
in 2011 or the $195
billion spent on NASA's space shuttle program from 1971 to 2011.
d.
Note:
Images (a),
(c) and (d) are “unknown
species” which I myself have personally discovered and
have, until now, reserved
for my own needy company.
I find the information contained in this article incredibly uplifting. So many new friends (I hope) to meet. I’ve lost faith in most of the old
crowd.
Image (b) is an
undated handout photo of a new species of three-fingered frog, Brachycephalus
tridactylus, at Salto Morato Natural Reserve in Guaraquecaba, southern
state of Parana, Brazil by André M.X. Lima.
