AR-News: Study Examines Future Of Species Extinction, Conservation

[jim robertson]

Study Examines Future Of Species Extinction, Conservation
MADISON - Extinction doesn't just affect the species that disappears - it 
alters entire communities, changing both how the community as a whole and 
the individual species within it will respond to environmental degradation, 
according to results published in the May 13 issue of Nature.

With extinction continuously altering the fates of plants and animals, 
researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say, it may be extremely 
difficult to predict which organisms will be the next to cease existing and 
that the wisest conservation plan is one that reaches beyond a particular 
species to protect entire communities.

The pair of researchers, interested in understanding what happens when 
species go extinct, developed mathematical models that look at changes in a 
community's tolerance to a particular environmental condition, such as 
global warming or acid rain.

They found that, as individual species start to disappear, two forces begin 
to act upon a community, making it either more or less tolerant to the 
environmental condition. One of these forces occurs when species disappear 
in the order of their sensitivity to a particular environmental factor, with 
the least-tolerant ones going extinct first.

more:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040514065516.htm