Reason to cheer: 596 new plant and animal species discovered in India last year

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Reason to cheer: 596 new plant and animal species discovered in India last year
Shiv Sahay Singh
KOLKATA, JUNE 06, 2019 23:05 IST

224 new species of plants and 372 animal species discovered in India last year
Scientists and taxonomists have documented 596 new species of flora and fauna from India in the year 2018. The details of the discoveries were made public on Thursday by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in the publications Plant Discoveries 2018 and Animal Discoveries 2018.

Of the 596 species, 372 come under fauna (311 invertebrates and 61 vertebrates). The newly identified 224 plant species include seed plants, pteridophytes, bryophytes, fungi and lichen.

About 31% of the plant species were discovered in the Himayalas. In the case of animals, the Western Ghats remained a biological hotspot from where about 50% of the species were found.

“The plants discovered this year includes close wild relatives of many potential horticulture, agriculture, medicinal and ornamental plants. The discoveries include plants belonging to groups Amomum (wild cardamom), Cycads, Rubus (raspberry), Syzygium (wild jamun), Terminalia, Balsams, Zingibers and also seven trees and 10 orchids,” said A.A. Mao, director of BSI.


He added that the BSI has placed emphasis on molecular DNA technology and phylogeny to confirm the discoveries.

Taxonomic tools
Kailash Chandra, director of ZSI, said that modern taxonomic tools, like DNA analysis, helped in the discovery of frogs and reptiles

“Of the 61 species of vertebrates discovered this year, reptiles dominate (30 species),” Mr. Chandra said. 21 species of fishes, nine species of amphibians, and one mammalian sub-species were also found.

Kerala recorded the highest number of discoveries with 59 species. West Bengal, a state with both Himalayan and coastal ecosystems, recorded 38 and Tamil Nadu recorded 26.

With these new discoveries, the updated list of animal species in India has risen to 1,01,681 which is about 6.49% of all the species in the world, Mr. Chandra said.

S.S. Dash, head of the publication of BSI, said that the number of plant species in the country has been updated to 49,441 which is 11.5% of all flora in the world. “Over the past ten years, BSI has recorded discovery of 3,225 plant species,” he said.

Other than the discoveries, 139 species of animals were added to the fauna of India as new records. In terms of plants, 193 taxa of plants were added to flora of India as new records.

Last year, 539 new species of plants and animals were discovered, which included 300 species of animals and 239 species and sub-species of plants.

 

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The Western Ghats is one of the best biodiversity spots in the world.

 

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The Western Ghats is one of the best biodiversity spots in the world.

tropical rain forests are the best bio-diversity spots

 

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Plant extinction 'bad news for all species'
By Helen BriggsBBC News

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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionDeforestation in Sumatra
Almost 600 plant species have been lost from the wild in the last 250 years, according to a comprehensive new study.

The number is based on actual extinctions rather than estimates, and is twice that of all bird, mammal and amphibian extinctions combined.

Scientists say plant extinction is occurring up to 500 times faster than what would be expected naturally.

In May, a UN report estimated that one million animal and plant species were threatened with extinction.

• Humans 'threaten 1m species with extinction'
• Nature's emergency in five graphics
• What does a biodiversity emergency mean for humans.

Researchers say their analysis of all documented plant extinctions in the world shows what lessons can be learned to stop future extinctions.

Most people can name a mammal or bird that has become extinct in recent centuries, but few could name an extinct plant, said Dr Aelys Humphreys of Stockholm University.

"This study is the first time we have an overview of what plants have already become extinct, where they have disappeared from and how quickly this is happening," she added.

Image copyrightREBECCA CAIRN WICKS
Image captionSt Helena Olive: The tree went extinct in 2003
The lost plants include the Chile sandalwood, which was exploited for essential oils, the banded trinity plant, which spent much of its life underground, and the pink-flowered St Helena olive tree.

The biggest losses are on islands and in the tropics, which are home to highly valued timber trees and tend to be particularly rich in plant diversity.

What did the study find?
Scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Stockholm University found that 571 plant species had disappeared in the last two and a half centuries, a number that is more than twice the number of birds, mammals and amphibians recorded as extinct (a combined total of 217 species).

The researchers believe these numbers underestimate the true levels of ongoing plant extinction.

One positive, though, was evidence that some plants once thought extinct have been rediscovered, such as the Chilean crocus.

Image copyrightRICHARD WILFORD
Image captionThe Chilean crocus: Rediscovered in 2001 after years of searching
Why does plant extinction matter?
All life on Earth depends on plants, which provide the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat.

Plant extinctions can lead to a whole cascade of extinctions in other organisms that rely on them, for instance insects that use plants for food and for laying their eggs.

Media caption"Species are going extinct at a faster rate than we've seen for millions of years" - Laura Foster reports
Plant extinction is bad news for all species, said Dr Eimear Nic Lughadha, co-researcher and conservation scientist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Image
Image caption Herbaria preserve specimens of extinct plants
"Millions of other species depend on plants for their survival, humans included, so knowing which plants we are losing and from where, will feed back into conservation programmes targeting other organisms as well," she explained.

What lessons can we learn?
The researchers are calling for a number of measures to stop plant extinction:

• Record all the plants across the world
• Support herbaria, which preserve plant specimens for posterity
• Support botanists who carry out vital research
• Teach our children to see and recognise local plants.

Dr Rob Salguero-Gómez, of the University of Oxford, who was not part of the study, said understanding the how, where, and why of plant loss was of paramount importance, not only for ecologists but also for human societies.

"We depend on plants directly for food, shade and construction materials, and indirectly for 'ecosystem services' such as carbon fixation, oxygen creation, and even improvement in human mental health through enjoying green spaces," he commented.