The Atlantic Forest, located along Brazil’s southern coast, has been in dire straits for decades, with expanding cities and agriculture leaving only a small fraction of the forest standing today. But the situation might be even worse than previously thought. Several thousand tree species in the forest are threatened with extinction, a new study has found. Over 80% of endemic tree species are at risk of going extinct — and that’s a conservative estimate, the researchers said. “The conservation status of the Atlantic Forest tree flora is alarming but probably worse in reality,” the study, published this month in Science, said. It found that two-thirds of the populations of all 4,950 tree species that make up the Atlantic Forest are threatened with extinction. Lead author Renato Lima said he and the authors knew the situation was critical but weren’t expecting it to be this bad. They were shocked when they got the results. “We freaked out a little bit,” Lima, professor in Ecology at the University of São Paulo, said of the results. “But that’s the reality.” The Atlantic Forest stretches approximately 30 million hectares (74 million acres) down Brazil’s Atlantic coast, extending into parts of Argentina and Paraguay. Some notable tree species include the Paubrasilia echinata (brazilwood), for which Brazil is named, the Araucaria angustifolia (Paraná pine) and Ilex paraguariensis (yerba mate), among others. The forest is an important carbon sink helping combat the fight against climate change. It also helps clean the air and water. Over 70% of the Brazilian population…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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