Population diversity: its extent and extinction.
other · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 9381179.
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Abstract
Genetically distinct populations are an important component of biodiversity. This work estimates the number of populations per area of a sample of species from literature on population differentiation and the average range area of a species from a sample of distribution maps. This yields an estimate of about 220 populations per species, or 1.1 to 6.6 billion populations globally. Assuming that population extinction is a linear function of habitat loss, approximately 1800 populations per hour (16 million annually) are being destroyed in tropical forests alone.
Medical subject headings
- Ecosystem
- Genetics, Population