Environment

'Red List' of Endangered Ecosystems

With many of the world's ecosystems threatened or endangered by human activities like logging and urbanization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its criteria for a new "Red List" of endangered ecosystems.



The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be similar to the group's authoritative Red List of Endangered Species, which created internationally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.

Here are the 20 case studies published today, from most to least endangered, with the ecosystem type noted if available.

Aral Sea — Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan: freshwater, collapsed
Raised bogs — Germany: critically endangered
Gonakier forests — Senegal River floodplain: freshwater, critically endangered
Cape Sand Flats — Fynbos, South Africa: terrestrial, critically endangered
Coorong lagoons — Australia: freshwater/marine, critically endangered
Karst rising springs — Southern Australia: freshwater, critically endangered
Coastal sandstone upland swamps — Australia: freshwater, endangered/critically endangered
Swamps, marshes and lakes in the Murray-Darling Basin — Australia: freshwater, endangered/critically endangered
Giant kelp forests — Alaska: marine, endangered/critically endangered
Caribbean coral reefs — Caribbean: marine, endangered/critically endangered
Seagrass meadows — Southern Australia: marine, endangered-critically endangered
German tamarisk pioneer vegetation — Europe: freshwater, endangered
Coolibah-Black Box woodland — Australia: freshwater/terrestrial, endangered
Tapia forest — Madagascar: terrestrial, endangered
Semi-evergreen vine thicket — Australia: terrestrial, endangered
Great Lakes Alvars — United States and Canada: terrestrial, vulnerable/endangered
Reed beds — Europe: freshwater, vulnerable
Floodplain ecosystem of river red gum and black box — southeastern Australia: freshwater, vulnerable Tepui shrubland - Venezuela: terrestrial, least concern
Granite gravel fields and sand plains - New Zealand: terrestrial, least concern