Half of all animal life may soon be extinct

BIODIVERSITY CRISIS FOUND TO BE EVEN MORE SEVERE

- SHAUNA CORR

ALMOST half of all life on Earth is "declining towards extinction, putting human well-being under increasing threat", a grim new report from Queen's University Belfast has found.

The work was led by Ph.D. student Catherine Finn and Dr Daniel Pincheira-Donoso from Queen's School of Biological Sciences, alongside Dr Florencia Grattarola from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. In the most comprehensive research of its kind to date, the team looked at the population density changes of 71,114 species.

And they found the impact of human industrialisation on these 5,969 mammals, 11,162 birds, 10,150 reptiles, 7,316 amphibians, 24,356 fish and 12,161 insects is significantly more alarming than previously thought.

Birds are faring worst, then mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects.

Ms Finn, a leading author on the research, said: "Almost half of animals on Earth for which assessments are available are currently declining. To make matters worse, many of the animal species that are thought to be non-threatened from extinction are in fact progressively declining."

Worldwide erosion of biodiversity is one of the most critical challenges facing humanity in the coming decades.