Biodiversity Of Southernmost Forests And Tundra Ecosystems

The recent article concerning the diversity of non-vascular flora in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, published by Dr. Ricardo Rozzi (OSARA Advisor), Dr. Christopher Anderson (OSARA President) and their colleagues from Chile, the U.K. and the U.S., has begun to receive attention in the press:

ScienceDaily(Oct. 26, 2007)

The definition of conservation priorities for biodiversity often focuses only on the numbers of vertebrate animals and seed plants in the northern hemisphere or in the tropics. But what about the other organisms, and the more extreme regions of the world, where the species richness of flowering plants and mammals is low? An interdisciplinary team of US, UK and Chilean taxonomists, ecologists, and philosophers explored the world’s southernmost forest and tundra ecosystems to estimate the diversity of the dominant vegetation, namely tiny bryophytes and lichens growing on trees, soils and rocks.

To see the rest of the story, click here

To see another article, published in Scenta, click here.