Plants Go Extinct 500 Times Faster Than Expected

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Plants in Hawaii are going extinct at a rate far higher than anywhere else on Earth. Twice as many species have been lost here than in South Africa with the second highest extinction rate. The article doesn’t discuss causes, but certainly loss of habitat may contribute when invasive plant species are introduced (your cue bananahead), and monoculture crops such as pineapple and sugarcane are planted across large swaths of the islands. Let’s not forget feral pigs rooting up most plants, roots, and tubers in their path. Perhaps feral pigs eating pineapples is a twofer in the protection of endangered species? Once they stuff themselves on 70 or 80 Punawebber pineapples, they’re full and will leave rare plants in the area alone for a few days.

The islands of Hawaii proved the single most dangerous place for plant species, with 79 extinctions reported there since 1900.

https://www.livescience.com/65696-the-pl...dying.html

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...bal-survey

[randomq]

Could also be that we are paying more attention here?

[glinda]

Could also be that we are paying more attention here?

Methinks not as much as the way species that found Hawaii before man gave up their defensive practices because of the lack of predators here. Who, in turn, were unprepared for the onslaught that man’s arrival brought. As such Hawaii’s ecosystem was already in a state of collapse long before climate change came along and aggravated the situation.

[geochem]

one wonders what the extinction rate was after the arrival of the first Polynesians....

[MarkP]

They played their part. Lots of wetland birds went extinct when they showed up and began farming Taro. I never have understood why modern people think native people were such good stewards of the land. You know what a buffalo jump was? The waste of meat must have been shocking.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Good questions geochem & MarkP.

I wonder if anyone has compiled a chronological list of extinct species in Hawaii?
Causes for recent losses of flora and fauna may be known, precontact might be guessed at from oral historical records. We know large areas of sandalwood and koa trees were were logged soon after contact, this may have caused loss of habitat for birds and understory plants, snails, etc.

Does anyone know of a detailed study for Hawaiian plant and animal extinctions?

Edited to add:
Bishop Museum has an old page last updated 20 years ago that lists known extinctions in the last 200 years. 28 birds, 97 Plants, as well as snails and insects. As they point out, “we will never know all of the species that have gone extinct in Hawaii's recent history.”
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/endangered/extinct.html

[snorkle]

quote:

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Originally posted by MarkP

They played their part. Lots of wetland birds went extinct when they showed up and began farming Taro. I never have understood why modern people think native people were such good stewards of the land. You know what a buffalo jump was? The waste of meat must have been shocking.

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Yes indeed! How would those pesky natives gotten by without their barges, bulldozers and plastic? Our excesses today pale in comparison to the irresponsible indigenous titans of industry and pollution.........

[leilanidude]

There is a plus to Hawaiians having been here as they would have made species extinct at an even faster rate if they were not so efficient at murdering their own people. By keeping the population down, they saved the local, endemic species.

[snorkle]

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Yes,
Unlike Western "civilized" nations, the Hawaiians have been at a continuous state of war for decades, costing their people trillions of dollars.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The Hawaii Snail Trailer.
One small attempt at warding off extinction in the islands.

Hawaii was once known for its snails, or k#257;huli. Most are smaller than the average garden snail, and far more beautiful. Their shells swirl with the palette of a chocolate box—dark brown, chestnut, white, the occasional splash of mint.
...
All of them descended from ancestral mollusks that arrived in Hawaii millions of years ago, perhaps on the bodies of birds. Those stowaways gave rise to more than 750 species—an incredible radiation that turned the snails into exemplars of evolution’s generative prowess.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...re/590617/

Stay away from negative people, they have a problem for every solution. - Albert Einstein