Human actions are believed to have accelerated extinction rates 1,000 times, but new technologies could help combat this.
"Online databases, smartphone apps, crowd-sourcing and new hardware devices are making it easier to collect data on species," Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke, said in a Duke University news release. "When combined with data on land-use change and the species observations of millions of amateur citizen scientists, technology is increasingly allowing scientists and policymakers to more closely monitor the planet's biodiversity and threats to it."
"For our success to continue, however, we need to support the expansion of these technologies and the development of even more powerful technologies to come," he said.
Researchers are unsure about how many species really exist in the world, and some could be in deeper trouble than we thought. Researchers believe that if action is not taken the sixth great extinction could be in the near future.
"The great depth of our current assessment is only possible thanks to the extraordinary efforts of all those who contribute to the databases of the Red List of Threatened Species and of Protected Planet," Tom Brooks of the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in the news release. "We need to stimulate the investment essential to maintain these knowledge products, and to support the expansion of the Red List from its current coverage of 70,000 species to 160,000 species."
Databases could help researchers look at the bigger picture and identify extinction trends throughout history. Through this research scientists have determined that most land species have extremely small geographical ranges. The same is believed to be true for marine species. Animals with small ranges are believed to be in the most danger of extinction.
"Most species live outside protected areas, so understanding how their environments are changing is a vital task," Pimm said. "One of the most exciting opportunities made possible by new technology is that we can now combine existing databases such as the Red List with constantly updated maps of where species live, maps of areas that are protected, maps of land-use change and human impacts, and the species observations of amateurs. Rather than relying primarily on local snapshots of biodiversity, we can fashion a more detailed global perspective of Earth's biodiversity, the threats to it and how to manage them."
