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For many species, there is a lack of information needed to make extinction risk assessments - a problem that is particularly acute in biodiverse regions such as Madagascar. Scientists also fear that current methods of assessing extinction risk may underestimate the problem.��

A new study has shown that easy to implement genomics methods could accelerate assessment of extinction risk in poorly studied species, but the research paints a gloomy picture of the damage that has already been done.

Madagascar is renowned for its incredible biodiversity, and the island’s plant species are no exception, but the pressures of the modern world are a threat to Madgascagar’s biodiversity. Many Madagascan species are “microendemics” - very rare species that are composed of small, isolated populations that occur nowhere else in the world. ��How so many of these microendemic species have evolved has remained a mystery.��

A team of researchers from ������ϲʹ������� and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew investigated whether these rare species have always been rare or if human impacts, such as deforestation and extinction of large animals, have made them rare more recently.��

The research, Published in today (22.9.21) shows that many of the Madagascan microendemics have experienced rapid population declines since the arrival of humans on the island.