The main causes of species extinction are changing from a historicaltrend of introductions and overexploitation affecting island species topresent-day habitat loss and degradation affecting continental species.While the vast majority of recorded extinctions since 1500 have occurred onoceani
Climate change, which contributes to habitat change, is becoming thedominant driver, particularly in vulnerable habitats. Under climate change,endemic montane, island, and peninsula species are especially vulnerable,and coastal habitats such as mangroves, coral reefs, and coastal wetlands areespecially at risk from resulting sea level rises. Both recent empirical evidenceand predictive modeling studies suggest that climate change will increase population losses
Across a range of measures, tropical forests are outstanding in theirlevels of biodiversity at and above the species level. Regions of high species richness broadly correspond with centers of evolutionary diversity, andavailable evidence suggests that across major taxa, tropical moist forests areespecially important for both overall variability and unique evolutionary history.Species richness, family richness,