Facts about Biodiversity

1. 06

   Approximately 68 percent of Earth's vertebrate wildlife populations have declined since 1970, driven primarily by habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change according to the 2022 World Wildlife Fund Living Planet Report.

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2. 05

   Madagascar's lemurs represent 2 percent of all primate species globally despite the island comprising only 0.4 percent of Earth's land area, exemplifying extreme biodiversity concentration in isolated regions.

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3. 04

   A single fungal network beneath Oregon's Malheur National Forest spans 2,384 acres and weighs 605 tons, making it the largest organism on Earth by area.

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4. 03

   In 2016, scientists discovered 18,000 new species, yet an estimated 8.7 million eukaryotic species exist on Earth with 86 percent remaining undescribed by science.

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5. 02

   Coral reefs support approximately 25 percent of all marine fish species despite covering less than 0.1 percent of the ocean floor, making them Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems per unit area.

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6. 01

   The Amazon rainforest contains approximately 390 billion individual trees representing 16,000 species, with roughly 10 percent of Earth's total biodiversity.

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