🌏 Blooming flowers might be in danger! Chinese scientists have just unveiled some surprising discoveries about the extinction risks of flowering plants, aka angiosperms, across China. 🧬🌺
You might think plants just chill and grow wherever, but turns out, there’s a lot more going on! Angiosperms, which include everything from tiny grasses to massive trees, are facing serious threats, especially in southern China. 😱
A team from the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences dug deep into data – we’re talking 2.02 million county-level records for 27,185 species! 🤓📊 They built a \"tree of life\" 🌳 to map out where these plants are struggling the most.
So, what’s causing these gorgeous greens to vanish? 🌿 The study found that the main villain is the vegetation structure itself, followed by climate changes and evolutionary factors. In different regions, different factors take the lead: climate is the big bad in the south, vegetation issues in the west, and evolution in the north. 🕵️♂️🔍
\"China’s complex terrain and diverse climate make it one of the most biodiverse countries in the world,\" said Zhao Lina, an engineer at the institute. \"Understanding these extinction risks is super important for predicting biodiversity changes and creating smart conservation strategies.\" 🌱💡
Biodiversity isn’t just a fancy word – it’s essential for our survival! 🌍 Losing plant species can seriously mess with ecosystems and, ultimately, us humans. This study highlights the urgency to step up our conservation game. 🛑⏰
The research was so groundbreaking that it got published in Nature Communications, a top scientific journal. 📖🌟
Time to appreciate the flowers around us and support efforts to keep our planet blooming! 🌸💚
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
