THE FUTURE OF BIODIVERSITY

Recent extinction rates are 100 to 1000 times their pre-human levels i n well-known, but taxonomically diverse groups from widely different e nvironments. If all species currently deemed ''threatened'' become ext inct in the next century, then future extinction rates will be 10 time s recent rates. Some threatened species will survive the century, but many species not now threatened will succumb. Regions rich in species found only within them (endemics) dominate the global patterns of exti nction. Although new technology provides details of habitat losses, es timates of future extinctions are hampered by our limited knowledge of which areas are rich in endemics.