Tracking Species Extinction

I started Reading [[Insolvent]] and got onto a research thread based on this quote.

One million animal and plant species are now on the fast track to extinction

That number feels so massive. So, I started a little research rabbit hole and Twitter thread. And I have created a list of organizations in the space of tracking datasets related to Species Extinction.

Organizations:

  1. [[IUCN Red List of Threatened Species]]: This is one of the most comprehensive sources for information on the global extinction risk of species. The list categorizes species based on extinction risk, ranging from “Least Concern” to “Critically Endangered.”
  2. [[BirdLife International]]: Focuses primarily on birds, and it provides detailed assessments of the conservation status of bird species worldwide.
  3. [[CITES]] (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora): While its primary focus is regulating the international trade of wildlife species, its Appendices provide lists of species at various extinction risk levels.
  4. [[EDGE of Existence]]: This program, run by the Zoological Society of London, identifies and conserves the world’s most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species.
  5. [[World Wildlife Fund]] (WWF): While not a database per se, WWF often releases reports and data on threatened and endangered species.
  6. [[Global Biodiversity Information Facility]] (GBIF): An international platform that provides access to data about all types of life on Earth, including data related to threatened species.![[Pasted image 20231003111414.png]]
  7. [[Biodiversity Heritage Library]]: This is an open-access digital library that provides literature on biodiversity. You can find various publications about species, some of which touch on their risk of extinction.
  8. [[NatureServe Explorer]]: An online database that provides comprehensive conservation information on more than 70,000 plants, animals, and ecosystems in the United States and Canada.

The most extensive by far is the GBIF's datasets, but I found myself wanting two additional tools:

  • AroundMe - A tool that shows us what species we interact with based on their migration patterns. Think of being able to place a market or specific address on a map and then see, within, say, a 50km radius of that location (pending the data accuracy), which species are surrounding you. It could consider migration information and compare it to the current date and time. I started a little demo that lives here.
  • Interdependence would look at the migratory pattern of species and what other species overlap with and when. The goal would be to show maps with clusters of migratory and nonmigratory species to see how they potentially rely on one another. This could be a way to show how collapsing ecosystems would have cascading effects.