英文阅读47——Tropical African plants face extinction

A third of tropical African plants face extinction三分之一的热带非洲植物面临灭绝

By Helen Briggs

A third of tropical African plants are on the path to extinction, according to a new assessment. 根据一项新的评估，非洲三分之一的热带非洲植物正在灭绝。

Much of western Africa, Ethiopia, and parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the hardest hit regions, standing to lose more than 40% of their richness of plants. 西部非洲，埃塞俄比亚的大部分地区以及坦桑尼亚和刚果民主共和国的部分地区是受灾最严重的地区，失去的植物丰富度超过40％。

Species at risk include trees, shrubs, herbs and woody vines. 高危物种包括树木，灌木，草药和木质藤本植物。

Threats include deforestation, population growth and climate change, the scientists said. 科学家说，威胁包括森林砍伐，人口增长和气候变化。

"Biodiversity provides countless benefits to humans and losing diversity jeopardises our future," said lead researcher Dr Thomas Couvreur of the French National Institute for Sustainable Development. 法国国家可持续发展研究所首席研究员托马斯·库夫勒（Thomas Couvreur）博士说：“生物多样性为人类带来了无数的利益，丧失多样性危害了我们的未来。”

Loss of biodiversity will be particularly problematic in tropical Africa, "a region of incredible diversity but with major social and political challenges and expected rapid population growth over the next decades", he added. 他补充说，在非洲热带地区，生物多样性的丧失将尤其成问题，“非洲是一个令人难以置信的多样性地区，但面临重大的社会和政治挑战，预计未来几十年人口将迅速增长。”

The findings of the study, published in Science Advances, are based on a revised method for assessing extinction risk. 该研究的结果发表在《科学进展》上，是基于一种评估灭绝风险的修订方法。

Official assessments of extinction are recorded in The Red List of Threatened Species, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN. 正式的灭绝评估记录在国际自然保护联盟-IUCN出版的《濒危物种红色名录》中

So far, almost nine in 10 mammals and two-thirds of birds have been assessed, but less than 8% of vascular plants (flowering plants and most other plants, excluding mosses and algae). 到目前为止，已经评估了十分之九的哺乳动物和三分之二的鸟类，但是不到8％的维管植物（开花植物和大多数其他植物，不包括苔藓和藻类）。

The researchers used a similar, but more speedy, method to assess the likely extinction risk of more than 20,000 plant species. 研究人员使用了一种类似但更快速的方法来评估2万多种植物的灭绝风险。

They found that 33% of the species are potentially threatened with extinction, and another third of species are likely rare, potentially becoming threatened in the near future. 他们发现，有33％的物种可能面临灭绝的威胁，而另外三分之一的物种则可能很稀有，并有可能在不久的将来受到威胁。

This is mainly due to human activities such as deforestation, land-use changes, population growth, economic development, and climate change, they said. 他们说，这主要归因于人类活动，例如森林砍伐，土地利用变化，人口增长，经济发展和气候变化。