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In details, describe the Major Threats to Conservation of Plant Diversity

      

In details, describe the Major Threats to Conservation of Plant Diversity.

  

Answers

abigealmuinde
1.Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation.
Habitat loss and associated fragmentation is biggest single threat to conservation of Bridelia micrantha, particularly in tropics .Where conservation of tropic forest for pasture and commercial crops is done, monoculture has replaced small-scale cultivation by poor farmer as the major drives of forest loss. Few forest Bridelia micrantha survive complete deforestation and even if substainal fraction of the original forest cover remains, fragmentation drives changes that tend to reduce their population.The remaining forest Bridelia micrantha are degraded by logging, fire and other impacts, including fire wood harvesting in densely populated areas . Non forest habitats from savannah and grasslands to deserts are similarly threatened by agricultural development. Some Bridelia micrantha are confined to specialized habitats such as limestone which are unsuitable for commercial agriculture but such habitat often have different, highly specific threat such as mining of limestone to make cement and of ultramafic which are particularly damaging because of the small area involved. What is the situation in Kenya?
2. Overexploitation
Overexploitation of the whole plant or part of it is enough of it to reduce the chance of survival. It is usually more or less specific on the tree parts, although some species can be lumped together for specific use e.g. plant with similar properties in the medicine trade. Extinction is also likely to be slow where only the largest individuals are harvested, as happens with timber trees since seedlings and undersize adults survive each round of logging. logging affects more than half of all remaining forests Bridelia micrantha but over logging threatens the timber supply long before it threaten the tree species
Damage for the harvest of non-timber purposes varies widely depending on whether whole plant is removed or killed and if only parts of each plant are removed, how this affect growth, reproduction and survival. What is the situation in Kenya?
3. Invasive species
Invasive species are potential threat to native plant species mainly Bridelia micrantha. A recent study showed that more than 13000 species-3.9% of the world native plant flora have become naturalized somewhere outside their native range as a result of human activity although invasive plant species can have massive local impacts, reducing native plant population and changing fire regimes and nutrient cycling.Little is known about their long term impact on regional and global plant diversity. It is possible that competitive exclusion of native species is simply very slow [Gilbert and Levine, 2013] but current evidence suggests that, despite often large local impacts, the extinction risk from invasive plants is low. Invasive animals may be more of threat, particularly herbivores e.g. goats What is the situation in Kenya?
4.Air pollution and nitrogen deposition
change in concentration of major greenhouse gases [CO2,CH4 N2O] are considered separately below but other air pollutants can also impact to Bridelia micrantha. The major sources of air pollutants is the burning of fossil fuel and the most important primary pollutant are sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Particulates-aerosols, solids and liquids particles suspended in air. Wet and dry decomposition of nitrogen compound not only acidifies the soils but can also dramatically change nutrient cyclingWhat is the situation in Kenya?
5.Climate change
After 1 deg. c of global warming so far, Bridelia micrantha plants are leafing and flowering earlier and less consistently-delaying leaf fall growth rates have generally increase where temperature is limiting and decrease where water is.although no global extinction-have occurred at the climate margins of species range climate change will also interact with other impacts both negatively, as fires and fragmentation but also positively with rising carbon dioxide level Bridelia micrantha will find it difficult or impossible to track the expected rate of climate change, expect in steep topography where climate gradient are equal steep What is the situation in Kenya?
jahby answered the question on November 19, 2018 at 07:06

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