The study shows that even species, such as the corn poppy, are steadily declining in Germany. Image: Helge Bruelheide
The study shows that even species, such as the corn poppy, are steadily declining in Germany. Image: Helge Bruelheide - Most comprehensive evaluation of the occurrence of vascular plants in Germany to date Life Germany's plant diversity is on the decline: in the last 60 years, decreases by an average of 15 percent have been observed across Germany in over 70 percent of the more than 2,000 species examined. These are the findings of the most comprehensive analysis of plant data from Germany ever conducted, recently published in "Global Change Biology". 29 million pieces of data on the distribution of vascular plants were taken into account in the analysis carried out within the framework of the 'sMon - Biodiversity Trends in Germany' project of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv). The study involved researchers from iDiv, the universities of Jena, Halle and Rostock, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) with the close involvement of the regional nature conservation agencies from all 16 federal states. Decline in species diversity averages around two percent per decade. In an area covering the whole of Germany, in every grid field of approximately 5 by 5 kilometres - the decline in species diversity averages around two percent per decade.
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