Europe is losing diversity at an alarming rate, warns Ruben Heleno (CFE/TERRA) in 90 Segundos de Ciência

Researcher Ruben Heleno, from the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE) and member of the TERRA Associate Laboratory, participated in episode 2097 of the program 90 Segundos de Ciência (90 Seconds of Science), where he shared worrying results on biodiversity loss in Europe.

The study conducted by Ruben Heleno focuses on the distribution of plants in European ecosystems and the essential role of animals in the dispersal of plant species. “Animals are very important for plants because they help plants solve one of their biggest problems: the difficulty of moving from one place to another,” explains the researcher.

In Europe, around 400 species of animals — including birds, mammals, and insects — provide this vital ecological service. However, one-third of these species are threatened with extinction, and many others face significant population declines.

A recent study also highlights changes in what is known as dark diversity – “the proportion of species that should be in a place, that has all the conditions to be in that place, but is not,” he explained. The results show that in areas heavily impacted by human activity (such as areas with high infrastructure density, intensive agriculture, or urbanization), plants are increasingly absent, even in theoretically favorable locations.

“It’s as if the speed of the currents that distribute life’s diversity on Earth were slowing down,” warns Ruben Heleno, emphasizing the urgency of protecting the functional ecosystems on which we depend as a species.

Listen to the full episode here (in Portuguese).

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