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Science 19 March 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5665, pp. 1879 - 1881
DOI: 10.1126/science.1095046
Prev | Table of Contents

Reports

Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the Global Extinction Crisis

J. A. Thomas,1* M. G. Telfer,2{dagger} D. B. Roy,2 C. D. Preston,2 J. J. D. Greenwood,3 J. Asher,4 R. Fox,4 R. T. Clarke,1 J. H. Lawton5

There is growing concern about increased population, regional, and global extinctions of species. A key question is whether extinction rates for one group of organisms are representative of other taxa. We present a comparison at the national scale of population and regional extinctions of birds, butterflies, and vascular plants from Britain in recent decades. Butterflies experienced the greatest net losses, disappearing on average from 13% of their previously occupied 10-kilometer squares. If insects elsewhere in the world are similarly sensitive, the known global extinction rates of vertebrate and plant species have an unrecorded parallel among the invertebrates, strengthening the hypothesis that the natural world is experiencing the sixth major extinction event in its history.

1 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Dorset Laboratory, Winfrith Technology Centre, Dorchester DT2 8ZD, UK.
2 NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Monks Wood, Abbots Ripton, Huntington, Cambridgeshire PE28 2LS, UK.
3 British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk IP2 2PU, UK.
4 Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP, UK.
5 NERC, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN21EU, UK and Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College, Silwood Park, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK.



{dagger} Present address: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy Heath Quarry, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jat{at}ceh.ac.uk

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