Terrestrial Ecosystems Losses, Past and 2050 Projections

- This shows the loss of ecosystem intended as areas converted.
- It can immediately be seen that the most affected areas are those around the tropical and sub tropic regions.
- Africa is the region that will lose the most vascular plant species, mainly as a result of rapid population growth and strong increases in per capita food production in the region, much of which continues to rely on expansion of cultivated area.
- The Indo-Malayan region loses the second-most biodiversity.
- Past and projected future trends in habitat change indicate that the biomes that have already suffered the greatest change (Mediterranean forests and temperate grasslands) show the highest recoveries over the next 50 years, while the biomes that suffered intermediate changes in the past have the highest rates of change in the near future. Finally, biomes at higher latitudes that had not been converted to agriculture in the past will continue to be relatively unchanged.
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Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)