In ecology and conservation biology, extinction and extirpation are distinct but related processes describing biodiversity loss at different spatial scales. Extinction denotes the complete and irreversible disappearance of a species, subspecies, or other taxon from the entire planet, eliminating its genetic lineage and ecological functions globally. Extirpation, by contrast, refers to the local or regional disappearance of a taxon from a specific area while it persists elsewhere within its range. These processes are quantified using demographic, distributional, and phylogenetic data, and are central topics in assessing population viability, metapopulation dynamics, habitat fragmentation effects, and the design of conservation and reintroduction strategies.
Decades of warming have relaxed cold-temperature constraints on mountain plant distribution and increased species numbers on mountaintops. An international research team led by scientists from the University of Vienna, together ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 3, 2026
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We share our planet with millions of plants and animals. This variety of life is known as biodiversity, a term encompassing everything from microscopic genes to entire ecosystems, such as deserts and vibrant coral reefs.
Ecology
Aug 27, 2026
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Australia's lizards and snakes are facing a far more precarious future than previously understood, with a new review led by Monash University researchers revealing that around 127 species, or just over 13% of Australia's ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 26, 2026
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A 30-year conservation effort has helped the critically endangered Galápagos snapdragon (Galvezia leucantha subsp. leucantha) recover from just six individuals to a small, carefully tended wild population. Following tireless ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2026
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Northern spotted owl populations are approaching or have already crossed functional extinction across large areas of the Pacific Northwest, a new study, published in Ecological Applications found. Researchers used artificial ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2026
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In the last few centuries, mammals and other animals have been going extinct at least 100 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene. So who will be next? Which species are most likely to survive, and which ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 20, 2026
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Australia's unique animal species are in sharp decline, with more than 40 mammal extinctions over the past 238 years. This atrocious mammal conservation record is the worst in the world.
Ecology
Aug 4, 2026
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Smithsonian researchers have identified the genetic relationships among all Hawaiian honeycreeper species known to have existed—and subsequently faced major losses—since the arrival of Europeans to the islands.
Evolution
Aug 4, 2026
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Approximately 40% of insect species worldwide are thought to be in decline and under threat of extinction. Among the key causes are habitat loss, pollution and climate change. Another threat is artificial light from sources ...
Sixty-six million years ago, the six-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) Chicxulub asteroid crash-landed in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and changed life on Earth forever. The reign of the dinosaurs ended, and only creatures that ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 28, 2026
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