Summit County Citizens Voice

The Colorado pikeminnow has been extirpated from Nevada. Photo courtesy Nevada Natural Heritage Program.

Modern era rate of extinction more than 800 times higher than background rate over geological time

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Habitat loss and the spread of invasive species have led to an”alarming” increase in the rate of extinction among North American freshwater fish, according to a new study by U.S. Geological Survey researcher Noel M. Burkhead, who documented fish populations going back to the late 1800s.

The rate of extinctions increased noticeably after 1950, although it leveled off in the past decade. The number of extinct species has grown by 25 percent since 1989, Burkhead wrote in a study published in the September issue of  BioScience.

At least 57 North American species and subspecies, and 3 unique populations, have gone extinct since 1898, about 3.2 percent of the total. Freshwater species generally are known to suffer higher rates of extinction than terrestrial vertebrates.

Extinctions in fishes are mostly caused by loss of habitat and the introduction of nonindigenous species. In North America, there are more freshwater fish species in a typical drainage to the east of the Great Continental Divide than to the west, where a greater proportion of species have gone extinct or are found nowhere else.

Estimating the number of extinctions relies on scrutiny of historical records and careful estimation procedures, since the last populations of a species are often recognized as such only in hindsight—there is typically a lag of several years from the last observation of a species and its estimated year of extinction.

Estimates are complicated by the fact that, on average, 6.7 new species are discovered each year, and occasionally a species thought to have gone extinct is “rediscovered.” Nonetheless, Burkhead concludes that between 53 and 86 species of North American freshwater fishes will be extinct by 2050, and that the rate of extinction is now at least 877 times the background extinction rate over geological time.

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment Tagged: | aquatic life, Background extinction rate, biodiversity, endangered species, fish, Habitat destruction, North America