WWF Living Planet Report

Question 1

What is the current Living Planet Index?

Answer 1

It has declined by 2/3 in less than 50 years.

Question 2

What does LPI measure?

Answer 2

The state of global biodiversity based on population trends of vertebrates globally.

Question 3

How many vertebrates have gone extinct?

Answer 3

1-2.5%

Question 4

How many organisms are threatened with extinction?

Answer 4

1 million plants and animals.

Question 5

How does 1.5C and 2C impact corals?

Answer 5

Loss of 70-90% warm water corals and 99% respectively.

Question 6

What are the major climatic drivers of biodiversity loss?

Answer 6

Droughts and heatwaves: a heat wave in one day in 2014 killed 43,000 flying fox bats in Australia.

Question 7

What is an example of a species gone extinct because of CC?

Answer 7

Golden toad in 1989 due to less fog normal to Costa Rican cloud forests., Bramble Cay melomys rodent on an island between Papua New Guinea and Australia extinct due to sea level rise and flooding.

Question 8

What species are not negatively impacted?

Answer 8

Certain beetles and moths attacking Northern Forests thrive in warmer winters, producing more generations, leading to mass die offs.

Question 9

What are examples of ecosystem Positive Climate Feedbacks?

Answer 9

Increase wildfires, tree mortality due to drought and disease, peatlands drying, tundra permafrost thawing, all release more CO2.

Question 10

How do Forests regulate climate?

Answer 10

Sequester CO2 (7.4Gt a year), movement of water from soil to atmosphere in evapotranspiration, reducing surface temperatures, upward mixing of warm air into the atmosphere…

Question 11

How much cooling do forests climate-regulating processes result in?

Answer 11

0.5C cooling.

Question 12

How much forest is lost yearly?

Answer 12

10 million hectares, an area the size of Portugal.

Question 13

What is an example of the drastic negative impacts on climate?

Answer 13

Clearing tropical forests in Central Africa or South America could increase daytime temperatures by 7-8C and decrease rainfall by 15%.

Question 14

What is the importance of sufficient rainfall?

Answer 14

Rainfed agriculture about 80% of global croplands, produces 60% of food.

Question 15

What may the impacts of fragmentation lead to?

Answer 15

Unravelling food webs, loss of ecological processes like pollination, freshwater flows etc…

Question 16

Why are mangroves important?

Answer 16

They store massive amounts of carbon and buffer climate impacts such as dense root systems reducing waves, and trap sediments to mitigate sea level rise.

Question 17

What is current rate of deforestation for Mangroves?

Answer 17

0.13%. annually

Question 18

What are current policies projected to increase emissions by?

Answer 18

3.2C by 2100 with continued negative trends of biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Question 19

How is the Living Planet Index tracked?

Answer 19

Calculating trends of many vertebrate populations over time

Question 20

How can LPI accuracy be tested?

Answer 20

Recalculating it excluding certain species/populations, to show its not driven by extremes.

Question 21

How has LPI changed between 1970-2018?

Answer 21

An average decline in 29%.

Question 22

How do the IPBES monitor biodiversity?

Answer 22

Divide the world into different geographical regions, the support monitoring of progress towards targets developed under convention of biological diversity.

Question 23

How has river flow changed?

Answer 23

Over 37% longer than 1,000km remain free-flowing, migrating fish thus threatened.

Question 24

How have migrating species changed?

Answer 24

Average decline of 76% between 1970-2016 due to barriers along migration routes.