Although islands only share a 6.7% of the world emerged area, the contributed with an outstanding 20% of the global biodiversity, but unfortunately as well with a 50% of the threatened species and up to a 75% of the species extinctions known since the European expansion throughout the world.
Among them, volcanic islands (such as Hawaii, the Canaries, Mascarenes or Galapagos), continental fragments (such as Madagascar, New Zealand or New Caledonia) and tropical land-bridge islands (such as Indonesia, Java, Borneo or New Guinea) are by far the islands with the largest contribution to global biodiversity and also to species threatened or extinct.
Islands are thus the place where the sixth mass extinction, the one attributable to human activity, is currently happening.
Where: Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, lecture hall
When: 11 November, 19.00 - 20.00
Cost: Free with a museum ticket or student card/Museumcard
Register: you can register on the website of Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
About the speaker
José María Fernández-Palacios has been a Full Professor of Ecology at the University of La Laguna in Spain since 2011, and the coordinator of the Island Ecology and Biogeography Research Group at the same university. His research focuses include: Island Ecology and Biogeography, Laurisilva and Pine Forest Dynamics, Paleoecology, Functional island Biogeography and Carbon Sequestration. He has authored around 300 publications, as well as a dozen books related to Island Ecology in general and the Canary Islands in particular. He has secured approximately 1 million euros over the last 10 years through competitive grants and research contracts as the Principal Investigator. He is the current President of the Society of Island Biology (SIB).
