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Biodiversity hotspot case study: California

Created by California Academy of Sciences.

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Video transcript

- My name's Rebecca Johnson and I am a Citizen Science Coordinator. The California Floristic Province which is actually mostly California, some of Oregon and a little bit of Baja California, are considered a biodiversity hot spot because of the huge number of endemic plants that are found in this area. It actually reall starts with the geology. We have this amazing different soils and rock types because of our amazing tectonic history and everything that had to happen to construct California. So different soils and different geology allow for different plants to grow. It makes different things that are found only here. 60% of the plants in the California Floristic Province are endemics, the amazing diversity of plants brings birds that might spend most of the year somewhere else here to feed certain times of year. Or brings them to places like the Farallon Islands to nest certain times of year. So they rely on parts of California for one part of their life cycle but they're not found only here. It's one of the only hot spots in North America. It's one of the only hot spots in the developed world. You don't have to go to the Philippines or to Madagascar or to a tropical rainforest to experience one of the most diverse places on Earth. Millions of people live in California, it's the center for many many things, and it's one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. One half of all things that people in the United States eat are grown in California. In California about 75% of the original habitat that supported those plants has been lost due to agricultural and other modifications by humans. That's what makes it a biodiversity hot spot that has lots of species and things that are found nowhere else on Earth and they're under great threat. I don't think people always know that. Explaining that to people and making sure they know that is really important. The more people know and care about it, the more they'll think about their everyday actions and how that might affect the biodiversity around them. What we do, and what we can do in our everyday lives make a really big difference in the global biodiversity. And if we care about it and we recognize it and see it then we can make a difference.