AI to be used to identify plants at risk of extinction

Botanists are in a race against extinction, but artificial intelligence and digitization offer a potential turning point in identifying and saving vital plant species before they vanish. A new report from London's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew suggests these technologies can significantly speed up the process.

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Now by just going online, anyone anywhere can access that information and speed up that conservation and research work, which is so important to our lives on Earth.

Dr. Alexandre Antonelli, Executive Director of Science at Kew, explained that previously, identifying threatened plants required extensive travel and time spent studying physical specimens. "Now by just going online, anyone anywhere can access that information and speed up that conservation and research work, which is so important to our lives on Earth," he told RTÉ's News at One.

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Our estimates now predicted about 45% of all plants, the flowering plants, are at risk of extinction. They may no longer be with us at the end of the century.

The report highlights the alarming scale of the crisis, with an estimated 45% of all flowering plants at risk of extinction by the end of the century. "It's almost half of all the species we see around us," Dr. Antonelli stated. He noted that tropical regions, with their high diversity and narrowly distributed species, are particularly vulnerable.

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It's almost half of all the species we see around us.

Beyond plants, the research also delves into fungi, which Dr. Antonelli described as "the next frontier of biodiversity research." While only about 100,000 fungal species have been scientifically described, the actual number is estimated to be around 2.5 million. He emphasized the potential benefits of fungi, citing Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and the possibility of future food sources and medicines hidden within undiscovered species. "By losing them, we would also lose those opportunities in the future," he warned.

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But in particular, in tropical regions, which are so diverse, many species are only found in very narrowly distributed ranges, like a mountain valley or a particular patch of rainforest.