Dr. Chris Martine discusses biodiversity on WKOK Sunrise
LEWISBURG – A Bucknell University biology professor gave us his perspective on plant life after the tragic wildfires in Australia. Dr. Chris Martine has been conducting biodiversity research in Australia for the past 15 years.
First of all, Dr. Martine says there are many species of plants and animals in Australia that haven’t even been discovered yet, “There’s so much out there still and in Australia where we do a lot of our work the current estimates are that something like 70 percent of all the species in Australia haven’t been described. They are still out there waiting for people to find them and give them a name.”
As for the fires, many plant, and some animal species, will be wiped out and will become extinct.
He does note, some plants that will recover, “An event like this is likely to drive us toward a point where only the plants that are the most adaptive, the toughest plants that live in those sites might be the ones that bounce back and then what we see really is a huge decline in the biodiversity of plant life that lives in these places.”
Dr. Martine was on WKOK Sunrise discussing what will happen to plant life after Australia’s wildfires. You can hear the full interview on the WKOK podcast page.
