Map shows where biodiversity is most at risk; extinctions can make a big difference in fishing, farming and more

Darker red areas on the left map show concentrations of imperiled biodiversity; green areas on the right map show areas permanently protected for biodiversity. (NatureServe maps combined by The Rural Blog; click the image to enlarge)

A new map, the most detailed of its kind, shows areas of the contiguous U.S. where plant and animal species are at the highest risk of global extinction, including wide swaths of Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and the West. Little of that land is protected.

Nonprofit conservation research group NatureServe partnered with the Nature Conservancy, a network of state partners, and geographic mapping platform ESRI to gather the research, recently published in the journal Ecological Applications. Notably, they included groups that underpin food chains but are often left out of such analyses, including species of bees, butterflies, fish, mussels, crayfish, and flowers, report Catrin Einhorn and Nadja Popovich of The New York Times. As the struggle to contain the invasive Asian carp has shown, shifts in biodiversity can have a big impact.

"Maps like these offer a valuable tool to officials and conservationists who are scrambling to protect biodiversity," Einhorn and Popovich report. " That work is critical, because scientists say humans are speeding extinction at a disastrous pace."

About 13 percent of the U.S. is permanently protected for biodiversity, but the analysis found that hundreds of endangered species' habitats are in unprotected areas. "Even when species are protected under federal or state laws, they are typically more vulnerable outside of lands that are managed to protect biodiversity," Einhorn and Popovich report. "Officials may not know where they are. Private landowners may be reluctant to report them or allow surveys for fear of the restrictions that could follow if they are found."