Why must conservation efforts protect ecosystems besides tropical moist forests?

While tropical moist forests are often prioritized due to their high species richness, a comprehensive conservation strategy must protect other ecosystems because they house distinctive species and unique ecological and evolutionary phenomena. Many of these habitats are currently more threatened than tropical moist forests and require urgent action.1

Protecting a representative selection of Earth’s ecosystems—such as tundra, grasslands, lakes, polar seas, and mangroves—is essential for several reasons:

• Ecological Uniqueness: Ecosystems like the Everglades and the Pantanal are globally significant as rare examples of flooded grasslands, even if they do not always host the highest concentrations of threatened species.1
• Resilience and Stability: Diverse communities are more resilient to disturbances. Species-rich grasslands, for example, maintain higher productivity and stability during droughts compared to species-poor areas.2
• Ecosystem Services: Many non-tropical ecosystems provide critical services. Mangroves act as vital buffers against storm surges and erosion, while also serving as essential nursery habitats for marine life.3
• Preventing Homogenization: Protecting diverse habitats prevents "ecosystem homogenization," where unique, specialized species are replaced by generalists, leading to a loss of biological complexity and distinctiveness across the biosphere.4