A sweeping new study by conservation research group NatureServe finds that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the U.S. are at risk of extinction, and 41% of ecosystems are facing collapse. Researchers say passing legislation to protect land and biodiversity is key, and list some of the greatest threats to wildlife as “habitat degradation and land conversion, invasive species, damming and polluting of rivers, and climate change.” This is Sean O’Brien, president of NatureServe.

Sean O’Brien: “Nature is also incredibly complex, and we don’t always know what the sort of the keystone species is, as sometimes people call them. So, when you have a habitat and species start going extinct or becoming smaller in number, eventually that can cause the collapse of that habitat type.”