Worldwide destruction of inselbergs and related rock outcrops threatens a unique ecosystem
In many parts of the world rock outcrops form important landscape elements that play a role in generatingandmaintainingbiodiversity inaddition toprovidingkeyecosystemservices.These rock outcrops rise abruptly from the surrounding landscape, have a patchy distribution, and represent centersofdiversityandendemismforbothanimalandplant life (HopperandWithers 1997).Known as ‘inselbergs’ and often composed of Precambrian granitoids, these outcrops occur across all continents. Inselbergs are particularly noteworthy inancient biodiversityhotspots, e.g., the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Guinean Forests of West Africa, Madagascar, the Greater Cape and Southwest Australian Floristic regions (Hopper et al. 2016). The ecological and evolutionary processes that operate in these ancient environments differ significantly from comparatively more recent environments (Hopper 2009). Their conservation is of global importance, in great part because they support unique, endemic biota of recent and deep phylogenetic history.