Tropical forests are at risk of losing most of the plants and animals, according to a new report from the Carnegie Institution on the effects of climate change and deforestation.

Climate change and the spread of land clearing “represents one the greatest global change experiments on Earth today,” the report found.  Carnegie researchers concluded that only 18 to 45 percent of the plants and animals found in these ecosystems “may remain as we know them today” by the year 2100,

Asia and the central and southern islands of the Pacific may fare better than other regions. Deforestation and logging, the primary drivers of changes in their local ecosystems, are down 22 percent in the last decade.  That still leaves up to 77 percent of the area at risk of biodiversity losses.

Among the conclusions are of the report:

• Climate change could alter two-thirds of the tropical forests in Central and South America.
• Over 80 percent of the Amazon Basin could suffer changes in its biodiversity.
• About 70 percent of Africa’s tropical forest biodiversity is at risk.
• Between 35 and 74 percent of the forests in the Congo Basin region are threatened by logging and climate change.