Sara Contu

TL;DR: A terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage is analysed to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes and shows that in the worst-affected habitats, pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%.

TL;DR: It is estimated that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness—the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems—beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world’s land surface, where 71.4%) of the human population live.

TL;DR: Using a new global biodiversity database with unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage, four biodiversity measures are compared at sites sampled in multiple land uses inside and outside protected areas to reinforce the global importance of protected areas but suggest that protection does not consistently benefit species with small ranges or increase the variety of ecological niches.

TL;DR: This study provides a baseline assessment from which trends in the status of plant biodiversity can be measured and periodically reassessed and gives, for the first time, an accurate view of how threatened plants are across the world.

TL;DR: This is the first worldwide synthetic analysis of how individual species in four major taxonomic groups—invertebrates, ‘herptiles’ (reptiles and amphibians), mammals and birds—respond to multiple human pressures in tropical and sub-tropical forests.