Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being.
TLDR
Biodiversity lies at the core of ecosystem processes fueling the authors' planet's vital life-support systems; its degradation--by us--is threatening their own well-being and will disproportionately impact the poor.Abstract:
The diversity of life on Earth is dramatically affected by human alterations of ecosystems [ 1]. Compelling evidence now shows that the reverse is also true: biodiversity in the broad sense affects the properties of ecosystems and, therefore, the benefits that humans obtain from them. In this article, we provide a synthesis of the most crucial messages emerging from the latest scientific literature and international assessments of the role of biodiversity in ecosystem services and human well-being.
Human societies have been built on biodiversity. Many activities indispensable for human subsistence lead to biodiversity loss, and this trend is likely to continue in the future. We clearly benefit from the diversity of organisms that we have learned to use for medicines, food, fibers, and other renewable resources. In addition, biodiversity has always been an integral part of the human experience, and there are many moral reasons to preserve it for its own sake. What has been less recognized is that biodiversity also influences human well-being, including the access to water and basic materials for a satisfactory life, and security in the face of environmental change, through its effects on the ecosystem processes that lie at the core of the Earth's most vital life support systems ( Figure 1).
Figure 1
Biodiversity Is Both a Response Variable Affected by Global Change Drivers and a Factor That Affects Human Well-Being
Three recent publications from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [ 2–4], an initiative involving more than 1,500 scientists from all over the world [ 5], provide an updated picture of the fundamental messages and key challenges regarding biodiversity at the global scale. Chief among them are: (a) human-induced changes in land cover at the global scale lead to clear losers and winners among species in biotic communities; (b) these changes have large impacts on ecosystem processes and, thus, human well-being; and (c) such consequences will be felt disproportionately by the poor, who are most vulnerable to the loss of ecosystem services.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity
Bradley J. Cardinale,J. Emmett Duffy,Andrew Gonzalez,David U. Hooper,Charles Perrings,Patrick Venail,Anita Narwani,Georgina M. Mace,David Tilman,David A. Wardle,Ann P. Kinzig,Gretchen C. Daily,Michel Loreau,James B. Grace,Anne Larigauderie,Diane S. Srivastava,Shahid Naeem +16 more
TL;DR: It is argued that human actions are dismantling the Earth’s ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate, and the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper is asked.
Journal ArticleDOI
Scenarios for global biodiversity in the 21st Century
Henrique M. Pereira,Paul Leadley,Vania Proenca,Rob Alkemade,Joern P. W. Scharlemann,Juan F. Fernández-Manjarrés,Miguel B. Araújo,Miguel B. Araújo,Patricia Balvanera,Reinette Biggs,William W. L. Cheung,Louise Chini,H. David Cooper,Eric Gilman,Sylvie Guénette,George C. Hurtt,George C. Hurtt,Henry P. Huntington,Georgina M. Mace,Thierry Oberdorff,Carmen Revenga,Patrícia Rodrigues,Robert J. Scholes,Ussif Rashid Sumaila,Matt Walpole +24 more
TL;DR: Scenarios consistently indicate that biodiversity will continue to decline over the 21st century, however, the range of projected changes is much broader than most studies suggest, partly because there are major opportunities to intervene through better policies, but also because of large uncertainties in projections.
Journal ArticleDOI
Extinction risk and conservation of the world's sharks and rays
Nicholas K. Dulvy,Sarah L. Fowler,John A. Musick,Rachel D. Cavanagh,Peter M. Kyne,Lucy R. Harrison,John K. Carlson,Lindsay Davidson,Sonja V. Fordham,Malcolm P. Francis,Caroline M. Pollock,Colin A. Simpfendorfer,George H. Burgess,Kent E. Carpenter,Leonard J. V. Compagno,David A. Ebert,Claudine Gibson,Michelle R. Heupel,Suzanne R. Livingstone,Jonnell C. Sanciangco,John D. Stevens,Sarah Valenti,William T. White +22 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the first systematic analysis of threat for a globally distributed lineage of 1,041 chondrichthyan fishes (sharks, rays, and chimaeras).
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity and ecosystem services: a multilayered relationship
TL;DR: Biodiversity has key roles at all levels of the ecosystem service hierarchy: as a regulator of underpinning ecosystem processes, as a final ecosystem service and as a good that is subject to valuation, whether economic or otherwise.
Journal ArticleDOI
Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessments
Sandra Díaz,Sandra Lavorel,Francesco de Bello,Fabien Quétier,Karl Grigulis,T. Matthew Robson +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a systematic way for progressing in understanding how land cover change affects ecosystem properties through functional diversity modifications, and apply the proposed framework to a grassland system in the central French Alps in which functional diversity, by responding to land use change, alters the provision of ecosystem services important to local stakeholders.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge
D. U. Hooper,F. S. Chapin,John J. Ewel,Andy Hector,P. Inchausti,Sandra Lavorel,John H. Lawton,David M. Lodge,Michel Loreau,Shahid Naeem,Bernhard Schmid,Heikki Setälä,Amy J. Symstad,John Vandermeer,David A. Wardle,David A. Wardle +15 more
TL;DR: Understanding this complexity, while taking strong steps to minimize current losses of species, is necessary for responsible management of Earth's ecosystems and the diverse biota they contain.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges
Michel Loreau,Shahid Naeem,Pablo Inchausti,Jan Bengtsson,J. P. Grime,Andy Hector,David U. Hooper,Michael A. Huston,Dave Raffaelli,Bernhard Schmid,David Tilman,David A. Wardle +11 more
TL;DR: Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments and to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies
Rosamond L. Naylor,Rebecca J. Goldburg,Jurgenne H. Primavera,Nils Kautsky,Malcolm Beveridge,Jason Clay,Carl Folke,Jane Lubchenco,Harold A. Mooney,Max Troell +9 more
TL;DR: If the growing aquaculture industry is to sustain its contribution to world fish supplies, it must reduce wild fish inputs in feed and adopt more ecologically sound management practices.
Journal ArticleDOI
Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail
Sandra Lavorel,Eric Garnier +1 more
TL;DR: A framework using concepts and results from community ecology, ecosystem ecology and evolutionary biology to provide a linkage between traits associated with the response of plants to environmental factors and traits that determine effects of plants on ecosystem functions is presented.
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