Biodiversity Conservation and the Earth System: Mind the Gap

Author ORCID Identifier

James Hansford:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5702-8915

Publication Title

Trends in Ecology and Evolution

ISSN

01695347

E-ISSN

44019

Document Type

Article

Abstract

One of the most striking human impacts on global biodiversity is the ongoing depletion of large vertebrates from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Recent work suggests this loss of megafauna can affect processes at biome or Earth system scales with potentially serious impacts on ecosystem structure and function, ecosystem services, and biogeochemical cycles. We argue that our contemporary approach to biodiversity conservation focuses on spatial scales that are too small to adequately address these impacts. We advocate a new global approach to address this conservation gap, which must enable megafaunal populations to recover to functionally relevant densities. We conclude that re-establishing biome and Earth system functions needs to become an urgent global priority for conservation science and policy.

First Page

919

Last Page

926

Publication Date

10-1-2020

DOI

10.1016/j.tree.2020.06.010

PubMed ID

32650985

Keywords

biodiversity, biome, Earth system, ecological function, megafauna

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

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