Dirzo, R;
Young, HS;
Galetti, M;
Ceballos, G;
Isaac, NJ;
Collen, B;
(2014)
Defaunation in the Anthropocene.
Science
, 345
(6195)
401 - 406.
10.1126/science.1251817.
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Abstract
We live amid a global wave of anthropogenically driven biodiversity loss: species and population extirpations and, critically, declines in local species abundance. Particularly, human impacts on animal biodiversity are an under-recognized form of global environmental change. Among terrestrial vertebrates, 322 species have become extinct since 1500, and populations of the remaining species show 25% average decline in abundance. Invertebrate patterns are equally dire: 67% of monitored populations show 45% mean abundance decline. Such animal declines will cascade onto ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Much remains unknown about this "Anthropocene defaunation"; these knowledge gaps hinder our capacity to predict and limit defaunation impacts. Clearly, however, defaunation is both a pervasive component of the planet's sixth mass extinction and also a major driver of global ecological change.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Defaunation in the Anthropocene |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1126/science.1251817 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1251817 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science 345, 25/07/2014, doi: 10.1126/science.1251817. |
| Keywords: | Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Endangered Species, Extinction, Biological, Human Activities, Humans, Insects, Invertebrates, Mammals, Pest Control, Pollination, Population |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1436030 |
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