Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Populations and Metapopulations
- Part II Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities
- Part III Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium on Geographical Scales
- Part IV Latitudinal Gradients
- Part V Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change
- 13 The physics of climate: equilibrium, disequilibrium and chaos
- 14 Episodic processes, invasion and faunal mosaics in evolutionary and ecological time
- 15 The emerging infectious diseases crisis and pathogen pollution
- 16 Establishment or vanishing: fate of an invasive species based on mathematical models
- 17 Anthropogenic footprints on biodiversity
- 18 Worldwide decline and extinction of amphibians
- 19 Climatic change and reptiles
- 20 Equilibrium and nonequilibrium in Australian bird communities – the impact of natural and anthropogenic effects
- 21 Population dynamics of insects: impacts of a changing climate
- 22 The futures of coral reefs
- Part VI Autecological Studies
- Part VII An Overall View
- Index
- References
17 - Anthropogenic footprints on biodiversity
from Part V - Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Populations and Metapopulations
- Part II Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities
- Part III Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium on Geographical Scales
- Part IV Latitudinal Gradients
- Part V Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change
- 13 The physics of climate: equilibrium, disequilibrium and chaos
- 14 Episodic processes, invasion and faunal mosaics in evolutionary and ecological time
- 15 The emerging infectious diseases crisis and pathogen pollution
- 16 Establishment or vanishing: fate of an invasive species based on mathematical models
- 17 Anthropogenic footprints on biodiversity
- 18 Worldwide decline and extinction of amphibians
- 19 Climatic change and reptiles
- 20 Equilibrium and nonequilibrium in Australian bird communities – the impact of natural and anthropogenic effects
- 21 Population dynamics of insects: impacts of a changing climate
- 22 The futures of coral reefs
- Part VI Autecological Studies
- Part VII An Overall View
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
One of the most concerning issues to modern ecology and society is the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Ecosystems are now losing species at rates only seen in previous mass extinction events (Hails, 2008; Barnosky et al., 2011) with rates of extinction between 100 and 1000 times higher than pre-human levels (Pimm et al., 1995). This loss, in turn, is impairing the functioning of ecosystems (Worm et al., 2006; Mora et al., 2011a) and their capacity to deliver goods and services to mankind (Díaz et al., 2006). The sharp contrast between the declining “supply” of the Earth’s services and the rising “demand” from a growing human population indicates that such services will increasingly fall short, leading to the exacerbation of hunger, poverty and human suffering (Campbell et al., 2007; Mora & Sale, 2011).
There is relatively good consensus that biodiversity loss is being driven directly or indirectly by human stressors such as overexploitation, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change (Myers, 1995; Sala et al., 2000; Novacek & Cleland, 2001; Gaston et al., 2003; Jackson, 2008; Weidenhamer & Callaway, 2010). The relative role of such stressors, however, has been a focus of controversy as all threats do provide rational mechanisms to explain biodiversity loss and unfortunately most threats co-occur in natural conditions, making it difficult to isolate their individual effects (Myers, 1995; Sala et al., 2000; Novacek & Cleland, 2001; Mora et al., 2007). Since the cost of mitigating specific stressors could be considerable but disproportionate among different sectors of the economy (e.g., industries vs. fishers, fishermen vs. tourism developers, etc.), this uncertainty over the relative effect of anthropogenic stressors is often used as an argument to prevent the implementation of mitigation policies (e.g., Schiermeier, 2004; Worm & Myers, 2004; Grigg & Dollar, 2005).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Balance of Nature and Human Impact , pp. 239 - 258Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
References
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