The functions of biological diversity in an age of extinction.
Ecosystems worldwide are rapidly losing taxonomic, phylogenetic, genetic, and functional diversity as a result of human appropriation of natural resources, modification of habitats and climate, and the spread of pathogenic, exotic, and domestic plants and animals. Twenty years of intense theoretical and empirical research have shown that such biotic impoverishment can markedly alter the biogeochemical and dynamic properties of ecosystems, but frontiers remain in linking this research to the complexity of wild nature, and in applying it to pressing environmental issues such as food, water, energy, and biosecurity. The question before us is whether these advances can take us beyond merely invoking the precautionary principle of conserving biodiversity to a predictive science that informs practical and specific solutions to mitigate and adapt to its loss.
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. sn2121@columbia.edu
Shahid
S
Naeem
J Emmett
JE
Duffy
Erika
E
Zavaleta
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants; D012106:Research