title: Defaunation in the Anthropocene.
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.
authors: Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. rdirzo@stanford.edu.
authors: Rodolfo
authors: R
authors: Dirzo
authors: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors: Hillary S
authors: HS
authors: Young
authors: Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, Brazil.
authors: Mauro
authors: M
authors: Galetti
authors: Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70-275, México D.F. 04510, Mexico.
authors: Gerardo
authors: G
authors: Ceballos
authors: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK.
authors: Nick J B
authors: NJ
authors: Isaac
authors: Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
authors: Ben
authors: B
authors: Collen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds; D056727:Endangered Species; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta; D007448:Invertebrates; D008322:Mammals; D010571:Pest Control; D054817:Pollination; D011153:Population