Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity.

• Autores: Tim Newbold, Lawrence N. Hudson, Samantha L. L. Hill, Sara Contu, Igor Lysenko, Rebecca A. Senior
• Localización: Nature: International weekly journal of science, ISSN 0028-0836, Vol. 520, Nº 7545, 2015, págs. 45-50
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 23 Citas
• Resumen

  • Human activities, especially conversion and degradation of habitats, are causing global biodiversity declines. How local ecological assemblages are responding is less clear-a concern given their importance for many ecosystem functions and services. We analysed a terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes. Here we show that in the worst-affected habitats, these pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%. We estimate that, globally, these pressures have already slightly reduced average within-sample richness (by 13.6%), total abundance (10.7%) and rarefaction-based richness (8.1%), with changes showing marked spatial variation. Rapid further losses are predicted under a business-as-usual land-use scenario; within-sample richness is projected to fall by a further 3.4% globally by 2100, with losses concentrated in biodiverse but economically poor countries. Strong mitigation can deliver much more positive biodiversity changes (up to a 1.9% average increase) that are less strongly related to countries' socioeconomic status.