Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2012
Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity
Wardle, DavidAbstract
The most unique feature of Earth is the existence of life, and the most extraordinary feature of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals, protists and fungi inhabit the earth. So, too, do 7 billion people. Two decades ago, at the first Earth Summit, the vast majority of the world's nations declared that human actions were dismantling Earth's ecosystems, eliminating genes, 30 species, and biological traits at an alarming rate. This observation led to a daunting question: How will loss of biological diversity alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper?Keywords
Biodiversity; Extinction; Ecosystem functioningPublished in
Nature2012, volume: 486, number: 7401, pages: 59-67
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Limited
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Ecology and Management
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG15 Life on land
UKÄ Subject classification
Ecology
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11148
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/40530