Wardle, David
- Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
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 functioning
Published in
Nature
2012, volume: 486, number: 7401, pages: 59-67
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Limited
SLU Authors
Global goals (SDG)
UKÄ Subject classification
Ecology
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11148
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/40530