Ecosystem decay exacerbates biodiversity loss with habitat loss

Chase, Jonathan M.; Blowes, Shane A.; Knight, Tiffany M.; Gerstner, Katharina; May, Felix

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2531-2

Cited by 292 publications

(310 citation statements)

References 154 publications

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“…Naturally, we must inquire if the entropy commonly used in biological systems satisfies Eqs. (1,2). Equally, we wish to identify whether the diversity indices used in the biology literature are acceptable in the light of non-equilibrium processes at the stochastic level.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Darwin settled the foundations of evolutionary biology, establishing non-linear and irreversible mechanisms of interactions between different species 1 . The diversity observed in nature emerges in a stochastic way, strongly depening from molecular processes codified in the DNA and also from the interaction with the environment [2][3][4][5][6] . While the understanding, preservation and managing of ecological diversity have become a great endeavor for humanity, there are still missing columns in the foundations of an unified theory for acceptable diversity measurable [7][8][9][10][11][12] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Physical Entropy and Universal Chaos in Biological Diversity

Souza-Filho

Lucena

Ramos

2020

Preprint

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We investigate the longstanding problem concerning diversity indices heuristically applied throughout biological systems. Using stochastic simulations, we demonstrate the existence of a relation that encompass the diversity, one of the flagships of Darwinism, and quantum thermodynamics. Our results prove that informational entropy is indeed a physical/biological diversity index only in the presence of two novel mandatory phenomenological parameters. Moreover, we solve paradoxes related to diversity-entropy depletion in favor of the patterns formation in nature. Our findings pave the way for an unifying theory of phylogenetic analysis, properties of active matter, information theory and universal quantum chaos typical of nuclear and mesoscopic physics.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Entropy and Universal Chaos in Biological Diversity

Souza-Filho

Lucena

Ramos

2020

Preprint

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“…For instance, a recent study showed that North American avifauna has decreased by 3 billion over the past half century, which is equivalent to~30% of the total number of birds in the 1970s [104]. Today, the sharp decline in bird populations as a consequence of habitat loss because of agricultural activities, urbanization, and toxic pesticide use in both breeding and wintering areas is a global problem [105,106]. Pollinating insects and birds are directly related to plant life histories (e.g., reproduction and seed dispersal), which is why their continuous and significant decrease in numbers will have a significant negative impact on plant diversity [99,[107][108][109].…”

Section: Trophic Cascadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We suggest several topics for future research: (i) Because rapid climate change and land use change will inevitably lead to the rapid evolution of some plants, it is important to study which plant traits are more likely to change, how they affect speciation and extinction, and what are their implications for conservation and plant adaptation [106,149]. Implementing this kind of research in cities and botanical gardens may be the best choice; (ii) Polar regions face great direct and indirect pressures from the consequences of climate change and human exploitation.…”

Section: Conclusion and Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene

et al. 2020

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Background In the past several millenniums, we have domesticated several crop species that are crucial for human civilization, which is a symbol of significant human influence on plant evolution. A pressing question to address is if plant diversity will increase or decrease in this warming world since contradictory pieces of evidence exit of accelerating plant speciation and plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Results Comparison may be made of the Anthropocene with the past geological times characterised by a warming climate, e.g., the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 55.8 million years ago (Mya)—a period of “crocodiles in the Arctic”, during which plants saw accelerated speciation through autopolyploid speciation. Three accelerators of plant speciation were reasonably identified in the Anthropocene, including cities, polar regions and botanical gardens where new plant species might be accelerating formed through autopolyploid speciation and hybridization. Conclusions However, this kind of positive effect of climate warming on new plant species formation would be thoroughly offset by direct and indirect intensive human exploitation and human disturbances that cause habitat loss, deforestation, land use change, climate change, and pollution, thus leading to higher extinction risk than speciation in the Anthropocene. At last, four research directions are proposed to deepen our understanding of how plant traits affect speciation and extinction, why we need to make good use of polar regions to study the mechanisms of dispersion and invasion, how to maximize the conservation of plant genetics, species, and diverse landscapes and ecosystems and a holistic perspective on plant speciation and extinction is needed to integrate spatiotemporally.

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“…Natural habitat loss and fragmentation are important threats to global biodiversity conservation (Chase et al 2020;Sala et al 2000). Studies have shown that the establishment of protected areas (PAs) can effectively curb the destruction of natural ecosystems, and this approach is a major component of biodiversity conservation (Li et al 2020;Ma et al 2012;Tang et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the effectiveness of landscape protection in the Liancheng National Nature Reserve, Gansu, China

Huang

Peng

Wang

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background The rapid assessment of the effectiveness of landscape protection in nature reserves is of great significance for the scientific formulation of protection and management countermeasures for nature reserves and is also an urgent problem to be solved for the construction and management of nature reserves in China. Using high-resolution remote sensing image data, this study analyzes the landscape dynamics in the Liancheng National Nature Reserve (LNNR) and their driving factors since the reserve’s promotion to the national level in 2005, and proposes a comprehensive evaluation method for the effectiveness of landscape protection in protected areas based on the Landscape Transfer Index (LTI), Protected Landscape Integrity Index (PLII), and Interfered Landscape Sprawl Index (ILSI). Results Between 2006 and 2019, the area of protected landscape—namely woodland, grassland, and water—in the LNNR decreased, while the area of interfered landscape such as residential land, industrial and mining land, and water conservancy facility land increased. The LTI was − 0.14, and among the driving factors, the development of industry and mining, land use by indigenous inhabitants, and the development of the transport industry made the highest contribution to the landscape transfer tendency, being respectively 34.79%, 28.98%, and 17.30%. The PLII decreased from 82.7 to 68.7 and the ILSI increased from 26.61 to 26.68. Conclusion The effectiveness of landscape protection in the LNNR is low. Between 2006 and 2019, the overall quality of the landscape slightly decreased, the spatial pattern of the protected landscape became more fragmented, and the degree of human interference in the landscape increased; however, the scope of influence of human interference did not change significantly. These changes were mainly due to industrial and mining exploitation, land use by indigenous inhabitants, and road construction. However, despite the insignificant nature of these changes, they still require attention and timely remedial measures. The methodology proposed in this study may be applicable to the rapid assessment of the effectiveness of landscape conservation in various types of nature conservation sites around the world.

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Ecosystem decay exacerbates biodiversity loss with habitat loss

Cited by 292 publications

References 154 publications

Physical Entropy and Universal Chaos in Biological Diversity

Physical Entropy and Universal Chaos in Biological Diversity

Plant extinction excels plant speciation in the Anthropocene

Analysis of the effectiveness of landscape protection in the Liancheng National Nature Reserve, Gansu, China

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