Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity

Bradley J. Cardinale, J. Emmett Duffy, Andrew Gonzalez, David U. Hooper, Charles Perrings, Patrick Venail, Anita Narwani, Georgina M. MacE, David Tilman, David A. Wardle, Ann Kinzig, Gretchen C. Daily, Michel Loreau, James B. Grace, Anne Larigauderie, Diane S. Srivastava, Shahid Naeem

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

4504 Scopus citations

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 the Earth's ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. This observation led to the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)59-67
Number of pages9
JournalNature
Volume486
Issue number7401
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 7 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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