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All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Anthropogenic global changes in biodiversity are generally portrayed in terms of massive native species losses or invasions caused by recent human disturbance. Yet these biodiversity changes and others caused directly by human populations and their use of land tend to co-occur as long-term biodivers...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ellis, Erle C., Antill, Erica C., Kreft, Holger
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22272360
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030535
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author Ellis, Erle C.
Antill, Erica C.
Kreft, Holger
author_facet Ellis, Erle C.
Antill, Erica C.
Kreft, Holger
author_sort Ellis, Erle C.
collection PubMed
description Anthropogenic global changes in biodiversity are generally portrayed in terms of massive native species losses or invasions caused by recent human disturbance. Yet these biodiversity changes and others caused directly by human populations and their use of land tend to co-occur as long-term biodiversity change processes in the Anthropocene. Here we explore contemporary anthropogenic global patterns in vascular plant species richness at regional landscape scales by combining spatially explicit models and estimates for native species loss together with gains in exotics caused by species invasions and the introduction of agricultural domesticates and ornamental exotic plants. The patterns thus derived confirm that while native losses are likely significant across at least half of Earth's ice-free land, model predictions indicate that plant species richness has increased overall in most regional landscapes, mostly because species invasions tend to exceed native losses. While global observing systems and models that integrate anthropogenic species loss, introduction and invasion at regional landscape scales remain at an early stage of development, integrating predictions from existing models within a single assessment confirms their vast global extent and significance while revealing novel patterns and their potential drivers. Effective global stewardship of plant biodiversity in the Anthropocene will require integrated frameworks for observing, modeling and forecasting the different forms of anthropogenic biodiversity change processes at regional landscape scales, towards conserving biodiversity within the novel plant communities created and sustained by human systems.
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spelling pubmed-32603022012-01-23 All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene Ellis, Erle C. Antill, Erica C. Kreft, Holger PLoS One Research Article Anthropogenic global changes in biodiversity are generally portrayed in terms of massive native species losses or invasions caused by recent human disturbance. Yet these biodiversity changes and others caused directly by human populations and their use of land tend to co-occur as long-term biodiversity change processes in the Anthropocene. Here we explore contemporary anthropogenic global patterns in vascular plant species richness at regional landscape scales by combining spatially explicit models and estimates for native species loss together with gains in exotics caused by species invasions and the introduction of agricultural domesticates and ornamental exotic plants. The patterns thus derived confirm that while native losses are likely significant across at least half of Earth's ice-free land, model predictions indicate that plant species richness has increased overall in most regional landscapes, mostly because species invasions tend to exceed native losses. While global observing systems and models that integrate anthropogenic species loss, introduction and invasion at regional landscape scales remain at an early stage of development, integrating predictions from existing models within a single assessment confirms their vast global extent and significance while revealing novel patterns and their potential drivers. Effective global stewardship of plant biodiversity in the Anthropocene will require integrated frameworks for observing, modeling and forecasting the different forms of anthropogenic biodiversity change processes at regional landscape scales, towards conserving biodiversity within the novel plant communities created and sustained by human systems. Public Library of Science 2012-01-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3260302/ /pubmed/22272360 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030535 Text en Ellis et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ellis, Erle C.
Antill, Erica C.
Kreft, Holger
All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title_full All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title_fullStr All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title_full_unstemmed All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title_short All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene
title_sort all is not loss: plant biodiversity in the anthropocene
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260302/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22272360
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030535
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