Review article

Defaunation in the Anthropocene

Rodolfo DirzoDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USAHillary S. YoungDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USAMauro GalettiDepartamento de Ecologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, SP, 13506-900, BrazilGerardo CeballosInstituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP 70-275, México D.F. 04510, MexicoNick J. B. IsaacNatural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UKBen CollenCentre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

2014en

ABI

Abstract

We live amid a global wave of anthropogenically driven biodiversity loss: species and population extirpations and, critically, declines in local species abundance. Particularly, human impacts on animal biodiversity are an under-recognized form of global environmental change. Among terrestrial vertebrates, 322 species have become extinct since 1500, and populations of the remaining species show 25% average decline in abundance. Invertebrate patterns are equally dire: 67% of monitored populations show 45% mean abundance decline. Such animal declines will cascade onto ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Much remains unknown about this "Anthropocene defaunation"; these knowledge gaps hinder our capacity to predict and limit defaunation impacts. Clearly, however, defaunation is both a pervasive component of the planet's sixth mass extinction and also a major driver of global ecological change.

Identifiers

DOI: 10.1126/science.1251817

Citations and references

Cited by 20 references

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