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- Title
Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity.
- Authors
Cardinale, Bradley J.; Duffy, J. Emmett; Gonzalez, Andrew; Hooper, David U.; Perrings, Charles; Venail, Patrick; Narwani, Anita; Mace, Georgina M.; Tilman, David; Wardle, David A.; Kinzig, Ann P.; Daily, Gretchen C.; Loreau, Michel; Grace, James B.; Larigauderie, Anne; Srivastava, Diane S.; Naeem, Shahid
- 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.
- Subjects
BIOLOGICAL extinction; BIODIVERSITY; EFFECT of environment on human beings; ENVIRONMENTAL degradation; EARTH (Planet)
- Publication
Nature, 2012, Vol 486, Issue 7401, p59
- ISSN
0028-0836
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nature11148