Continental-level biodiversity collapse

Continental-level biodiversity collapse.

Biodiversity loss is a global phenomenon (1), with Woinarski et al. (2) providing a sobering review of the demise of the Australian native terrestrial mammal fauna. The authors’ focus is on the loss of >10% of endemic terrestrial native mammal fauna since European settlement in 1788. The extent of mammal loss is highlighted by the contrast with mainland North America, with just one mammal speci...

From Lithospheric Thickening and Divergent Collapse to Active Continental Rifting

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stress...

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stress...

Habitat fragmentation and biodiversity collapse in neutral communities

Models of habitat fragmentation have mainly explored the effects on a few-species ecologies or on a hierarchical community of competitors. These models reveal that, under different conditions, ecosystem response can involve sharp changes when some given thresholds are reached. However, perturbations, recruitment limitation and other causes may prevent competitive hierarchies from actually opera...