Microbial conservation in the Anthropocene

Conservation in the Anthropocene.

It has become commonplace to remark that humans are now the dominant environmental force on the Earth. The indications are strong and diverse. They range from paleontologists reaching a consensus that humans contributed to megafaunal extinctions on at least two continents, North America and Australia (Barnosky et al. 2004); recognition that formerly intact marine ecosystems have changed enormou...

The Anthropocene concept in ecology and conservation.

The term 'Anthropocene' was first used in the year 2000 to refer to the current time period in which human impacts are at least as important as natural processes. It is currently being considered as a potential geological epoch, following on from the Holocene. While most environmental scientists accept that many key environmental parameters are now outside their Holocene ranges, there is no agr...

Reconciling conflicting perspectives for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org H environmental impacts are now so extensive and pervasive that many consider that the planet has entered a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. Increasingly, efforts to conserve biodiversity are confronted with new challenges resulting from profound changes to many biotic and abiotic processes (Steffen et al. 2004; MA 2005), wh...

Danielle Sands “Rambunctious Gardening”: Conservation in the Anthropocene

Conservation physiology and the quest for a ‘good’ Anthropocene

It has been proposed that we are now living in a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene, which is specifically defined by the impacts that humans are having on the Earth's biological diversity and geology. Although the proposal of this term was borne out of an acknowledgement of the negative changes we are imparting on the globe (e.g. climate change, pollution, coastal erosion, species ...