Publications
238 results found
Gonzalez A, Vihervaara P, Balvanera P, et al., 2023, A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action., Nat Ecol Evol
Cornford R, Spooner F, McRae L, et al., 2023, Ongoing over-exploitation and delayed responses to environmental change highlight the urgency for action to promote vertebrate recoveries by 2030., Proc Biol Sci, Vol: 290
To safeguard nature, we must understand the drivers of biodiversity loss. Time-delayed biodiversity responses to environmental changes (ecological lags) are often absent from models of biodiversity change, despite their well-documented existence. We quantify how lagged responses to climate and land-use change have influenced mammal and bird populations around the world, while incorporating effects of direct exploitation and conservation interventions. Ecological lag duration varies between drivers, vertebrate classes and body size groupings-e.g. lags linked to climate-change impacts are 13 years for small birds, rising to 40 years for larger species. Past warming and land conversion generally combine to predict population declines; however, such conditions are associated with population increases for small mammals. Positive effects of management (>+4% annually for large mammals) and protected areas (>+6% annually for large birds) on population trends contrast with the negative impact of exploitation (<-7% annually for birds), highlighting the need to promote sustainable use. Model projections suggest a future with winners (e.g. large birds) and losers (e.g. medium-sized birds), with current/recent environmental change substantially influencing abundance trends to 2050. Without urgent action, including effective conservation interventions and promoting sustainable use, ambitious targets to stop declines by 2030 may already be slipping out of reach.
Liu D, Semenchuk P, Essl F, et al., 2023, The impact of land use on non-native species incidence and number in local assemblages worldwide., Nat Commun, Vol: 14
While the regional distribution of non-native species is increasingly well documented for some taxa, global analyses of non-native species in local assemblages are still missing. Here, we use a worldwide collection of assemblages from five taxa - ants, birds, mammals, spiders and vascular plants - to assess whether the incidence, frequency and proportions of naturalised non-native species depend on type and intensity of land use. In plants, assemblages of primary vegetation are least invaded. In the other taxa, primary vegetation is among the least invaded land-use types, but one or several other types have equally low levels of occurrence, frequency and proportions of non-native species. High land use intensity is associated with higher non-native incidence and frequency in primary vegetation, while intensity effects are inconsistent for other land-use types. These findings highlight the potential dual role of unused primary vegetation in preserving native biodiversity and in conferring resistance against biological invasions.
Burton VJ, Contu S, De Palma A, et al., 2022, Land use and soil characteristics affect soil organisms differently from above-ground assemblages, BMC Ecology and Evolution, Vol: 22, ISSN: 2730-7182
Background:Land-use is a major driver of changes in biodiversity worldwide, but studies have overwhelmingly focused on above-ground taxa: the effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning. We modelled data from a global biodiversity database to compare how the abundance of soil-dwelling and above-ground organisms responded to land use and soil properties.Results:We found that land use affects overall abundance differently in soil and above-ground assemblages. The abundance of soil organisms was markedly lower in cropland and plantation habitats than in primary vegetation and pasture. Soil properties influenced the abundance of soil biota in ways that differed among land uses, suggesting they shape both abundance and its response to land use.Conclusions:Our results caution against assuming models or indicators derived from above-ground data can apply to soil assemblages and highlight the potential value of incorporating soil properties into biodiversity models.
Jaureguiberry P, Titeux N, Wiemers M, et al., 2022, The direct drivers of recent global anthropogenic biodiversity loss, SCIENCE ADVANCES, Vol: 8, ISSN: 2375-2548
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- Citations: 1
Chaplin-Kramer R, Brauman KA, Cavender-Bares J, et al., 2021, Conservation needs to integrate knowledge across scales, NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, Vol: 6, Pages: 118-119, ISSN: 2397-334X
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- Citations: 12
De Palma A, Hoskins A, Gonzalez RE, et al., 2021, Annual changes in the Biodiversity Intactness Index in tropical and subtropical forest biomes, 2001-2012, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, Vol: 11, ISSN: 2045-2322
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- Citations: 6
Tudge SJ, Purvis A, De Palma A, 2021, The impacts of biofuel crops on local biodiversity: a global synthesis, BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION, Vol: 30, Pages: 2863-2883, ISSN: 0960-3115
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- Citations: 7
Turnhout E, Purvis A, 2021, Biodiversity and species extinction: categorisation, calculation, and communication, GRIFFITH LAW REVIEW, Vol: 29, Pages: 669-685, ISSN: 1038-3441
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- Citations: 6
Tudge SJ, Purvis A, De Palma A, 2020, The impacts of biofuel crops on local biodiversity: a global synthesis
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Concerns about the environmental impacts of climate change have led to increased targets for biofuel in the global energy market. First-generation biofuel crops contain oil, sugar or starch and are usually also grown for food, whereas second-generation biofuel is derived from non-food sources, including lignocellulosic crops, fast-growing trees, crop residues and waste. Increasing biofuel production drives land-use change, a major cause of biodiversity loss, but there is limited knowledge of how different first- and second-generation biofuel crops affect local biodiversity. A more detailed understanding could support better decisions about the net environmental impacts of biofuels. We synthesised data from 116 sources where a potential biofuel crop was grown and estimated how two measures of local biodiversity, species richness and total abundance, responded to different crops. Local species richness and abundance were 37% and 49% lower at sites planted with first-generation biofuel crops than in sites with primary vegetation. Soybean, wheat, maize and oil palm had the worst effects; the worst affected regions were Asia and Central and South America; and plant species richness and vertebrate abundance were the worst affected biodiversity measures. Second-generation biofuels had significantly smaller effects: species richness and abundance were 19% and 25%, respectively, lower in such sites than in primary vegetation. Our models suggest that land clearance to generate biofuel results in negative impacts on local biodiversity. However, the geographic and taxonomic variation in effects, and the variation in yields among different crops, are all relevant for making the most sustainable land-use decisions.</jats:p>
Sanchez-Ortiz K, Taylor KJM, De Palma A, et al., 2020, Effects of land-use change and related pressures on alien and native subsets of island communities, PLOS ONE, Vol: 15, ISSN: 1932-6203
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- Citations: 8
Purvis A, Jones KE, 2020, Georgina Mace (1953-2020) Pioneering conservation biologist and sustainability scientist, SCIENCE, Vol: 370, Pages: 915-915, ISSN: 0036-8075
Cornford R, Deinet S, De Palma A, et al., 2020, Fast, scalable, and automated identification of articles for biodiversity and macroecological datasets, GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY, Vol: 30, Pages: 339-347, ISSN: 1466-822X
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- Citations: 6
Prudhomme R, De Palma A, Dumas P, et al., 2020, Combining mitigation strategies to increase co-benefits for biodiversity and food security, ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, Vol: 15, ISSN: 1748-9326
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- Citations: 2
Diaz S, Zafra-Calvo N, Purvis A, et al., 2020, Set ambitious goals for biodiversity and sustainability, SCIENCE, Vol: 370, Pages: 411-413, ISSN: 0036-8075
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- Citations: 106
Hoskins AJ, Harwood TD, Ware C, et al., 2020, BILBI: Supporting global biodiversity assessment through high-resolution macroecological modelling, ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE, Vol: 132, ISSN: 1364-8152
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- Citations: 15
Leclere D, Obersteiner M, Barrett M, et al., 2020, Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy, NATURE, Vol: 585, Pages: 551-+, ISSN: 0028-0836
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- Citations: 213
Mace GM, Barrett M, Burgess ND, et al., 2020, Aiming higher to bend the curve of biodiversity loss (vol 52, pg 891, 2020), NATURE SUSTAINABILITY, Vol: 3, Pages: 885-885, ISSN: 2398-9629
Bayley DT, Purvis A, Nellas AC, et al., 2020, Measuring the long-term success of small-scale marine protected areas in a Philippine reef fishery, CORAL REEFS, Vol: 39, Pages: 1591-1604, ISSN: 0722-4028
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- Citations: 2
Waldock CA, De Palma A, Borges PA, et al., 2020, Insect occurrence in agricultural land-uses depends on realized niche and geographic range properties, ECOGRAPHY, Vol: 43, Pages: 1717-1728, ISSN: 0906-7590
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- Citations: 5
Echeverria-Londono S, Sarkinen T, Fenton IS, et al., 2020, Dynamism and context-dependency in diversification of the megadiverse plant genusSolanum(Solanaceae), JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION, Vol: 58, Pages: 767-782, ISSN: 1674-4918
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- Citations: 17
Rosa IMD, Purvis A, Alkemade R, et al., 2020, Challenges in producing policy-relevant global scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services, GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION, Vol: 22
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- Citations: 23
Diaz S, Settele J, Brondizio E, et al., 2020, Investments' role in ecosystem degradation Response, SCIENCE, Vol: 368, Pages: 377-377, ISSN: 0036-8075
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- Citations: 4
Pereira HM, Rosa IMD, Martins IS, et al., 2020, Global trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services from 1900 to 2050
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Despite the scientific consensus on the extinction crisis and its anthropogenic origin, the quantification of historical trends and of future scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been limited, due to the lack of inter-model comparisons and harmonized scenarios. Here, we present a multi-model analysis to assess the impacts of land-use and climate change from 1900 to 2050. During the 20th century provisioning services increased, but biodiversity and regulating services decreased. Similar trade-offs are projected for the coming decades, but they may be attenuated in a sustainability scenario. Future biodiversity loss from land-use change is projected to keep up with historical rates or reduce slightly, whereas losses due to climate change are projected to increase greatly. Renewed efforts are needed by governments to meet the 2050 vision of the Convention on Biological Diversity.</jats:p><jats:sec><jats:title>One Sentence Summary</jats:title><jats:p>Development pathways exist that allow for a reduction of the rates of biodiversity loss from land-use change and improvement in regulating services but climate change poses an increasing challenge.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Purvis A, 2020, A single apex target for biodiversity would be bad news for both nature and people, NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, Vol: 4, Pages: 768-769, ISSN: 2397-334X
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- Citations: 16
Newbold T, Bentley LF, Hill SLL, et al., 2020, Global effects of land use on biodiversity differ among functional groups, FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Vol: 34, Pages: 684-693, ISSN: 0269-8463
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- Citations: 45
Sánchez-Ortiz K, Taylor KJM, De Palma A, et al., 2019, Effects of land-use change and related pressures on alien and native subsets of island communities
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Island species and habitats are particularly vulnerable to human disturbances, and anthropogenic changes are increasingly overwriting natural island biogeographic patterns. However, quantitative comparisons of how native and alien assemblages respond to human disturbances are scarce. Using data from 6,242 species of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants, from 7,718 sites on 81 islands, we model how land-use change, human population density and distance to the nearest road affect local assemblages of alien and native species on islands. We found that land-use change reduces both richness and abundance of native species, whereas the number and abundance of alien species are high in plantation forests and agricultural or urban sites. In contrast to the long-established pattern for native species (i.e., decline in species number with island isolation), more isolated islands have more alien species across most land uses than do less isolated islands. We show that alien species play a major role in the turnover of island assemblages: our models show that aliens outnumber natives among the species present at disturbed sites but absent from minimally-disturbed primary vegetation. Finally, we found a homogenization pattern for both native and alien assemblages across sites within most land uses. The declines of native species on islands in the face of human pressures, and the particular proneness to invasions of the more remote islands, highlight the need to reduce the intensity of human pressures on islands and to prevent the introduction and establishment of alien species.</jats:p>
Diaz S, Settele J, Brondizio ES, et al., 2019, Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change, SCIENCE, Vol: 366, Pages: 1327-+, ISSN: 0036-8075
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- Citations: 737
Díaz S, Settele J, Brondízio ES, et al., 2019, Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change., Science, Vol: 366
The human impact on life on Earth has increased sharply since the 1970s, driven by the demands of a growing population with rising average per capita income. Nature is currently supplying more materials than ever before, but this has come at the high cost of unprecedented global declines in the extent and integrity of ecosystems, distinctness of local ecological communities, abundance and number of wild species, and the number of local domesticated varieties. Such changes reduce vital benefits that people receive from nature and threaten the quality of life of future generations. Both the benefits of an expanding economy and the costs of reducing nature's benefits are unequally distributed. The fabric of life on which we all depend-nature and its contributions to people-is unravelling rapidly. Despite the severity of the threats and lack of enough progress in tackling them to date, opportunities exist to change future trajectories through transformative action. Such action must begin immediately, however, and address the root economic, social, and technological causes of nature's deterioration.
Hill SLL, Arnell A, Maney C, et al., 2019, Measuring Forest Biodiversity Status and Changes Globally, FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE, Vol: 2
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- Citations: 21
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