Loss of terrestrial biodiversity in Australia: Magnitude, causation, and response

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Legge, Sarah; Rumpff, Libby; Garnett, Stephen T.; Woinarski, John C. Z.
• 署名单位: Charles Darwin University; Australian National University; University of Melbourne
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-14086
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adg7870
• 发表日期: 2023-08-11
• 页码: 622-631
• 关键词: extinction risk; CLIMATE-CHANGE; hare-wallaby; CONSERVATION; impacts; management; decline; mammals; threats

摘要

Australia's biota is species rich, with high rates of endemism. This natural legacy has rapidly diminished since European colonization. The impacts of invasive species, habitat loss, altered fire regimes, and changed water flows are now compounded by climate change, particularly through extreme drought, heat, wildfire, and flooding. Extinction rates, already far exceeding the global average for mammals, are predicted to escalate across all taxa, and ecosystems are collapsing. These losses are symptomatic of shortcomings in resourcing, law, policy, and management. Informed by examples of advances in conservation practice from invasive species control, Indigenous land management, and citizen science, we describe interventions needed to enhance future resilience. Many characteristics of Australian biodiversity loss are globally relevant, with recovery requiring society to reframe its relationship with the environment.