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The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities. These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases, aerosols and loss of land cover [citation needed], and biological diversity, causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and extinctions of species and local populations.
When estimating the effect of climate change on species' extinction risk, the report concluded that global warming of 2 °C (3.6 °F) over the preindustrial levels would threaten an estimated 5% of the Earth's species with extinction even in the absence of any other factors like land use change. If the warming reached 4.3 °C (7.7 °F), they ...
Biodiversity loss has bad effects on the functioning of ecosystems. This in turn affects humans, [ 45 ] because affected ecosystems can no longer provide the same quality of ecosystem services , such as crop pollination , cleaning air and water, decomposing waste, and providing forest products as well as areas for recreation and tourism .
[1] [2] [3] Environmental conditions play a key role in defining the function and geographic distributions of plants. Therefore, when environmental conditions change, this can result in changes to biodiversity. [4] The effects of climate change on plant biodiversity can be predicted by using various models, for example bioclimatic models. [5] [6]
Summary of major biodiversity-related environmental-change categories expressed as a percentage of human-driven change (in red) relative to baseline (blue) It has been estimated that from 1970 to 2016, 68% of the world's wildlife has been destroyed due to human activity. [132] [133] In South America, there is believed to be a 70 percent loss. [134]
The environment and all its inhabitants rely on biodiversity to recover from extreme environmental conditions. When too much biodiversity is lost, a catastrophic event such as an earthquake, flood, or volcanic eruption could cause an ecosystem to crash, and humans would obviously suffer from that. [55]
The effects of current fragmentation will continue to emerge for decades. Extinction debts are likely to come due, although the counteracting immigration debts may never fully be paid. Indeed, the experiments here reveal ongoing losses of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning two decades or longer after fragmentation occurred.
Global biodiversity is the measure of biodiversity on planet Earth and is defined as the total variability of life forms. More than 99 percent of all species [ 1 ] that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct .