U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Date of this Version
2016
Citation
R. Mateo et al. (eds.), Current Trends in Wildlife Research, Wildlife Research Monographs 1, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-27912-1_5
Abstract
The high levels of human demands of resources—from food to space and energy—are one of the main drivers of global change and are causing large negative impacts on ecosystems functioning worldwide (Vitousek et al. 1997 ). Global change components range from climate change to habitat destruction, species invasions, pollution and eutrophication. Although these factors can produce ecosystem changes independently, the final descent is often driven by synergistic processes. The resulting amplifying feedbacks can be disconnected from the original driver of change, leading to a state shift in the biosphere with unexpected consequences (Barnosky et al. 2012 ). Climate change seems to have taken prominence over other drivers of global change, leading to larger funding and attention with respect to other major components of global change (Veríssimo et al. 2014 ).
Comments
U.S. Government Work