Journal article
The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islands
- Abstract:
- Islands are among the last regions on Earth settled and transformed by human activities and provide replicated model systems for analysis of how people affect ecological functions. By analyzing 27 representative fossil pollen sequences encompassing the past 5000 years from islands globally, we quantify rates of vegetation compositional change before and after human arrival. Following human arrival, rates of turnover accelerate by a median factor of nine, with faster rates on islands colonized in the past 1500 years than for those colonized earlier. This global anthropogenic acceleration in turnover suggests that islands are on trajectories of continuing change. Strategies for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration must acknowledge the long duration of human impacts and the degree to which ecological changes today differ from pre-human dynamics.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 1016.7KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1126/science.abd6706
Authors
- Publisher:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Journal:
- Science More from this journal
- Volume:
- 372
- Issue:
- 6541
- Pages:
- 488-491
- Publication date:
- 2021-04-30
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-03-31
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1095-9203
- ISSN:
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0036-8075
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1171607
- Local pid:
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pubs:1171607
- Deposit date:
-
2021-04-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Nogue et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works https://www.sciencemag.org/about/science-licenses-journal-article-reuse This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available from AAAS at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd6706
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