Defaunation in The Anthropocene
Defaunation in The Anthropocene
Defaunation in The Anthropocene
SCIENCE sciencemag.org
sense as deforestation, a term that is now readily recognized and influential in focusing scientific and general public attention on biodiversity
issues (5). However, although remote sensing
technology provides rigorous quantitative information and compelling images of the magnitude, rapidity, and extent of patterns of
deforestation, defaunation remains a largely
cryptic phenomenon. It can occur even in large
protected habitats (6), and yet, some animal
species are able to persist in highly modified
habitats, making it difficult to quantify without
intensive surveys.
Analyses of the impacts of global biodiversity
loss typically base their conclusions on data derived from species extinctions (1, 7, 8), and typically, evaluations of the effects of biodiversity
loss draw heavily from small-scale manipulations
of plants and small sedentary consumers (9). Both
of these approaches likely underestimate the full
impacts of biodiversity loss. Although species extinctions are of great evolutionary importance,
declines in the number of individuals in local
populations and changes in the composition of
species in a community will generally cause greater
immediate impacts on ecosystem function (8, 10).
Moreover, whereas the extinction of a species often
proceeds slowly (11), abundance declines within
populations to functionally extinct levels can occur rapidly (2, 12). Actual extinction events are
also hard to discern, and International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat categories
amalgamate symptoms of high risk, conflating
declining population and small populations so that
counts of threatened species do not necessarily
translate into extinction risk, much less ecological
impact (13). Although the magnitude and frequency of extinction events remain a potent way of
communicating conservation issues, they are only
a small part of the actual loss of biodiversity (14).
The Anthropocene defaunation process
Defaunation: A pervasive phenomenon
Of a conservatively estimated 5 million to 9 million animal species on the planet, we are likely
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Stable
Increasing
Decreasing
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Lepidoptera
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Overall effect
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category threatened and above), and (iv) extant species not currently threatened (Fig. 3),
all showing greater vulnerability of largerbodied species. The myriad consequences of
such differential defaunation have been quantified via the experimental manipulation of the
large wildlife in an African savanna (Fig. 4
and table S3), revealing substantial effects on
biodiversity, ecological processes, and ecosystem
functioning.
Multiple unaddressed drivers of defaunation
The long-established major proximate drivers
of wildlife population decline and extinction in
terrestrial ecosystemsnamely, overexploitation,
habitat destruction, and impacts from invasive
speciesremain pervasive (18). None of these major drivers have been effectively mitigated at the
global scale (14, 18). Rather, all show increasing
trajectories in recent decades (14). Moreover, several newer threats have recently emerged, most
notably anthropogenic climate disruption, which
will likely soon compete with habitat loss as the
most important driver of defaunation (44). For
example, ~20% of the landbirds in the western
Size-differential defaunation
Frequency of extinction (median value highlighted)
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25 percent
Pleistocene
extinct
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0.70
Anthropocene
extinct
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Anthropocene
hropocene
threatened
reatened
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25
Anthropocene
nonthreatened
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0.01
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10,000
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Consequences of defaunation
Because animal loss represents a major change
in biodiversity, it is likely to have important effects on ecosystem functioning. A recent metaanalyses of biodiversity-ecosystem function studies
suggests that the impact of biodiversity losses
on ecosystem functions is comparable in scale
with that of other global changes (such as pollution and nutrient deposition) (9). However, most
efforts to quantify this relationship have focused
largely on effects of reduced producer diversity,
which may typically have much lower functional impacts than does consumer loss (49, 50).
Efforts to quantify effects of changes in animal
diversity on ecosystem function, particularly terrestrial vertebrate diversity, remain more limited (19, 51).
Impacts on ecosystem functions
and services
We examined several ecosystem functions and
services for which the impacts of defaunation
have been documented that are either a direct
result of anthropogenic extirpation of serviceproviding animals or occur indirectly through
cascading effects (Fig. 5).
Pollination
0.0001
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He
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NP
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Di C-D
C-W AMF Ph Tr
AMF
altering the mutualism between ants and the dominant tree, Acacia
drepanolobium and driving changes in fruit production (FP), ant defense by
some species (AD), herbivory of shoots (He), thorn production (TP), nectary
production (NP), and spine length (SL). (D) Large-wildlife removal also
causes major effects on ecosystem functions and services, including changes
to fire intensity (Fi), cattle production in both dry (C-D) and wet (C-W)
seasons, disease prevalence (D), infectivity of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi
(AMF), photosynthetic rates (Ph), and transpiration rates (TR). Data in (B) to
(D) are effect size [ln(exclosure metric/control metric)] after large-wildlife
removal. Although this experiment includes multiple treatments, these
results represent effects of full exclosure treatments; details on treatments
and metrics are provided in table S3. [Photo credits: T. Palmer, H. Young,
R. Sensenig, and L. Basson]
Water quality
Defaunation can also affect water quality and
dynamics of freshwater systems. For instance,
global declines in amphibian populations increase algae and fine detritus biomass, reduce
nitrogen uptake, and greatly reduce wholestream respiration (Fig. 5E) (63). Large animals,
including ungulates, hippos, and crocodiles,
prevent formation of anoxic zones through
agitation and affect water movement through
trampling (64).
Human health
Defaunation will affect human health in many
other ways via reductions in ecosystem goods
and services (65), including pharmaceutical compounds, livestock species, biocontrol agents, food
resources, and disease regulation. Between 23
and 36% of all birds, mammals, and amphibians
used for food or medicine are now threatened
with extinction (14). In many parts of the world,
wild-animal food sources are a critical part of the
diet, particularly for the poor. One recent study
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% carion removed
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Rate decomp
(% dry weight loss)
% seeds dispersed
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Carrion removal
Seed dispersal
I
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Carbon cycling
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% Fruit set
Pollen
limitation index
Proportion dungremoval
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Trampling
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Carbon flux
(ug C kg soil-1day-1)
Seeds dispersed
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Dung removal
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% seedlings trampled
Suspended particulate
organic matter
(gDML-1)
Stream respiration
(g O2m-2d-1)
20
40
100
50
0
1000
500
Fig. 5. Consequences of defaunation on ecosystem functioning and services. Changes in animal abundance from low (blue, L) to high (red, H) within a
region have been shown to affect a wide range of ecological processes and services (19), including (A) seed dispersal (flying foxes), (B) litter respiration and
decomposition (seabirds), (C) carrion removal (vultures), (D) herbivory (large mammals), (E) water quality and stream restoration (amphibians), (F) trampling of
seedlings (mammals), (G) dung removal (dung beetles), (H) pollination and plant recruitment (birds), (I) carbon cycling (nematodes), and (J) soil erosion and
cattle fodder (prairie dogs).
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However, we must also address the often nonlinear impacts of continued human population
growth and increasingly uneven per capita consumption, which ultimately drive all these threats
(while still fostering poverty alleviation efforts).
Ultimately, both reduced and more evenly distributed global resource consumption will be necessary to sustainably change ongoing trends in
defaunation and, hopefully, eventually open the
door to refaunation. If unchecked, Anthropocene
defaunation will become not only a characteristic of the planets sixth mass extinction, but also
a driver of fundamental global transformations
in ecosystem functioning.
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www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/401/suppl/DC1
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S6
Tables S1 to S3
References (80167)
10.1126/science.1251817
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