Title: Biodiversity Loss and the Maintenance of Our Life-Support System
Abstract: Early global change research focused on the interactions between environmental changes (mainly climate change), ecosystem functioning and human societies. When biodiversity was added to the picture, it was to the extent that it is affected by these other components of global change (Fig. 32.1). But why does biodiversity matter to us? There are at least three classes of reasons why it does. First, it provides us with a number of goods that have direct economic value, such as food, new pharmaceuticals, genes that improve crops, and organisms that perform biological control. Second, it is intricately linked to human well-being for aesthetic, ethical, cultural and scientific reasons. And third, it may contribute to the provision of ecological services that are generally not accounted for in economic terms, such as primary and secondary production, the regulation of climate, the maintenance of atmosphere quality, the regulation of the hydrological cycle, the maintenance of water quality, and the maintenance of soil fertility. During the last decade, the effects of biodiversity on the other components of global change have received increasing attention (Fig. 32.1).
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 7
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot