Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE901-83 Umeå, Sweden.
Science. 2011 Jun 10;332(6035):1273-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1197479.
Ecosystems worldwide are losing some species and gaining others, resulting in an interchange of species that is having profound impacts on how these ecosystems function. However, research on the effects of species gains and losses has developed largely independently of one another. Recent conceptual advances regarding effects of species gain have arisen from studies that have unraveled the mechanistic basis of how invading species with novel traits alter biotic interactions and ecosystem processes. In contrast, studies on traits associated with species loss are fewer, and much remains unknown about how traits that predispose species to extinction affect ecological processes. Species gains and losses are both consequences and drivers of global change; thus, explicit integration of research on how both processes simultaneously affect ecosystem functioning is key to determining the response of the Earth system to current and future human activities.
全球生态系统正在失去一些物种，获得另一些物种，导致物种的交流，这对这些生态系统的功能产生了深远的影响。然而，对物种增益和损失的影响的研究在很大程度上是彼此独立发展的。最近关于物种增益影响的概念进展来自于研究，这些研究揭示了具有新特征的入侵物种如何改变生物相互作用和生态系统过程的机制基础。相比之下，与物种损失相关的特征的研究较少，而且对于哪些特征使物种容易灭绝以及这些特征如何影响生态过程，我们仍然知之甚少。物种增益和损失既是全球变化的结果，也是其驱动因素；因此，明确整合关于这两个过程如何同时影响生态系统功能的研究，是确定地球系统对当前和未来人类活动的反应的关键。
