Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Glob Chang Biol. 2020 Jan;26(1):3-30. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14893. Epub 2019 Dec 9.
Because of human action, the Earth has entered an era where profound changes in the global environment are creating novel conditions that will be discernable far into the future. One consequence may be a large reduction of the Earth's biodiversity, potentially representing a sixth mass extinction. With effective stewardship, the global change drivers that threaten the Earth's biota could be alleviated, but this requires clear understanding of the drivers, their interactions, and how they impact ecological communities. This review identifies 10 anthropogenic global change drivers and discusses how six of the drivers (atmospheric CO enrichment, climate change, land transformation, species exploitation, exotic species invasions, eutrophication) impact Earth's biodiversity. Driver impacts on a particular species could be positive or negative. In either case, they initiate secondary responses that cascade along ecological lines of connection and in doing so magnify the initial impact. The unique nature of the threat to the Earth's biodiversity is not simply due to the magnitude of each driver, but due to the speed of change, the novelty of the drivers, and their interactions. Emphasizing one driver, notably climate change, is problematic because the other global change drivers also degrade biodiversity and together threaten the stability of the biosphere. As the main academic journal addressing global change effects on living systems, GCB is well positioned to provide leadership in solving the global change challenge. If humanity cannot meet the challenge, then GCB is positioned to serve as a leading chronicle of the sixth mass extinction to occur on planet Earth.
由于人类活动的影响，地球已经进入了一个全球环境发生深刻变化的时代，这些变化正在创造新的条件，这些条件在未来将变得显而易见。其后果之一可能是地球生物多样性的大量减少，这可能代表着第六次大规模灭绝。如果进行有效的管理，威胁地球生物群的全球变化驱动因素可能会得到缓解，但这需要清楚地了解这些驱动因素、它们的相互作用以及它们如何影响生态群落。本综述确定了 10 个人类驱动的全球变化因素，并讨论了其中 6 个驱动因素（大气 CO2 富集、气候变化、土地转化、物种开发、外来物种入侵、富营养化）如何影响地球的生物多样性。驱动因素对特定物种的影响可能是正面的，也可能是负面的。在任何一种情况下，它们都会引发次生反应，沿着生态联系的链条级联，并在这个过程中放大初始影响。对地球生物多样性的威胁的独特性质不仅仅是由于每个驱动因素的规模，还由于变化的速度、驱动因素的新颖性及其相互作用。强调一个驱动因素，特别是气候变化，是有问题的，因为其他全球变化驱动因素也会降低生物多样性，并共同威胁到生物圈的稳定性。作为主要的学术期刊，关注全球变化对生命系统的影响，GCB 非常适合在解决全球变化挑战方面发挥领导作用。如果人类无法应对这一挑战，那么 GCB 将成为记录地球上第六次大规模灭绝的主要编年史。
