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Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services
Citation
Worm, B and Barbier, EB and Beaumont, N and Duffy, JE and Folke, C and Halpern, BS and Jackson, JBC and Lotze, HK and Micheli, F and Palumbi, SR and Sala, E and Selkoe, KA and Stachowicz, JJ and Watson, RA, Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services, Science, 314, (5800) pp. 787-790. ISSN 0036-8075 (2006) [Refereed Article]
DOI: doi:10.1126/science.1132294
Abstract
Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species, with largely unknown consequences. We analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how biodiversity loss affects marine ecosystem services across temporal and spatial scales. Overall, rates of resource collapse increased and recovery potential, stability, and water quality decreased exponentially with declining diversity. Restoration of biodiversity, in contrast, increased productivity fourfold and decreased variability by 21%, on average. We conclude that marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet available data suggest that at this point, these trends are still reversible.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Ecosystems; Fisheries; Oceanography; Water quality; Marine ecosystems; Recovery potential; Biodiversity; biodiversity; data set; ecosystem service; experimental study; fishery; human activity; marine ecosystem; ocean; population decline; time series |
Research Division: | Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences |
Research Group: | Fisheries sciences |
Research Field: | Aquaculture and fisheries stock assessment |
Objective Division: | Animal Production and Animal Primary Products |
Objective Group: | Fisheries - wild caught |
Objective Field: | Wild caught fin fish (excl. tuna) |
UTAS Author: | Watson, RA (Professor Reginald Watson) |
ID Code: | 84051 |
Year Published: | 2006 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 2437 |
Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
Deposited On: | 2013-04-16 |
Last Modified: | 2013-04-22 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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