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Reconciling global priorities for conserving biodiversity habitat.

ABSTRACT: Degradation and loss of natural habitat is the major driver of the current global biodiversity crisis. Most habitat conservation efforts to date have targeted small areas of highly threatened habitat, but emerging debate suggests that retaining large intact natural systems may be just as important. We reconcile these perspectives by integrating fine-resolution global data on habitat condition and species assemblage turnover to identify Earth's high-value biodiversity habitat. These are areas in better condition than most other locations predicted to have once supported a similar assemblage of species and are found within both intact regions and human-dominated landscapes. However, only 18.6% of this high-value habitat is currently protected globally. Averting permanent biodiversity loss requires clear, spatially explicit targets for retaining these unprotected high-value habitats.

SUBMITTER: Mokany K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7211919 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Reconciling global priorities for conserving biodiversity habitat.

Mokany Karel K Ferrier Simon S Harwood Thomas D TD Ware Chris C Di Marco Moreno M Grantham Hedley S HS Venter Oscar O Hoskins Andrew J AJ Watson James E M JEM

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20200421 18

Degradation and loss of natural habitat is the major driver of the current global biodiversity crisis. Most habitat conservation efforts to date have targeted small areas of highly threatened habitat, but emerging debate suggests that retaining large intact natural systems may be just as important. We reconcile these perspectives by integrating fine-resolution global data on habitat condition and species assemblage turnover to identify Earth's high-value biodiversity habitat. These are areas in ...[more]

PMID: 32317385

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Reconciling global priorities for conserving biodiversity habitat.

Publications

Reconciling global priorities for conserving biodiversity habitat.

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