Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1216303110
Title (Primary) Europe’s other debt crisis caused by the long legacy of future extinctions
Author Dullinger, S.; Essl, F.; Rabitsch, W.; Erb, K.-H.; Gingrich, S.; Haberl, H.; Hülber, K.; Jarošík, V.; Krausmann, F.; Kühn, I. ORCID logo ; Pergl, J.; Pyšek, P.; Hulme, P.E.
Source Titel Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year 2013
Department BZF
Volume 110
Issue 18
Page From 7342
Page To 7347
Language englisch
Supplements https://www.pnas.org/highwire/filestream/612343/field_highwire_adjunct_files/0/pnas.201216303SI.pdf
Keywords extinction debt; socioeconomic history; time lag
UFZ wide themes RU1;
Abstract Rapid economic development in the past century has translated into severe pressures on species survival as a result of increasing land-use change, environmental pollution, and the spread of invasive alien species. However, though the impact of these pressures on biodiversity is substantial, it could be seriously underestimated if population declines of plants and animals lag behind contemporary environmental degradation. Here, we test for such a delay in impact by relating numbers of threatened species appearing on national red lists to historical and contemporary levels of socioeconomic pressures. Across 22 European countries, the proportions of vascular plants, bryophytes, mammals, reptiles, dragonflies, and grasshoppers facing medium-to-high extinction risks are more closely matched to indicators of socioeconomic pressures (i.e., human population density, per capita gross domestic product, and a measure of land use intensity) from the early or mid-, rather than the late, 20th century. We conclude that, irrespective of recent conservation actions, large-scale risks to biodiversity lag considerably behind contemporary levels of socioeconomic pressures. The negative impact of human activities on current biodiversity will not become fully realized until several decades into the future. Mitigating extinction risks might be an even greater challenge if temporal delays mean many threatened species might already be destined toward extinction.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=13618
Dullinger, S., Essl, F., Rabitsch, W., Erb, K.-H., Gingrich, S., Haberl, H., Hülber, K., Jarošík, V., Krausmann, F., Kühn, I., Pergl, J., Pyšek, P., Hulme, P.E. (2013):
Europe’s other debt crisis caused by the long legacy of future extinctions
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 110 (18), 7342 - 7347 10.1073/pnas.1216303110