Ecology 5th Edition by Manuel Molles

Exercise 21

Ecologists predict that global diversity is threatened by land use change and by the reductions in habitat area and the fragmen­tation that accompany land use change. Vitousek (1994) sug­gested that land use change may be the greatest current threat to biological diversity (see fig. 23.3). What role do studies of diversity on islands and species area relationships on continents (see chapter 22) play in these predictions?
Figure 23.3 Some causes and potential consequences of global environmental change (data from Vitousek 1994).