A biodiversity intactness index

被引：307

作者：

Scholes, RJ ^{[1
]}

Biggs, R ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] CSIR Environmentek, ZA-0001 Pretoria, South Africa

来源：

NATURE | 2005年 / 434卷 / 7029期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1038/nature03289

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

The nations of the world have set themselves a target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Here, we propose a biodiversity intactness index (BII) for assessing progress towards this target that is simple and practical - but sensitive to important factors that influence biodiversity status - and which satisfies the criteria for policy relevance set by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Application of the BII is demonstrated on a large region ( 4 3 10 6 km 2) of southern Africa. The BII score in the year 2000 is about 84%: in other words, averaged across all plant and vertebrate species in the region, populations have declined to 84% of their presumed pre-modern levels. The taxonomic group with the greatest loss is mammals, at 71% of pre-modern levels, and the ecosystem type with the greatest loss is grassland, with 74% of its former populations remaining. During the 1990s, a population decline of 0.8% is estimated to have occurred.

引用

页码：45 / 49

页数：5