. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis. While biodiversity loss has been a natural pan of the history of Earth's biota, it has always been countered by origination and, except for rare events, has occurred at extremely slow rates. Currently, however, loss far exceeds origination, and rates are orders of magnitude higher than average rates in the past. Recall that biodiversity loss is not just global extinction, such as that faced by many threatened and endangered species, but declines in genetic, ecosystem, and landscape diversity are considered bio- diversity loss as well.
. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Biodiversity Synthesis. While biodiversity loss has been a natural pan of the history of Earth's biota, it has always been countered by origination and, except for rare events, has occurred at extremely slow rates. Currently, however, loss far exceeds origination, and rates are orders of magnitude higher than average rates in the past. Recall that biodiversity loss is not just global extinction, such as that faced by many threatened and endangered species, but declines in genetic, ecosystem, and landscape diversity are considered bio- diversity loss as well. Even if every native species were retained in an ecological preserve, if the majority of the landscape has been converted to high-intensity monoculture cropland systems, then biodiversity has declined significantly. Landscape homogenization is linked to biotic homogenization (C4). The patterns of threat and extinction are not evenly distrib- uted among species but tend to be concentrated in particular ecological or taxonomic groups. Ecological traits shared by species facing high extinction risk include high trophic level, low population density, long lifespan, low reproductive rate, and small geographical range size (). The degree of extinction risk also tends to be similar among related species, leading to the likelihood that entire evolutionary radiations can and have been lost. The majority of recorded species extinctions since 1500 have occurred on islands. However, predictions of increasing numbers of future extinctions suggest a significant shift from island to continental areas (). international environmental treaties) and that happen intermittently (such as droughts, wars, and economic crises). Reviews of case studies of deforestation and desertification reveal that the most common type of interaction is synergetic factor combinations: combined effects of multiple drivers that are amplified by reciprocal action and feedbacks (). Drivers interact across
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