Linking the influence and dependence of people on biodiversity across scales

Abstract

Biodiversity enhances many of nature?s benefits to people, including the regulation of climate and the production of woodin forests, livestock forage in grasslands and fish in aquatic ecosystems. Yet people are now driving the sixth mass extinctionevent in Earth?s history. Human dependence and influence on biodiversity have mainly been studied separately and atcontrasting scales of space and time, but new multiscale knowledge is beginning to link these relationships. Biodiversityloss substantially diminishes several ecosystem services by altering ecosystem functioning and stability, especially at thelarge temporal and spatial scales that are most relevant for policy and conservation.