Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of soil and wood depletion on biodiversity

  • Papers
  • Published:
Biodiversity & Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Human depletion of soil and wood resources is dramatically altering the biodiversity of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This paper provides an overview of the numerous linkages between the depletion of soil and wood resources and the loss of biodiversity. While some of these linkages are well documented, others remain speculative or unexplored. In order to understand the full ramifications of resource depletion on biodiversity, additional research is required.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aizen, M.A. and Feinsinger, P. (1994a) Habitat fragmentation, native insect pollinators, and feral honey bees in Argentine ‘Chaco Serrano’. Ecol. Applicat. 4, 378–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aizen, M.A. and Feinsinger, P. (1994b) Forest fragmentation, pollination, and plant reproduction in a chaco dry forest, Argentina. Ecology 75, 330–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allan, J.D. and Flecker, A.S. (1993) Biodiversity conservation in running waters. BioScience 43, 32–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M.F. (1991) The Ecology of Mycorrhizae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andraski, B.J. and Lowery, B. (1992) Erosion effects on soil water storage, plant water uptake, and corn growth. Soil Sci. Soc. America J. 56, 1911–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atlavintye, O. (1964) Distribution of earthworms (Lumbricidae) and larvae insects in the croded soil under cultivated crops. Pedobiologia 4, 245–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrow, C.J. (1991) Land Degradation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Berliner, R. and Torrey, J.G. (1989) Studies on mycorrhizal associations in Harvard Forest Massachusetts, USA Can. J. Bot. 67, 2245–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bierregaard, R.O.Jr., Lovejoy, T.E., Kapos, V., Augusto dos Santos, A. and Hutchings, R.W. (1992) The biological dynamics of tropical rainforest fragments. BioScience 42, 859–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bjørndalen, J.E. (1992) Tanzania's vanishing rainforests: assessment of nature conservation values, biodiversity, and importance for water catchment. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 40, 313–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chazdon, R.L. and Fletcher, N. (1984) Light environments of tropical forests. In Physiological Ecology of Plants of the Wet Tropics (E., Medina, H.A., Mooney and C., Vásquez-Yánes, eds) pp. 27–36. The Hague: Dr W. Junk Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chutter, F.M. (1969) The effects of silt and sand on the invertebrate fauna of streams and rivers. Hydrobiologia 34, 57–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, A.S., Bills, R., Locquyt, C.Z. and Caljon, A.G. (1993) The impact of sedimentation pollution on biodiversity in Lake Tanganyika. Conserv. Biol. 7, 667–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conteras, B.S. and Lozano, V.M.L. (1994) Water, endangered fishes, and development perspectives in arid lands of Mexico. Conserv. Biol. 8, 379–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cortés, J. (1994) A reef under siltation stress: a decade of degradation. In Proceedings of the colloquium on global aspects of coral reefs: health, hazards and history. (R.N. Ginsberg, ed.) pp. 240–6. Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.

  • Crawley, M.J. (ed) (1986) Plant Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curry, J.P. and Good, J.A. (1992) Soil faunal degradation and restoration. Adv. Soil Sci. 17, 171–215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, T.E. (1989) Patterns of water use and the tissue water relations in the dioecious shrub salixartica: the physiological basis for habitat partitioning beween the sexes. Oecologia 79, 332–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J.M., Bishop, K.D. and van, Balen, S. (1987) Bird survival in an isolated Javan Indonesia woodland island. Conserv. Biol. 1, 132–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dodson, C.H. and Gentry, A.H. (1991) Biological extinction in western Ecuador. Ann. Missouri Bot Garden 78, 273–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, C.A. and Lofty, J.R. (1969) The influence of agricultural practice on soil microarthropod populations. In The Soil Ecosystem. (J.G., Sheals, ed.) pp. 237–47. London: The Systematics Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, M.M. (1936) Erosion silt as a factor in aquatic environments. Ecology 17, 29–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • El-Swaify, S.A., Modenhauer, W.C. and Lo, A. (1985) Soil erosion and conservation. Proceedings of Malama Aina, 1983. Soil Conservation Society of America, Ankey, Iowa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagné, W.C. and Howarth, F.G. (1985) Conservation status of endemic Hawaiian Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the 3rd Congress of European Lepidoptera, Cambridge, 1982, pp. 74–84.

  • Goude, A. (1993) The Human Impact on the Natural Environment. London: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, M.S. and Graham, A.W. (1984) The role of soil seed banks in regeneration in canopy gaps in Australian tropical lowland rainforest — a preliminary field experiment. Malaysian Forestry 47, 146–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howe, H.F. and Smallwood, J. (1982) Ecology of seed dispersal. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 13, 201–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johns, A.D. (1992) Species conversation in managed tropical forests. In Tropical Deforestation and Species Extinction (T.C., Whitmore and J.A., Sayer, eds) pp. 15–53. London: Chapman and Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karr, J.R. and Schlosser, I.J. (1978) Water resources and the land-water interface. Science 201 229–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karr, J.R., Toth, L.A. and Dudley, D.R. (1985) Fish communities of midwestern rivers: a history of degradation. Science 35, 90–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufmann, L. (1992) Catastrophic change in species-rich freshwater ecosystems. BioScience 42, 846–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkegaard, J.A., So, H.B. and Toredson, R.J. (1992) The effect of soil strength on the growth of pigeon pea radieles and seedlings. Plant Soil 140, 65–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, B.C. (1990) Effects of forest fragmentation on dung and carrion beetle communities in central Amazonia, Brazil. Ecology 70, 1715–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lal, R. (1990) Soil conservation and biodiversity. In The Biodiversity of Microorganisms and Invertebrates: its Role in Sustainable Agriculture. (D.L., Hawksworth, ed) pp. 89–104. Arizona: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lal, R. (1993) Soil erosion and conservation in West Africa. In World Soil Erosion and Conservation, D., Pimentel (ed) pp. 7–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Lal, R. (1994) Water quality effects of tropical deforestation and farming system on agricultural watersheds in Western Nigeria. In Soil Processes and Water Quality (R., Lal and B.A., Stewart, eds) pp. 273–301. Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavelle, P. and Pashanasi, B. (1989) Soil macrofauna and land management in Peruvian Amazon (Yurinaguas, Loreto). Pedobiologia 33, 281–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenat, D.R., Penrose, D.L. and Eagleson, K.W. (1981) Variable effects of sediment addition on stream benthos. Hydrobiologia 79, 187–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovejoy, T.E., Bierregaard, R.O.Jr, Rylands, A.B. et al. (1986) Edge and other effects of isolation on Amazon forest fragments. In Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Abundance (M., Soulé, ed.) pp. 257–85. Massachusetts: Sinauer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, J.F. and Whigham, D.F. (1984) Effects of forest fragmentation on breeding bird communities in Maryland, USA. Biological Conservation 28, 287–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H. and Wilson, E.O. (1967) The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H., MacArthur, J.W. and Preer, J. (1962) On bird species diversity II. Predictions of bird census from habitat measurements. Am. Naturalist 96, 167–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R.M. (1979) Some occurences of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae in natural and disturbed ecosystems of the Red Desert. Canadian Journal of Botany 57, 619–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milton, S.J., Dean, W.R.J., Morne du Plesis, A. and Siegfried, W.R. (1994) A conceptual model of arid rangeland degradation: the escalting cost of declining productivity. Bioscience 44, 70–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorman, R. and Reeves, F.B. (1979) The role of endomycorrhizae in regeneration practices in the semi-arid west. II. A bioassay to determine the effect of land disturbance on endomycorrhizal populations. Am. J. Bot. 66, 14–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran, N. (1980) Interactions between phytophagous insects and their Opuntia hosts. Ecol. Entomol. 5, 153–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1992) Population/environment linkages: discontinuities ahead. Ambio 21, 116–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1993a) Gaia: an atlas of planet management. Garden City, NJ; Anchor and Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1993b) The question of linkages in environment and development. BioScience 43, 302–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1994a) Population and Biodiversity. In Population — the Complex Reality. Sir, F. Graham-Smith (ed) pp. 117–136. London: The Royal Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, N. (1994b) Global diversity II. Losses. In Principles of Conservation Biology (G.K., Meffe and C.R., Carroll, eds) pp. 110–40. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ng, F.S.P. (1978) Strategies of establishment in Malayan forest trees. In Tropical Trees as Living Systems (P.B., Tomlinson and M.H., Zimmerman, eds) pp. 129–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Öhman, M.C., Rajasuriya, A. and Lindén, O. (1993) Human disturbances on coral reefs in Sri Lanka: a case study. Ambio 22, 474–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Opler, P.A. (1978) Insects of American Chestnut: possible importance and conservation concern. Proceedings of the American Chestnut Symposium. West Virginia University. Morgantown, MV. pp. 83–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel, D., Garnick, E., Berkowitz, A. et al. (1980) Environmental quality and natural biota. Bio Science 30, 750–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel, D., Harvey, C., Resosudarmo, P., Sinclair, K., Kurz, D., McNair, M., Crist, S., Sphritz, L., Fitton, L., Saffouri, R. and Blair, R. (1995) Environmental and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits. Science 267, 1117–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • PRB (1994) World Population data sheet. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabatin, S.C. and Stinner, B.R. (1989) The significance of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal-soil macroinvertebrate interactions in agroecosystems. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 27, 195–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reese, E.S. (1994) Reef fishes as indicators of conditions on coral reefs. In Proceedings of the colloquium on global aspects of coral reefs: health, hazards and history (R.N. Ginsberg, ed.) pp. 59–65. Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.

  • Robinson, S.K. and Wilcove, D.S. (1994) Forest fragmentation in the temperate zone and its effects on migratory songbirds. Bird Conserv Internat. 4, 233–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, J.M. and Redente, E.F. (1985) Soil-plant diversity relationships on a disturbed site in northwestern Colorado. Soil Sci Soc. America J. 49, 1028–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, E.L. and Kalisz, P.J. (1991) On the maximum extent of tree roots. Forest Ecol. Manage. 46. 59–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong, D.R., Lawton, J.H. and SouthwoodSir, R. (1984) Insects on Plants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilman, D. (1986) Resources, competition, and the dynamics of plant communities. In Plant Ecology (M.J., Crawley, ed.) pp. 51–76. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uhl, C.R., Buschbacher, R. and Serrano, E.A.S. (1988) Abandoned pastures in eastern Amazonia. 1. Patterns of Plant sucession. Ecology 76, 633–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallentyne, J.R. (1974) The algal bowl: lakes and man. Department of Environment, Fisheries, and Marine Service. Miscellaneous special publication 22.

  • Western, D. and Pearl, M. (eds) (1989) Conservation for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcove, D.S. (1985) Nest predation in forest tracts and the decline of migratory songbirds. Ecology 66. 1211–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcove, D.S., McLellan, C.H. and Dobson, A.P. (1986) Habitat fragmentation in the temperate zone. In Conservation Biology: the Science of Scarcity and Abundance (M., Soulé. ed.) pp. 237–56. Massachusetts: Sinauer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J.E. and Miller, R.R. (1990) Conservation status of the North American fish fauna in fresh water. J Fish Biol. 37 (suppl. A), 79–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittenburg, M. and Hunte, W. (1992) Effects of eutrophication and sedimentation on juvenile corals. 1. Abundance, mortality and community structure. Marine Biology 112, 131–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, E.C. (1987) On the brink of extinction: conserving the diversity of life. Worldwatch paper 78. pp.53. Washington: Worldwatch Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Resources Institute (WRI) (1994) World Resources 1994–1995. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Resource Institute, the World Conservation Union and United Nations Environment Program (1992) Global biodiverstiy strategy. 244pp. World Resource Institute.

  • Yahner, R.H. (1988) Changes in wildlife communities near edges. Conserv. Biol. 2, 333–9.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, 14850, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Celia A. Harvey

  2. Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 14850, Ithaca, NY, USA

    David Pimentel

Authors
  1. Celia A. Harvey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Pimentel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Harvey, C.A., Pimentel, D. Effects of soil and wood depletion on biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 5, 1121–1130 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052721

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052721

Keywords

Search

Navigation