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Anthropogenic Disturbances

Impacts on Ecological Functions of Animals

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Abstract

Humans have caused immense disturbances to the Earth’s wild ecosystems. Here, I explain how these disturbances are impacting and altering the essential roles or functions of animals in these ecosystems. Population declines, as well as behavioural and morphological changes in animals as a response to disturbance, alters how organisms interact with each other. Since these interactions define an animal’s role in its habitat, such changes can have devastating impacts on the future of these ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks Sindhu Radhakrishna for the suggestion of writing this general article, Georgina O’Farrill for discussing many of these ideas (and eventually publishing a paper), and Chandra Ramarao for useful comments on the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Kim McConkey

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  1. Kim McConkey
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Correspondence to Kim McConkey.

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Kim McConkey is Adjunct Faculty at NIAS, Bengaluru. She works on plant-animal interactions in Asia and the impact of human disturbances on these interactions.

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McConkey, K. Anthropogenic Disturbances. Reson 25, 677–689 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-0983-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-0983-1

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