Abstract
By combining the time depth provided by the fossil and archeological records with contemporary data of global reach, we can begin to dissect out the most relevant factors that threaten the future of all levels of biodiversity on this planet. It is our contention that the size of the human population and the scale of the human endeavor led to a dramatic rise in extinctions over the past 10,000 years. Analyses of contemporary data demonstrate that current species threats are best attributed to variability in species richness, human population density, and agricultural land use. Continued exponential growth in the human population and our resultant environmental dominance, due to cultural development and ecological contingencies, is rapidly leading to a global mass extinction.
Keywords
- Species Threat
- Ecological Footprint
- Demographic Transition
- Biodiversity Loss
- Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alroy J (2001) A multispecies overkill simulation of the end-Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction. Science 292:1893–1896
Armelagos GJ (1990) Health and disease in prehistoric populations in transition. In: Swedlund A (ed) Disease in populations in transition. Bergin and Garvey, New York, pp 127–144
Barrett R, Kuzawa CW, McDade T, Armelagos GJ (1998) Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases: the third epidemiologic transition. Annu Rev Anthropol 27:247–271
Behrensmeyer AK, Todd NE, Potts R, McBrinn GE (1997) Late Pliocene faunal turnover in the Turkana Basin, Kenya and Ethiopia. Science 278:1589–1594
Brushares JS, Arcese P, Sam MK (2001) Human demography and reserve size predict wildlife extinction in West Africa. Proc R Soc Lond B 269:2473–2478
Chambers N, Simmons C, Wackernagel M (2000) Sharing nature’s interest – Ecological footprints as an indicator of sustainability. Earthscan, London
Cincotta RP, Engelman R (2000) Nature’s place: human population and the future of biological diversity. Population Action International, Washington, DC
Cowlishaw G (1999) Predicting the pattern of decline of African primate diversity: an extinction debt from historical deforestation. Conserv Biol 13:1183–1193
Favin C, Gardner G (2006) China, India, and the new world order. In: Stark L (ed) State of the World 2006. WW Norton, New York, pp 3–23
Holdaway RN, Jacomb C (2000) Rapid extinction of the moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes): model, test, and implications. Science 287:2250–2254
Hunt S (2005) Habitats in danger? Projects usually not. The Columbus Dispatch 01/01/2005
IUCN (2000) Red list of threatened species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed June 2000
Kerr JT, Currie DJ (1995) Effects of human activity on global extinction risk. Conserv Biol 9:1528–1538
Kirkland GL, Ostfeld RS (1999) Factors influencing variation among states in the number of federally listed mammals in the United States. J Mammal 80:711–719
Klein RG (2000) Human evolution and large mammal extinctions. In: Vrba ES, Schaller GB (eds) Antelopes, deer, and relatives, present and future: fossil record, behavioral ecology, systematics, and conservation. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 128–139
Larsen CS (1995) Biological changes in human populations with agriculture. Annu Rev Anthropol 24:185–213
Liu J, Daily GC, Ehrlich PR, Luck GW (2003) Effects of household dynamics on resource consumption and biodiversity. Nature 421:530–533
Lutz W, Sanderson W, Scherbov S (2001) The end of world population growth. Nature 412:543–545
McKee JK (1995) Turnover patterns and species longevity of large mammals from the late Pliocene and Pleistocene of southern Africa: a comparison of simulated and empirical data. J Theor Biol 172:141–147
McKee JK (2001) Faunal turnover rates and mammalian biodiversity of the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene of eastern Africa. Paleobiology 27:500–511
McKee JK (2003) Sparing nature – the conflict between human population growth and Earth’s biodiversity. Rutgers University Press, Piscataway
McKee JK, Sciulli PW, Fooce CD, Waite TA (2004) Forecasting global biodiversity threats associated with human population growth. Biol Conserv 115:161–164
Mlot C (1995) Biological surveys in Hawaii, taking inventory of a biological hot spot. Science 269:322–323
Pimm SL, Russell GJ, Gittleman JL, Brooks TM (1995) The future of biodiversity. Science 269:247–250
Redman CL (1999) Human impact on ancient environments. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Ariz
Roberts C, Manchester K (1997) The archaeology of disease. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York
Rosenzweig ML (2001) Loss of speciation rate will impoverish future diversity. Proc Natl Acad Sci 98:5404–5410
Rosenzweig ML (2003) Win-win ecology: how the earth’s species can survive in the midst of human enterprise. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Smail JK (2003) Remembering Malthus III: implementing a global population reduction. Am J Phys Anthropol 122:295–300
Stork NE (1997) Measuring global biodiversity and its decline. In: Reaka-Kudla ML, Wilson DE, Wilson EO (eds) Biodiversity II. Joseph Henry, Washington, DC, pp 41–68
Thompson K, Jones A (1999) Human population density and prediction of local plant extinctions in Britain. Conserv Biol 13:185–190
UNFPA State of World Population (2004) http://www.unfpa.org/swp/
US Bureau of the Census (2009a) US and World population clocks. http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html. Accessed 1 February 2009
US Bureau of the Census (2009b) International Data Base. http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopgraph.html. Accessed 1 February 2009
US Bureau of the Census (2009c) American Factfinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en. Accessed 1 February 2009
Wackernagel M, Rees W (1996) Our ecological footprint – reducing human impact on the earth. New Society, Gabriola Island, British Columbia
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Richard Cincotta for the invitation to write this chapter as well as his insights that helped guide our analysis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McKee, J.K., Chambers, E.N. (2011). Behavioral Mediators of the Human Population Effect on Global Biodiversity Losses. In: Cincotta, R., Gorenflo, L. (eds) Human Population. Ecological Studies, vol 214. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16707-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16707-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16706-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16707-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)