Synonyms
Biological diversity
Introduction
Current rates of species loss exceed those of the historical past by several orders of magnitude and show no indication of slowing. Major drivers of biodiversity loss on a global scale are land-use changes and agricultural intensification. These processes are threatening ecosystem functioning and services on which humans depend. Biodiversity contributes directly through provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services and indirectly through supporting ecosystem services to many constituents of human well-being. In consequence, there is deep concern that a loss of biodiversity and deteriorating ecosystem services contribute to worsening human health; higher food insecurity; increasing vulnerability of ecosystems to natural disasters; lower material wealth; worsening social relations by damage to ecosystems highly valued for their aesthetic, recreational, or spiritual values; and less freedom for individuals to control what happens and...
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Lindemann-Matthies, P. (2014). Biodiversity. In: Thompson, P.B., Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_59
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0929-4_59
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