Confronting a biome crisis: global disparities of habitat loss and protection

TLDR

Human impacts have triggered a biome crisis, threatening the world’s most biologically distinctive, species‑rich ecosystems and the last homes of many threatened species. The study aims to identify terrestrial biomes and ecoregions most at risk from habitat conversion and to advocate a comprehensive response that protects species, landscapes, ecological interactions, and evolutionary pressures. The authors map global terrestrial biomes and sub‑regional ecoregions, highlighting those with high biodiversity and ecological function that are threatened by extensive habitat conversion and limited protection. Habitat conversion outpaces protection by 8:1 in temperate grasslands and Mediterranean biomes and by 10:1 across more than 140 ecoregions.

Abstract

Abstract Human impacts on the natural environment have reached such proportions that in addition to an ‘extinction crisis’, we now also face a broader ‘biome crisis’. Here we identify the world's terrestrial biomes and, at a finer spatial scale, ecoregions in which biodiversity and ecological function are at greatest risk because of extensive habitat conversion and limited habitat protection. Habitat conversion exceeds habitat protection by a ratio of 8 : 1 in temperate grasslands and Mediterranean biomes, and 10 : 1 in more than 140 ecoregions. These regions include some of the most biologically distinctive, species rich ecosystems on Earth, as well as the last home of many threatened and endangered species. Confronting the biome crisis requires a concerted and comprehensive response aimed at protecting not only species, but the variety of landscapes, ecological interactions, and evolutionary pressures that sustain biodiversity, generate ecosystem services, and evolve new species in the future.