Following the same relationship between net biodiversity rate, speciation rate, and extinction rate described above, speciation rate (S) is calculated as: S = R+E.
The combined results of the biodiversity rate analyses strongly indicate that the dramatic Frasnian speciation rate decline was the primary driver of biodiversity loss during the Late Devonian Biodiversity Crisis.
According to some estimates, the biodiversity rate indicator fell by 30% over the past 40 years, while the causes of this excessive decline in biodiversity have not diminished.
Ecosystems across the continent are in dire straits, with terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity rated as "red" based on current trends, and in the outlook for two decades hence.
Using eye tracking and subjective assessment scales, the present study investigates whether biodiversity expertise has an effect on biodiversity rating and its certainty, fixation durations, and dwell times in the field layer in the foreground when assessing images of recently logged forest that has some degree of tree retention.
Biodiversity rates were calculated in three ways: per-capita rates based on observed species ranges, phylogenetically constrained per-capita rates, and phylogenetically constrained deterministic rates (see Methods).
Because phylogenetic topology was not incorporated into longevity estimates, clade rates provide rate calculations independent from the phylogenetically corrected instantaneous biodiversity rates.
But some three years ago, explained its co-founder Peter Seligmann, "we realized that despite our intensive efforts to protect biodiversity, extinction rates were accelerating, fisheries were collapsing and the climate was changing.
Deterministic rates of biodiversity change (R), speciation rate (S), and extinction rate (E) were calculated for each clade during each temporal bin based on phylogenetically corrected species range data in Figure S1 (Table S1).
"We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in history - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical background rate". The global abundance of vertebrates - the group that includes mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish - fell by about one-third between 1970 and 2006, the UN says.
The national and global collapse of biodiversity, the horrifying rate of soil loss, the conflict between aspirations to minimise climate change and maximise the production of fossil fuels: none of these are put before voters as an issue of significant difference.
