A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will directly reduce the rate of climate change, thus resulting in a decrease in biodiversity loss.
But we have a much better idea now on shifts in community structure, the decrease in biodiversity, abundance and biomass.
If a homesteading family cleared their land of trees, for example, they might soon experience flooding, soil erosion, a lack of shade, and a huge decrease in biodiversity.
The removal and fragmentation of natural landscapes by anthropogenic features have led to a decrease in biodiversity throughout the world.
"I've never seen somebody link a decrease in biodiversity to invasion by earthworms," says Mark Hunter, an ecologist from the University of Georgia, Athens.
The disappearance of sensitive species gradually drives the ecosystem to an overall decrease in biodiversity, which in turn favors biotic homogenization (McKinney and Lockwood 1999).
Deforestation results not only in a decrease in biodiversity and clean water, increased land degradation and soil erosion and the release of carbon into the atmosphere, but also in the loss of valuable economic assets and livelihood opportunities.
The conversion of natural environments into agricultural or other commercially viable land (e.g., dams, mines) is usually associated with a decrease in biodiversity.
Therefore, the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions have to be quantified, in order to predict the consequences of either changing ecosystem functions or decreases in biodiversity.
