Causes, consequences and ethics of biodiversity

The existence of so great a diversity of species on Earth remainsa mystery, the solution to which may also explain why and how biodiversityinfluences the functioning of ecosystems. The answer may lie in quantifyingthe trade-offs that organisms face in dealing with the constraints of theirenvironment. Societal responses to the loss of biodiversity also involve trade-offs,and the elaboration of these will be essential in developing wiser environmentalethics and policy.

[1]  C. Darwin.  The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life , 1859 .

[2]  C. Elton.  The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants , 1960, Springer US.

[3]  Charles C. Elton,et al.  The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. , 1959 .

[4]  G. Tullock,et al.  Competitive Exclusion. , 1960, Science.

[5]  A. Hastings.  Disturbance, coexistence, history, and competition for space , 1980 .

[6]  D. Tilman.  Resource competition and community structure. , 1983, Monographs in population biology.

[7]  W. Fehr.  Genetic contributions to yield gains of five major crop plants : proceedings of a symposium sponsored by Division C-1 of the Crop Science Society of America, 2 December 1981, in Atlanta, Georgia , 1984 .

[8]  A. Roelfs.  Genetic Control of Phenotypes in Wheat Stem Rust , 1988 .

[9]  J. Downing,et al.  Biodiversity and stability in grasslands , 1996, Nature.

[10]  D. Tilman.  Biodiversity: Population Versus Ecosystem Stability , 1995 .

[11]  A. Maddison,et al.  Monitoring the world economy, 1820-1992 , 1995 .

[12]  D. Tilman,et al.  Productivity and sustainability influenced by biodiversity in grassland ecosystems , 1996, Nature.

[13]  Jill McGrady-Steed,et al.  Biodiversity regulates ecosystem predictability , 1997, Nature.

[14]  Shahid Naeem,et al.  Biodiversity enhances ecosystem reliability , 1997, Nature.

[15]  P. Reich,et al.  The Influence of Functional Diversity and Composition on Ecosystem Processes , 1997 .

[16]  D. Tilman,et al.  Plant diversity and ecosystem productivity: theoretical considerations. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  L. Aarssen.  High productivity in grassland ecosystems : effected by species diversity or productive species ? , 1997 .

[18]  Michael A. Huston,et al.  Hidden treatments in ecological experiments: re-evaluating the ecosystem function of biodiversity , 1997, Oecologia.

[19]  H. Mooney,et al.  Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems , 1997, Renewable Energy.

[20]  M. Loreau,et al.  Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: a mechanistic model. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  G. Daily.  Nature's services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems. , 1998 .

[22]  D. Doak,et al.  The Statistical Inevitability of Stability‐Diversity Relationships in Community Ecology , 1998, The American Naturalist.

[23]  D. Tilman,et al.  Diversity‐Stability Relationships: Statistical Inevitability or Ecological Consequence? , 1998, The American Naturalist.

[24]  J. Huisman,et al.  Biodiversity of plankton by species oscillations and chaos , 1999, Nature.

[25]  Pereira,et al.  Plant diversity and productivity experiments in european grasslands , 1999, Science.

[26]  D. Tilman.  THE ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CHANGES IN BIODIVERSITY: A SEARCH FOR GENERAL PRINCIPLES101 , 1999 .