There have been five Mass Extinction events in the history of Earth's biodiversity, all caused
by dramatic but natural phenomena. It has been claimed that the Sixth Mass Extinction may …

The global‐scale decline of animal biodiversity ('defaunation') represents one of the most
alarming consequences of human impacts on the planet. The quantification of this extinction …

Nature is under siege. In the last 10,000 y the human population has grown from 1 million to
7.8 billion. Much of Earth's arable lands are already in agriculture (1), millions of acres of …

We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little
attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental …

Although global assessments provide evidence of biodiversity decline, some have
questioned the strength of the evidence, with local assemblage studies often showing a …

The causes of biodiversity change are of great scientific interest and central to policy efforts
aimed at meeting biodiversity targets. Changes in species diversity and high rates of …

The wildlife trade is worth billions of dollars annually and affects most major taxonomic
groups. Despite this, a global understanding of the trade's impacts on species populations is …

Insects are declining, but the underlying drivers and differences in responses between
species are still largely unclear. Despite the importance of forests, insect trends therein have …

Estimating biodiversity change across the planet in the context of widespread human
modification is a critical challenge. Here, we review how biodiversity has changed in recent …

Although species are being lost at alarming rates, previous research has provided
conflicting results on the extent and even direction of global biodiversity change at the local …