Global Assessment of Biodiversity and the Anthropogenic...

The global assessment of biodiversity and the anthropogenic impacts on them should be an urgent priority for conservation biologists. Though overhunting, introduced species, habitat destruction, trophic cascades and climate change (evil quintet) are known to be the potential anthropogenic threats that are likely to drive extinctions in the future (Diamond 1984, Brook et al. 2008), more frequently, conservation biologists have focused their attention on visible threats like habitat destruction, in comparison with invisible threats like overhunting (Galetti Dirzo 2013). Traditional biodiversity assessments often ignore hunting pressure though they are aware of its presence, or classify into ways (e.g., heavy, moderate or low hunting) that are unsuitable for auditing by other researchers (Galetti Dirzo 2013). For example, what might be classified as heavy hunting pressure by one biologist can be classified as low hunting pressure by another. Moreover, also within the hunting classific ations of a biologist, what is the difference between heavy, moderate and low hunting pressure? The use of different standards makes auditing of hunting pressure difficult. Here we ask how to measure the intensity of hunting pressure. Knowing this answer will help us better understand the effects of hunting on biodiversity loss and set conservation priorities more efficiently. Flight initiation distance (FID) is the distance between prey and the predator/hunter when animal begins to flee. IfShow MoreRelatedThe Debate On Global Climate Change1605 Words   |  7 PagesThe debate on global climate change argues that human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are too small to substantially change the earth’s climate and that the planet is capable of absorbing those increases. It is contended that warming over the 20th century resulted primarily from natural processes such as fluctuations in the sun s heat and ocean currents. 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