ArticleScience advances2022
The direct drivers of recent global anthropogenic biodiversity loss.
Article in Science advances, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 198 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
198 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 899 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can we bend the curve: Trends in global biodiversity scenarios.Science advances · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Biodiversity Loss on Freshwater Ecosystem Functions Increase With the Number of Stressors.Global change biology · 2025Pooled it
- Restoring nature with microbes: bioremediation in the world's biodiversity hotspots.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The impact of chemical pollution across major life transitions: a meta-analysis on oxidative stress in amphibians.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- A synthesis of recorded fine-scale threats to imperiled species in the United States.iScience · 2026Article
- Assessing consequences of anthropogenic hybridization: Great Lakes mallard movement and resource selection.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Chemical heterogeneity and mixed pollution are associated with microbial functional potential across soils in a coal mining subsidence landscape.RSC advances · 2026Article
- Prevalence of traded bird species in key biodiversity areas.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Temperature mediates variation in avian sensitivity to forest cover.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Extensive climate-induced range shifts in butterflies across the globe.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Anthropogenic modification shifts pollinator phenology in the eastern USA.Royal Society open science · 2026Article
- Ultrafine Airborne Particle Deposition and Clearance in an Avian Lung under Ecologically Relevant Conditions.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- From environmental DNA into actionable biodiversity data: Towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.The Journal of heredity · 2026Review
- Intensive arable farming calls for resilient wild bee restoration amid severe abundance fluctuations.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- Mycorrhizal strategy of non-native plants varies with biome and disturbance.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Novel genomic regions associated with adult-plant resistance to multiple fungal pathogens in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) revealed by DArT marker sequencing.Journal of applied genetics · 2026Article
- Genetic rescue stabilizes diversity in small isolated populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Historical and contemporary butterfly genomes reveal genetic erosion in response to land-use intensification.iScience · 2026Article
- Competition constrains parasite adaptation to thermal heterogeneity.Evolution letters · 2026Article
138 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 9 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Effective policies to halt biodiversity loss require knowing which anthropogenic drivers are the most important direct causes. Whereas previous knowledge has been limited in scope and rigor, here we statistically synthesize empirical comparisons of recent driver impacts found through a wide-ranging review. We show that land/sea use change has been the dominant direct driver of recent biodiversity loss worldwide. Direct exploitation of natural resources ranks second and pollution third; climate change and invasive alien species have been significantly less important than the top two drivers. The oceans, where direct exploitation and climate change dominate, have a different driver hierarchy from land and fresh water. It also varies among types of biodiversity indicators. For example, climate change is a more important driver of community composition change than of changes in species populations. Stopping global biodiversity loss requires policies and actions to tackle all the major drivers and their interactions, not some of them in isolation.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.