Human augmentation of ecosystems: objectives for food production and science by 2045.

ABSTRACT: Current food production systems require fundamental reformation in the face of population growth, climate change, and degradation of health and the environment. Over the course of human history, every agricultural system that has emerged has featured some sort of trade-off between productivity and environmental load. These trade-offs are causing the planet to exceed the boundaries of its biogeochemical cycles and are triggering an unprecedented extinction rate of wild species, thus pushing global ecosystems to the brink of collapse. In this era, characterized as it is by human activity that can profoundly influence climate and the environment (i.e., the Anthropocene epoch), tipping points can be either negative or positive. While a negative tipping point can produce sudden, rapid, and irre

SUBMITTER: Funabashi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6550257 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature