Towards quantifying the mass extinction debt of the Anthropocene.

ABSTRACT: To make sense of our present biodiversity crises, the modern rate of species extinctions is commonly compared to a benchmark, or 'background,' rate derived from the fossil record. These estimates are critical for bounding the scale of modern diversity loss, but are yet to fully account for the fundamental structure of extinction rates through time. Namely, a substantial fraction of extinctions within the fossil record occurs within relatively short-lived extinction pulses, and not during intervals characterized by background rates of extinction. Accordingly, it is more appropriate to compare the modern event to these pulses than to the long-term average rate. Unfortunately, neither the duration of extinction pulses in the geological record nor the ultimate magnitude of the extinction pulse

SUBMITTER: Spalding C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8080006 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature