Save the giants, save the planet (earthsky.org)

[eppur_se_muova]

Posted by EarthSky Voices in Human World | February 12, 2020

By University of Oxford and Mikayla Mace, University of Arizona Communications

Habitat loss, hunting, logging and climate change have put many of the world’s most charismatic species at risk. A new study, led by the University of Arizona, has found that not only are larger plants and animals at higher risk of extinction, but their loss would fundamentally degrade life on earth.

The study, published February 4, 2020, in Nature Communications, is based on computer simulations that compared the state of the natural world during the Pleistocene (a past epoch long before human-caused extinctions began), the present day, and a future world in which all large plants and animals had gone extinct.

Results showed that the continued loss of large animals alone would lead to a 44% reduction in the total amount of wild animal biomass on the planet. It would also lead to a 92% reduction in soil fertility, which underpins the ability of the earth to grow plants and sustain life.

Brian Enquist, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, is the paper’s lead author. He said:

This research shows there are fundamental scientific principles that explain why large animals and trees matter for the health and integrity of all life on Earth. Protecting big, charismatic species does have an umbrella effect to protect the wider ecosystem.

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more: https://earthsky.org/human-world/why-to-conserve-large-animals-trees?



This isn't really a surprise -- large organisms are mini-ecosystems unto themselves, and they affect almost everything in the larger ecosystems around them.