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The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems

Nature volume 559, pages 517–526 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

The tropics contain the overwhelming majority of Earth’s biodiversity: their terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems hold more than three-quarters of all species, including almost all shallow-water corals and over 90% of terrestrial birds. However, tropical ecosystems are also subject to pervasive and interacting stressors, such as deforestation, overfishing and climate change, and they are set within a socio-economic context that includes growing pressure from an increasingly globalized world, larger and more affluent tropical populations, and weak governance and response capacities. Concerted local, national and international actions are urgently required to prevent a collapse of tropical biodiversity.

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Fig. 1: The tropical biosphere.
Fig. 2: Tropical hyperdiversity.
Fig. 3: Vulnerability of tropical biota to local and climatic stressors.
Fig. 4: Tropical ecosystems in transition.
Fig. 5: Socio-economic drivers of biodiversity loss and societal response capacities.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following for providing data: Birdlife International, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Ocean Biogeographic Information System, C. Veron for zooxanthellate corals, the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Program (LBA) and National Environment Research Council grant NE/P004512/1 for forest birds, John Fell Fund for savannah birds, Pew Marine Fellows Program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (PELD 441659/2016-0). Individual funding was provided by National Environment Research Council NE/K016431/1; NE/P004512/1; NE/L000016/1; European Research Council 759457; H2020-MSCA-RISE (691053-ODYSSEA); NASA’s Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Sciences program (NNX14AD29G); OIST and JSPS KAKENHI (JP17K15180); CNPq scientific productivity grant (307788/2017-2); CNPq Programa de Capacitação Institucional (300231/2016-4); Royal Society (UF140691) and Swedish Research Council Formas grant (2016-00351).

Reviewer information

Nature thanks N. Knowlton, C. Mora and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Jos Barlow, Filipe França, Christina C. Hicks, Gareth D. Lennox, Erika Berenguer, Paul J. Young & Nicholas A. J. Graham

  2. Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Belém, Brazil

    Filipe França & Joice Ferreira

  3. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Toby A. Gardner

  4. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Erika Berenguer

  5. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Leandro Castello

  6. Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna, Japan

    Evan P. Economo

  7. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Benoit Guénard

  8. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil

    Cecília Gontijo Leal

  9. Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Victoria Isaac

  10. School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Alexander C. Lees

  11. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Catherine L. Parr

  12. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Catherine L. Parr

  13. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Catherine L. Parr

  14. Marine Science Program, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Kensington, Western, Australia

    Shaun K. Wilson

  15. Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Shaun K. Wilson

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Contributions

J.B. developed the review with input from N.A.J.G., T.A.G., C.C.H., A.C.L. and J.F. F.F. and G.D.L. analysed the data, supported by J.B., T.A.G., C.C.H., E.B., L.C., E.P.E., B.G., C.G.L., V.I., A.C.L., C.L.P., S.K.W., P.J.Y. and N.A.J.G. J.B., T.A.G., C.C.H., N.A.J.G., L.C., A.C.L., C.L.P., F.F. and G.D.L. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Jos Barlow.

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Supplementary Table 1

This table lists the original data sources.

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Barlow, J., França, F., Gardner, T.A. et al. The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems. Nature 559, 517–526 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0301-1

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