New article highlights the current magnitude of Earth’s ongoing 6th major extinction event

The article is published in the July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and authored by Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich & Rodolfo Dirzo.

Concerned URL	http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/05/1704949114
Release date	12/07/2017
Contributor	mlsusini
Geographical coverage	Global,
Keywords	conservation, ecosystem services, population extinctions, threatened species,

According to the authors, the population extinction pulse they describe shows, from a quantitative viewpoint, that Earth’s sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions. Therefore, humanity needs to address anthropogenic population extirpation and decimation immediately. That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction (indicative of population shrinkage and/or population extinctions according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature) using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species, and on a more detailed analysis documenting the population extinctions between 1900 and 2015 in 177 mammal species.

Full article is freely available online through the PNAS open access option: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/05/1704949114

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