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Abstract:
The erosion of biodiversity is among our biggest challenges, as we face the risk of losing close to one million plant and animal species within the coming decades1. Despite numerous and ambitious international agreements that have been reached over several decades, ecosystem degradation leading to biodiversity decline has continued — and even accelerated — in almost all domains of life across marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems2. Indeed, planetary integrity and ecosystem services are now at risk of irreversible changes, with severe consequences for human wellbeing3. The main drivers of global biodiversity decline include habitat degradation and loss caused by changes in land and water use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, invasion by non-native species and chemical pollution4. However, our understanding of these drivers, single and in concert, often seems to be too rudimentary to adequately guide mitigation strategies that would be compatible with human activities. Here we argue for better integration of chemical pollution alongside other drivers in research that assesses biodiversity impacts.
