Groundbreaking Study Highlights Vulnerability of Terrestrial Ecosystems

Extrait de l'article:

Scientists have discovered that terrestrial ecosystems are more prone to collapse from significant animal life loss than marine ecosystems, with the impacts lasting longer on land.

A new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals that terrestrial ecosystems were more severely affected by the end-Triassic extinction than marine ecosystems. Furthermore, the recovery period for these terrestrial environments was longer compared to their marine counterparts, a finding that was unexpected. This discovery holds significant implications for the ongoing global extinction event, which is largely driven by human-induced climate change.

“If you remove a significant component of critters from terrestrial ecosystems on land, those ecosystems fall apart and collapse much more easily than what happens in the oceans,” said Dr. Hank Woolley, co-author and NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Dinosaur Institute. “And secondly, it takes longer for terrestrial ecosystems to recover from a mass extinction event than marine ecosystems.”