This book provides, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the fundamental roles that ecological interactions play in extinction processes, bringing to light an underground of hidden pathways leading to the same dark place: biodiversity loss.We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. We see species declining and vanishing one after another. Poached rhinos, dolphins and whales slaughtered, pandas surviving only in captivity are strong emotional testimonials of what is happening. Yet, the main threat to natural communities may be overshadowed by the disappearance of large species, with most extinctions happening unnoticed and involving less eye-catching organisms, such as parasites and pollinators. Ecosystems hide countless, invisible wires connecting organisms in dense networks of ecological interactions. Through these networks, perturbations can propagate from one species to another, producing unpredictable effects. In worst case scenarios, the loss of one species might doom many others to extinction. Ecologists now consider such mechanisms as a fundamental - and still poorly understood - driver of the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Hidden Pathways to Extinction makes the invisible links connecting the fates of species and organisms evident, exploring why complexity can enhance ecosystem stability and yet accelerate species loss. Page after page, Strona provides convincing evidence that we are primarily responsible for the fall in biodiversity, that we are falling too, and that we need to redouble our conservation efforts now, or it won't be long before we hit the ground.
這本書首次全面概述了生態互動在滅絕過程中所扮演的基本角色，揭示了通往同一黑暗地點——生物多樣性喪失的隱藏途徑。我們正處於第六次大規模滅絕之中。我們看到物種一個接一個地衰退和消失。被盜獵的犀牛、被屠殺的海豚和鯨魚，以及僅在圈養中生存的熊貓，都是當前情況的強烈情感見證。然而，對自然社群的主要威脅可能被大型物種的消失所掩蓋，大多數滅絕事件在不被注意的情況下發生，涉及的往往是不那麼引人注目的生物，如寄生蟲和授粉者。生態系統隱藏著無數看不見的線索，將生物連接在密集的生態互動網絡中。透過這些網絡，擾動可以從一個物種傳播到另一個物種，產生不可預測的影響。在最糟糕的情況下，某一物種的喪失可能會使許多其他物種面臨滅絕的命運。生態學家現在認為這些機制是當前生物多樣性危機的一個基本——但仍然不太了解的——驅動因素。《通往滅絕的隱藏途徑》使得連結物種和生物命運的看不見的聯繫變得明顯，探討了為什麼複雜性可以增強生態系統的穩定性，卻又加速物種的喪失。頁頁相繼，Strona 提供了令人信服的證據，表明我們對生物多樣性下降負有主要責任，我們也在衰退，並且我們現在需要加倍努力進行保護，否則不久之後我們將面臨嚴重後果。
Giovanni Strona (Italy, 1982) is an Associate Professor in Ecological Data Sciences at the University of Helsinki. His research lies at the interface between ecology, computer science and physics. He has published tens of influential scientific papers on macroecology and biodiversity research, with novel insights in theory and methods. In recent years, he has advanced our understanding of the role of ecological interactions in the ongoing mass extinction, quantifying the relative impact of co-extinctions on global biodiversity loss. His findings identify key ecological mechanisms that might dramatically amplify global change's detrimental effects and reveal how a planetary ecosystem collapse might be much closer than we thought.
