Biodiversity response to human impact

Current patterns of biodiversity loss are masked by a long legacy of habitat alteration by humans over thousands of years.

Studies have examined the extent to which humans have altered biodiversity during the last few centuries, but the degree of earlier human impacts is poorly known. This knowledge gap presents a major challenge to understanding biodiversity and prevents holistic conservation efforts.

Species and their genetic diversity are currently under intense anthropogenic pressure, primarily driven by high levels of habitat degradation and extinctions. How did early human colonization affect species and genetic diversity?

This project is mechanistically grounded in island biogeography theory to quantitatively identify the impact of human immigration rate on extinction risk on differently sized and isolated islands.

We will determine human-mediated biodiversity change through time by combining ancient and contemporary genomics of diverse plant groups as proxies for vegetation change.

An expected applied outcome leverages knowledge of how humans influenced biodiversity throughout our history to accurately assess extinction risks and inform conservation. Determining human impact and the rates of ecosystem change is fundamental to biodiversity management.