Future urban expansion threatens to cause massive habitat loss and biodiversity decline
In short: A modelling study suggests that future urban expansion could lead to the loss of up to 33 million hectares of natural habitat by 2100. Researchers found that this expansion may disproportionately fragment key biodiversity areas and significantly reduce species richness and abundance globally.
By combining urban expansion projections with biodiversity datasets, researchers estimated the impact on amphibians, mammals, and birds. The study found that urban land conversion could reduce local species richness by 34% and abundance by 52% per 1 km grid cell.
The study relies on computational modelling and shared socioeconomic pathways, meaning results are projections of potential future scenarios rather than direct observations.
Why it matters: Urban planning must balance expansion with conservation to prevent significant biodiversity loss.
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Sources
- Source: Research: Li et al. (2022). Global impacts of future urban expansion on terrestrial vertebrate diversity. Nature Communications. · cc-by
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