Land and sea use change are the primary drivers of global biodiversity loss

Nature · Published 1 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Researchers who synthesized empirical comparisons of environmental impacts found that land and sea use change is the leading cause of recent global biodiversity loss. The study ranked various human-driven factors, revealing that while direct resource exploitation and pollution also play major roles, climate change and invasive species have been significantly less influential as direct drivers.

The findings highlight a hierarchy of threats: land/sea use change ranks first, followed by resource exploitation and then pollution. Interestingly, the ocean follows a different driver hierarchy than land and freshwater systems, where climate change is more prominent.

This research was conducted through a statistical synthesis of existing empirical comparisons to provide a more rigorous overview of global impacts. A limitation of this approach is that it relies on the scope and quality of the studies reviewed rather than new primary data collection.

Why it matters: Effective conservation requires addressing multiple interacting human drivers simultaneously rather than focusing on just one factor.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• Global biodiversity loss rates show no significant recent reduction
• Human activity is driving a massive global decline in animal populations
• Human consumption and population growth have created a global environmental crisis
• Climate change poses a pervasive threat to the structural basis of coastal ecosystems
• Biodiversity acts as a shield for kelp forests against environmental collapse
• Localized groundwater depletion threatens long-term irrigation across major American farming regions
• Key barriers and training needs for agricultural extension agents in northeastern Ghana
• Low-cost methods offer a path to clean heavy metal pollution from water
• iPhone LiDAR sensors offer a cost-effective way to map small geological features
• Low quality of microplastic studies complicates our understanding of water contamination
• Integrating physical laws into machine learning improves weather and climate forecasting
• Machine learning creates more accurate global terrain maps by removing forest and building artifacts

More in Nature · Latest · A–Z · All topics