Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Population diversity and ecosystem services
Section snippets
Defining population units and the importance of population change
There are many approaches to defining species populations 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Consistently problematic is defining population boundaries so that the number of populations can be clearly determined [6]. Geneticists use measures of gene flow and genetic differentiation to distinguish one population from another [23]. In a demographic sense, this can be achieved by careful measures of individual movement (e.g. [24]), which enables the delineation of populations that are sufficiently isolated
Key components of population diversity
There are four key components of population diversity: richness, the size of each population, spatial distribution and differentiation.
Population change and biodiversity decline
We raise two crucial issues in this article. First, focusing on changes in population diversity is a more compre-hensive assessment of biodiversity decline than is a narrow emphasis on the loss of species alone. Rough estimates of large-scale population loss have already been attempted 5, 6. We argue that consideration of population size, distribution, genetic differentiation and density are also needed to reflect accurately the consequences of population change. This focus requires a
Acknowledgements
Carol Boggs, Jennifer Hughes, Claire Kremen, John Lawton, Michael Soulé, Taylor Ricketts, Brian Walker and four anonymous referees provided valuable comments about this article. We thank the Moore Family Foundation, the Winslow Foundation, and Peter and Helen Bing for support.
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