SYMP 4

Understanding Temporal Trends of Biodiversity

An alarming body of evidence suggests that global biodiversity is threatened by a variety of anthropogenic drivers, including climate change, the spread of non-native species, deforestation, and overharvesting. However, several recent meta-analyses of high-quality biodiversity monitoring studies could not detect a consistent downward trend in biodiversity through time, although others studies have found evidence for biodiversity losses in specific systems. This symposium will attempt to reconcile and synthesize existing data and ideas. Invited speakers represent a diversity of viewpoints on biodiversity change through time. Specifically, we have invited some speakers who have published evidence that diversity is declining and other speakers who have published evidence that it is not. We have also invited speakers who work at small and large spatial scales and included one paleo-time speaker. We have also included speakers to present the theoretical context of this question.