Classic ecological models that describe biodiversity patterns typically do not take human-contributed factors into consideration. Current socio-economic and cultural patterns related to human use of organisms can obliterate the role of natural processes that shape ecological communities. In this current global scenario, humans have replaced or confounded biological rules with cultural rules. For example, the tenets of island biogeography regarding the role of isolation and distance in structuring communities can become less relevant when framed in the human cultural context. While it is clear that globalization of trade and transport of wildlife species affects biogeographic patterns, a better understanding of how human motivation and behavior contributes to this process is still needed.
Results/Conclusions
We frame our discussion specifically within the wildlife trade and explore how the human cultural context – how and why a species is exploited, transported, or introduced – alters existing processes relating to biodiversity. To be relevant to the current globalized era, biodiversity analyses can be modified to include variables related to human cultural patterns. Finally, we discuss how methods in the social and ecological sciences can be used to gather data needed to expand classic ecological models to include human input.