Reacción a "Reactions: birds lose morphological diversity due to climate change"

Biodiversity loss is increasingly recognised as one of the most important threats to the sustainability of human societies around the globe. The work of Emma C. Hughes and colleagues provides us with a new perspective on the issue, analysing this loss not in terms of the number of species but in terms of genetic and morphological diversity.  

This new approach brings us closer to the functional reality of biodiversity, to the characteristics that allow species to adapt to the environment and play a specific ecological role within ecosystems. To this end, the authors analyse the genetic and morphological diversity of 8,455 species of birds, undoubtedly one of the best-known biological groups. Hughes and colleagues show that the loss of the species most threatened with extinction today would lead to a much greater loss of morphological diversity than would occur at the same time in terms of the number of species or genetic diversity.  

These analyses are carried out for the entire planet and thus also reveal where this phenomenon is most alarming. The loss is generalised, but is clearly greater in tropical regions, particularly in South-East Asia. The decline in morphological diversity leads to more homogeneous systems where a few generalist species remain and specialists are disappearing. In other words, biodiversity as a whole is losing the most precise tools to work in ecosystems. Diversity functions such as resilience or the restoration of degraded systems are thus impoverished. To try to give an example that is close to home: the Iberian Peninsula is being ravaged by countless fires in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave. After thousands of years of evolution, some birds have adapted their morphology to the consumption of fruits that they then defecate or hide in good condition for germination, also in burnt areas. Who would repopulate the plant diversity of our forests if they were missing? Are there alternatives at an affordable cost? Will we see the conservation of biodiversity as an investment in our future?