Ecosystem health and planetary well-being (original) (raw)
Ecosystem degradation decreases planetary well-being Properly functioning ecosystems support diverse processes that sustain life, ranging from climate regulation and oxygen production to maintaining biodiversity. Ahealthyecosystemmaybedefinedasasustainableandresilientsystemthatmaintains its function despite external stress (Costanza and Mageau, 1999). A healthy ecosystem provides key services to its biota, and disturbances to the system may impact the health and/or abundance of key members of its assemblage, such that they can no longer perform their ecological roles. In this chapter, we discuss the cascading effects that ecosystem degradation has on the health of wildlife, humans, and entire ecosystems and the consequent threat to planetary well-being. Overexploitation of natural resources by humans has resulted in widespread ecosystem degradation: More than half of all ecosystems on Earth have deteriorated because of human actions (Myers, 2017; Song et al., 2018). This degradation has negatively impacted a range of ecological functions with notable adverse consequences for the well-being of wildlife (undomesticated animals and plants inhabiting natural environments) and humans. Environmental change has, for example, directly increased infectious disease prevalence in humans and other organisms by facilitating the spread of invasive species, disease vectors (organisms that carry and transmit pathogens to other organisms), and pathogens (Parmesan and Yohe, 2003). The interplay between ecosystem, human, and nonhuman health is recognized by several well-established health-related concepts, such as Conservation Medicine (
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