Nov

LU Land lecture: Functional landscapes - loss of biodiversity and landscape changes

29 November 2023 08:30 to 09:30 | Lecture/talk

Landskapsbild med skog i förgrunden och jordbruk i bakgrunden

Today, around one million species are estimated to be endangered, including 2 out of 5 plant species. Climate change is often highlighted as a major threat to biodiversity, especially in the media. But in reality, the biggest threat to biodiversity is the major landscape changes caused by humans.

These changes are mainly driven by our unsustainable land use in agriculture and forestry, which is now displacing more and more species and populations. Climate change risks further exacerbating the situation for many species that are unable to adapt at the rapid pace of change.

Presentation by Alexandre Antonelli

For this talk, we welcome Alexandre Antonelli,, Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, Professor in Biodiversity and Systematics at the University of Gothenburg and Visiting Professor at the Department of Plant Science at the University of Oxford. He has also published the book A Hidden Universe: Earth's Unknown Biodiversity and gave a summer talk on biodiversity in 2021.