The use of quantitative models to assess how future socioeconomic development pathways would affect biodiversity and environmental services is becoming more common. Biodiversity will continue to dwindle over the 21st century, according to scenarios. Land use change is a major driver of biodiversity change in terrestrial systems, overfishing is a major driver in marine systems, and climate change is a common driver across all realms. Under any scenario, there will be significant habitat losses in the near future, which will lead to local population decreases.
Because there is a lag between environmental change and the incidence of global extinctions, they will happen at unpredictable times. There is a need to place more emphasis on the connection between the pace at which an ecosystem service declines in response to species losses and the position of the species responsible for that function in the trophic hierarchy. This book highlights strategies that, through the use of effective language and focused communication techniques, make biodiversity scenarios understandable, relevant, and valuable to stakeholders.