Global areas of low human impact (‘Low Impact Areas’) and fragmentation of the natural world

Habitat loss and fragmentation due to human activities is the leading cause of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. protected areas are the primary response to this challenge and are the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation efforts. Roughly 15% of land is currently protected although there is momentum to dramatically raise protected area targets towards 50%. But, how much land remains in a natural state? We answer this critical question by using open-access, frequently updated data sets on terrestrial human impacts to create a new categorical map of global human influence (‘Low Impact Areas’) at a 1 km2 resolution. We found that 56% of the terrestrial surface, minus permanent ice and snow, currently has low human impact. This suggests that increased protected area targets could be met in areas minimally impacted by people, although there is substantial variation across ecoregions and biomes. While habitat loss is well documented, habitat fragmentation and differences inf...

人类活动导致的生境丧失与破碎化，是生物多样性及生态系统服务流失的首要动因。保护区（Protected Areas）是应对这一挑战的核心举措，亦是生物多样性保护工作的基石。当前全球约15%的陆地面积已被划入保护区，尽管目前各界正积极推动将保护区覆盖目标大幅提升至50%左右。那么，尚有多少陆地仍保持自然状态？本研究依托开放获取且定期更新的陆地人类影响数据集，构建了分辨率为1平方千米的全球人类影响分类地图——「低影响区域（Low Impact Areas）」，以此解答这一关键问题。研究结果显示，扣除永久冰雪覆盖区域后，全球56%的陆地表面目前人类影响程度较低。这意味着，在人类干扰极小的区域即可达成扩大后的保护区覆盖目标，但不同生态区与生物群系间存在显著差异。尽管生境丧失已有充分的文献记录，但生境破碎化及其差异仍……