As the current biodiversity crisis approaches levels comparable to the rates of the five historical mass extinctions, increasing attention has focused on how to stop or slow species loss and preserve ecosystem function. The impact of the loss of an individual species on communities and ecosystems is heterogeneous, however. Removing some species has negligible effects while the removal of others can be catastrophic. Metaphorically, the scenario can be likened to Jenga, a popular block-balancing game in which players build a tower of wooden pieces, analogous to a dynamic ecosystem (de Ruiter et al. 2005).

中文翻译：

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深巢巨蜥的生态系统工程

随着当前的生物多样性危机接近与历史上五次大灭绝的速度相当的水平，越来越多的注意力集中在如何阻止或减缓物种丧失和保护生态系统功能上。然而，单个物种的丧失对群落和生态系统的影响是不同的。移除某些物种的影响可以忽略不计，而移除其他物种可能是灾难性的。比喻地说，这个场景可以比作 Jenga，这是一种流行的块平衡游戏，玩家在其中建造一座木块塔，类似于一个动态的生态系统（de Ruiter 等人，2005 年）。