We are living in a time of rapid environmental changes caused by anthropogenic pressures. Besides direct human exploitation of plant and animal populations and habitat transformation, biodiversity changes in the Anthropocene are affected by less trivial processes including rapid spreading of non-native species, emergence of novel communities and modifications of ecosystem functioning due to changing nutrient cycles and climate changes. These processes are so complex that confident predictions and effective biodiversity conservation cannot be obtained without a suitable theory of biodiversity dynamics. We argue that such dynamics have particular attractors, i.e. stable equilibria, that are determined by environmental conditions. These stable equilibria set biodiversity limits, i.e. carrying capacities for biodiversity, from local to global scales. We point out the evidence of such limits at various spatiotemporal scales and show, using the new equilibrium theory of biodiversity dynamics (ETBD), how dynamics of diversity depend on non-linear relationships between number of species, community abundance and population size-dependent processes of species extinction and origination (speciation or colonization). We show that non-linear effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning can lead to multiple biodiversity equilibria and tipping points. Various human activities, including species introductions, human appropriation of primary production and trophic downgrading, can change local, regional and global diversity equilibria by affecting processes that set equilibrium diversity levels. The existence of equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium states has important implications for conservation, restoration and reconciliation ecology. It highlights the need to more effectively and intentionally balance the historical focus on the preservation of natural habitats with management specifically directed towards the processes responsible for long-term maintenance of biodiversity equilibria. The Anthropocene represents a unique situation in which people make decisions concerning the dynamics of the natural world, and we argue that ecological restoration requires wisely deciding which of the alternative equilibria are worth maintaining.

中文翻译：

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人类世的生物多样性动态：人类活动如何改变物种丰富度的平衡

我们生活在一个由人为压力引起的环境快速变化的时代。除了人类对植物和动物种群的直接开发和栖息地转变之外，人类世的生物多样性变化还受到不那么微不足道的过程的影响，包括非本地物种的快速传播、新群落的出现以及由于养分循环和气候变化导致的生态系统功能的改变. 这些过程非常复杂，如果没有合适的生物多样性动力学理论，就无法获得自信的预测和有效的生物多样性保护。我们认为这种动态具有特定的吸引子，即稳定的平衡，这是由环境条件决定的。这些稳定的平衡设定了从地方到全球范围内的生物多样性限制，即生物多样性的承载能力。我们指出了在各种时空尺度上存在这种限制的证据，并使用新的生物多样性动态平衡理论 (ETBD) 表明，多样性动态如何依赖于物种数量、群落丰度和种群大小依赖过程之间的非线性关系物种灭绝和起源（物种形成或殖民化）。我们表明，生物多样性对生态系统功能的非线性影响可能导致多个生物多样性平衡和临界点。各种人类活动，包括物种引进、人类对初级生产的占用和营养降级，可以通过影响设定平衡多样性水平的过程来改变当地、区域和全球的多样性平衡。平衡态和非平衡态的存在对守恒具有重要意义，恢复与和解生态。它强调需要更有效和有意地平衡对自然栖息地保护的历史关注与专门针对负责长期维持生物多样性平衡的过程的管理。人类世代表了一种独特的情况，在这种情况下，人们就自然世界的动态做出决定，我们认为生态恢复需要明智地决定哪些替代平衡值得维持。