Possible Origin of Stagnation and Variability of Earth's Biodiversity

TL;DR

This paper presents a model explaining Earth's biodiversity stagnation and variability, highlighting the role of species dependency networks and their transitions, aligning with paleontologic data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interdependent species model that accounts for endogenous and exogenous impacts on extinction dynamics and explains differences in marine and continental biodiversity growth.

Findings

Marine biodiversity stagnation linked to network transition.

Model predictions align with paleontologic data.

Explains variability in Earth's biodiversity over time.

Abstract

The magnitude and variability of Earth's biodiversity have puzzled scientists ever since paleontologic fossil databases became available. We identify and study a model of interdependent species where both endogenous and exogenous impacts determine the nonstationary extinction dynamics. The framework provides an explanation for the qualitative difference of marine and continental biodiversity growth. In particular, the stagnation of marine biodiversity may result from a global transition from an imbalanced to a balanced state of the species dependency network. The predictions of our framework are in agreement with paleontologic databases.