Insight 4. Climate change and biodiversity loss amplify each other

Abstract

Key messages: • Climate change is impacting biodiversity from local to global scales, and growing evidence suggests that further loss of biodiversity can contribute to climate change, creating a destabilizing feedback. • Loss of plant diversity due to climate and land-use change can weaken ecosystem functioning, leading to a decrease in biomass accumulation and reduced carbon storage. • Animal biodiversity, both terrestrial and marine, plays a key role in regulating carbon storage through trophic chains and other plant-animal interactions that can alter vegetation structure and composition, affecting biomass accumulation and carbon sequestration. • Natural climate solution initiatives that integrate aspects of ecosystem integrity and species composition, rather than focusing solely on land cover area, can more effectively safeguard the carbon sink function.