Nature's capacity to 'bounce back' when species are lost is vastly overestimated, global analysis finds

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A global study finds that ecosystems have far less capacity to withstand species loss than previously assumed. The research challenges the idea that remaining species can readily compensate when others go extinct.

The idea that ecosystems carry plenty of backup, so if a small number of species become extinct there is little harm, has been greatly overestimated, according to the largest global study of its kind.