Turnover

Our planet provides a rich and dynamic biophysical theater on which life has organized and continues to organize itself through ecological and evolutionary processes. The influence of such processes are most apparent in patterns of turnover, the observation that the composition of species assemblages varies from one place and/or time to another. Here, we will (1) explore the various factors shaping turnover patterns from local to global scales, (2) outline how biologists studying this phenomenon quantify it, and lastly given the increasing influence of human activities on the planet’s ecosystems, (3) review how human impacts are disrupting natural turnover patterns.