Anthropogenic pressures are causing the widespread loss of wildlife species and populations, with adverse consequences for ecosystem functioning. This phenomenon has been widely but inconsistently referred to as defaunation. A cohesive, quantitative framework for defining and evaluating defaunation is necessary for advancing biodiversity conservation. Likening defaunation to deforestation, we propose an operational framework for defaunation that defines it and related terms, situates defaunation relative to intact communities and faunal degradation, and encourages quantitative, ecologically reasonable, and equitable measurements. We distinguish between defaunation, the conversion of an ecosystem from having wild animals to not having wild animals, and faunal degradation, the process of losing animals or species from an animal community. The quantification of context-relevant defaunation boundaries or baselines is necessary to compare faunal communities over space and time. Situating a faunal community on the degradation curve can promote Global Biodiversity Framework targets, advancing the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

中文翻译：

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将动物区系丧失纳入操作框架，以促进生物多样性保护。

人为压力导致野生动物物种和种群广泛丧失，对生态系统功能产生不利影响。这种现象被广泛但不一致地称为动物区系丧失。一个用于定义和评估动物区系丧失的连贯的定量框架对于推进生物多样性保护是必要的。将动物区系丧失比作森林砍伐，我们提出了一个动物区系丧失的操作框架，定义了动物区系丧失和相关术语，将动物区系丧失相对于完整群落和动物退化进行定位，并鼓励定量、生态合理和公平的测量。我们区分动物区系丧失（生态系统从有野生动物到没有野生动物的转变）和动物区系退化（动物群落中动物或物种消失的过程）。与背景相关的动物区系丧失边界或基线的量化对于比较空间和时间上的动物群落是必要的。将动物群落置于退化曲线上可以促进全球生物多样性框架目标的实现，推进 2050 年生物多样性愿景。