TY - JOUR

T1 - Diversity lost

T2 - COVID-19 as a phenomenon of the total environment

AU - Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto

AU - Menéndez, Lumila Paula

AU - Laciny, Alice

AU - Bobadilla Rodríguez, Hernán

AU - Bravo Morante, Guillermo

AU - Carmen, Esther

AU - Dorninger, Christian

AU - Fabris, Flavia

AU - Grunstra, Nicole D.S.

AU - Schnorr, Stephanie L.

AU - Stuhlträger, Julia

AU - Villanueva Hernandez, Luis Alejandro

AU - Jakab, Manuel

AU - Sarto-Jackson, Isabella

AU - Caniglia, Guido

N1 - We would like to thank the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI) for providing a stimulating environment that fostered the conversations and collaborative writing that led to this paper. We also thank Amitangshu Acharya from the Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, U.K. for his help in discussing some ideas of this paper during his fellowship at the KLI. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/2/20

Y1 - 2021/2/20

N2 - If we want to learn how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to embrace the complexity of this global phenomenon and capture interdependencies across scales and contexts. Yet, we still lack systematic approaches that we can use to deal holistically with the pandemic and its effects. In this Discussion, we first introduce a framework that highlights the systemic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of the total environment as a self-regulating and evolving system comprising of three spheres, the Geosphere, the Biosphere, and the Anthroposphere. Then, we use this framework to explore and organize information from the rapidly growing number of scientific papers, preprints, preliminary scientific reports, and journalistic pieces that give insights into the pandemic crisis. With this work, we point out that the pandemic should be understood as the result of preconditions that led to depletion of human, biological, and geochemical diversity as well as of feedback that differentially impacted the three spheres. We contend that protecting and promoting diversity, is necessary to contribute to more effective decision-making processes and policy interventions to face the current and future pandemics.

AB - If we want to learn how to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to embrace the complexity of this global phenomenon and capture interdependencies across scales and contexts. Yet, we still lack systematic approaches that we can use to deal holistically with the pandemic and its effects. In this Discussion, we first introduce a framework that highlights the systemic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of the total environment as a self-regulating and evolving system comprising of three spheres, the Geosphere, the Biosphere, and the Anthroposphere. Then, we use this framework to explore and organize information from the rapidly growing number of scientific papers, preprints, preliminary scientific reports, and journalistic pieces that give insights into the pandemic crisis. With this work, we point out that the pandemic should be understood as the result of preconditions that led to depletion of human, biological, and geochemical diversity as well as of feedback that differentially impacted the three spheres. We contend that protecting and promoting diversity, is necessary to contribute to more effective decision-making processes and policy interventions to face the current and future pandemics.

KW - Complexity

KW - COVID-19

KW - Interdisciplinarity

KW - Pandemics

KW - Total environment

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097077924&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f7fc1f2c-0316-3325-9e9f-2e13ebc10835/

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144014

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144014

M3 - Comments / Debate / Reports

C2 - 33279199

AN - SCOPUS:85097077924

VL - 756

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

M1 - 144014

ER -