Depauperate ecosystem

A depauperate ecosystem is an ecosystem characterized by low species richness or species diversity. Such ecosystems will have short or simplified food chains and low trophic complexity compared to those with higher biodiversity, often due to low resource availability. However, this simplicity also means that colonizing species may be able to exploit different or broader niches than in their original habitat due to factors such as reduced pressure from predators or reduced resource competition, which can be beneficial for the colonizing species and may eventually lead to greater specialization and speciation. For this reason, depauperate ecosystems are often more vulnerable to invasive species than those with greater diversity.

Depauperate ecosystems may be naturally occurring or man-made. An ecosystem may be naturally depauperate due to physical isolation, as in the case of oceanic islands, or because of extreme environmental conditions that limit the number of viable ecological niches, as in Antarctica. The creation of plantations or other modifications of land for human use can produce depauperate ecosystems where greater biodiversity was formerly present. Depauperate ecosystems are less effective at providing ecosystem services and less resistant to adverse climate events than biodiverse ecosystems. Naturally depauperate ecosystems also present a unique conservation challenge due to their high degree of endemism. Human activity may inadvertently increase biodiversity by introducing new species directly or by altering the environment to be hospitable to a wider range of organisms, which can modify trophic interactions to push out species that may not exist elsewhere.