Abstract
Today's threats to biodiversity are manifold. To conserve biodiversity and the countless services it provides, we need to understand how biodiversity was formed and what factors influence its dynamics. The theory of evolution by natural selection offers an extremely powerful paradigm for understanding why the living world is the way it is, for understanding how biodiversity is formed and what its dynamics are, and for understanding how populations manage to adapt or not to a changing environment. The sciences of ecology and evolution are also essential to understanding the extent and consequences of the current biodiversity crisis, particularly for human societies. Climate change, but also habitat destruction, pollution and invasive species, are responsible for a rapid decline in biodiversity, which will rapidly have major consequences for human societies through the decline in the ecosystem services we derive from biodiversity.
