Nature conservation in the Anthropocene: preservation, conservation and the challenge of novel ecosystems

No sooner had we entered the twenty-first century than new words appeared to express an emerging re-conception of our place in the world. Foremost among these is the term "Anthropocene". Since first proposed in 2000, this neologism has been increasingly employed to designate a new planetary epoch wherein the influence of humans has pushed global ecological and geological attributes beyond reversible thresholds.