= Solution
\b[<Extinction debt>] is future <extinction> committed by past environmental change but not yet realized because populations persist temporarily. After habitat loss or fragmentation, surviving adults and small isolated populations can remain visible even when successful recruitment and recolonization are too low for long-term persistence. Long generation times can delay the observed species loss.<Habitat destruction and the extinction debt by David Tilman and others>[Abstract: extinctions delayed for generations following habitat fragmentation]{ref}
Thus current <species richness> can overstate the diversity sustainable under present habitat conditions. Restoration or renewed connectivity before the delayed losses occur may avert part of the debt; the concept is a lagged consequence of past change, rather than a prediction that every threatened population is irreversibly doomed.
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