Humans have reached total domination on Earth, becoming the top predator on land and sea, a study has found.

The study from the University of Leicester shows human power over the natural environment has caused shifts in world ecosystems unprecedented in the last 500 million years.

The transition has led to the international decline in the variety of plants and animals through extinction, as organisms not useful to human needs are killed off by ecosystem changes or over-exploitation.

The biggest immediate losers will be large predators like tigers and lions, while creatures domesticated by humans, including house cats, will thrive in the new world, said Jan Zalasiewicz, a professor of palaeobiology at the University of Leicester in central England, and co-author of the study.

From weather patterns altered by the burning of fossil fuels to the loss of biodiversity through logging and urbanisation, humans are unsustainably exploiting the earth's natural wealth.

And with new technology, including selective breeding and genetic modification, humans are now directly altering the evolution of other species, while also changing patterns in natural selection by man-made shifts in the environment, the study said.

Large extinctions or climate shifts are nothing new for the Earth, evidenced by the ice age and the disappearance of the dinosaurs, but current environmental changes represent something different, researchers said.

"Some human-made changes have genuinely not been seen before on planet Earth," Professor Zalasiewicz said.

The research was published in the academic journal The Anthropocene Review.

A new kind of nature

In the past, volcanic eruptions, complex ecological breakdowns or meteor strikes caused structural changes to the planet, he said.

In contrast, today's shifts — including climate change, ocean acidification and the loss of biodiversity have created a "new kind of nature", he said.

Large predators like tigers are the biggest immediate losers of human domination. ( Simon Johnson: ABC )

"Global warming as a phenomenon is just beginning," Professor Zalasiewicz said.

"Species extinctions and other changes are far more advanced."

Since 1900, extinction rates for vertebrates have been between 10 and 100 times higher than normal levels, he said.

At least 468 creatures have been eliminated from the planet since then, including the Costa Rican golden toad and Yangtze dolphin.

Professor Zalasiewicz said human-caused environmental changes had accelerated rapidly since the end of World War II, as technology has advanced and resource use intensified.

"When global warming really bites, that will ratchet up the changes currently taking place," he said.

Reuters