VanderMeer has stated that part of his inspiration for writing
Annihilation is the fact that humans live on a planet filled with sophisticated organisms that we still only partially understand. He cites that humans have only recently discovered that plants engage in quantum mechanics during photosynthesis (a 2007 discovery published in the journal
Nature) or that the sunfish and the albatross have a complex symbiotic relationship (discovered in 2012). These discoveries continue to this day; in the year 2020 alone, 213 new species were discovered. However, these discoveries are also coming at a time during mass ecological change and destruction, driven by humans, and Annihilation provides an interesting alternative commentary on ecological destruction. From 2010-2019, 467 species have been declared extinct due to the effects of climate change, habitat loss, and overharvesting.
Annihilation hints at that same destruction, as the biologist makes oblique references to the ways in which humans have changed the environment beyond Area X’s border, in contrast to the pristine nature preserved inside the border. Depicting the organisms inside Area X as complex and even incomprehensible organisms communicates the kind of power and complexity that VanderMeer referenced, while also suggesting the biodiversity that humans are at risk of losing. Interestingly, in contrast to much eco-fiction, nature is quite powerful, complex, and destructive towards the humans in the book. This flips the dynamics between humans and nature; in the book, it is
humans, rather than non-humans, who take on the perspective of having their lives ripped apart by forces that they cannot control or understand, just as plant and animal life in the real world are losing their lives and habitats to organisms that
they cannot control or understand.