Darwin 200 Special : Biodiversity in Crisis

Nature marks the anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species 150 years ago today, with a special on biodiversity. As nations prepare progress reports on their pact to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010, International Year of Biodiversity, Pavan Sukhdev urges governments to secure the flows of nature's 'public goods'. Meanwhile, William R. Turner and colleagues argue that natural ecosystems be made a bulwark against climate change, Robert J. Smith and colleagues propose that local agencies need to set the conservation research agenda and Douglas Erwin calls upon paleontologists to create models of the root causes of biodiversity. Features examine Brazil’s forests and species barcodes, and there's a profile of ecosystem services advocate Gretchen Daily.

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