Correspondence |
Featured
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Editorial |
One backyard at a time
Local action can curb habitat loss and counter global pessimism on biodiversity.
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Comment |
Biology without borders
Fundamental research must not be hampered by an international agreement on sharing the benefits from national biodiversity, says David Schindel.
- David E. Schindel
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News |
Biodiversity hope faces extinction
Upcoming meeting will set out global conservation targets.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: Not-so-extinct animals
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Letter |
Global metabolic impacts of recent climate warming
Temperature increase does not have a linear effect on an organism's biology. These authors use observed global temperature change to calculate the change in metabolic rate for ectotherms. Despite smaller temperature increases in the tropics, these areas, which contain the largest proportion of biodiversity, are likely to experience just as much change in metabolic rate.
- Michael E. Dillon
- , George Wang
- & Raymond B. Huey
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News |
Balancing water supply and wildlife
Study warns of threats to water security and biodiversity in the world's rivers.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News & Views |
A standard for species
Delimitation of species is especially taxing when populations of similar organisms occupy non-overlapping geographical ranges. A new quantitative framework offers a consistent approach for tackling the problem.
- Thomas M. Brooks
- & Kristofer M. Helgen
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News & Views |
Beyond infrastructure
Projects such as building dams and diverting watercourses enhance water security for humans. But they do little to protect the biodiversity of associated ecosystems, and that's a long-term necessity. See Article p.555
- Margaret A. Palmer
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News Feature |
Marine biology: Out of the blue
The ten-year Census for Marine Life is about to unveil its final results. But how deep did the $650-million project go?
- Daniel Cressey
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Article |
Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity
Water security affects human wellbeing both directly and indirectly, through its effects on biodiversity. Here, a global map has been generated that shows threats to both direct and indirect water security from a full range of potential stressors. Technological investments have also been incorporated. The map shows that nearly 80% of the world's population is exposed to high levels of threat to water security. Investment enables rich nations to offset high stressor levels, but less wealthy nations remain vulnerable.
- C. J. Vörösmarty
- , P. B. McIntyre
- & P. M. Davies
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News |
Threats to the world's plants assessed
Habitat loss is the biggest hazard to plant biodiversity.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Correspondence |
Why the inaction on biodiversity?
- Guillaume Chapron
- , Raphaël Arlettaz
- & Luigi Boitani
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: Biodiversity balance
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News |
Can conservation cut poverty?
Experts differ on the effects of biodiversity projects on improvements in living standards.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Correspondence |
A call for action to curb invasive species in South America
- Karina Speziale
- & Sergio Lambertucci
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News |
Where conflict meets conservation
Animals as hidden victims of war are the focus of a groundbreaking initiative launched at King's College London.
- Rhiannon Smith
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: Life after logging
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News & Views |
Close relatives are bad news
In tropical rainforests, tree seedlings growing close to their parent are more likely to die. This mortality, caused by soil organisms, helps to explain the coexistence and relative abundance of species.
- Owen T. Lewis
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News |
Census of marine life released
New species are continually emerging from the ocean depths, comprehensive record of biodiversity reveals.
- Melissa Gaskill
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Research Highlights |
Remote sensing: Great heights
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Letter |
Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa
Using large-scale data sets, these authors present a new assessment of global marine species diversity and its correlation with environmental and spatial parameters.
- Derek P. Tittensor
- , Camilo Mora
- & Boris Worm
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Correspondence |
Businesses and biodiversity: they would say that
- Gail Whiteman
- , Michael Dorsey
- & Bettina Wittneben
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Books & Arts |
Does diversity always grow?
Samir Okasha is intrigued by a proposed universal law of biology: that complexity inevitably increases in the absence of other evolutionary forces.
- Samir Okasha
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Opinion |
The business of biodiversity
The value of ecosystems is largely invisible to markets. Ricardo Bayon and Michael Jenkins call on governments to drive regulatory and voluntary economic instruments that put a price on the services that nature provides.
- Ricardo Bayon
- & Michael Jenkins
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: Don't damage dingoes
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News |
Organic farms win at potato pest control
Why ecological evenness is as important as relative richness.
- Daniel Cressey
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News & Views |
How to get even with pests
Organic farming supports higher biodiversity. Research involving the Colorado potato beetle shows that this increased diversity can deliver a better ecosystem service in the form of more effective pest control.
- Lindsay A. Turnbull
- & Andy Hector
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Letter |
Replacing underperforming protected areas achieves better conservation outcomes
Removing the protected status from poorly performing conservation areas, selling the land and using the money better elsewhere is controversial, but has a simplistic appeal. Here, it is shown that such degazetting can reap significant conservation benefits, even for the well-designed Australian network of protected areas, and even when there is a significant economic cost to transferring protected status to a new area.
- Richard A. Fuller
- , Eve McDonald-Madden
- & Hugh P. Possingham
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Letter |
Negative plant–soil feedback predicts tree-species relative abundance in a tropical forest
One potential mechanism for maintaining biodiversity is negative feedback between a species and its specific enemies, meaning that other species can grow in its vicinity better than further individuals of the species in question. These authors show that in a tropical forest it is the soil biota that is the main cause of this feedback, and that this effect can explain the diversity.
- Scott A. Mangan
- , Stefan A. Schnitzer
- & James D. Bever
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Correspondence |
New data system to galvanize Brazil's conservation efforts
- Ana C. M. Malhado
- & Richard J. Ladle
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Correspondence |
Green development credits to foster global biodiversity
- Alexander N. James
- & Francis Vorhies
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News |
UN body will assess ecosystems and biodiversity
Nations agree on way to keep watch on Earth's health.
- Emma Marris
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News & Views |
When an infection turns lethal
Losses in biodiversity and the emergence of new infectious diseases are among the greatest threats to life on the planet. The declines in amphibian populations lie at the interface between these issues.
- Andrew R. Blaustein
- & Pieter T. J. Johnson
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News |
New UN science body to monitor biosphere
'IPCC for biodiversity' approved after long negotiation
- Emma Marris
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Letter |
Population diversity and the portfolio effect in an exploited species
The value of having a diversity of species within an ecosystem is well appreciated: species-rich communities are thought to produce more stable ecosystem services. But population diversity within a species is important too. Here, the effects of diversity in population and life history in a heavily exploited Alaskan salmon species are quantified. The results show that population diversity increases the resilience of this ecosystem, and hence the value of salmon fisheries.
- Daniel E. Schindler
- , Ray Hilborn
- & Michael S. Webster
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Editorial |
Wanted: an IPCC for biodiversity
An independent, international science panel would coordinate and highlight research on a pressing topic.
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Research Highlights |
Biodiversity: Counting creatures
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News |
Fast-breeding mice dominate a warming world
Past climate change led to lower diversity in the small and furry.
- Janet Fang
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Correspondence |
Biodiversity: linking Singapore's fragmented habitats
- Kwek Yan Chong
- , Alex Thiam Koon Yee
- & Chow Khoon Yeo
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Research Highlights |
Ecology: No farm is an island
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News |
Conservation's poverty reduction claims questioned
Does greater biodiversity help or hinder the world's poorest people?
- Natasha Gilbert
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News |
It's a microbial world
Worldwide census ups diversity estimates for marine microbes one-hundred-fold.
- Jane Qiu
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News & Views |
A flourishing of fish forms
According to an innovative exercise in 'morphospace analysis', modern fish owe their stunning diversity in part to an ecological cleaning of the slate by the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
- Michael Alfaro
- & Francesco Santini
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Correspondence |
Colour-coded targets would help clarify biodiversity priorities
- Anne Larigauderie
- , Georgina M. Mace
- & Harold A. Mooney
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News |
Biodiversity law could stymie research
Tighter rules on accessing and developing genetic resources may be counterproductive for conservation.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News |
Biodiversity talks get under way
Delegates begin to hammer out a new strategy for the Convention on Biological Diversity.
- Natasha Gilbert