A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

At the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica, the impetus for most of the research comes from visitors from international universities. But as the institute's only full-time staff member, Alan Pounds drives projects on the ecological consequences of global climate change.

Heading an international team, Pounds has used a case study from Monteverde to show that global warming may already have caused many species in the American tropics to disappear (see Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming). The paper's authors are scattered around the globe, forming a loosely knit group — in fact, Pounds is the only one to have met all of the other team members face-to-face. “We exchange a lot of e-mails,” he says. “This paper would not have been possible before the information age.”

4 previous Nature publications on the ecological consequences of global climate change have been authored or co-authored by Pounds.

406 is the total number of citations for Pounds's previous Nature publications so far, according to Google Scholar.

6 countries are currently being worked in by Pounds and his team: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.