Author Archives: Brett Dickson

The Impact of Conservation on the Status of the World’s Vertebrates

A new study published in the journal Science shows the number of vertebrate species that are threatened worldwide is increasing, but that conservation activities are mitigating these losses. However, the (many) authors conclude that conservation efforts may not be sufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The full article can be found here.

The velocity of climate change (and biodiversity loss)

Considering earlier posts on broad-scale management strategies for minimizing biodiversity loss due to climate change, an additional article by our Wilburforce friend, Healy Hamilton, and colleagues is also of interest: http://research.calacademy.org/cabi/news/1766.
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Special Section in Conservation Biology

Related to the posts below, the latest issue (24:1) of Conservation Biology includes a Special Section on “Ecological Responses to Contemporary Climate Change within Species, Communities, and Ecosystems.”

The Section Introduction by Belant, Beever, Gross, and Lawler notes that the 7 papers in this section “provide insights from disciplines ranging from physical climatology, to community ecology, to international policy. They contribute to a deeper understanding of the challenges conservation practitioners and natural resource managers face and to development of more-informed and appropriate responses to those challenges.” Timely!

The paper by Wiens and Bachelet is particularly compelling for those of us working on issues related to wildlife habitat connectivity across multiple spatial scales and jurisdictions.  I am providing a link to the abstract here.  If you can’t access the article, let me know.  Enjoy!