Conservation

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

The new book Hotspots Revisited identifies 34 regions worldwide where 75 percent of the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface (roughly equivalent to the combined areas of the five largest U.S. states). This habitat originally covered 15.7 percent of the Earth's surface, an area equivalent in size to Russia a...

Amazon symposium to address large-scale conservation

On July 19, 2005, at the Society of Conservation Biology annual meetings, in Brasília, Brazil, the Woods Hole Research Center and the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM) will hold an international symposium on the prospects for large-scale conservation of natural resources in the Amazon Basin. This region has entered a new era of natural resource destruction as the principle...

Scientists map the world for nature conservation

For years, experts have been calling for an improved database that would enable them to develop more effective global nature conservation strategies. Botanists at the University of Bonn have now taken a major step in this direction with the publication, in the Journal of Biogeography, of a world map of plant biodiversity. The atlas is arranged in 867 zones, known as ecoregions. "This makes...

Key to elephant conservation is 'in the sauce'

What do hot sauce aficionados and African elephants have in common? They both feel the burn of chilli peppers, the key ingredient for resolving human-elephant conflicts in Africa while raising money for farmers and conservation. Supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other groups, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust (EPDT) has not only promoted the use of chilli peppers...

Vietnam war technology could aid elephant conservation

Seismic sensors developed to track enemy troop movements during the Vietnam war could help ecologists monitor and conserve elephant populations, according to new research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. Dr Jason Wood and colleagues from Stanford University recorded the vibrations from the footfalls of elephants and other large mammals, including gi...

Marine conservation organizations team up to conduct Indonesia coral reefs assessment

Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Reef Check and World Conservation Union to examine damage to tsunami-affected coral reefs; mission set to start next week Three leading marine conservation organizations will complete an extensive survey next week along the west coast of Aceh Province, Indonesia, to determine the impact of last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami on the re...

New book highlights world's borderless conservation areas

Publication emphasizes global focus on protecting Earth's ecosystems across national boundariesNature knows no borders, according to a new book released today by CEMEX, Conservation International, and Agrupacion Sierra Madre. "Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas," describes in detail new strategies of shared environmental responsibility for keeping important wilde...

Evolutionary conservation of a mechanism of longevity from worms to mammals

Though the study of aging in the nematode model organism C. elegans has provided much insight into this complex process, it is not yet clear whether genes involved in aging in the worm have a similar role in mammals. In a recent study, Dr. Hekimi and colleagues of McGill University (Canada) report that inactivation of the gene mclk1, the murine ortholog of the C. elegans gene clk-1, results in i...

Scientists look to the Bahamas as a model for coral reef conservation

Bacteria are bad. Mothers and doctors, not to mention the cleaning product industry, repeatedly warn of their dangers. But a Stanford University School of Medicine microbiologist is raising the intriguing idea that persistent bacterial and viral infections have benefits. Stanley Falkow, PhD, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor in Cancer Research, is publishing his thoughts on this...

Agriculture and tropical conservation: rethinking old ideas

It's a long-held view in conservation circles that rural peasant activities are at odds with efforts to preserve biodiversity in the tropics. In fact, the opposite is often true, argue University of Michigan researchers John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto. Combining case studies with ecological theory, Vandermeer and Perfecto found that the peasant farming practices encouraged by grassro...

US conservation efforts bring more marine turtles to UK

US and Mexican conservation efforts may have boosted the number of marine turtles visiting UK waters, according to University of Exeter biologists. New research by the University of Exeter and Marine Environmental Monitoring, published this week in Marine Biology (3 May 2007), analyses 100 years of data. It shows an increase in the number of loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley turtles in UK and...

Alien plants attack using 'resource conservation' as weapon, researchers say

One of the most serious and least understood threats to the world's ecosystems is the problem of invasive species-exotic plants, animals and other organisms that are brought into habitats and subsequently spread at a rapid rate, often replacing native species and reducing biodiversity. Invaders thrive best in regions where there is an abundance of materials for growth, such as water, nutri...