Island Conservation
A Perfect Storm for Island Restoration? Unprecedented convergence of climate and conservation events herald a tipping point for island conservation 31 August 2016 – Somewhere Over the Pacific May I tell you a story? I’m in seat 8C. Seatbelt buckled. Going 500 miles per hour. Yet, I’m sitting still for what seems like the first time […]
Snails, though not exactly a widely celebrated species, have much to offer. They may not be as popular or charming as the world’s widely-recognized endangered megafauna (tigers, elephants, rhinos, pandas, etc), but snails are important for ecosystems functioning around the world. Snails are decomposers–they break down natural material into smaller parts–and as such help to uphold nature’s cycle of life […]
New research provides the first global, spatial forecast of emerging invasions. It examines current shortcomings, challenges and opportunities in mitigating and preventing damage caused by invasive alien species. Invasive alien species (IAS) threaten biodiversity, human livelihood, and human health around the world. A new study published in Nature Communications led by conservation biologist Regan Early maps the predicted […]
A paper by Cambridge Conservation Initiative breaks down the relationship between biodiversity and business and presents a Natural Capital Protocol, offering initial guidelines for companies to identify and account for environmental resource use. The Cambridge Conservation Initiative, a collaboration of NGO’s, has published a paper investigating the role of natural resources in business. The report brings attention to the ways […]
A middle school educational program focused on Invasive Species and Seabirds will kick off this school year. A new Invasive Species and Seabirds curriculum has been developed for middle schools and it’s free to all educators! The curriculum was developed with an eye towards rural island communities’ middle schools, but will be of interest to […]
Endangered Kiwi chick hatches at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. The Kiwi is an important native bird of New Zealand. The feathered yet flightless creature was named by the Maori–the first people to ever live in New Zealand. The Kiwi is integral to Maori culture and considered sacred. It traditionally served as an occasional food […]
The discovery of a new lizard species in the Dominican Republic by University of Toronto researchers reinforces a theory that lizard communities evolve almost identically on separate islands. A team from University of Toronto (U of T) has recently discovered a new species of lizard in the Dominican Republic (DR). The Greater Antillean Anole, Anolis landestoyi, is the first […]
Study finds that higher biodiversity enhances disease-resistance in ecosystems. A recent study published in the journal Ecology by Australian and Chinese researchers from University of Adelaide and Fudan University suggests that higher levels of biodiversity increase an ecosystem’s disease resistance. The researchers studied the relationship between biodiversity and the severity of a fungal disease. Alpine Meadow. Photo: […]
New research hones in on the importance of biodiversity for healthy ecosystems. Scientists from all around the world collaborated in intensive data collection to understand the role of biodiversity. They confirmed that higher biodiversity makes for stabler ecosystems more able to rebound from stressors. Native Galápagos Cactus. Photo by Island Conservation This study shows that you […]
What is the value of the natural world? Can it be put in economic terms? What are different peoples’ perspectives on the meaning of “natural,” and what responsibilities do humans have to nature? This article doesn’t answer these questions, but invites you to consider them. We have a duty to fix battered ecosystems. But if we […]