In addition the team found that the grass crops'ability to harbor such increased biodiversity is linked strongly to the fields'location relative to other habitats.
Often scientists study biodiversity at all levels--from genes to entire ecosystems. Currently researchers at the University of Missouri are employing genotyping to study movement patterns of African forest elephants in protected and unprotected regions of Gabon to better understand how human occupation of these areas might affect elephants on the African continent.
Genotyping is helping conservation biologists determine the best course of action to ensure biodiversity and the preservation of various species in the U s. and abroad.
#Temperature most significant driver of worlds tallest treesunderstanding forest biodiversity and how carbon dioxide is stored within trees is an important area of ecological research.
and biodiversity could be affected negatively. Overuse can be avoided by redirecting water from larger bodies of water via pipes and distribution networks.
but such information is useful to forest management focused on restoring biodiversity and resilience to these ecosystems.
when flowering plants were changing the face of the Earth forever adding beauty biodiversity and food.
and adding further insights into the biodiversity and biology of life in this distant era. At that time much of the plant life was composed of conifers ferns mosses and cycads.
The evolution of flowering plants caused an enormous change in the biodiversity of life On earth especially in the tropics
UN conference on biodiversity kicks off in Indiadelhi--For the next two years, India will steer efforts to save the Earth's biodiversity during a time
India is hosting the UN Conference on Biodiversity, which kicks off today in the southern city of Hyderabad.
what has been declared as the UN Decade of Biodiversity. 192 countries and the European union are participating.
The fight to save biodiversity began in 1992 with the UN Convention on Biodiversity which currently has 193 parties.
conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
Latha Jishnu, the biodiversity expert at India's top environmental magazine Down to Earth, said that parties were still trying to figure out how much money was needed,
Jishnu said that CBD parties had been asked to submit suggestions on innovative ways of funding biodiversity
Some innovative thinking has focused on evaluating the economic value of losing biodiversity. For instance what does it cost to cut down a tree or a forest?
Indian economist Pavan Sukhdev has led the global study on The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity.
Understanding the cost of losing biodiversity, experts say, will be critical to saving it. Now, it's India's time to demonstrate leadership in getting words translated into actions.
The South Asian nation will be president of the Conference of the Parties (COP), the decision-making body on biodiversity, for the next two years.
The key issues picked for this conference are biodiversity and livelihoods, integration of value of biodiversity in national planning, strategy for resource mobilization,
coastal and marine biodiversity and operationalization of Nagoya Protocol (explained below). Khosla stressed that India in its role as a leader needed to push for a fair deal, new technology from developed nations and research from both developed and developing nations.
India, with over 7%of recorded species in 2. 4%of the world's land, is among the megadiverse biodiversity rich countries.
Biodiversity-rich countries are wary of companies from developed countries using their knowledge for free. They feel it's unfair for these companies to make huge profits, especially in the field of medicine,
Biodiversity exists in developing countries and it's been destroyed in the developed world, said Khosla of IUCN.
Biodiversity Act 2002, didn't provide enough protection to communities against exploitative agencies within India as well as multinationals.
The scientist further added that a Biodiversity Register listing all of India's knowledge should not be prepared
In working with issues dealing with climate change and land use and biodiversity, we realized we needed measures that allowed us to incorporate all of those aspects into something that was unifying.
It allows us to measure the biodiversity that occurs in a habitat. But also--because humans make noise--we can use noise as a surrogate of human activities.
we can use them as rapid assessment tools to assess the biodiversity or whether key species exist in a landscape.
and using that to come up with measures of biodiversity. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Why the biodiversity crisis is worse than the global economic crisis: There's no bailout for this onebob Bloomfield will make you worry about the state of biodiversity
and will inspire you to do something about it. The urgency in his voice is very telling,
Already, the global biodiversity crisis costs more than the economic crisis. And it is considered by scientists to be as great a threat as climate change.
As the coordinator of the UK partner response to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 International Year of Biodiversity
Bloomfield is largely organizing the biodiversity engagement activities in the UK which, he is optimistic,
will increase people's awareness of the grave situation of biodiversity loss. But time is limited.
Many scientists estimate that the loss of biodiversity is happening 1, 000 times faster than it should be because of human impact.
Bloomfield talks about the UK's involvement in raising awareness to the biodiversity crisis which is the focus of the International Year.
When did the UK get involved in setting up biodiversity awareness program? The International Year was established by the UN General assembly to help mark 2010 the year that the UN Convention On Biological Diversity will be renegotiated in Nagoya Japan in October.
The UK like the other 193 signatory countries to the conventions has a biodiversity action plan,
Darwin s work lies at the heart of our modern understanding of ecology and biodiversity,
refocusing it on the current issues of biodiversity loss, more than 380 partners in the UK are now collaborating to raise awareness of the issue, working through a joint,
and to many other sectors oe all drown together by a common concern around the tragic costs of biodiversity loss.
What are people missing about biodiversity? Most people have regarded tended to the loss of biodiversity as an unfortunate thing to be happening,
and often disturbed by the aesthetic consequences of human impact, but until recently many people have not really been aware of its true significance.
What is the cost of the loss of biodiversity? Economists now estimate that global biodiversity losses cost trillions of dollars annually
and directly affects the quality of human life and future wellbeing. A large portion of the losses of habitats and species-is irreversible,
Biodiversity loss is a major crisis and is bigger than global bank crisis. It s a permanent loss,
What is the scale of the biodiversity crisis? Biodiversity loss in intimately linked to the two other massive issues facing people today.
The first is with human sustainable development, at the heart of this issue, for a safer,
and we rely on biodiversity to provide these, to protect our future resources of food, textiles, pharmaceuticals,
Equally important is the ability of biodiversity to mitigate against the impact of the carbon we release.
We need to reengage with the significance of biodiversity to make a difference in environmental management.
Are there hot spots in biodiversity that we do prioritize? Biological diversity is being eroded by human impact across the globe,
and we need a far sounder understanding across human activity that biodiversity loss is one leg of a 3-legged stool,
Biodiversity loss affects everyone. But everyday it is realized increasingly and parts of society are responding.
For example utility companies that manage watersheds are seeing how biodiversity helps provide clean water, by protecting biodiversity they reduce their water-treatment costs,
biodiversity protection is good for business. This is part of a much bigger need, to think ecologically,
and to realize that by working with nature we can do more sustainably, and for the longer-term,
Many people are getting engaged with monitoring their local biodiversity, another step to becoming custodians of it.
Furthermore the knowledge of biodiversity and the potential to create green industry around managing all of the ecosystem services it provides could help boost our economy,
Join in the activities of the International Year of Biodiversity, together we can help influence the future in a positive way.
Enter the Butterfly Explorers exhibition Why you need to be biodiversity aware
Why thousands of bees are flying around with sensors  Wireless data-collecting sensors are everywhere:
Why you need to be biodiversity aware2010 was the year the world s governments agreed to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional,
 Eleanor Sterling thinks we have failed to meet our biodiversity goal. Sterling has been working on conserving biodiversity since 1996,
when she joined the American Museum of Natural history Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. Today, Sterling discusses the loss of biodiversity.
Where were you last in the field? What research were you doing? Did you find anything surprising?
What does it feel like to be out in nature and how does it feel to see the biodiversity diminish?
In the summer 2009 I went to the remote Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, located about halfway between Hawaii
As part of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) s Sea turtle Research and Conservation program, our program goals here are to study sea turtle distribution and abundance, focusing on ecological interactions, behavior, conservation, health issues,
and hopeful that the research conducted by the CBC will contribute to the conservation of endangered sea turtle species. Each visit reaffirms my commitment to the incredibly important field of biodiversity conservation
and the work of the CBC to mitigate threats to biodiversity. How do you make people think about their impact to an ecosystem?
or teach about biodiversity, I usually start with the deceptively simple question What is biodiversity?
 The term refers to the variety of life On earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems,
Biodiversity includes not only species we consider rare, threatened, or endangered, but every living thing oe even organisms we know little about, such as microbes, fungi and invertebrates.
I usually use the lens of threats to biodiversity. Over the last century humans have come to dominate the planet.
and the planet is undergoing a massive loss of biodiversity due to habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution, invasive species,
Many of our everyday actions, from consumption to our choices of where we live, impact biodiversity.
We all have a role to play in meeting the challenges of the biodiversity crisis
over time this will have a cumulative and positive impact on the Earth s biodiversity. The CBC s website has a list of simple
Can you talk on how biodiversity can influence your food supply? Any other issues? GM foods?
Biodiversity and a sustainable food supply are linked intimately by way of both ecosystem goods and services.
Also, studies suggest that biodiversity loss is one of the environmental factors associated with disease emergence.
How has the UN International Year of Biodiversity helped raise awareness? It s perhaps too early in the year to gauge its full impact.
However, the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) has served as a unifying theme by which a variety of institutions around the world have joined in an effort to highlight a wide variety of aspects related to biodiversity
and the current biodiversity crisis. The IYB has been the driver of many biodiversity-centric events including meetings, conferences, film screenings, panels, international policy discussions and instruments around the world.
It has spanned new websites, blogs, podcasts, and publications related to biodiversity. More information about partnering institutions
and events can be found here. The hope is that all the efforts during IYB will inspire the world s leaders
institutions, organizations, industries and citizens to take specific action to abate current rates of biodiversity loss.
The IYB can be an opportunity to reflect on why we failed to meet the 2010 biodiversity target
and conservation management plans to more effectively incorporate biodiversity conservation as a dynamic process in a human-dominated world.
what remains of 2010, including discussions about biodiversity during the United nations General assembly. What worries you about declining species?
So biodiversity can influence culture? Beyond those impacts of biodiversity loss on the functioning of ecosystems, human cultures around the world have been,
and continue to be inspired, and even defined in large part by their relationships with the natural world.
biodiversity loss represents a significant moral failure. Image: Eleanor Sterling at the North american launch of 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity.
Credit: R. Mickens/AMNH Related Post: Why the biodiversity crisis is worse than the economic crisis:
There's no bailout for this one
Wild monkeys with radiation collars to help Fukushima researchersresearchers from Fukushima University are planning to equip local,
The Forest Stewardship Council certifies wood as responsibly harvested using criteria that spans from indigenous rights to its impact on biodiversity.
but others criticized it for ushering in an age of monoculture in which farmers turned their backs on biodiversity in the interest of maximizing food production per acre.
He acknowledged the protection of biodiversity as a legitimate goal for public policy, but noted that the costs of saving species often fall on landowners and businesses,
and freeze'em approach--was primarily a way to preserve the genome heritage of vanishing ecosystems, not the biodiversity itself.
to undertake salvaging operations weakens arguments for biodiversity preservation. To avoid this, the two parallel programs of preservation
The problem is that biodiversity and species-rich wild habitats are fast disappearing. Conservation cannot keep up.
and by changing policy incentives, the nation's agricultural system would be equipped better to deal with several environmental impacts such as climate change, biodiversity loss and resource issues.
and fallen branches might also affect soil health, biodiversity and wildlife habitat. The study, conducted over four years, covers 80 forest types within 19 different eco-regions,
Biofuel plantations can also decimate biodiversity, and rob people of food and water as companies use land for biofuel feedstocks rather than for food crops,
India's poor most vulnerable to rapid biodiversity losshyderabad Â--Â India's poorest fishing, forest and farming communities will be worst hit by rapid losses of nature as well as efforts to conserve it.
They voiced their concerns at the U n. Conference on Biodiversity which concluded on October 20 in the southern city of Hyderabad.
Negotiators from over 170 countries attended the two-week U n. meeting on biodiversity held every two years.
India will lead the international community to prevent biodiversity losses. In this capacity, it has set an agenda of linking livelihood with protecting biodiversity.
Living at the periphery of subsistence the poor are the most at risk from biodiversity loss,
Prime minister Manmohan Singh  told the delegates last week. They should not also be the ones to bear the cost of biodiversity conservation
while the benefits are enjoyed by society at large. The Indian government says that livelihood is already a component of its plans to conserve biodiversity.
M. F. Farooqui, a senior government official from the Environment Ministry, who supervised the conference,
one of the 17 megadiverse countries abundant in biodiversity, is home to 1. 2 billion people living on 2. 4 percent of the world's land.
Last week, Dr. Singh made the first financial pledge of $50 million to save biodiversity.
The biodiversity talks concluded on Saturday after developed countries agreed to increase funding for conservation schemes by 2015.
Developing nations, home to the bulk of biodiversity, will use most of this money. In exchange, 75%of developing countries will have to make biodiversity part of the national agenda as well as spend their own money on saving it.
But funding for conservation policies is hard to drum up in the lurch of the economic crisis.
While scientists describe devastating consequences of losing biodiversity, the U n. conference received little coverage from both the national and international media.
and biodiversity so it should sign on and participate, said Ashok Khosla, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's oldest environmental network.
and that animals are a fundamental part of cultural biodiversity Firstly, animals are a vital link in the global ecological and,
and to ensure no reliance on precious drinking water to maintain our green cities--while still encouraging biodiversity,
The Ferme de Paris, the city's farm located in the Bois de Vincennes, has proposed a new eco-friendly solution that will explore questions of biodiversity and more natural landscaping methods.
Even the workers at the Archives, the animals'temporary caretakers, have completed a biodiversity training to educate them on the importance of the sheep.
Push for greener, leafier spaces on Parisian roofsparis A new biodiversity initiative seeks to convert over 17 acres of Parisian rooftops to thriving gardens by 2020.
the hope is to create pockets of biodiversity across the city through innovative new rooftop gardens.
 Also, promoting biodiversity means finding ways to integrate different types of plants to a very particular Parisian climate.
but according to Marc Barra, business and biodiversity administrator for Natureparif, there is work left to do. Â Natureparif is an agency that is working with the city to promote
and advise on biodiversity issues in the Ile-de-france region The french region that includes Paris. Barra said that existing gardens don t adequately promote diversity,
and medicine might lead to an increase or loss of biodiversity. The framing paper for the conference was oehow will synthetic biology
and biodiversity as it relates to synthetic biology must address the topic of land use changes, and so far, the most important category for land use change has come from biofuels policies.
and hence future patterns of biodiversity loss. How will a balance be struck between private risk and gain versus public benefit and safety?
Yet, progressive conservationists recognize that there is potential for synthetic biology to increase biodiversity, too. Not to be overlooked, the paper noted that oepopulation growth
(and corresponding consumption) are key macro-scale drivers of biodiversity loss. It is unclear what role synthetic biology and its products will play in these relationships.
While many of these vats of production may help save biodiversity in some regions, they clearly come with new economic winners
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