Tropical ecosystems are the biologically richest places on the planet, yet what we know about them comes from scientific studies so specialized that the results rarely make the local news. “Most ecological studies last fewer than five years at a single study site, with measurements focused on an area of only ten meters squared,” explains Sandy Andelman, Vice President of Conservation International for the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network. “Ecology needs to scale up to address global climate change and other environmental threats.” Scaling up to global proportions is precisely what TEAM was created to do. This ambitious program is devoted to monitoring long-term trends in biodiversity, land cover change, climate and ecosystem services in tropical forests. Tropical forests received first billing because of their overwhelming significance to the global biosphere (e.g., their disproportionately large role in global carbon and energy cycles) and because of the extraordinary threats they face. About 50 percent of the species described on Earth, and an even larger proportion of species not yet described, occur in tropical forests. The idea behind TEAM is deceptively simple: to measure and compare plants, terrestrial mammals, ground-dwelling birds and climate using a standard methodology in a range of tropical forests, from relatively pristine places to those most affected by people. TEAM currently operates in sixteen tropical forest sites across Africa, Asia and Latin America supporting a network of scientists committed to standardized methods of data collection to quantify how plants and animals respond to pressures such as climate change and human encroachment. ... [Information of the supplier]
Sevilleta LTER is part of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network and is managed by the Department of Biology, University of New Mexico. The primary research goal is to understand how abiotic drivers and constraints affect dynamics and stability in an aridland ecosystem. [Information of the supplier, modified]
Anchialine (from Greek meaning "near the sea") refers to coastal caves formed in limestone or volcanic rock that are flooded with seawater. They include the longest submerged caves on Earth. These caves are inhabited by a diverse array of previously unknown species from a number of new higher taxa. While some are primitive "living fossils", others are closely related to deep sea species. Most lack eyes and pigment, owing to their existence in the perpetual darkness of underwater caves. While some closely related species are found in caves on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, others, previously known exclusively from caves in the Atlantic Ocean, recently have been discovered in Western Australia. These highly irregular distributions suggest an origin many millions of years ago when the Earth's landmasses were interconnected. Since such anchialine cave animals are frequently limited to a single cave or cave system, pollution or destruction of these caves can result in the extinction of entire species. ... [Information of the supplier]
The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world. ... [Information of the supplier]
Open Landscapes 2013 will bring together researchers from all over the world that have a focus on open landscape habitats. The conference will cover a wide range of topics including ecological pattern and processes in undisturbed and disturbed ecosystems; consequences of global change for biodiversity and/or ecosystem services; plant-animal relationships; tools and targets for ecosystem restoration and innovative strategies for nature conservation. The focus will be given to all kinds of open landscape habitats including wetlands, coastal ecosystems, grasslands, wood-pastures, mountain ecosystems and agricultural landscapes. ... [Information of the supplier]
JournalMap is an ecological literature search engine that empowers you to find relevant research based on location and biophysical variables as well as traditional keyword searches. All publications are geotagged based on reported location information and plotted on a world map showing where the research was conducted allowing you to easily visualize the research occurring in specific areas and show you where data gaps might exist. In addition to being able to search for literature geographically, JournalMap opens up the possibility to search for literature from similar areas. In many parts of the world, there has been little formal study of the structure and dynamics of local ecosystems, turning resource management into a guessing game. However, research that has been conducted on landscapes that share similar soils and climates can, in many cases, be relevant to these understudied regions. ... [Information of the supplier]
Rettet den Regenwald ist eine gemeinnützige Umweltorganisation, die die Lobby - und Informationsarbeit zur Aufklärung über die Abholzung der Regenwälder als einen ihrer Schwerpunkte ansieht. Ihr zweiter Schwerpunkt setzt direkt in den Regenwaldländern an, wo sie den Kauf von Regenwaldflächen, Protestkampagnen der indigenen Bevölkerung und ähnliche Projekte unterstützt. ... [Redaktion vifabio]
The Amazon Forest Inventory Network is an international network that has been established to understand the biomass and dynamics of Amazonian forests. Since 2000 we have established a systematic framework for long-term monitoring of this region, which holds more biodiversity, water, and vegetation carbon, than any other region of the planet. RAINFOR has worked step-by-step, including partners across the nations of Amazon, taking account of the potentially strong modulating role of environmental variables like soil nutrition, and the need to help develop a new generation of Amazon ecologists. RAINFOR is curently supported by the Andes and Amazon Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. ... [Information of the supplier]
Tropical forests harbour thousands of useful plants that are harvested and used in subsistence economies or traded in local, regional or international markets. The effect on the ecosystem is little known, and the forests resilience is badly understood. Palms are the most useful group of plants in tropical American forests and in this project we study the effect of extraction and trade of palms on forest in the western Amazon, the Andes and the Pacific lowlands. We determine the size of the resource by making palm community studies in the different forest formations and determine the number of species and individuals of all palm species. The genetic structure of useful palm species is studied to determine how much harvesting of the species contributes to genetic erosion of its populations, and whether extraction can be made without harm. We determine how much palms are used for subsistence purposes by carrying out quantitative, ethnobotanical research in different forest types and we also study trade patterns for palm products from local markets to markets that involve export to other countries and continents. Palm populations are managed in various ways from sustainable ones to destructive harvesting; we study different ways in which palms are managed and we will propose sustainable methods to local farmers, local governments, NGOs and other interested parties. Finally we study national level mechanism that governs extraction, trade and commercialization of palm products, to identify positive and negative policies in relation to resilience of ecosystems and use this to propose sustainable policies to the governments. ... [Information of the supplier]
The primary aim of the Victorian Rainforest Network (VRN) is to secure the effective conservation of rainforests on public land throughout Victoria by ensuring rainforests are adequately identified and protected from logging practices by appropriate buffers and/or permanent reservation. VRN is an independent and politically unaligned network of rainforest enthusiasts, researchers and activists with a shared interest in rainforest conservation and education across Victoria. VRN is simply asking Government to follow their own rules. ... [Information of the supplier]
