Conservationists are far from able to assist all species under threat, if only for lack of funding. This places a premium on priorities: how can we support the most species at the least cost? One way is to identify 'biodiversity hotspots' where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confined to 25 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth. This opens the way for a 'silver bullet' strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on these hotspots in proportion to their share of the world's species at risk.

Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities

抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Land use has generally been considered a local environmental issue, but it is becoming a force of global importance. Worldwide changes to forests, farmlands, waterways, and air are being driven by the need to provide food, fiber, water, and shelter to more than six billion people. Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and urban areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity. Such changes in land use have enabled humans to appropriate an increasing share of the planet’s resources, but they also potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases. We face the challenge of managing trade-offs between immediate human needs and maintaining the capacity of the biosphere to provide goods and services in the long term.

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Global Consequences of Land Use

世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

Global biodiversity assessment: Edited by V.H. Heywood Cambridge University Press, 1995. £80.00/$ 110.00 hbk, £29.95/$44.95 pbk (1140 pages) ISBN 0 521 564034/816

Adaptive Dynamics of Infectious Diseases: Wildlife Perspectives on the Evolution of Virulence

This paper provides an overview of what the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) calls "indirect and direct drivers" of change in ecosystem services at a global level. The MA definition of a driver is any natural or human-induced factor that directly or indirectly causes a change in an ecosystem. A direct driver unequivocally influences ecosystem processes. An indirect driver operates more diffusely by altering one or more direct drivers. Global driving forces are categorized as demographic, economic, sociopolitical, cultural and religious, scientific and technological, and physical and biological. Drivers in all categories other than physical and biological are considered indirect. Important direct drivers include changes in climate, plant nutrient use, land conversion, and diseases and invasive species. This paper does not discuss natural drivers such as climate variability, extreme weather events, or volcanic eruptions.

Research, part of a Special Feature on Scenarios of global ecosystem services Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecosystem Change: an Overview

Host-parasites processes and demographics consequences

In this chapter we present evidence which suggests that the parasitic nematode Trichostrongylus tenuis is responsible for producing the patterns of cyclic abundance commonly observed in red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. We first review the life history of the parasite, then outline some mathematical models that may be used to explore the population dynamics of this system. This model produces cycles similar to the observed cycles for reasonable parameter values. Different ways of controlling the parasites are discussed and other work on grouse populations are discussed in terms of our own work.

Andrew P. Dobson

Papers

Global biodiversity assessment: Edited by V.H. Heywood Cambridge University Press, 1995. £80.00/$ 110.00 hbk, £29.95/$44.95 pbk (1140 pages) ISBN 0 521 564034/816

Adaptive Dynamics of Infectious Diseases: Wildlife Perspectives on the Evolution of Virulence

Research, part of a Special Feature on Scenarios of global ecosystem services Anthropogenic Drivers of Ecosystem Change: an Overview

Host-parasites processes and demographics consequences

The population dynamics and control of the parasitic nematode Trichostrogylus tennis in red grouse in the North of England