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

Quantification of global forest change has been lacking despite the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services. In this study, Earth observation satellite data were used to map global forest loss (2.3 million square kilometers) and gain (0.8 million square kilometers) from 2000 to 2012 at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend, with forest loss increasing by 2101 square kilometers per year. Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation was offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola, and elsewhere. Intensive forestry practiced within subtropical forests resulted in the highest rates of forest change globally. Boreal forest loss due largely to fire and forestry was second to that in the tropics in absolute and proportional terms. These results depict a globally consistent and locally relevant record of forest change.

High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change

Dengue is a systemic viral infection transmitted between humans by Aedes mosquitoes. For some patients, dengue is a life-threatening illness. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific therapeutics, and substantial vector control efforts have not stopped its rapid emergence and global spread. The contemporary worldwide distribution of the risk of dengue virus infection and its public health burden are poorly known. Here we undertake an exhaustive assembly of known records of dengue occurrence worldwide, and use a formal modelling framework to map the global distribution of dengue risk. We then pair the resulting risk map with detailed longitudinal information from dengue cohort studies and population surfaces to infer the public health burden of dengue in 2010. We predict dengue to be ubiquitous throughout the tropics, with local spatial variations in risk influenced strongly by rainfall, temperature and the degree of urbanization. Using cartographic approaches, we estimate there to be 390 million (95% credible interval 284-528) dengue infections per year, of which 96 million (67-136) manifest apparently (any level of disease severity). This infection total is more than three times the dengue burden estimate of the World Health Organization. Stratification of our estimates by country allows comparison with national dengue reporting, after taking into account the probability of an apparent infection being formally reported. The most notable differences are discussed. These new risk maps and infection estimates provide novel insights into the global, regional and national public health burden imposed by dengue. We anticipate that they will provide a starting point for a wider discussion about the global impact of this disease and will help to guide improvements in disease control strategies using vaccine, drug and vector control methods, and in their economic evaluation.

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The global distribution and burden of dengue

Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone

Cause, conseguenze e strategie di mitigazione Proponiamo il primo di una serie di articoli in cui affronteremo l’attuale problema dei mutamenti climatici. Presentiamo il documento redatto, votato e pubblicato dall’Ipcc - Comitato intergovernativo sui cambiamenti climatici - che illustra la sintesi delle ricerche svolte su questo tema rilevante.

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Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.

Corrigendum: Aboveground carbon loss in natural and managed tropical forests from 2000 to 2012 (2015 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 074002 )

Spaceborne lidar has been identified as a key technology by the international ecosystem science community because it enables accurate estimates of canopy structure and biomass and forms the basis for fusion approaches that extend the capabilities of existing and planned optical and radar missions. The Global Ecosystems Dynamics Investigation Lidar (GEDI Lidar) was recently selected by NASA's Earth Ventures Instrument (EVI) program. The scientific goal of GEDI is to characterize the effects of changing climate and land use on ecosystem structure and dynamics to enable radically improved quantification and understanding of the Earth's carbon cycle and biodiversity. Planned for deployment in 2018 on the International Space Station, GEDI Lidar provides high-resolution observations of forest vertical structure and addresses three, core science questions: What is the aboveground carbon balance of the land surface? What role will the land surface play in mitigating atmospheric CO2 in the coming decades? How does ecosystem structure affect habitat quality and biodiversity? 

GEDI informs these science questions by making over 16 billion lidar waveform observations per year. These canopy measurements are then used to estimate biomass and to quantify changes in biomass resulting from disturbance and recovery. GEDI further marries ecosystem structure from lidar with ecosystem modeling to predict the sequestration potential of existing forests and to evaluate the impact of policy-driven afforestation and reforestation actions on sequestering additional carbon. Lastly, GEDIâ€™s observations of ecosystem structure provide a mapping of critical habitat metrics at the fine scales required for understanding the patterns, processes, and controls on biodiversity and habitat quality. The selection of GEDI Lidar, when combined with the rapid advancement of new radar missions and the availability of long-term land cover archives from passive optical sensors, ushers in an exciting new era of land surface imaging with far ranging consequences for forest science.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar

The lost promise of DESDynI

Land development pressures that threaten habitat core areas and connectivity are intensifying across the nation and extending beyond urbanized areas in the form of rural residential development. This is particularly true in the temperate forests of the northeastern United States. We used a suite of nationally available data sets derived from satellite imagery to identify core habitat areas of the northeastern United States, including impervious cover (urbanized and developed areas) and forest cover (canopy density). These were augmented with road network extent and density. We analyzed the influence of different types of unimproved roads and amount of forest cover on identification of the extent and configuration of roadless areas, and then assessed these core habitat areas in terms of land ownership (public, private) and management (parks, refuges, multi-use). We also derived patch connectivity metrics using a graph theory approach, making use of cost surfaces that accounted for the above variab...

Using Widely Available Geospatial Data Sets to Assess the Influence of Roads and Buffers on Habitat Core Areas and Connectivity

The mid-Atlantic Regional Earth Science Applications Center (RESAC) was established in the Geography Department at the University of Maryland (UMD) by NASA's Earth Science Applications Program. The mid-Atlantic RESAC is to provide improved land cover mapping and ecological modeling capabilities for a diverse consortium of partners in government, academia, industry and NGOs within the 178000 km/sup 2/ Chesapeake Bay watershed. It is one of 7 regional centers established nationwide and leverages expertise in satellite remote sensing to address applications of regional significance including land cover change, land use planning, carbon exchange modeling, and integrated environmental monitoring. Examples of issues that are being addressed include nutrient runoff to the Chesapeake Bay, urban sprawl, farm and forest productivity, landscape fragmentation effects on biodiversity, a land manager decision support system, and educational outreach. The mid-Atlantic RESAC provides an example of how scientific advances can be focused on practical applications that challenge our ability to manage resources sustainably. A brief overview of the RESAC is provided and specific applications are reviewed using examples that emphasize the utility of remote sensing and GIS capabilities. Results of field activities undertaken during the 1999 growing season, for example, are used with a fusion of multi-temporal Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper and SPOT panchromatic imagery to classify vegetation types, and to characterize development of the severe drought that took place in the region.

Scott J. Goetz

Papers

Corrigendum: Aboveground carbon loss in natural and managed tropical forests from 2000 to 2012 (2015 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 074002 )

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Lidar

The lost promise of DESDynI

Using Widely Available Geospatial Data Sets to Assess the Influence of Roads and Buffers on Habitat Core Areas and Connectivity

Applications of multi-temporal land cover information in the mid-Atlantic region: a RESAC initiative