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

世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

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

Comment: Gold fever

[Extract] Given its wide-ranging and transformative impacts, the global explosion of built infrastructure is arguably the most urgent environmental threat today (Laurance et al., 2014; Laurance and Arrea, 2017; Laurance, 2018b). This tsunami of infrastructure has many contributing factors, including human overpopulation and the short-term thinking that arises from consumptive growth-oriented economies. The consequences will be many, from massive loss and degradation of wildlife habitat to increasing pressures on the global climate, and they will reverberate across nearly every sector of society.

The thin green line: scientists must do more to limit the toll of burgeoning infrastructure on nature and society

I present a brief synopsis of six key lessons provided by research on forest ecology and conservation, focusing particularly on the Malaysian state of Sabah in northeastern Borneo. These lessons are generalizable to other contexts, especially for tropical developing nations, where surviving forests are under growing pressures from a range of human activities.

Lessons from Research for Sustainable Development and Conservation in Borneo

The Island of New Guinea is renowned for its high biodiversity, which arises in part from its complex geology and topographical variability. The island is, however, relatively understudied. We surveyed forest plant communities in the poorly studied Naoro-Brown catchment of the West Koiari region of Papua New Guinea. We identified four forest types—riverine successional forest, lower montane forest, hill forest, and riverine mixed forest—along a 13-km transect, and examined forest structure (tree height, stand density, and biomass) and tree species diversity (species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, and composition) in these forest types. We also assessed the effect of local topography on floristic patterns. Forest structure and species diversity varied greatly among the forest types, with topography strongly affecting species assemblages. These results suggest that highly varied landscapes may contain high beta diversity via intense segregation and establishment of varied vegetation communities. Beta diversity in New Guinea may be higher than expected as such highly varied landscapes are common, yet poorly studied. To effectively conserve biodiversity in New Guinea's forests, protection must include forested landscapes that best represent the topographical variability throughout the island to account for locally endemic species restricted to specific ecological niches.

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Forest structure, plant diversity and local endemism in a highly varied New Guinea landscape

Estudos recentes sugerem que as taxas de desmatamento na Amazonia brasileira poderiam aumentar rapidamente como resultado dos mais de 40 bilhoes de dolares planejados em investimentos no asfaltamento de estradas e na implantacao novos projetos de infraestrutura na regiao. Estes estudos tem sido questionados por ministros e importantes autoridades brasileiras, que asseguram que os melhoramentos recentes na legislacao ambiental e no seu cumprimento, e nas politicas e atitudes publicas, tem reduzido fundamentalmente a ameaca sobre as florestas que poderiam ser causadas por estes projetos. Nos testamos a ideia de que os riscos para as florestas da Amazonia vem diminuindo durante a ultima decada, utilizando dos dados disponiveis sobre as taxas de desmatamento de 1978 a 2000. Embora as altas taxas de perda de floresta de 1978 a 1989 (1.98 milhoes de hectares ano-1) tenham tido um declinio em 1990-1994 (1.38 milhoes de ha ano-1), as taxas retomaram um nivel alto em 1995-2000 (1.90 milhoes ha ano-1). Analises de correlacao e de regressao revelaram que tanto as taxas absoluta como per-capita de perda de floresta se aceleraram significativamente durante a ultima decada. Estas tendencias nao sustentam a afirmativa de que a pressao de desmatamento nas florestas da Amazonia tem sido mantida sob controle. Nos sugerimos que o pobre cumprimento das leis ambientais existentes, a rapida expansao de atividades madeireiras e de mineracao, o aumento da pressao populacional e outros desafios estao dificultando os esforcos para tentar limitar os impactos ambientais das atividades de desenvolvimento na Amazonia Brasileira.

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William F. Laurance

Papers

Comment: Gold fever

The thin green line: scientists must do more to limit the toll of burgeoning infrastructure on nature and society

Lessons from Research for Sustainable Development and Conservation in Borneo

Forest structure, plant diversity and local endemism in a highly varied New Guinea landscape

O desmatamento está se acelerando na Amazônia brasileira