Conservation International

About: Conservation International is a(n) nonprofit organization based out in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topic(s): Biodiversity & Population. The organization has 734 authors who have published 1561 publication(s) receiving 167238 citation(s).

Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities

Abstract: 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.

Extinction risk from climate change

Abstract: Climate change over the past approximately 30 years has produced numerous shifts in the distributions and abundances of species and has been implicated in one species-level extinction. Using projections of species' distributions for future climate scenarios, we assess extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. Exploring three approaches in which the estimated probability of extinction shows a power-law relationship with geographical range size, we predict, on the basis of mid-range climate-warming scenarios for 2050, that 15-37% of species in our sample of regions and taxa will be 'committed to extinction'. When the average of the three methods and two dispersal scenarios is taken, minimal climate-warming scenarios produce lower projections of species committed to extinction ( approximately 18%) than mid-range ( approximately 24%) and maximum-change ( approximately 35%) scenarios. These estimates show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.

Global Biodiversity: Indicators of Recent Declines

Abstract: In 2002, world leaders committed, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. We compiled 31 indicators to report on progress toward this target. Most indicators of the state of biodiversity (covering species' population trends, extinction risk, habitat extent and condition, and community composition) showed declines, with no significant recent reductions in rate, whereas indicators of pressures on biodiversity (including resource consumption, invasive alien species, nitrogen pollution, overexploitation, and climate change impacts) showed increases. Despite some local successes and increasing responses (including extent and biodiversity coverage of protected areas, sustainable forest management, policy responses to invasive alien species, and biodiversity-related aid), the rate of biodiversity loss does not appear to be slowing.

Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide

Abstract: The first global assessment of amphibians provides new context for the well-publicized phenomenon of amphibian declines. Amphibians are more threatened and are declining more rapidly than either birds or mammals. Although many declines are due to habitat loss and overutilization, other, unidentified processes threaten 48% of rapidly declining species and are driving species most quickly to extinction. Declines are nonrandom in terms of species' ecological preferences, geographic ranges, and taxonomic associations and are most prevalent among Neotropical montane, stream-associated species. The lack of conservation remedies for these poorly understood declines means that hundreds of amphibian species now face extinction.

Global land cover mapping from MODIS: algorithms and early results

Abstract: Until recently, advanced very high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) observations were the only viable source of data for global land cover mapping. While many useful insights have been gained from analyses based on AVHRR data, the availability of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data with greatly improved spectral, spatial, geometric, and radiometric attributes provides significant new opportunities and challenges for remote sensing-based land cover mapping research. In this paper, we describe the algorithms and databases being used to produce the MODIS global land cover product. This product provides maps of global land cover at 1-km spatial resolution using several classification systems, principally that of the IGBP. To generate these maps, a supervised classification methodology is used that exploits a global database of training sites interpreted from high-resolution imagery in association with ancillary data. In addition to the IGBP class at each pixel, the MODIS land cover product provides several other parameters including estimates for the classification confidence associated with the IGBP label, a prediction for the most likely alternative class, and class labels for several other classification schemes that are used by the global modeling community. Initial results based on 5 months of MODIS data are encouraging. At global scales, the distribution of vegetation and land cover types is qualitatively realistic. At regional scales, comparisons among heritage AVHRR products, Landsat TM data, and results from MODIS show that the algorithm is performing well. As a longer time series of data is added to the processing stream and the representation of global land cover in the site database is refined, the quality of the MODIS land cover product will improve accordingly.