biodiversity

Sharks have long inspired our fascination and our fear. However, a growing body of scientific evidence has shown that instead of being afraid of sharks—which have killed fewer humans within a year than such risks as accidents taking scenic selfies and encounters with vending machines—we should be afraid for sharks. The latest numbers from the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List show that nearly one third of all known species of sharks and their relatives are considered threatened with extinction.…

Plant species diversity in four different ecosystems represented as spectral variation. Credit: Anna Schweiger, Etienne LalibertéInternationally comparable data on biodiversity is needed to protect threatened ecosystems, restore destroyed habitats and counteract the negative effects of global biodiversity loss. Current biodiversity monitoring, however, is labor-intensive and costly. In addition, many places around the world are difficult to access.Biodiversity monitoring from space possible via satelliteAnna Schweiger…

“Tick-borne diseases are the most important vector-borne disease in the continental US when you tally the amount of disease transmitted to humans,” says Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, a disease ecologist and associate professor at the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. “And if you go back in time, 30 to 40 years, those diseases had not even been described.”Scientists recognize that danger even though the statistics on tick-borne diseases are widely understood to be incomplete. Of those 16 illnesses, only six are “nationally…