Currently, two broad types of approach for predicting the impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases can be distinguished: i) empirical-statistical (correlative) approaches that use statistical models of relationships between vector and/or pathogen presence and environmental factors; and ii) process-based (mechanistic) approaches that seek to simulate detailed biological or epidemiologic...

A major conservation concern is whether population size and other ecological variables change linearly with habitat loss, or whether they suddenly decline more rapidly below a "critical threshold" level of habitat. The most commonly discussed explanation for critical threshold responses to habitat loss focus on habitat configuration. As habitat loss progresses, the remaining habitat is increasi...

Global changes manifest themselves in coastal waters depending on local oceanography and ecosystems. In this paper, we consider the Strait of Georgia as a case study. After examining physical and chemical processes and trends, we discuss consequences of change on geochemical cycling and biota. Several components of the system are vulnerable. Declines in pH and O2 of basin waters, partly importe...

This is updated study on biodiversity and its conditions in Ukraine and seven surrounding countries. It includes four different methods: the indicative-index approach, the Mean Species Abundance (MSA) and two species based approaches, one using habitat changes as driving factor (EEBIO) and the other includes climate change (SDM_GLM, BIOCLIM). The indicative-index methodology ‘BINU’ dealt with 1...

The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world. This impacts Arctic species both directly, through increased temperatures, and indirectly, through structural changes in their habitats. Species are expected to exhibit idiosyncratic responses to structural change, which calls for detailed investigations at the species and community level. Here, we investigate how arthropod assem...

Land use changes by human activities have been the main causes of habitats and wildlife population degradation. In the Tehuantepec Isthmus in Oaxaca, the tropical habitat of the porcupine Sphiggurus mexicanus has been subject to vegetation and land use changes, causing its reduction and fragmentation. In this study, we estimated vegetation cover and land use (δn) change rates and assessed habit...

Low-density residential development (i.e., exurban development) is often embedded within a matrix of protected areas and natural amenities, raising concern about its ecological consequences. Forest-dependent species are particularly susceptible to human settlement even at low housing densities typical of exurban areas. However, few studies have examined the response of forest birds to this incr...

With few exceptions, the US Endangered Species Act requires the designation of “critical habitat” for threatened and endangered species. This provides important protections, including a prohibition against adverse modification of designated habitat by federal agencies. Scientists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service develop critical habitat designations, which are then peer reviewed before bei...

Cognitive abilities rise steeply from infancy to young adulthood and then are either maintained or decline to old age, depending on the specific ability. This pattern suggests corresponding continuities of mechanism and process, but it is striking that the fields of cognitive development and cognitive aging make little contact with each other's methods and theories. In this review we examine re...