Biodiversities can differ substantially among different wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) communities. Whether differences in biodiversity translate into differences in the provision of particular ecosystem services, however, is under active debate. Theoretical considerations predict that WWTP communities with more biodiversity are more likely to contain strains that have positive effects on th...

Recent estimates reaffirm that conservation funds are insufficient to meet biodiversity conservation goals. Organisations focused on biodiversity conservation therefore need to capitalise on investments that societies make in environmental protection that provide ancillary benefits to biodiversity. Here, we undertake the first assessment of the potential ancillary benefits from the ballot box i...

Ecosystem services (ES) are an increasingly popular policy framework for connecting biodiversity with human well-being. These efforts typically assume that biodiversity and ES covary, but the relationship between them remains remarkably unclear. Here we analyse >500 recent papers and show that reported relationships differ among ES, methods of measuring biodiversity and ES, and three different ...

This essay includes a review of major strategies for preservation of earth’s biodiversity including the biodiversity “hotspots,” “Wildlands Project,” and the “consensus” strategy. The essay includes a review of reasons for protecting biodiversity including the deep ecology, inherent value argument, and a review of philosophies and organizations that place low value on preservation of biodiversi...

Meeting the ever-increasing needs of the Earth's human population without excessively reducing biological diversity is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, suggesting that new approaches to biodiversity conservation are required. One idea rapidly gaining momentum-as well as opposition-is to incorporate the values of biodiversity into decision-making using economic methods. Here, we d...

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth, biodiversity loss and efforts to conserve biodiversity using a combination of panel and cross section data. If economic growth is a cause of biodiversity loss through habitat transformation and other means, then we would expect an inverse relationship. But if higher levels of income are associated with increasing real demand for ...

Concern is growing about the consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystem functioning, for the provision of ecosystem services, and for human well being. Experimental evidence for a relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem process rates is compelling, but the issue remains contentious. Here, we present the first rigorous quantitative assessment of this relationship through meta-analys...

The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity to celebrate biodiversity, increase understanding about how biodiversity is critical for sustaining life on Earth, and to highlight the ongoing and increasing loss of biodiversity. The emphasis of this campaign is on people and biodiversity, and the monetary value of biodiversity in terms of goods and services, rather...

conclusions with regard to improving the understanding of the differences in the biodiversity of the fecal microbiota between rd infants and h infants, the findings of this study can provide a possible basis to reveal the relationship between rd and intestinal microbiota. objectives this study aimed to reveal the changes in the biodiversity of the fecal microbiota of infants with rd. patients a...