The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth

The concept of anthropogenic climate change is now understood in the discipline of International Relations (IR) as an urgent environmental problem enveloping the globe. It underlies recent claims that humanity’s impact on the Earth’s natural systems is so consequential that a new geologic epoch has begun: The Anthropocene, or the ‘human age’. Yet, IR’s increasing engagement and use of these scientific concepts raises significant questions the discipline has yet to address. For instance, if global climate change appeared in international politics only as recently as the late-1980s, what spurred this sudden emergence? If the Anthropocene appeared only after 2000, then how does this new concept affect the way we now think about global politics, the Earth, and even ourselves? This thesis answers these questions by arguing that the concepts of global climate change and the Anthropocene are neither immutable nor universal scientific truths or natural objects. Rather, they emerged when technological advances in nuclear physics and models tracing bomb radiocarbon intersected with the ways states govern their territories and subjects. The global nature or ‘climatic globality’ of these concepts, therefore, is a manner of conducting and steering human conduct and action by establishing the boundaries of subjectivity when they are thought. This is what Michel Foucault called governmentality. It is demonstrated in this thesis through a genealogical tracing of climate change in IR, focusing on how nuclear sciences, computational modelling technologies, and regimes of international governance, overlapped to form the climatic globality IR now takes for granted. Combining genealogy with the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, a new form of global governmentality becomes evident. Through a technological and metaphysical subjectivism with the carbon atom as its substrate, the human self now asserts itself from atomic to global scales, as the maker, master, and steward, of the Earth.

In January 2020, during China’s COVID-19 outbreak, the NASA Earth Observatory captured aerial images indicating significantly lower emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a major air pollutant, across China’s mainland.[1] Scientists across the globe have reported preliminary empirical data that amid shelter-in-place directives and the shutting down of large-scale economic activity, the environment is flourishing. Abnormal sightings of wild animals roaming freely in deserted cities have been widely reported. For example, monkeys in Lopburi, Bangkok and leatherback turtles on deserted beaches in Florida, US are thriving.[2] This pandemic has given mother earth a chance to ‘breathe.’ Environmentalists are asking how long the breather will last and whether it will sustain the earth for years to come, when business as usual returns bringing environmental challenges. This pandemic has shaken up business as usual including major economic drivers of supply and demand. At the moment, the demand for oil is at an all-time low whereas personal protective equipment (PPE) markets are booming. The world has entered into a recession, with estimates of a US $2 trillion loss. Approximately 11 million people are being pushed into poverty.[3] People are functioning differently: there is a shift toward working remotely, micro gardening in urban settings, more mindful use of resources, and spending more time at home with friends and family. These trends may put less strain on people as well as on the environment. As people find a better work-life balance and commute less, the 77.5% of pollution caused by car and air travel, may be reduced.[4] Some scientists also argue that if the planet were healthier we would see fewer viruses take hold.[5] Although scientists estimate that the impact of COVID-19 on the environment may be temporarily positive, long-lasting action and commitment are necessary to mitigate climate change. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations member states in 2015 aim to achieve climate action, sustainable cities, and sustainable use of the earth and ocean’s resources by 2030. While there is a short-term environmental benefit of lower emissions, the long-term goals may be set back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] The SDGs include eliminating poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity and peace for all people.[7] The SDGs are a stark reminder that the pre-COVID-19 world was far from perfect. Most countries’ economies are driven by exponential capitalist growth in which the environment and people are exploited for the sake of profit. Nearly half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day.[8] 44 percent of the world’s net worth belongs to 0.8 percent of the world’s individuals[9]. This crisis has exposed systemic flaws even more, as those who have lower socio-economic standing are disproportionately affected by this pandemic. They are more susceptible because they do not have access to basic sanitation and are often forced to live in places affected worse by climate change and pollution. In 2019 Greta Thunberg, the 15-year-old environmental activist, made the case that the economics to solve the current environmental constraints did not yet exist. In 2020, amid the pandemic, the United Nations (UN) reported that there is a need to rebuild economies differently.[10] Individuals and governments may be spurred to change their approach to climate action requiring a shift of societal norms to value the environment and people’s happiness more than profit growth. In Amsterdam, donut economics will be used to help the economy recover.[11] Donut economics originated from Kate Raworth of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute’s book, ‘Donut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist.’ The inner ring of the donut refers to the minimum that people need to live a good life, which is based on the UN’s SDGs (such as food, clean water, housing, sanitation, energy, education, healthcare, gender equality, income, and political voice). Any person who does not have access to these minimum standards of living is described as living in the doughnut’s hole. The outer ring of the doughnut, where the sprinkles go, represents the ecological outer parameters, drawn up by earth-system scientists. These outer parameters delineate the boundaries which humanity should not progress beyond if it is to avoid damage to the ozone layer, oceans, freshwater resources, and abundant biodiversity. In developing countries such as South Africa, the opportunity to rebuild the economy by means of donut economics seems idealistic because a large percentage of the population lives inside the doughnut hole. The immediate challenges of debt, poverty, and food shortage brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown are pressing.[12] However, visionary leaders should take a long-term perspective as there is opportunity to do so now. For example, during this time President Cyril Ramaphosa aims to reduce the number of ‘people living inside the donut’s hole’ by improving housing infrastructure in rural areas. Rebuilding a more ethical post-COVID-19 world of both environmental and human flourishing[13] will require a planetary health perspective.[14] The Lancet[15] suggests that a planetary perspective must move beyond an emergency response toward resilience and prevention planning. In “Happiness explained: What human flourishing is and what we can do to promote it,” Paul Aland explains that the principles of human flourishing are fairness, autonomy, community, and engagement. These principles may be the pillars for post-COVID-19 environmental policies. Amid the chaos and trauma of this pandemic, it is up to individuals, leaders, scientists, and bioethicists to take a breather to reflect. It is time to dare to imagine what human and environmental flourishing may look like in a more sustainable post-COVID-19 world and start rebuilding it one step at a time. Photo by RawFilm on Unsplash [1] “These Satellite Photos Show How COVID-19 Lockdowns Have Impacted Global Emissions,” World Economic Forum, March 25, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/emissions-impact-coronavirus-lockdowns-satellites/. [2] Harry Kretchmer, “These Locked-down Cities Are Being Reclaimed by Animals,” World Economic Forum, April 17, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-cities-lockdown-animals-goats-boar-monkeys-zoo/. Deena Robinson, “Endangered Sea Turtles Thriving Amid COVID-19 Restrictions,” April 20, 2020, https://earth.org/endangered-sea-turtles-thriving-amid-covid-19-restrictions/. [3] World Economic Forum, “Why We Cannot Lose Sight of the Sustainable Development Goals during Coronavirus,” April 23, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-effect-sdg-un-progress/. [4] Hiroko Tabuchi, “‘Worse Than Anyone Expected’: Air Travel Emissions Vastly Outpace Predictions,” The New York Times (Online), September 19, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/climate/air-travel-emissions.html. [5] “First Person: COVID-19 Is Not a Silver Lining for the Climate, Says UN Environment Chief,” United Nations News, April 5, 2020, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061082. [6] The World Bank, “Poverty,” April 16, 2020, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview. [7] United Nations Development Programme, “What Are the Sustainable Development Goals?,” 2015, https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html. [8] The World Bank, “Nearly Half the World Lives on Less than $5.50 a Day,” October 17, 2018, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/10/17/nearly-half-the-world-lives-on-less-than-550-a-day. [9] James Davies, Rodrigo Lluberas, and Anthony Shorrocks, “Global Wealth Report 2018,” Credit Suisse Research Institute, 2018. [10] “First Person: COVID-19 Is Not a Silver Lining for the Climate, Says UN Environment Chief,” United Nations News, April 5, 2020, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061082. [11] Daniel Boffey, “Amsterdam to Embrace ‘doughnut’ Model to Mend Post-Coronavirus Economy,” April 8, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy. [12] A van den Heever et al., “South Africa Needs a Post-Lockdown Strategy That Emulates South Korea,” The Conversation, April 18, 2020, https://theconversation.com/south-africa-needs-a-post-lockdown-strategy-that-emulates-south-korea-136678. “‘People Need to Eat’: South Africa Eases Coronavirus Lockdown,” Aljazeera, January 5, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/eat-south-africa-eases-coronavirus-lockdown-200501072927207.html. [13] Rose Deller, “Book Review: Happiness Explained: What Human Flourishing Is and How We Can Promote It by Paul Anand,” The London School of Economics and Political Science, August 24, 2016, https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/08/24/book-review-happiness-explained-what-human-flourishing-is-and-how-we-can-promote-it-by-paul-anand/. [14] Alistair Brown and Richard Horton, “A Planetary Health Perspective on COVID-19: A Call for Papers,” The Lancet 395 (April 4, 2020): 1099. [15] Brown and Horton.

Population increase during the mid-twentieth century as mortality declines in many developing nations were not matched with reductions in fertility, resulting in unprecedented growth rates. Concern with environmental change has come to the forefront primarily since 1970, with discernible levels of environmental degradation fueling public concern with the scope of contemporary environmental transformations and the advent of satellite imagery aiding environmental research. Rapid population growth and global environmental change are two issues that have received important public attention over the past several decades. It has become increasingly clear that human populations have a powerful effect on the environment and become a global public policy issue. Yet the exact relationship between population dynamics and the environment is complex. This paper reviews the environmental significances of population dynamics, based on current knowledge of the relationships between population factors and various aspects of the natural environment. This research is important for several reasons. • Compared with human-induced environmental changes of centuries past, the geographic scope of contemporary human-induced change is much larger. The rate of change is also much faster. The Earth's surface air temperature has increased by between 0.3 degrees and 0.6 degrees. Scientists have discovered that human activities as land-use change and fossil fuel use appear linked o increased concentrations of several atmospheric gases which warm the Earth's atmosphere and surface temperature.' As a result, humans appear partially responsible for environmental changes at the global scale-large-scale changes that have taken place in less than 200 years. • Some human-induced environmental changes have irreversible consequences. Ii is estimated that nearly 12 percent of mammals and 11 percent of bird species are currently threatened with extinction. In fact, the currently confronted episode of biodiversity loss is greater than the orld has experienced for the past 65 million years. Although some human activities, such as conservation programs, aim to preserve or enhance biodiversity, human-induced habitat destruction remains the primary cause of species decline. • The effects of contemporary environmental changes on humans are also increasing in scope. Global estimates suggest there may be as many as 25 million ”environmental refugees” -individuals who have migrated because they can no longer secure a livelihood from the land because of deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, and other environmental problems. • Human population continues to grow. In the face of rapid, large-scale, human-induced environmental change, human numbers increase each year by approximately 80 million. Those areas with continuing high fertility and resulting population growth are typically those with the least environmental resilience and those facing the greatest resource constraints. Although Earth already faces severe air pollution, water contamination, and other environmental ills, more than 90 percent of future population growth is projected to take place in these areas. This paper discusses the relationship between population and natural environmental change, the forces that mediate this relationship, and how population dynamics specifically affect climate change and land-use change and like to outline both sides of the policy debate that have emerged-those who would limit fertility and population growth in the developing world and those who need reduced consumption in the developed world. I also like to call for policymakers to pay increased attention to the role of population and forsake the search for one-step solutions to environmental problems.

In thinking about the utilization of present day biotechnologies, explicitly hereditarily adjusted life forms (GMOs), the Malaysian government perceives the noteworthy likely advantages just as vulnerabilities, dangers and questions of this developing innovation. Despite the fact that extraordinary advantages of this innovation could help address future issues, yet, this innovation is frequently joined by open discussion over its possible dangers, which incorporates bioethical issues. In alleviating these dangers in a practical way, biosafety system is required so as to secure human, plant and creature wellbeing, the earth furthermore, biodiversity. One of the way to deal with the dangers is through guideline of equity dependent on law as a definitive innovation arrangement. The legislature passed the Biosafety Act in 2007 to fill in as an “umbrella demonstration” which incorporate the setting up of the National Biosafety Board just as lawful and institutional arrangements customized to conform to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, with the goal to manage the import, send out, intentional discharge, contained use and advertising of GMOrelated items so as to secure human, plant and creature wellbeing, the earth and biodiversity. The inquiry is how does this law tending to bioethical issues and how viable the law in tending to this issue? The reason for this paper is to dissect the degree to which this Biosafety Act 2007 and its guidelines might be successfully coordinating bioethical issues identifying with GM crops in understanding its goals. The article explicitly centers around bioethical issues arrangements of GMOs under the Act and its guidelines. This paper embraces a subjective exploration technique of library-based strategy which incorporates a doctrinal examination of enactment and law. The paper presumes that bioethical thought is basic for the adequacy of the biosafety administrative structures and in advancing reasonable improvement The United States Supreme Court’s choice in Bowman versus Monsanto, infers that ranchers are legitimately has no privilege to spare seeds from licensed hereditarily adjusted (GM) crops one season, and plant them the following season . This left numerous ranchers unfit to discover top notch non-GM seed. Licenses really confine development, as scientists can no longer unreservedly utilize licensed plants in rearing experimentation . Today, GM organizations control almost threequarters of deals. This fixation has prompted more significant expenses and contracting decision for buyers. GM crops likewise influence biodiversity in manners that quality exchanges through cross fertilization bringing about hybridization with related species on the grounds that many plant species can be discovered both as a harvest and as a weed. Open additionally communicated their interests that people don’t have indisputably the option to change living things what’s more, required the requirement for legitimate and proper marking of present day biotechnology items. They were likewise worried about the related dangers to human wellbeing and the chance of market imposing business model by monster organizations and created nations. The morals and security of biotechnology have been bantered since researchers initially started to explore the new innovation in the early 1970s. The worry communicated about the security of biotechnology research prompted a ban of GM crops in specific states in Australia, in India and some European Union nations.

The history of livestock started with the domestication of their wild ancestors: a restricted number of species allowed to be tamed and entered a symbiotic relationship with humans. In exchange for food, shelter and protection, they provided us with meat, eggs, hides, wool and draught power, thus contributing considerably to our economic and cultural development. Depending on the species, domestication took place in different areas and periods. After domestication, livestock spread over all inhabited regions of the earth, accompanying human migrations and becoming also trade objects. This required an adaptation to different climates and varying styles of husbandry and resulted in an enormous phenotypic diversity. Approximately 200 years ago, the situation started to change with the rise of the concept of breed. Animals were selected for the same visible characteristics, and crossing with different phenotypes was reduced. This resulted in the formation of different breeds, mostly genetically isolated from other populations. A few decades ago, selection pressure was increased again with intensive production focusing on a limited range of types and a subsequent loss of genetic diversity. For short-term economic reasons, farmers have abandoned traditional breeds. As a consequence, during the 20th century, at least 28% of farm animal breeds became extinct, rare or endangered. The situation is alarming in developing countries, where native breeds adapted to local environments and diseases are being replaced by industrial breeds. In the most marginal areas, farm animals are considered to be essential for viable land use and, in the developing world, a major pathway out of poverty. Historic documentation from the period before the breed formation is scarce. Thus, reconstruction of the history of livestock populations depends on archaeological, archeo-zoological and DNA analysis of extant populations. Scientific research into genetic diversity takes advantage of the rapid advances in molecular genetics. Studies of mitochondrial DNA, microsatellite DNA profiling and Y-chromosomes have revealed details on the process of domestication, on the diversity retained by breeds and on relationships between breeds. However, we only see a small part of the genetic information and the advent of new technologies is most timely in order to answer many essential questions. High-throughput single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping is about to be available for all major farm animal species. The recent development of sequencing techniques calls for new methods of data management and analysis and for new ideas for the extraction of information. To make sense of this information in practical conditions, integration of geo-environmental and socio-economic data are key elements. The study and management of farm animal genomic resources (FAnGR) is indeed a major multidisciplinary issue. The goal of the present Research Topic was to collect contributions of high scientific quality relevant to biodiversity management, and applying new methods to either new genomic and bioinformatics approaches for characterization of FAnGR, to the development of FAnGR conservation methods applied ex-situ and in-situ, to socio-economic aspects of FAnGR conservation, to transfer of lessons between wildlife and livestock biodiversity conservation, and to the contribution of FAnGR to a transition in agriculture (FAnGR and agro-ecology).

Climate change is a dominant reality of our time, a series of physical changes to earth’s systems that will impact human wellbeing, social stability, biodiversity, and the familiar patterns of harvest and storms on God’s green earth. The Fifth Assessment Report clearly states that climate change is already having an impact on our planet and will worsen the lot of the poor in particular. A critical link between this scientific assessment of the state of the planet and Christian faith is thereby found in the gospel invitation to care for the poor. Yet arguably many Christians have not internalized this reality, and the central symbols of Christian faith are not yet consciously intertwined with the reality of climate change in the ways needed to summon strong action. Therefore, the critical question addressed here is how ministers can help lead their communities to understand the links between climate change and faith -- and then inspire them to act. My focus group research among over 135 faith-based environmentalists show that the motivation for environmental advocacy is effectively created through group discussion in the kinds of trusted groups that congregations and faith communities exemplify. Congregations and faith communities are privileged places for engaging potential environmental leaders, and for supporting the work of already active environmentalists. Research Objectives: Empirical research was conducted while a fellow of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and was approved by the Columbia University Institutional Review Board. The objective was to engage environmental decision theory as well as theological analysis to understand the factors that motivate faith-based environmentalists. Methods: Participants were chosen from mainstream congregational sustainability committees. The Christian groups included Baptists (WA), three groups of Catholics (suburban NJ, urban NY, rural WA), two groups of Episcopalians (suburban and urban NJ), megachurch Christian Evangelicals (FL), Reformed Christians (NJ), two groups of Presbyterians/ PCUSA (MD), Unitarian-Universalists (NJ), and southern pastors (NC). Participant statements provided the primary starting point for analysis. I asked questions about congregational activity, personal motivations, how beliefs developed, and behavior change, and employed semi-structured questions to permit systematic comparison and analysis. Discussions were transcribed and coded both inductively and deductively using NVivo 8 content analysis software (QSR Software, Melbourne) to compare and rank the responses. This essay represents analysis of a small portion of the data collected and the conclusions drawn from it.

Characterized by longitudinal mountain ranges, major rivers and deep valleys, the longitudinal range-gorge region (LRGR) in southwest China is regarded as unique worldwide in terms of landscape and biodiversity. The distinct “corridor-barrier” phenomenon caused by energy transportation and human activities makes the region an important ecological and economic corridor that links China and the Southeast Asian countries. While it houses every ecosystem in the northern Hemisphere except desert and ocean types, and is widely acknowledged as the concentrated area for various species and global gene reserve, it is subject to ecological vulnerability and frequent occurrences of natural disasters. Different ethnic groups scatter in small basins embraced by big mountains and present vast differences in respect of social and economic development. As a result, LRGR has long been regarded as a key area for earth sciences and biology research in search of environment and ecosystem change; meanwhile, LRGR is also a typical area in Western China characterized by high concentration of resources, worsening of environmental deterioration, impoverished rural poor, as well as contradiction between protection and development.Located in the upstream of the four major international rivers in Asia, LRGR is the hinge for China's regional cooperation with southeast and south Asia. At present, the region is under multi- and large-scale disturbance, projecting serious ecological problems. For example, in China's ongoing development programs such as West Development, the region serves as resource bases for biology, ferrous metal and hydropower (with more than 30 cascade dams); while in the international passage program, 3 international expressways, 3 railways and 3 navigation channels will span the region. Along with the construction of such major engineering projects, ecosystem degradation and transboundary ecological security will become increasingly serious, which in turn makes LRGR a sensitive area that deserves global attention. Multi-disciplinary and cross-sector studies on transboundary resources in the region are directed to serve 3 major national needs: ①targeting at the national West Development Strategy to identify core scientific issues of ecological development and infrastructure construction in plateau mountains; ②targeting at national ecological security to develop maintenance mechanism and control methodology for transboundary ecological security and resource bases development; ③targeting at the national opening-up to south Asia to provide scientific grounds for multi-lateral diplomacy, trade and economic cooperation, as well as conflict resolution.

Avoiding the Doldrums: Evaluating the Need for Change in the Offshore Wind Permitting Process

Biodiversity is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend. Biological resources are the pillars upon which we build civilizations. Nature's products support such diverse industries as agriculture, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, horticulture, construction and waste treatment. The loss of biodiversity threatens our food supplies, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and sources of wood, medicines and energy. It also interferes with essential ecological functions. While the loss of individual species catches our attention, it is the fragmentation, degradation, and outright loss of forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other ecosystems that poses the gravest threat to biological diversity. While loss of species has always occurred as a natural phenomenon, the pace of extinction has accelerated dramatically as a result of human activity. Ecosystems are being fragmented or eliminated, and innumerable species are in decline or already extinct. In this context this study has tried to bring out an assessment of the biodiversity in the Ratapani Forests block of Dungarpur range. Pure stand of Tectona Grandis can be seen in Dungarpur district where it dominates the vegetation but in varied degree of degradation due to biotic influence. Associated trees seen in the area are Diospyros melanoxylon, Aegle marmelos, Anogeissus latifolia(which is the most common), Bauhinia racemosa, Soymida febrifuga, Mitragyna parvifolia and Terminalia tomentosa. Undergrowth plant varieties cover Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Carissa opaca etc. The present study found that the increasing pressure of both human and livestock population is taking a heavy toll on the biodiversity of the area particularly in terms of rapid falling of trees and excessive grazing of livestock. On the flat plateau and ridges of the hills most of the fertile soil has been washed away due to serious erosion and these areas are not capable for good teak growth. It is therefore suggested that as the soil of hilly and plateau tracks is fragile and has a thin horizon so these areas must be monitored very closely so that the soil erosion due to removal of vegetation cover can be checked by planting of new saplings which can bind the soil in short term and then these areas too can be made viable to support the teak vegetation as they were supporting prior to the deterioration conditions were set in. The study also suggests various ways and means to arrest the degradation of biodiversity in the area and to regenerate the forest cover on the patches which are rendered barren due to manmade practices.

The earth is in the midst of a sixth major extinction crisis with biodiversity highly threatened by climate change at global scales. Biodiversity is crucial to humans due to the ecosystem functioning and services it provides, and therefore the conservation of biodiversity is paramount to human prosperity in in the future. This PhD thesis uses amphibians to examine biodiversity patterns across the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa (CFEA), a global biodiversity hotspot. The CFEA comprises of a network of tiny fragmented forest patches thought to be the remnants of a once widespread tropical forest that spanned across tropical Africa from West to East prior to major tectonic activity in the Miocene. The gradual aridification of the African continent since then, combined with significant climate and sea level oscillations during the Pliocene and Pleistocene contributed to the natural fragmentation of the CFEA, but human impacts have severely accelerated the pace of forest loss. The work in this thesis integrates field work, taxonomy, morphology, molecular techniques and spatial data to measure biodiversity across the CFEA, explain its distribution and provide a conceptual framework in which this data can be usefully applied for future conservation efforts. A broad scale DNA barcoding project forms the basis of all work in the thesis, assimilating museum specimens and archived spatial records with newly collected data from recent fieldwork to create the most thorough inventory of the CFEA amphibians currently known. Chapter 1 focuses on the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data for five widespread species clades to estimate phylogeny and population structure, genetic distances between populations, and explain these patterns using long-term environmental data. Chapter 2 maps the spatial distribution of evolutionary history measured from phylogenetic branch lengths for multiple intraspecific lineages within species, highlighting places which appear to be refugia and examining their environmental correlates and conservation. Chapter 3 uses close to the full assemblage of Tanzania and Kenya (55 species) to categorize the types of endemism present, distinguishing areas that are ‘museums’ supporting ancient diversity (paleo-endemism) from ‘cradles’ that support recently evolved diversity (neo-endemism). Chapter 4 combines morphological, genetic and spatial data to describe a new endemic species of treefrog, Hyperolius ruvuensis, from a highly threatened reserve in coastal Tanzania. A synthesis chapter summarises the work in the thesis and outlines new directions for CFEA conservation.

Biodiversity is a crucial part of nature's precious assets that provide many human needs and insures against environmental disasters. Scientists have not yet reached a consensus on the definition of biodiversity; therefore, we will discuss various interpretations. Most biodiversity studies have focused on species diversity, but biodiversity has a more comprehensive aspect. Due to the extinction of plant and animal species, climate change, air pollution, advances in technology and industry, development of agricultural and urban lands, and changing human attitudes toward species, ecosystems, and landscapes, biodiversity has become a more attractive topic for researchers over the last decade. When diversity is being measured, a precise taxonomic classification of the subject must be made. Although many diversity indices and models have been proposed to quantify diversity, many of them confuse researchers. The use of new approaches, such as considering functional and genetic characteristics (functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity, respectively) has revealed hidden functions, services, and sustainability of ecosystems. These valuable measures have also created new issues. The variety of introduced indices and the multidimensionality of ecosystem services, and the different roles of species in other ecosystem functions have raised new questions and numerous complexities. Therefore, researchers have tended to use multidimensional and trans-ecosystem approaches. In this review article, the definitions and concepts of biodiversity and its historical background are presented, and then new ideas, challenges, and opportunities are discussed.

Biodiversity loss is the silent crisis of the 21st century. Human activities are drastically altering the diversity of life on Earth, yet the extent of this transformation is shrouded by our limited information on biodiversity and how it is changing. Emerging technologies may be suited to fill this information gap, and as a result increase our capacity to measure and manage natural systems. Acoustic monitoring is a remote sensing technique that is rapidly reshaping the temporal and spatial scales with which we can assess animal biodiversity. Through recording and analyzing soundscapes—the collection of sounds occurring at a given place and time—we can assess biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change. However, the relationships between soundscapes and these three ecological dimensions are still in the early phases of categorization, especially in aquatic systems. This dissertation investigates how soundscapes can be used to measure biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change in aquatic habitats. It addresses several knowledge gaps: First, I develop a framework for classifying unknown sounds within a soundscape, which I use to measure the acoustic diversity and dynamics within a tropical freshwater wetland. Second, I demonstrate that soundscapes can reflect the resilience of animal communities following disturbance events. Altered soundscapes revealed that Hurricane Maria, which swept through Puerto Rico in September 2017, impacted dry forest animal communities more than adjacent coral reef communities. Third, in kelp forest habitats off the coast of California, USA, I showed that soundscape variables correlated with ecological variables associated with regime shift in kelp forests, including urchin density, kelp cover, and fish diversity. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that soundscape recording and analysis is a promising way to assess the ecological conditions of aquatic systems.

More and more methods in the area of biodiversity research grounds upon new opportunities arising from modern sensing devices that in principle make it possible to continuously record sensor data from the environment. However, these opportunities allow easy recording of huge amount of data, while its evaluation is difficult, if not impossible due to the enormous effort of manual inspection by the researchers. At the same time, we observe impressive results in computer vision and machine learning that are based on two major developments: firstly, the increased performance of hardware together with the advent of powerful graphical processing units applied in scientific computing. Secondly, the huge amount of, in part, annotated image data provided by today's generation of Facebook and Twitter users that are available easily over databases (e.g., Flickr) and/or search engines. However, for biodiversity applications appropriate data bases of annotated images are still missing. In this presentation we discuss already available methods from computer vision and machine learning together with upcoming challenges in automatic monitoring in biodiversity research. We argue that the key element towards success of any automatic method is the possibility to keep the human in the loop - either for correcting errors and improving the system's quality over time, for providing annotation data at moderate effort, or for acceptance and validation reasons. Thus, we summarize already existing techniques from active and life-long learning together with the enormous developments in automatic visual recognition during the past years. In addition, to allow detection of the unexpected such an automatic system must be capable to find anomalies or novel events in the data. We discuss a generic framework for automatic monitoring in biodiversity research which is the result of collaboration between computer scientists and ecologists of the past years. The key ingredients of such a framework are initial, generic classifier, for example, powerful deep learning architectures, active learning to reduce costly annotation effort by experts, fine-grained recognition to differentiate between visually very similar species, and efficient incremental update of the classifier's model over time. For most of these challenges, we present initial solutions in sample applications. The results comprise the automatic evaluation of images from camera traps, attribute estimation for species, as well as monitoring in-situ data in environmental science. Overall, we like to demonstrate the potentials and open issues in bringing together computer scientists and ecologist to open new research directions for either area.

As in previous years, over 2010 microbiology has been— either directly or indirectly—in the spotlight of many science news. However, it has been almost forgotten for many institutions that, on the occasion of the International Year of Biodiversity, celebrated life on Earth and the value that life’s diversity represents for humans. In fact, the logotype designed for that purpose only reflected a part of the Earth’s biodiversity: plants, animals, including human species, and the sea, with fish. Three of the major groupings of life— fungi, protists and prokaryotes, call them Domains, Kingdoms or whatever you like—were not represented there. (See Fig. 1 with the “unofficial” logotype drawn by our journal.) Biodiversity had been a priority area of the 6th Environmental Action

Previous research connecting scientific knowledge production with governing of the global environment usually start in international climate change negotiations and related assessments. From that vantage point Earth system science and models are studied as an expansion of Global Circulation Models. By tracing of the history of the present Earth system outlook this thesis offers a reflection about how scientific knowledge produce and connects problems with descriptions of desired order of things and strategies to get there. Knowledge becomes a productive power by shaping fields of possible action in relation to the global environment. The interpreted empirical material consists of scientific discussions from the International global environmental change programmes and particularly the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme on global environmental change (IHDP). The studied period spans from the start of the planning of the IGBP in 1983 to the presentation of the new research programme Future Earth in 2013. The thesis is organised around the effects of the IGBP’s strategy to use predictive Earth system models as a tool to bring a broad range of scientific disciplines together. The results demonstrate the historicity of the present Earth system outlook by showing how ecosystems and human dimensions were attributed new and more important roles as drivers of global change. The thesis also argue for the need to approach the ‘Earth system’ as a result of a productive tension between top-down perspectives found in global modelling and bottom-up empirical research engaging with process interactions down to local scales.