IN THIS ISSUE Citeas follows: Osborne, Bruce 2009 Inthis issue. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the RoyalIrish Academy 109B,v-vi;DOI: 10.3318/BIOE. 2009.109.2.V. BIODIVERSITY INTHE BURREN The Burren is rightly regarded, inmy view, as a national treasure,possessing biological, cultural, archaeological and aesthetic importance. The maintenance of this important national asset is not, however, a trivial exercise given the pressures that theBurren is likely being subjected to and will be subjected to in the future. In recent years much has been made of the biological impacts of reduced grazing pressure and the threatposed by scrub encroachment on the unique vegeta tion assemblages thatcan be found in this region. The grazing isgood' lobby have argued thatwe need to increase grazing tomaintain biodiver sityand reduce scrub encroachment.While there are plausible reasons to support this view, based largely on historical information, there are few ifany experiments that I am aware of thathave tested this hypothesis. Deenihian et al. in this issue report on an experiment that examines the impact of grazing on floristicdiversity and scrub encroachment. The results do, in part, support theproposal that scrub encroachment and reduc tions in biodiversity are associated with reduced grazing. Intriguingly,however, therewas a trend towards increasing scrub dominance in both grazed and ungrazed areas.Why this is so isnot clearbut the authors suggest thatadditional factors may contribute to the observed changes. The authors recognise these observations are limited by the experimental design; however, they argue for a much more comprehensive analysis before the effectsof grazing can be fully resolved. WHISTLING DOLPHINS Most of us whistle, but before reading the paper byHickey etal. in this issue, I did not know that dolphins alsowhistle. Whistling appears tobe but one component of a repertoire of sound-based communication signals attributable to cetaceans. However, not all dolphin whistles are the same, and whistling may differ significantly in pitch and tone.The big question iswhat are theyused for? Indeed are they used for anything at all? Are different types ofwhistles used in different contexts asHickey et al. suggest?One possibility that the authors suggest is thatwhistling is indi rectlyrelated to feeding behaviour and involves an increase ingroup size thatconfers some protection against competitors. Grouping or herding behav iour is an attractive argument, but this isjust one of several possibilities. Clearly, more analyses are required before amore comprehensive picture of the role ofwhistling in cetacean communication is available. FIELDMARGINS AND SPECIESRICHNESS Field margins, particularly those receiving minimal nutrient inputs or little disturbance may provide a refuge for a range of flora and fauna in an otherwise species-poor agricultural landscape. Much attention has, therefore, been attached to the potential use of field margins as away of increasing biodiversity in agro-ecosys tems. Sheridan et al. in this issue show thatfield margins are associated with a ratherrich group of organisms and that the extent of nutrient input has a major role in determining species rich ness. Although the associated hedgerows are not specifically discussed as an important linked factor, these are likely tobe intimately connected to thebiodiversity of thefieldmargins. Indeed it could be argued that much of thebiodiversity of the farmed landscape is associated with hedge rows, the extent and condition of which have dramatically declined in the last decades. There are also arguments that one way to offset the losses of carbon associated with intensive agri cultural practices is through themaintenance of hedgerows and their associated field margins. No doubt thiswill be a fruitful area for further biodiversity and sustainability research. AMORE RATIONAL APPROACHTO CETACEAN CONSERVATION The development of practical, evidence based, long-term species-based conservation programmes requires detailed and accurate infor mation on things such as abundance and habitat requirements.This may only be available fora few DOI: 10.3318/BIOE.2009.109.2.v Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 109B, No. 2, v-vi (2009). ? Royal Irish Academy v Biology and Environment species and, in practice, the conservation status and future outlook of many species is unclear, particularlyfor those species thatare rareor in low abundance. Conservation programmes are then compromised because of the absence of appropriate data. O'Brien etal. go someway to compiling the data that...