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Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
ISSN 0006-3231 · Wiley · 11 articles in the index
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The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation?
There have been five Mass Extinction events in the history of Earth's biodiversity, all caused by dramatic but natural phenomena. It has been claimed that the Sixth Mass Extinction may be underway, this time caused entirely by humans. Although considerable evidence indicates that there is a…
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What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community
Studies of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have proliferated over the last few decades. The biocrust literature has broadened, with more studies assessing and describing the function of a variety of biocrust communities in a broad range of biomes and habitats and across a large spectrum of…
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Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers from protists to vertebrates
Soil organisms drive major ecosystem functions by mineralising carbon and releasing nutrients during decomposition processes, which supports plant growth, aboveground biodiversity and, ultimately, human nutrition. Soil ecologists often operate with functional groups to infer the effects of…
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Acoustic indices as proxies for biodiversity: a meta‐analysis
As biodiversity decreases worldwide, the development of effective techniques to track changes in ecological communities becomes an urgent challenge. Together with other emerging methods in ecology, acoustic indices are increasingly being used as novel tools for rapid biodiversity assessment. These…
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Global genetic diversity status and trends: towards a suite of Essential Biodiversity Variables ( EBVs ) for genetic composition
ABSTRACT Biodiversity underlies ecosystem resilience, ecosystem function, sustainable economies, and human well‐being. Understanding how biodiversity sustains ecosystems under anthropogenic stressors and global environmental change will require new ways of deriving and applying biodiversity data. A…
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Phenological and elevational shifts of plants, animals and fungi under climate change in the E uropean A lps
ABSTRACT Mountain areas are biodiversity hotspots and provide a multitude of ecosystem services of irreplaceable socio‐economic value. In the European Alps, air temperature has increased at a rate of about 0.36°C decade −1 since 1970, leading to glacier retreat and significant snowpack reduction…
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Biodiversity as insurance: from concept to measurement and application
Biological insurance theory predicts that, in a variable environment, aggregate ecosystem properties will vary less in more diverse communities because declines in the performance or abundance of some species or phenotypes will be offset, at least partly, by smoother declines or increases in…
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Lakes in the era of global change: moving beyond single‐lake thinking in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services
The Anthropocene presents formidable threats to freshwater ecosystems. Lakes are especially vulnerable and important at the same time. They cover only a small area worldwide but harbour high levels of biodiversity and contribute disproportionately to ecosystem services. Lakes differ with respect to…
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Shrinking body sizes in response to warming: explanations for the temperature–size rule with special emphasis on the role of oxygen
Body size is central to ecology at levels ranging from organismal fecundity to the functioning of communities and ecosystems. Understanding temperature-induced variations in body size is therefore of fundamental and applied interest, yet thermal responses of body size remain poorly understood…
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Scientists' warning on invasive alien species
Biological invasions are a global consequence of an increasingly connected world and the rise in human population size. The numbers of invasive alien species - the subset of alien species that spread widely in areas where they are not native, affecting the environment or human livelihoods - are…
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Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna
Tropical Africa is home to an astonishing biodiversity occurring in a variety of ecosystems. Past climatic change and geological events have impacted the evolution and diversification of this biodiversity. During the last two decades, around 90 dated molecular phylogenies of different clades across…