Archive for the "Pimm Group Publications" Category

  • Mitigating the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction in the Peruvian Amazon

    [caption id="attachment_1146" align="alignleft" width="277"] A figure from Dr. Jenkins' PLoS paper shows consideration of key ecological and social factors for oil and gas extraction in Western Amazonia.[/caption] The Western Amazon is a vast stretch of tropical rainforest, teeming with life found nowhere else in the world. At the confluence of four countries, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil, it has some of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet. Unfortunately, the area

  • Andean birds are now at higher elevations than 40 years ago

    [caption id="attachment_1102" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sampling locations along the elevation gradient in the Cerros del Sira (see article for more information)."][/caption] A recent paper published by members of The Pimm Group confirms that wildlife is being affected by increasing global temperatures. Forty years ago, ornithologist John Terborgh collected data on various bird species along an altitudinal gradient on a tropical mountain, Cerros del Sira, in Peru. In 2010, Pimm's team returned to the same location and recorded the elevations at which those same

  • Flying Blind

    S. R. Loarie, L. N. Joppa, S. L. Pimm, Satellites miss environmental priorities, Trends Ecol. Evol. (2007) See a gallery of images here The Pimm group reports that our ability to monitor the earth from space may be unraveling in an article published online in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Satellites are an increasingly important tool for monitoring environmental changes from shrinking tropical forests and species extinction to melting icecaps. On October 6th, the United

  • Making resettlement work: The case of India’s Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary.

    Krithi K. Karanth (2007), Biological Conservation, Issue 139, III-IV The Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary is located in India's Western Ghats mountain range. The sanctuary contains some of India's most celebrated and endangered wildlife, including the Bengal Tiger and Asian Elephant. Other mammals include the Guar, Sambar, Slender Loris, Chital, and Leopard. In addition to containing some of India's richest biodiversity (recently India has applied for the Western Ghats to gain World Heritage status), the sanctuary was at one time home to thirteen villages that increasingly affected, and were affected by, their protected surroundings. In 2002 eleven of these thirteen

  • Defining conservation priorities in a global biodiversity hotspot

    A contribution from Stuart and me toward one of the first Brazilian conservation biology textbooks. This is the English version but our colleagues graciously translated it into Portuguese for the published book. Jenkins, C.N and S.L. Pimm. (2006). Defining conservation priorities in a global biodiversity hotspot. Chapter in Biologia da Conservação. (in English & Portuguese) (PDF - Read it

  • Refining biodiversity conservation priorities

    Harris, G.M., C.N. Jenkins & S.L. Pimm. 2005. Refining biodiversity conservation priorities. Conservation Biology 19:1957-1968. (PDF - Download it

  • Land cover mapping of Greater Mesoamerica using MODIS data

    The first in a series of studies resulting from a collaboration between Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey. Our new land cover map for MesoAmerica is part of an effort to better understand the landscape and conservation status of North America. Giri, C. & C. Jenkins. 2005. Land cover mapping of Greater Mesoamerica using MODIS data. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 31:274-282. (PDF - Read it

  • Sustaining the Variety of Life

    Click on the Magazine Cover to Download a PDF

  • Expedition Diary: Inside a Rain Forest Quest

    Stuart Pimm for National Geographic News March 5, 2004 Can a new high-tech tool predict extinction-prone areas? Back from Brazil, biologist Stuart Pimm recounts the unpredictable Brazilian bird quest that put the tool to the test—and reveals what it's really like on a National Geographic research expedition. The rain forest in Rio's backyard originally covered an area nearly twice the size of Texas. Beset by human sprawl, Brazil's Atlantic forest today covers less than 7 percent of its original extent. Read more

  • How Big is the Global Weed Patch

    Where do you usually find "weeds," those species that are a nuisance and you wonder why they are everywhere? Well, most are in the ecosystems that humanity has radically changed, and thus made into a weed patch. Places like the world's forests that we cut down for agriculture or grazing, or the Midwestern United States where we plowed the land for food. This paper has one of the early maps to show which parts of the world we've changed and identifies what those weed patches once were. (PDF - Download it