Archive for the "Mapping / GIS" Category

  • Research article in PLOS open-access science journal explains global biodiversity patterns

    [caption id="attachment_1123" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity analyzed in the study. Each of the 32 bioregions is colored by its vertebrate species richness (amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal richness combined; dark green represents the lowest values and dark red represents the highest values -- click on image for full size)."][/caption] Explaining the variable distribution and abundance of species such as latitudinal gradients has been the goal of

  • Conservation success in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!!

    It's one of those rare days. One where you can read conservation news and NOT hear something depressing. A hugely important and strategic piece of land has been purchased in Rio de Janeiro, purely for the environment. It will reconnect one of the most important protected areas on the planet, União Biological Reserve, to nearby tropical rainforest, ending a decades long isolation. This is hugely exciting for me! I identified this piece of land early in my research career (I think in 2000) as probably THE most important place for bird conservation in all of the Americas. Luckily there were many

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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