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Intro -- Title page -- Table of Contents -- Copyright -- Introduction -- Evolution and Biodiversity -- 1: From Richard Owen to Charles Darwin: Understanding the Origin of Life's Diversity -- Abstract -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Richard Owen, the archetype and the diversity of vertebrates -- 1.3 Conclusion -- 2: Life Engineering in an Evolutionary World -- Abstract -- 2.1 Why "Engineers"? -- 2.2 The animal-machine legacy -- 2.3 Genetic engineering: rational design or tinkering? -- 2.4 Synthetic biology as the paradigm of bioengineering -- 2.5 Transforming a transformation? -- 2.6 Our cousins, the engineers -- 2.7 Engineering and evolutionary dynamics -- 3: The View of Systematics on Biodiversity -- Abstract -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Species: all different -- 3.3 How about studying the other 90%? -- 3.4 Biodiversity changes -- 3.5 Challenging decades -- 4: Which Model(s) Explain Biodiversity? -- Abstract -- 4.1 Birth-death processes -- 4.2 Coalescent trees -- 4.3 Birth-death and/or coalescent model? -- 4.4 Acknowledgements -- 5: Analysis of Microbial Diversity: Regarding the (Paradoxical) Difficulty of Seeing Big in Metagenomics -- Abstract -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Comparing metagenomic data sets is difficult -- 5.3 Path dependency and knowledge production -- 5.4 Standardizing metagenomics -- 5.5 Unlocking metagenomics -- 5.6 Conclusion -- 5.7 Acknowledgements -- 5.8 Figure legends -- 6: Genetic Code Degeneracy and Amino Acid Frequency in Proteomes -- Abstract -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Frequency-mass correlation of encoded amino acids -- 6.3 Amino-acid volume correlation in the genetic code -- 6.4 Origin of genetic code degeneracy -- 6.5 Origin of the frequency-mass correlation -- 6.6 Summary and discussion -- 6.7 Conclusion -- 6.8 Acknowledgments -- 7: Telomeres and Telomerases: Structural Diversity for the Same Role -- Abstract

Biodiversity has become an issue of global anxiety over the past decades due to its rapid decline worldwide. Bangladesh as one of the most densely populated countries in the world is no more exception. The country, although, was once very rich in biodiversity, during the last few decades as a consequence of the rapid reduction in forest area, urbanisation, habitat modification, unsustainable natural resources use and collection and overall climate change it has decreased alarmingly. Of late, the government, as a signatory of various regional and international conservation treaties, has taken various initiatives to improve country's dwindling biodiversity. This paper reviews the present situation of biodiversity in Bangladesh, management trends and major causes of biodiversity loss. A separate statutory body is fundamental to ensure conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits arisen from biodiversity in the country.

Conservation efforts are only as sustainable as the social and political context within which they take place. The weakening or collapse of sociopolitical frameworks during wartime can lead to habitat destruction and the erosion of conservation policies, but in some cases, may also confer ecological benefits through altered settlement patterns and reduced resource exploitation. Over 90% of the major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and more than 80% took place directly within hotspot areas. Less than one-third of the 34 recognized hotspots escaped significant conflict during this period, and most suffered repeated episodes of violence. This pattern was remarkably consistent over these 5 decades. Evidence from the war-torn Eastern Afromontane hotspot suggests that biodiversity conservation is improved when international nongovernmental organizations support local protected area staff and remain engaged throughout the conflict. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, the conservation community must maintain continuous involvement during periods of war, and biodiversity conservation should be incorporated into military, reconstruction, and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones. © 2009 Society for Conservation Biology.

The paper combines an economic-geography model of agglomeration and periphery with a model of species diversity and looks at optimal policies of biodiversity conservation. The subject of the paper is 'natural' biodiversity, which is inevitably impaired by anthropogenic impact. Thus, the economic and the ecological system compete for space and the question arises as to how this conflict should be resolved. The decisive parameters of the model are related to biological diversity (endemism vs. redundancy of species) and the patterns of economic geography (centrifugal and centripetal forces). As regards the choice of environmental-policy instruments, it is shown that Pigouvian taxes do not always establish the optimal allocation.

AbstractAsian's remarkable economic growth brought many benefits but also fuelled threats to its ecosystems and biodiversity. Economic growth brings biodiversity threats but also conservation opportunities. Continued biodiversity loss is inevitable, but the types, areas and rates of biodiversity loss are not. Prioritising biodiversity conservation, tempered by what is tractable, remains a high priority. Policy and market distortions and failures significantly underprice biodiversity, undermine ecosystems and create perverse incentives, leading to over‐consumption and under‐conservation. Properly priced biodiversity creates price signals and incentives that account for all contributions from biodiversity and ecosystems. Habitat conservation remains the centrepiece of biodiversity conservation. The next steps forward include selected command‐and‐control measures and economic policies that eliminate perverse incentives and creating positive ones along with improved enforcement.

The fact sheet describes the objectives and activities of Workpackage 2: Biodiversity of the SponGES project. The main aim of this Work Package is to provide a complete assessment of the biodiversity contained within sponge grounds ecosystems of the North Atlantic.

1 An Outline of Europe's Alpine Areas -- 2 A Bioclimatic Characterisation of Europe's Alpine Areas -- 3 The Regional Accounts -- 4 Overview: Patterns in Diversity -- 5 Taxonomic Diversity of Vascular Plants in the European Alpine Areas -- 6 Patterns in the Plant Species Richness of European High Mountain Vegetation -- 7 Altitude Ranges and Spatial Patterns of Alpine Plants in Northern Europe -- 8 Vascular Plant and Bryophyte Diversity Along Elevational Gradients in the Alps -- 9 Assessing the Long-Term Dynamics of Endemic Plants at Summit Habitats -- 10 Mapping Alpine Vegetation -- 11 A GIS Assessment of Alpine Biodiversity at a Range of Scales -- 12 Overview: Invertebrate Diversity in Europe's Alpine Regions -- 13 The Geographical Distribution of High Mountain Macrolepidoptera in Europe -- 14 High Altitude Invertebrate Diversity in the Ural Mountains -- 15 The Diversity of High Altitude Arachnids (Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones) in the Alps -- 16 Patterns of Butterfly Diversity Above the Timberline in the Italian Alps and Apennines -- 17 Diversity Patterns of Carabids in the Alps and the Apennines -- 18 Overview: Alpine Vertebrates - Some Challenges for Research and Conservation Management -- 19 Breeding Bird Assemblages and Habitat Use of Alpine Areas in Scotland -- 20 Rodents in the European Alps: Population Ecology and Potential Impacts on Ecosystems -- 21 Large Herbivores in European Alpine Ecosystems: Current Status and Challenges for the Future -- 22 Diversity of Alpine Vertebrates in the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada, Spain -- 23 The Impacts of Vertebrate Grazers on Vegetation in European High Mountains -- 24 Overview: Alpine Vegetation Dynamics and Climate Change — a Synthesis of Long-Term Studies and Observations -- 25 Long-Term Changes in Alpine Plant Communities in Norway and Finland -- 26 Vegetation Dynamics at the Treeline Ecotone in the Ural Highlands, Russia -- 27 Recent Increases in Summit Flora Caused by Warming in the Alps -- 28 The Piz Linard (3411 m), the Grisons, Switzerland — Europe's Oldest Mountain Vegetation Study Site -- 29 Alpine Biodiversity in Space and Time: a Synthesis.