| Motivating factor: | Yes / No | Rank (based on your choices) |
| Spending time outdoors | ||
| Helping at a specific place, site or area | ||
| Contributing to scientific knowledge | ||
| Helping wildlife | ||
| Sharing my knowledge / expertise | ||
| Learning new things | ||
| Meeting people / for fun | ||
| Getting exercise | ||
| Developing new skills | ||
| Furthering my career | ||
| Being with others who wanted to do it (family, friends, teacher, etc.) | ||
| Other reasons |
| Motivating factor | |
|---|---|
| Helping wildlife | 52% |
| Contributing to scientific knowledge | 29% |
| Helping at a specific place, site or area | 6% |
| Learning new things | 3% |
| Being with others who wanted to do it (family, friends, teacher, etc.) | 3% |
| Spending time outdoors | 2% |
| Sharing my knowledge or expertise | 2% |
| Other reasons | 2% |
| Furthering my career | 1% |
| Getting exercise | 1% |
| Meeting people or for fun | 0 |
| Developing new skills | 0 |
| 1 | To contribute to science |
| 2 | To inform policy |
| 3 | To inform people about conservation and land management |
| 4 | To educate |
| 5 | To gain or improve buy-in for decision making |
| 6 | To raise awareness and engage people |
| 7 | To build partnerships and improve communication |
| 8 | Other stakeholder motivations (e.g. personal satisfaction) |
| Biome | Temperature | Precipitation | Expected biodiversity |
|---|---|---|---|
| tropical rainforest | hot | ||
| cold | medium wet | low | |
| very cold | very dry | very low | |
| temperate deciduous forest | medium |
| Biome | Temperature | Precipitation | Expected biodiversity |
|---|---|---|---|
| tropical rainforest | hot | very wet | high |
| taiga | cold | medium wet | low |
| tundra | very cold | very dry | very low |
| temperate deciduous forest | medium | medium wet | medium |
| Spatial scale | Dominant environmental variables | Temporal scale |
| Fine-scale biotic and abiotic interactions (e.g. habitat structure, disturbance by fires, storms) | ~1–100 years | |
| Soils, altitude, peninsula effect | ~100–1000 years | |
| Radiation budget and water availability, area, latitude | Previous 10,000 years (i.e. since end of last glacial period) | |
| Aridification events, Quaternary glaciation, interglacial cycles, mountain-building episodes (e.g. Tertiary uplift of the Andes) | Previous 1–10 million years | |
| Continental plate movements, sea-level change | Previous 10–100 million years |
Many scientists argue that we are either entering or in the midst of the sixth great mass extinction. Intense human pressure, both direct and indirect, is having profound effects on natural environments. The amphibians – frogs, salamanders, and caecilians – may be the only major group currently at risk globally. A detailed worldwide assessment and subsequent updates show that one-third or more of the 6,300 species are threatened with extinction. This trend is likely to accelerate because most amphibians occur in the tropics and have small geographic ranges that make them susceptible to extinction. The increasing pressure from habitat destruction and climate change is likely to have major impacts on narrowly adapted and distributed species. We show that salamanders on tropical mountains are particularly at risk. A new and significant threat to amphibians is a virulent, emerging infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, which appears to be globally distributed, and its effects may be exacerbated by global warming. This disease, which is caused by a fungal pathogen and implicated in serious declines and extinctions of >200 species of amphibians, poses the greatest threat to biodiversity of any known disease. Our data for frogs in the Sierra Nevada of California show that the fungus is having a devastating impact on native species, already weakened by the effects of pollution and introduced predators. A general message from amphibians is that we may have little time to stave off a potential mass extinction. (Source: Wake and Vredenburg, 2008)
… the level of species diversity within Hygrocybe is substantially greater than that presented in the current guidebooks and scientific treatments. Further research is needed, but we currently believe that at least 96 species are present in the UK (as defined by DNA sequence-based methods), compared with the 51 species (plus 8 varieties) currently accepted. This newly discovered diversity has profound implications for conservation management, and the relevant SSSI [Site of Special Scientific Interest] guidelines based on species numbers will need some reassessment. Bearing in mind the diversity we have uncovered and the knowledge that western European waxcap habitats are considered of high conservation value on a continental scale, it would not be surprising if some of the species were found to be endemic to the British Isles. (Source: Defra, 2011)