Happy to have accepted the challenge by Ricardo Garcia to co-organise this workshop for journalists. It is important that journalists acquire the competencies to communicate complex issues, like climate change, with objectivity. Thrilled that the idea was well received by EEA Grants Portugal. It will take place in January 2020 and be opened to journalists based in Portugal and Norway. The . . . [ Read More ]
Standards for distribution models in biodiversity assessments
https://youtu.be/iS31WaKMW_Y Would you have your cancer treatment be defined by one doctor supported by the opinion of two additional referees? Surely, you would hope the treatment to follow best practice standards reached by consensus among several doctors working in the field. Surprisingly, no such standards exist in models entering biodiversity assessments, but we now provide such . . . [ Read More ]
Networks of global bird invasion altered by regional trade ban
In 2005, the European Union imposed a ban in trade of wild exotic species as part of a package to control the sprea d of avian flu into the Continent. In a paper published in Science Advances we demonstrate that the ban reduced fluxes of trade in about 90%, from 1.3 million to 130 thousand birds traded. This mighty achievement had non predicted consequences: the market adjusted and new . . . [ Read More ]
Species on the move will change everything
Climate change is causing geographical redistribution of plant and animal species globally. These distributional shifts are leading to new ecosystems and ecological communities, changes that will affect human society. In a recent article published in Science, we review current and future impacts and assess their implications for sustainable development goals. Access to the original article can . . . [ Read More ]
sdm R – New platform for species distributions modelling
Ecography has just published a new software not article by Babak Naimi and Miguel Araújo featuring the new sdm R platform for species distributions modelling. Sdm R is an object-oriented, reproducible and extensible, platform for running models of species distribtions. It uses individual species and community-based approaches, enabling ensembles of models to be fitted and evaluated, to project . . . [ Read More ]