Without taking a stab at a top four, I'll cast a vote for one that should be on a list of top four...functional diversity. This concept, related assessment methods, and applications (fleshed out substantially over the last decade in particular) relates to many important implications of the *resilience* of various organizational levels of biodiversity and therefore to how patterns of biodiversity play out over time.

Andrew,

Check out the attached paper by Ockendon et al 2018 looking at priority questions for landscape restoration in Europe, a lot of these questions have world-wide relevance and address many key issues in conservation of biodiversity.

I am also attaching a paper by Sale et al 2005 that focuses on science gaps in MPA design, but it also has a broader relevance to biodiversity science in general.

Tomas

Resources and experts who can identify the biodiversity, or the tools needed to identify species by genetic tools.

Resources to properly sample heterogeneous environments at a spatial scale that is relevant to the organisms being sampled.

Understanding biodiversity prior to environmental disturbance so that we can detect changes or understand what we mean by a "restored" habitat.

Without taking a stab at a top four, I'll cast a vote for one that should be on a list of top four...functional diversity. This concept, related assessment methods, and applications (fleshed out substantially over the last decade in particular) relates to many important implications of the *resilience* of various organizational levels of biodiversity and therefore to how patterns of biodiversity play out over time.

Explaining/defining the "biodiversity" concept to people who may not have a clue about it and why it matters conserving biodiversity is an educational issue of priority. Also, how is biodiversity loss affecting peoples' life is a second priority point. Finally, how can anyone counteract, or make decisions to reduce the loss of biodiversity?

climate change and ecological imbalance

i would say our understanding on the application of biodiversity to resist ecological invasion is very limited. otherwise, i am in agreement with Peter Guild Cutter, and Bruno Borsari.

The answer may depend on your target audience. Do you have graduate students interested in biodiversity, or do you have undergraduates who will go on to any number of careers? One problem is a general lack of appreciation of biodiversity and that results in grass monocultures for lawns with a few exotic/invasive shrubs or trees in yards, common areas along roads and in parks. This is reinforced by a lack of native vegetation options at local stores, and a lack of labeling on plants to indicate point of origin.

A risk is that "biodiversity" becomes a generic buzzword in a marketing machine. You then get another example to add to "fat free" on products that never had fat, "chemical free" on products that are not a vacuum, "GMO free" on products that generally lack DNA, or "organic" versus "inorganic" produce.

A big challenge in a complex world is that we simplify. Simplifying is the opposite of biodiversity. Are these carrots Nantes (Scarlet, Bolero, Nelson) or Imperator (Autumn King, Atomic Red), or just orange? If you cannot identify the food, why ask what type of grass is in my yard, or what kind of insect flew by. A bug, kill it. How does that person relate to biodiversity? My daughter picks up a dead insect, and one of her friends scoots to the far side of the classroom. How does the friend relate to biodiversity?

The biggest issue is - also taking the above mentioned "needed experst for identifying taxa" and "invasion" and especially "functional biodiversity/webs/trophic levels" into account - that parasites (the most speciose, functional, invasive, biological indicating, most successfull lifestyle) are still neglected in most biodiversity researches! Specialize your Course on parasites, and it will cover everything!

-The confounding use of CO1 as barcoding gene applicable to all taxa, it's used has been demonstrated not sufficiently robust across all phyla (e.g Porifera).

- Long term effect of climate change on the richest and most vulnerable ecosystem in the wettest and warmest regions on the planet, where the local biodiversity would suffer the highest impacts.

- The lack of realistic long term measures on future biodiversity loss due to forseen human population growth and lack of highly reinforced international conservation policies for the health of all species.

I'm not sure what you mean by biodiversity issues. Conserving biodiversity or understanding biodiversity? I come from a more applied background and issues such as understanding metabolic scaling seem, well, academic compared to issues like a lack of societal and political will to conserve biodiversity. To me the important issues surround conserving biodiversity. Documenting remaining and disappearing biodiversity in insects and other poorly known taxa is important. Effectively managing and conserving species and ecosystems given limited budgets is important. Communicating the science and values around conserving biodiversity is important. Most laypeople seem to consider conserving biodiversity as a matter of values or morals. There are also very good practical reasons to conserve biodiversity, as shown by ecosystem services research. I think as scientists we usually want to conserve biodiversity for moral reasons - we like the organisms and ecosystems we study. We have to be careful that we don't confound a moral cause with science. It think if we communicate to the public better the moral and practical reasons for conserving biodiversity, we will make more progress in reaching people to whom conserving biodiversity is important for different reasons. I have too often seen people get frustrated with conservation when they feel scientists are using the moral high ground of science to push a moral (and therefore subjective) agenda, rather than objective science. Scientists can alleviate this issue by recognizing the difference between moral and practical motivations for conservation of biodiversity, and communicating those motivations clearly.

To sum up, why do we want to conserve biodiversity? There are moral and practical reasons. If you can get people to understand those reasons, the societal and political will can be built to do something about it.

Hello,

I'm not quite sure the scope of this question but if I may make comments about developing countries in general, I will like to emphasize the issue of both invasive and migratory species. An important challenge here is how to ensure effective monitoring and traceability of such species.

Another important issue is the gradual loss of biodiversity. The challenge in this sense is how to use our scientific knowledge and skills for proper utilization, protection, and possible restoration of some biological resources which are at the point of extinction or are being threatened.

I suspect that the answer to the question will differ for researchers - each to his own geographical concerns. However, I think that the common ground for all concerns are (1) climate change, (2) bioinvasions, (3) anthropogenic induced changes, and (4) anthropogenic mind-sets (a.k.a. Trump syndrome).

I recommend reading about 4 important issues on biodiversity as part of the larger context of Conservation Biology. The best overall source I have found is The Wildlife Society's "Wildlife Techniques Manual". It's a 2-volume set you can usually find in an academic library. All the articles have fully cited, important sources.

Environmental balance, global warming, pollution, anthropogenic pressure.

1. Pollution

Pollution completely disrupts the Earth's ecosystems.

2. Climate change

Overall, the climate is a major factor in the distribution of species across the globe; climate change forces them to adjust. But many are not able to cope, causing them to die out.

3. Overexploitation

Overhunting, overfishing, and over-harvesting contribute greatly to the loss of biodiversity, killing off numerous species over the past several hundred years.

4. Deforestation and habitat loss

Deforestation is a direct cause of extinction and loss of biodiversity. An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year.

1) Lack of information about abundant but invisible and largely undescribed micro-organismal biodiversity (species and interactions).

2) The role of the above in bio-geo-chemistry of the earth's biosphere.

3) We are barely able to decipher complex systems well.

Hi, i think that a issue that you can include Is functional ecology, it's applied to some organisms, have some protocols like Cornelissen or Perez and Harguindeguy, and have a lot of principal authors like Grime, Laura Pla, Casanoves, Alison Munson and Bill Shipley

So what are the experimental approaches that will allow for studying complex biological systems within the framework necessary for a successful career? If I am really interested, what courses do I need from the statistics department? I assume "Introduction to Statistics for Non-Majors" will be insufficient. If neural net analysis or simulations are needed, then maybe some computer science classes would be useful.

If I need 3 to 10 papers per year to be successful, how does this fit into studying complex systems that could have a large number of interacting factors (both biotic and abiotic)?

It is difficult to pick 4 significant issues when a much longer list could be provided. However, I'll just select 4 as is requested, but they are not in any particular order.

1. The effects of a changing climate on species, the composition of communities of plants, animals and microbes, and changes in the genetic makeup of populations.

2. Valuing natural capital (or perhaps valuing biodiversity), as it is this which impacts on everybody's life for food, clean air, clean water, structural materials, health and aesthetics.

3. Conserving the seas, both manageing fisheries sustainably and proventing pollution (for example, the recent emphasis on plastics, or the reduction of carbon dioxide from shipping).

4. Understanding the anthropocene - there is a debate about whether invasive alien species are a problem and should be eradicated or whether they have to be accepted. Probably we shall have to settle for something between the two extremes.

As a 'bonus fifth', I might also suggest that greater understanding of the effects of soil biodiversity on all aspects of terrestrial life is important.

I am really enjoying reading all the answers to this, and here are just some of my ideas on this wide open question :

1) what exactly we define as biodiversity

2) diversity loss vs diversity changes

3) how much is changing because of human vs because of natural shifts

4) and lastly, but most important point, combining these 3 to find more realistic baselines towards conservation and restoration.

A lot of politicians are not listening to scientists. The crucial decisions that must be made for the conservation of the environment are made at the highest political levels and the results provided by science are not influencing these rulers.

A lot of good answers and a lot of food for though. I am attaching a paper by Sutherland et al 2017 that is well worth reading.

Tomas

1. Lesser species richness

2. Habitat loss

3. Invasive weeds

4. Lack of awareness

Apart from these even academics find it difficult to explain the core concept of biodiversity to young lads. Living in a world where people still deny Climate change it is getting tougher to make people believe that extinction of Avocado or Marcopolo Sheep will have profound effects on humans. Green planet is dying and we have turned a blind eye towards it.

Dear,

By sensing biodiversity, status, ecological and economic services regarding biodiversity and human co evolution. And knowing my/our - role/action.

Dear all,

Although I am just an undergraduate student at the university of Groningen, I would like to comment on this question and give a new perspective.

In order to give a simplified reason for biodiversity loss, I would like to adress the fact that our human population growths exponentially. The growth of our population results in a higher number of resources needed, which results in a higher exploitation of the worlds habitats. I concern the shrinking of habitat for other species to be the main factor of loss in biodiversity, mainly due to an increase in human population. Next, overpopulation of humans is of course all related to the other factors mentioned above causing loss in biodiversity (Climate change, pollution, habitat loss), caused by an increase in human population. I think awareness of biodiversity loss could turn the tide with moral and practical reasons, but I think this will only affect a part of the population (hope otherwise of course). A good ethical solution to stabilize human population is not yet found (as far as I know), but this solution could affect biodiversity loss in the most direct way.

This is why overpopulation of humans could also be an issue I think.

Interested in your opinions.

So many to chose from. Some issues that impact biodiversity are often overlooked so here's a few of those.

1) Science tends to be limited by what is funded, and what might be funded next. There is often a big gap between what can and should be done to address problems, and what is or will be paid for. Biodiversity is no exception. So how can we improve the scope of funding so that new and practical ideas for protecting biodiversity, which may be different for different circumstances, receive sufficient funding, and also continue funding useful but not new research approaches for protecting and understanding biodiversity?

2) Little progress is made by preaching to the converted. How can more scientists do a better job of communicating the importance of biodiversity to the disinterested portion of the public and to policy makers who fail to see the economic necessity of protecting biodiversity?

3) Mainstreaming of sustainable and whenever possible 'organic' agriculture and funding for it, in a way that continues to feed our increasing population. Agriculture upsets the carbon and nitrogen cycles of our planet more than anything else, and is the most polluting and most necessary industry on earth. This is true whether or not we can address population growth, another factor in biodiversity maintenance.

4) Finding funding for the modernization of old crops that need less water, less fertilizer and less labor, and offer greater disease resistance and better nutrition than some crops that we currently depend on. The USDA usually only funds research on crops that are already widely grown in the U.S. and its territories. Corn, soy, wheat, cotton and rice still get most of the budget while fruit and vegetable crops usually only get the leftovers. Diversifying crops in sustainable systems can only help with maintaining diversity in the wild.

While I suspect that funding is short, the USA has 28 long term ecological research sites: https://lternet.edu/.

- Inventories, biodiversity assessments, diversity indicators;

- Invasive species, Parasites and Pathogens;

- Physiological Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Species Interactions;

- Functional biodiversity and resilience;

- Ecopotentialities of planning.

Dear Andrew,

Well well well,

When inventing the word McArthur and Wilson did not give a precise definition of this greko-latin neologism. Is it an empty nut?

What do you include under this term at the gene level, species level, ecosystem level, landscape level? There are very accurate definitions of species diversity= species richness= alpha diversity.. or landscape diversity=heterogeneity= delta and gamma diversity.....Please come back with comments and we could exchange on the subject.

Also check papers on diversity vs complexity and scales (see attached).

Best regards,

Guy

Dear Andrew,

Please also check Ricklefs "Ecology, the economy of Nature", chapter 22.

Best,

Guy

1. The relationship between biodiversity, functional diversity, and ecosystem services. And if these relationships apply across systems and scales.

2. The ability of different aspects of functional diversity (functional evenness, redundancy, richness) to predict service provision and resilience.

3. How to restore habitats to recover biodiversity in a changing climate.

4. In what cases should be the goal of habitat restoration be to maximize biodiversity vs. ecological function.

I think Climate Change

For those with the stamina to wait for me to get out of hospital and do something with your responses, this is a wordcloud analysis (after disambiguation) that I'll use as the basis for a workshop in my biodiversity course. Thanks to all for your responses, and again, sorry for the delay!

Lack of proper methods of survey process. Many places surveyor not able to reach due to its topography. Due to topography of land, biodiversity survey methods also not applied properly.

Report on EU biodiversity research gaps and priorities

and strategic foresight activities: file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/D2.3_%20BD%20Research%20priorities_final.pdf

Therefore, in the context of the above considerations, the following important question appears:

What do you think is the importance of biodiversity in natural ecosystems?

Biodiversity is diverse in virtually unlimited degree, which results from the essence of processes of evolution of species, filet lines and entire ecosystems. It is thanks to the millions of years of evolutionary processes on Earth that there are so many different natural and highly diverse ecosystems in which different species of flora, fauna, fungi and microorganisms adapt to life in different and very diverse geographical and climatic environments.

The largest biodiversity of ecosystems and species functions in natural environmental environments in which ecosystems have evolved without human impact through millions of years of climatic and geographical conditions enabling the development of various life forms. These types of high biodiversity sites can be found in unpolluted rainforest ecosystems in tropical forests, in temperate climates and in coral reefs.

Unfortunately, human civilization activity contributes to the successive and accelerating process of biodiversity reduction by dying out species of living organisms. The areas of natural natural ecosystems are decreasing, including those in which the greatest biodiversity is diagnosed, such as the rainforests of the Amazon. The protection of naturalistic ecosystems and thus the protection of the planet's biodiversity is the most important challenge for mankind in the 21st century.

Do you agree with my opinion on this matter?

I invite you to the discussion

Thank you very much

Best wishes

Dear Andrew Foggo,

My proposals in the field of biological biodiversity research are: - Analysis of changes, usually poorer biodiversity of natural biological ecosystems under the influence of human activity, - Does the depletion of biodiversity of natural ecosystems under the influence of human activity usually lead to disturbance of the biological balance shaped by millions of years? - Does the decline in the number of species of flora and fauna, the loss of biodiversity of natural ecosystems reduce the resistance of ecosystems to faster and faster changes in the Earth's climate? - Will the ongoing changes in the Earth's climate, the ongoing global warming process change natural biological ecosystems, create new environments that can be studied in the context of accelerated processes of the evolution of biological ecosystems? - Can changes in the biodiversity of natural ecosystems caused by the impact of human activity be considered as a continuation of the evolutionary process?

Best wishes