Just Out: Observations, indicators and scenarios...

Improving understanding of how biodiversity and ecosystems respond to environmental change is needed to guide environmental policy and management. To this end, the bioDISCOVERY project of “Future Earth”, the international programme on global change, initiates and supports international networks of scientists to advance research on monitoring and observations, scenarios of global change, models, and assessments of biodiversity and ecosystems (terrestrial and aquatic). Drawing on global research activities, bioDISCOVERY aims to arrive at solutions to key research challenges, and to support the international science community by participating in the development of global databases that capture biodiversity trends. This global working-group approach is essential for directing cutting-edge science toward supporting international policies that encompass biodiversity issues. The work embraced by bioDISCOVERY addresses urgent environmental issues, and by crossing different scientific disciplines, the project helps to address existing gaps in biodiversity-focussed research.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.04.001

Krug, C. B., Schaepman, M. E., Shannon, L. J., Cavender-Bares, J. Cheung, W., McIntyre, P. B., Metzger, J. P., Niinemets, Ü., Obura, D. O.., Schmid, B., Strassburg, B. BN., Van Teeffelen, A. JA., Weyl, O. LF, Yasuhara, M., Leadley, P. W. 2018. Observations, indicators and scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services change — a framework to support policy and decision-making. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 29:198–206.