Does global diversity mean anything?

Paleobiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij ◽  
Lindsey R. Leighton
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Global Diversity ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Late Neogene ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Vertebrates

A major goal of paleobiological research since the early 1960s has been the reconstruction in quantitative terms of the history of biological diversity. Spearheaded by Valentine (1969), Raup (1972, 1976a, b), and Sepkoski (1979, 1981, 1984, 1990, 1993), this effort has yielded estimates of global diversity through time, as well as calculations of global rates and magnitudes of extinction and diversification. A consensus emerging in the early 1980s (Sepkoski et al. 1981) indicated that global marine invertebrate diversity rose through the Cambrian and Ordovician periods to a plateau, which with brief extinction-related interruptions was maintained from the mid-Paleozoic to the mid-Mesozoic. Beginning in the Cretaceous, diversity rose again, reaching a peak in the late Neogene. The five mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic, and more or less distinct episodes of diversification, were identified and distinguished from many lesser events (Raup and Sepkoski 1982). Comparable studies, with varying results, were conducted on land vertebrates (Benton 1985, 1989), land plants (Knoll et al. 1979; Niklas et al. 1980, 1983; Tiffney 1981; Knoll 1984), early protistans (Knoll 1994), insects (Labandeira and Sepkoski 1993), and life as a whole (Van Valen 1984, 1985; Van Valen and Maiorana 1985; Signor 1990; Valentine et al. 1991; Benton 1995; Courtillot and Gaudemer 1996; Miller and Foote 1996).

In search of possible causes of mass extinctions

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hallam
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Steven Spielberg ◽  
Geological Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cretaceous Period ◽  
Land Vertebrates

When the subject of extinctions in the geological past comes up, nearly everyone’s thoughts turn to dinosaurs. It may well be true that these long-extinct beasts mean more to most children than the vast majority of living creatures. One could even go so far as to paraphrase Voltaire and maintain that if dinosaurs had never existed it would have been necessary to invent them, if only as a metaphor for obsolescence. To refer to a particular machine as a dinosaur would certainly do nothing for its market value. The irony is that the metaphor is now itself obsolete. The modern scientific view of dinosaurs differs immensely from the old one of lumbering, inefficient creatures tottering to their final decline. Their success as dominant land vertebrates through 165 million years of the Earth’s history is, indeed, now mainly regarded with wonder and even admiration. If, as is generally thought, the dinosaurs were killed off by an asteroid at the end of the Cretaceous, that is something for which no organism could possibly have been prepared by normal Darwinian natural selection. The final demise of the dinosaurs would then have been the result, not of bad genes, but of bad luck, to use the laconic words of Dave Raup. In contemplating the history of the dinosaurs it is necessary to rectify one widespread misconception. Outside scientific circles the view is widely held that the dinosaurs lived for a huge slice of geological time little disturbed by their environment until the final apocalypse. This is a serious misconception. The dinosaurs suffered quite a high evolutionary turnover rate, and this implies a high rate of extinction throughout their history. Jurassic dinosaurs, dominated by giant sauropods, stegosaurs, and the top carnivore Allosaurus, are quite different from those of the Cretaceous period, which are characterized by diverse hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and Tyrannosaurus. Michael Crichton’s science-fiction novel Jurassic Park, made famous by the Steven Spielberg movies, features dinosaurs that are mainly from the Cretaceous, probably because velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus could provide more drama.

La valorisation des prestations non-bois: particularités genevoises (essai) | Commercialization of non-wood forest services: the case of Geneva (essay)

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (8) ◽  
pp. 232-234
Author(s):  
Patrik Fouvy
Keyword(s):  
Forest Regeneration ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
The State ◽  
Forest Land ◽  
Private Forests ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Body ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
Near Future

The history of the forests in canton Geneva, having led to these being disconnected from productive functions, provides a symptomatic demonstration that the services provided by the forest eco-system are common goods. Having no hope of financial returns in the near future and faced with increasing social demands, the state has invested in the purchase of forest land, financed projects for forest regeneration and improvement of biological diversity and developed infrastructures for visitors. In doing this the state as a public body takes on the provision of services in the public interest. But the further funding for this and for expenses for the private forests, which must be taken into account, are not secured for the future.

A review of the global diversity and natural history of stalked jellyfishes (Cnidaria, Staurozoa)

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 1695-1714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucília S. Miranda ◽  
Claudia E. Mills ◽  
Yayoi M. Hirano ◽  
Allen G. Collins ◽  
Antonio C. Marques
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Diversity ◽  
History Of

Abrupt mortality of marine invertebrates at the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition in a shallow inlet of the Goldthwait Sea

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1894-1908
Author(s):  
Andréanne Bourgeois-Roy ◽  
Hugo Crites ◽  
Pascal Bernatchez ◽  
Denis Lacelle ◽  
André Martel
Keyword(s):  
Mytilus Edulis ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
The North ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Shell Deposit ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change

The late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition period was characterized by rapid environmental change. Here, we investigate the impact of these changes on the marine invertebrates living in a shallow inlet of the post-glacial Goldthwait Sea. The site is located near Baie-Comeau (QC, Canada), where a number of remarkably well-preserved shell deposits are found along the Rivière aux Anglais Valley on the north shore of the St. Lawrence maritime estuary. Seven phyla of marine invertebrates with a minimum of 25 species or taxa were inventoried in a shell deposit, dominated by a community of Hiatella arctica with Mytilus edulis and barnacles composing the subcommunity. The majority of taxa identified in the shell deposit are boreal and sub-Arctic species; however, temperate species that exist today in the St. Lawrence maritime estuary have not been found. Based on marine invertebrate diversity and δ18O(CaCO3) of Mytilus edulis, the water in the shallow inlet of the Goldthwait Sea must have been cold and saline. The range of AMS 14C ages from 15 Mytilus edulis, constrained to 10,900 and 10,690 cal. yr BP, and exceptional state of preservation of adult and juvenile molluscan specimens suggest the abrupt mortality of entire invertebrate communities due to changing hydrodynamic conditions that included the combined effect of freshwater discharge from the receding Laurentide Ice Sheet and rapid isostatic uplift.

scholarly journals Ученики и учителя Тенишевского училища (по школьным журналам и архивным документам) [Tenishev School: Its Instructors, Students, School Magazines and Archives]

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 117-177
Author(s):  
Marina Salman
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Osip Mandel'shtam ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
School Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
School Director ◽  
History Of

This article results from extensive archival research, and compares information found in Tenishev school magazines to the archival data concerning the school life of the corresponding period. The article’s major goal is to reconstruct life stories of Tenishev school students and the school’s instructors as meticulously as possible, and also to demonstrate the style of communication between the teachers and adolescents. It also reveals some previously unknown information concerning the life story of Tenishev School director Alexander Ostrogorskii (1868—1908). KEYWORDS: 20th-Century Russian History, Osip Mandel’shtam (1891—1938), Viktor Zhirmunskii (1891—1971), Alexander Ostrogorskii (1868—1908), Tenishev School, School Magazines, Soviet Terror, History of School Education in Russia.

Paleobiogeographical extinction patterns of Permian brachiopods in the Asian–western Pacific region

Paleobiology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shen Shu-Zhong ◽  
G. R. Shi
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Southern Tibet ◽  
Triassic Boundary ◽  
Rarefaction Analysis

Spatial and temporal variations in biological diversity are critical in understanding the role of biogeographical regulation (if any) on mass extinctions. An analysis based on a latest database of the stratigraphic ranges of 89 Permian brachiopod families, 422 genera, and 2059 species within the Boreal, Paleoequatorial, and Gondwanan Realms in the Asian–western Pacific region suggests two discrete mass extinctions, each possibly with different causes. Using species/family rarefaction analysis, we constructed diversity curves for late Artinskian–Kungurian, Roadian–Wordian, Capitanian, and Wuchiapingian intervals for filtering out uneven sampling intensities. The end-Changhsingian (latest Permian) extinction eliminated 87–90% of genera and 94–96% of species of Brachiopoda. The timing of the end-Changhsingian extinction of brachiopods in the carbonate settings of South China and southern Tibet indicates that brachiopods suffered a rapid extinction within a short interval just below the Permian/Triassic boundary.In comparison, the end-Guadalupian/late Guadalupian extinction is less profound and varies temporally in different realms. Brachiopods in the western Pacific sector of the Boreal Realm nearly disappeared by the end-Guadalupian but experienced a relatively long-term press extinction spanning the entire Guadalupian in the Gondwanan Realm. The end-Guadalupian brachiopod diversity fall is not well reflected at the timescale used here in the Paleoequatorial Realm because the life-depleted early Wuchiapingian was overlapped by a rapid radiation phase in the late Wuchiapingian. The Guadalupian fall appears to be related to the dramatic reduction of habitat area for the brachiopods, which itself is associated with the withdrawal of seawater from continental Pangea and the closure of the Sino-Mongolian seaway by the end-Guadalupian.

Biological Diversity of Plants in the Territory of the Protected Landscape "Razdorskie Sklony" (Rostov Region)

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-112
Author(s):  
Olga Yu. Ermolaeva ◽  
Valentina V. Fedyaeva ◽  
Antonina N. Shmaraeva ◽  
Andrey V. Gorovtsov
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Red List ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Floodplain Forests ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
Specially Protected Natural Areas ◽  
Feather Grass ◽  
History Of ◽  
Protected Natural Areas ◽  
The Right

The article is aimed to assess the florocenotic diversity of the specially protected natural territory of the Rostov region ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ. In the Rostov region there are 84 specially protected natural areas (PA), including the protected landscape ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ. The PA consists of three cluster sites with a total area of 1117.64 hectares. The ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ are a picturesque natural-historical landscape, typical for the right-bank slope of the Don valley. It has a long history of cultural development. Here there are feather grass steppes, the southernmost ravine upland forests, outcrops of pontic limestone-shell rocks, sands of the Yanovskaya formation and clay outcrops on the slopes, with a strip of alluvial floodplain. The vegetation of the right bedrock slope of the Don valley is distinguished by great formational variegation and mosaicism, due to the rapid and abrupt change of environmental factors in a rather limited space, which largely determines the richness and originality of its floristic complex. On the territory of the protected landscape, subzonal forb-sod grass, as well as hemipsammophytic (semi-sandy) and petrophytic steppes are present. Woody vegetation is represented by gully, floodplain forests and thickets of bushes. The vegetation cover of the ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ is distinguished by a low degree of anthropogenic destruction and is quite representative in syntaxonomic and floristic terms. The flora of the protected landscape includes 693 species of higher vascular plants, including 29 taxa from the Red Books of the Rostov Region and the Russian Federation, a total of 183 taxa from the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (93 species) and the European Red List (145 species). Forest vegetation in the gullies of the protected areas is represented by ravine, floodplain forests and thickets of bushes. In the system of zoning of the ravine forests of the Lower Don, the ravine forests of the ʺRazdorskie sklonyʺ belong to one of the most southern regions – the Crimean-Donetsk region. Numerous cenopopulations of for-est ephemeroids form spring synusia in ravine forests and thickets of shrubs, being a temporary ʺcollective dominantʺ.

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