General

Latitudinal trends in plant-pollinator interactions: Are tropical plants more specialised?

Background

Taxon diversity often correlates positively or negatively with latitude. Though much is known about species trends, species interaction trends have not been studied as much. Specifically, plant pollinator interactions in the tropics are a lesser known topic that must be explored.

Goals and Methods

The authors conduct a literature review searching for information on the latitude of study sites, pollinator species diversity and abundance, plant species, and interactions.

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Why bees are critical for achieving sustainable development

Background

Bees are the most dominant group of pollinators and they may hold a key to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They have a great potential for promoting agricultural success, providing people with crop pollination services. However bee populations are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. Knowing the extent to which bees contribute to SDGs  and identifying their critical roles within SDGs is important for conservation targeting.

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Safeguarding sloths and anteaters in the future: Priority areas for conservation under climate change

Background

Sloths and anteaters come from the order Pilosa which has very little species richness and a high rate of species loss in recent years, making this order highly vulnerable to extinction. This order is distributed endemically in the Neotropics. Conservation concerns are high due to the high levels of habitat fragmentation and loss in Neotropical landscapes and conservation areas need to be prioritized to ensure Pilosa species survival.

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Active restoration of secondary and degraded forests in the context of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Background

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Removing climbers more than doubles tree growth and biomass in degraded tropical forests

Background

Tree climbing plants such as lianas are known to inhibit forest recovery by outcompeting trees after disturbances. The removal of climbers is recognized as a viable forest restoration management practice, however no best practices are established yet due to lack of research repetition and synthesis.

Goals and Methods

The authors conduct a literature review on climber removal studies in tropical forests in order to quantify removal efficacy for promoting tree growth and increasing biomass.

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Towards integrated pest and pollinator management in tropical crops

Background

Insect-mediated services such as pollination and pest control are important for agriculture. Nearly 75% of the worlds’ crops depend on animal pollination. Overuse of pesticide impacting the health of agricultural landscapes and animal species is a growing concern. Integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) co-manages pollination and pest control with preventative and biodiversity-based practices. However, IPPM is newly conceptualized and remains mostly theoretical.

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Controlling invasive plant species in ecological restoration: A global review

Background

Invasive plant species are known to impede the growth and establishment of many native plant species while influencing other ecosystem features such as soil properties, fire regimes, hydrology, and human well-being. This article presents the findings of a literature review of 372 articles to better understand the impact of invasive species and control methods to highlight gaps in overall knowledge of the topic.

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Introduction to the Special Issue on “Interdisciplinarity in Geography Educational Experiences Abroad”

Background

The authors provide an overview of the articles in a special issue of the journal The Geography Teacher on interdisciplinarity in geography study abroad programs.

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Cash for conservation: Do payments for ecosystem services work?

Background

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs make payments to land owners for the ecosystem services such as clean water or carbon storage that their land provides to create incentives to protect the land. One of the objectives of these projects is to promote local economic development along with conservation outcomes. Researchers have sought to critically assess the assumptions behind these programs and their implementation.

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Payments for ecosystem services and the fatal attraction of win-win solutions

Background

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs involve valuing and paying stewards of ecosystems for the services that these ecosystems create incentives for conserving them. These programs are sometimes characterized as ‘win-win’ solutions, with the potential to contribute to both biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction. The authors of this paper review the literature on PES programs and highlight some challenges of implementing them.

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