Cycles of Declines and Reversals following Overnight Market Declines

Common declines

While the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have highlighted for the British government's attention and beyond the plight of cetaceans in its seas (see pages R780–R781), the government itself acknowledged last month the need for tougher conservation measures for many once common species and habitats in the face of often increasingly alarming decline. The British government announced a doub...

Retirement age declines

Response: Sperm Density Declines

Last year Swan et al. (1) published a reanalysis of data from 61 studies originally compiled and analyzed by Carlsen et al. (2). Just prior to the appearance of the Swan et al. artide, we published a reanalysis in another journal (3). Regional differences were considered in both reanalyses, but we examined only the effect ofyear in the final models (fertility status was also considered in the i...

Amphibian declines: future directions

The amphibian decline problem is complex, and there is no easy solution. I highlight four major areas of future research that should increase our ability to detect declines, elucidate their underlying mechanisms, and advance our capacity to manage and conserve amphibian populations. First, a statistically sensitive monitoring approach is necessary to determine the distribution and abundance of ...

Ecosystem consequences of bird declines.

We present a general framework for characterizing the ecological and societal consequences of biodiversity loss and applying it to the global avifauna. To investigate the potential ecological consequences of avian declines, we developed comprehensive databases of the status and functional roles of birds and a stochastic model for forecasting change. Overall, 21% of bird species are currently ex...