Geoscience Reference
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processes (e.g., Foster, 2002). Ecological disturbances represent another major form
of interactions that infl uence biodiversity. Spatial and geoenvironmental analysis
serves as a main avenue for understanding these ecological interactions involving
disturbance (Parker et al., 2001).
Increasingly biodiversity is understood through the approach of genetic analysis,
including molecular-level genomics. This approach is resulting in vast quantities of
data on genetic variation in diverse organisms. Spatial and geographical frameworks
have emerged as one of the principal means of organising, modelling, and analysing
the previously unimagined quantities and types of information on biodiversity at
the genetic level. These include the use of spatial autocorrelation techniques in-
cluding correlograms (Smouse and Peakall, 1999); spatial distance measures (e.g.,
Epperson, 1995); spatial classifi cation estimators such as regionalisation methods
(Monmonier, 1973); polynomic models of geographic distributions; and spatial-
statistical models, such as wombling, of the patterning of gradients ('clines') and
patchiness (Sokal and Thomson, 1998). The use of spatial statistics in genetic analy-
sis is increasingly associated with biodiversity conservation. It includes the develop-
ment of bioinformatics with applications centred on biodiversity and conservation
issues (e.g., the new journal Biodiversity and Bioinformatics and contributions to
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); see Silva, 2004). Landscape genetics
and conservation genetics, two growing approaches, are potentially integral to
environmental geography. Signifi cant contributions are demonstrated, for example,
in the contribution to understanding landscape and geographical factors in the
partitioning of within- and between-population genetic diversity (e.g., Jelinski,
1997; Zimmerer and Douches, 1991; Manel et al., 2003; Parker and Jorgensen,
2003; Rigg, 2003). In sum, the theme of spatial and geographic structuring has
clearly emerged as one of the primary means of organising the vast quantities of
genetic-level information on biodiversity that is fast becoming available.
Geo-environmental change across spatial and temporal scales, such as in global
climate, is essential to understanding biodiversity in the context of evolutionary and
ecological processes. This view enables both basic scientifi c understandings and
management-policy information about the threat of potentially irreversible losses. In
the case of global climate change, biodiversity science has identifi ed several crucial
themes, which include range shifts (i.e., changes in biogeographic distributions),
taxon-specifi c abundance changes (numbers within the group of interest), phenolog-
ical alterations (pertaining to timing of seasonal and interannual behaviours), and
general identifi cation of species (and groups of species) that will become more or less
important as a consequence of global warming (Lovejoy and Hannah, 2005). It also
evaluates the responses of biodiversity to other forms of environmental change -
examples of the latter include land degradation, atmospheric acidifi cation, and the
general accumulation of toxic substances. Alteration of the spatial patterning of
habitats is also a major theme; habitat fragmentation receives ever more sophisti-
cated analysis. Such change is subject to interactions with other kinds of human-
driven changes (such as changes in land use, see below). In general, evolutionary
ecology highlights the multiple spatial and temporal scales of biodiversity processes,
while it can also be used to draw attention to potential irreversible losses.
Biodiversity: Nature-Society And Human-Environment
Perspectives centred on nature-society and human-environment interactions (such
as political ecology, cultural ecology, human dimensions of global change, and
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