"Twelve years have passed since the appearance of the First Edition of the Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, and a great deal has transpired. We continue to lose biodiversity at rates and in ways that severely threaten the services that humans derive from ecosystems. Attention to biodiversity and sustainability has led to major scientific advances, though the efforts to implement the necessary changes in policy to limit our losses remain elusive. As Edward O. Wilson pointed out in his Foreword to the First Edition, reprinted in this Edition, the pathway to address the great challenge we face will be more easily traveled as we accumulate more and more information, organized in a way that is accessible to practicing scientists, to students, to the public, and especially to the decision makers in industry and governments who hold the keys to success. With this in mind, it became essential to update the Encyclopedia of Biodiversity to reflect the new information and scientific advances that have arisen in the past dozen years.
The Second Edition retains the same breadth across the basic and applied dimensions as did the First Edition. The great majority of entries from the First Edition have been revised to reflect the changes that have taken place, or in some cases replaced by entirely new contributions. In addition, the scope of the coverage has been expanded substantially, to broader treatment of emergent scientific advances in subjects like the microbial ecology of the oceans, landscape ecology, conservation biology, and ecological economics. In all, in addition to those that have been substantially revised, there are nearly 100 completely new articles to complement the solid foundation that already existed. These include articles that broaden the general scientific foundations of the subject of biodiversity, like the measurement and estimation of species richness, as well as the application of those basic principles to management problems.
New entries expand the coverage of areas that have grown in importance in the past decade; elucidation of the importance of ecosystem services, for example, has provided a way to connect biodiversity to the economic forces that impacts it, and has stimulated major scientific advances in the past decade in terms of how to measure and protect those services. The linkages to economics more generally have provided aframework for addressing the loss of biodiversity by understanding what drives anthropogenic impacts, and how we might manage the Commons we all share. These issues have been covered in much greater depth in this new Edition, along with other issues related to climate change, land use, biofuels, and the growing subject of conservation biology.
I am extremely grateful to the excellent staff that assisted in the preparation of this edition but especially to the associate editors who advised on whom to invite, aided with invitations, shepherded manuscripts through the process, and eventually read final drafts. Katarzyna Miklaszewska, Elsevier’s in-house editor, was remarkable at every stage of the process, and it has been a pleasure to work with her; she minimized damage from the unavoidable glitches that developed along the way, and maintained a cheery demeanor while guiding the Encyclopedia to completion. Chris Morris, who was indispensable in the production of the First Edition, rejoined our efforts to update the excellent Glossary he produced the first time through. Also thanks are due to Carole Levin, for her patience throughout the whole process.
The urgency of addressing the loss of biodiversity is greater now than it was a decade ago, and undoubtedly will be greater yet in another decade. The science has grown to match, spilling over into disciplines like genomics, economics, sociology, psychology, and ethics. A decade from now, most likely, a new Edition will be needed. For now, however, this Edition represents the state of the art, covering the latest advances in a rapidly changing subject. I am pleased to be a part of what has been a very satisfying partnership with Elsevier, our editors, and our authors." (Simon Levin)
Apreciem sem moderação.
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