Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest in GermanyWIKIMEDIA, OLIVER HEROLD
1. Dialing back extinction rates
A widely-used, indirect method of estimating how quickly species will vanish based on how much of their habitat is lost likely overestimates actual extinction rates. Calculating the loss of species based on habitat shrinkage usually misjudges extinction rates because the area required to remove the last individual of a species is almost always much larger than the area needed to encounter the first individual.
F. He and S.P. Hubbell, "Species-area relationships always overestimate extinction rates from habitat loss," Nature, 473:368-71, 2011. Free F1000 Evaluation
2. Energy flux in water and on land
Increasing the flow of energy through ecosystems makes them less stable by increasing the ratio of consumers to resources available. And it turns out that watery ecosystems are ...
