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Hell and High Water: PracticeRelevant Adaptation Science
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Adaptation requires science that analyzes decisions, identifies vulnerabilities, improves foresight, and develops options
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Marine Taxa Track Local Climate Velocities
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Organisms are expected to adapt or move in response to climate change, but observed
distribution shifts span a wide range of directions and rates. Explanations often emphasize
biological distinctions among species, but general mechanisms have been elusive. We tested an
alternative hypothesis: that differences in climate velocity—the rate and direction that climate
shifts across the landscape—can explain observed species shifts. We compiled a database of
coastal surveys around North America from 1968 to 2011, sampling 128 million individuals
across 360 marine taxa. Climate velocity explained the magnitude and direction of shifts in
latitude and depth much more effectively than did species characteristics. Our results demonstrate
that marine species shift at different rates and directions because they closely track the complex
mosaic of local climate velocities.
SCIENCE VOL 341 13 SEPTEMBER 2013
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Monsoon Melee
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The rhythms of life across South Asia depend on the Indian monsoon. Climate scientists
are locking horns over the cause of the summer deluges
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Climate Change Conversations
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THE THOUSANDS OF PRESENTATIONS AT NEXT WEEK’S MEETING OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY (ACS) in New Orleans exemplify one of the many ways scientists converse among themselves
about the most recent advances in science. Science and technology continue to reshape the
world we live in, and appreciating how these changes, both intended and unintended, come
about is a necessity for all citizens in a democratic society. Scientists have a responsibility to
help their fellow citizens understand what science and technology can and cannot do for them
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The Global Plight of Pollinators
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Wild pollinators are in decline, and managed
honeybees cannot compensate for their loss.
29 MARCH 2013 VOL 339 SCIENCE
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Wildlife decline and social conflict
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Policies aimed at reducing
wildlife-related conflict
must address the
underlying causes
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Assemblage Time Series Reveal Biodiversity Change but Not Systematic Loss
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The extent to which biodiversity change in local assemblages contributes to global biodiversity
loss is poorly understood. We analyzed 100 time series from biomes across Earth to ask how diversity
within assemblages is changing through time. We quantified patterns of temporal a diversity, measured
as change in local diversity, and temporal b diversity, measured as change in community composition.
Contrary to our expectations, we did not detect systematic loss of a diversity. However, community
composition changed systematically through time, in excess of predictions from null models.
Heterogeneous rates of environmental change, species range shifts associated with climate change,
and biotic homogenization may explain the different patterns of temporal a and b diversity.
Monitoring and understanding change in species composition should be a conservation priority.
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From Past to Future Warming
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Analyses of past observations help to
predict the human contribution to future
climate change.
21 FEBRUARY 2014 VOL 343 SCIENCE
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Carbon Market Lessons and Global Policy Outlook
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Summary: Ongoing work on linking markets and mixing policies builds on successes and failures in pricing and trading carbon. Closing sentence, 1st paragraph: Are carbon markets seriously challenged or succeeding and on the rise?
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Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores
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The largest terrestrial species in the order Carnivora are wide-ranging and rare
because of their positions at the top of food webs. They are some of the world’s most admired mammals
and, ironically, some of the most imperiled. Most have experienced substantial population
declines and range contractions throughout the world during the past two centuries. Because of the
high metabolic demands that come with endothermy and large body size, these carnivores often
require large prey and expansive habitats. These food requirements and wide-ranging behavior
often bring them into confl ict with humans and livestock. This, in addition to human intolerance,
renders them vulnerable to extinction. Large carnivores face enormous threats that have caused
massive declines in their populations and geographic ranges, including habitat loss and degradation,
persecution, utilization, and depletion of prey. We highlight how these threats can affect the
conservation status and ecological roles of this planet’s 31 largest carnivores.
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