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Summary of a peer-reviewed article on the response of tropical birds to climate change. Contains link to full article.

Examine a tropical montane cloud forest via this immersive video experience. Click on numbered links to access video clips and facts describing each different forest environment. The site includes background information for teachers and standards-aligned lessons for students in grades 6-8 on such topics as water, weather, soils, ecology, and the science processes.

"From Brazil to Borneo, new roads are being built into tropical forests at a dizzying pace, putting previously intact wilderness at risk. If we hope to preserve rainforests, a leading researcher says, new strategies must be adopted to limit the number of roads and reduce their impacts. "

"The arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) makes an incredible migration each year. These small birds travel distances of more than 50000 miles, from pole to pole, crossing through temperate and tropical regions along the way. Carsten Egevang used geo-locator tags to track ten of these terns, and he shares their story with us in this tour."

"The soils in tundra, grasslands, tropical forests are very different, but they have one thing in common; they all host an astounding diversity of life. Inhabiting these underground worlds are millions of species, which play vital roles in maintaining soil health and preserving the balance of their ecosystems. A new study shows that biodiversity underground is much greater than previously thought, with a direct relationship to life on the surface. "

Life on Earth faces a crisis of historical and planetary proportions. Unsustainable consumption in many northern countries and crushing poverty in the tropics are destroying wild nature. Biodiversity is besieged.

The Land Use Calculator is a tool for rapid scenario analysis of land-use implications, useful for decision-makers to address real-world challenges and for classroom teaching of conservation biology, sustainable development, environmental economics and global change biology. It is a decision-support tool targeted at land-use decision-makers in the tropic, allowing users to evaluate the implications and tradeoffs of pursuing alternative development scenarios by simultaneously accounting for the societal priorities of agricultural production, economic development, carbon conservation and biodiversity protection. Users specify a few environmental and socioeconomic parameters describing a landscape scenario, and the tool determines the implications of that scenario in terms of biodiversity, carbon stocks, greenhouse-gas emissions, financial returns of the land and employment opportunities.

"EcoTipping Points are small actions that tip the balance from decline to restoration by tapping the inborn power of nature and human societies to heal themselves." Case studies range from community gardens in NYC to reversing tropical deforestation in Thailand.

Tropical rain forests (areas that receive more than 100 mm of rain/month) support the richest avifaunas in the world. Why are there so many bird species in rain forests & how (& why) do the avifaunas of rain forests in different parts of the world vary? To answer these questions requires a look at the history of rain forests & their avifaunas

This fun reflection prompts me to ponder the impact of Urban parks on Birds Cities may not seem like hotbeds of evolution. Tropical rain forests, maybe. The Galapagos Islands, certainly. But Central Park? Yes, even Central Park. Wherever there is life, there is evolution. Organisms reproduce, passing down their genes to their offspring. Some variants of those genes may become more common over the generations thanks to lucky rolls of the genetic dice.

A summary of an article that examines the impact of farming on birds in Costa Rica. Apparently, planting and/or leaving trees can have a large positive impact on birds in these contexts.

The mission of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) is to work in partnership with indigenous people in conserving biodiversity, health, and culture in tropical America.

"Bird species in rainforest fragments in Brazil that were isolated by deforestation disappeared then reappeared over a quarter-century, according to research results published today in the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) ONE. Scientists thought many of the birds had gone extinct."