Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Plant and animal extinctions are detrimental to your health. That's the conclusion of a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Nature by scientists who studied the link between biodiversity and infectious diseases. Species loss in ecosystems such as forests and fields results in increases in pathogens, or disease-causing organisms, the researchers found.

"As the numbers of species declines due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change, the risk of catching infectious diseases may rise for humans, animals and plants. "

The Russian-English Agricultural Atlas is the world's most comprehensive source of information on the geographic distribution of plant-based agriculture in Russia and neighboring countries. The Atlas contains 1500 maps that illustrate the distribution of 100 crops, 560 wild crop relatives, 640 diseases, pests and weeds, and 200 environmental parameters. Additionally, the Atlas provides detailed biological descriptions, illustrations, metadata and reference lists. Currently, individual maps can be downloaded and viewed using freely available AgroAtlas GIS Utility software, which can also be downloaded at this site.

"large animals were once ubiquitous across the globe. They shaped the structure and dynamics of ecosystems. Their decline, largely caused by humans through hunting and habitat fragmentation, has far-reaching and often surprising consequences, including changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality and nutrient cycles."

I've got a pdf file of the actual article from 7/15 Science. Let me know and I'll gladly e-mail a copy to anyone interested.

"Explore the signs of global warming on this map or Google Earth. The evidence of climate change includes heat waves, sea-level rise, flooding, melting glaciers, earlier spring arrival, coral reef bleaching, and the spread of disease."

We live in the Global Location Age. "Where am I?" is being replaced by, "Where am I in relation to everything else?" The Geospatial Revolution Project is an integrated public service media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact. Mission The mission of the Geospatial Revolution Project is to expand public knowledge about the history, applications, related privacy and legal issues, and the potential future of location-based technologies. Geospatial information influences nearly everything. Seamless layers of satellites, surveillance, and location-based technologies create a worldwide geographic knowledge base vital to solving myriad social and environmental problems in the interconnected global community. We count on these technologies to: * fight climate change * map populations across continents, countries, and communities * track disease * strengthen bonds between cultures * assist first responders in protecting safety * enable democracy * navigate our personal lives