BACKGROUND The pace and magnitude of human-caused global change has accelerated
dramatically over the past 50 years, overwhelming the capacity of many ecosystems and …

Localized ecological systems are known to shift abruptly and irreversibly from one state to
another when they are forced across critical thresholds. Here we review evidence that the …

Natural history collections provide an immense record of biodiversity on Earth. These
repositories have traditionally been used to address fundamental questions in …

A fully updated guide to the increasingly prevalent use of molecular data in ecological
studies Molecular ecology is concerned with how molecular biology and population genetics …

Approximately 20 years ago, Avise and colleagues proposed the integration of
phylogenetics and population genetics for investigating the connection between micro-and …

Between fifty and ten thousand years ago, most large mammals became extinct everywhere
except Africa. Slow-breeding animals also were hard hit, regardless of size. This unusual …

Museums and other natural history collections (NHC) worldwide house millions of
specimens. With the advent of molecular genetic approaches these collections have …

CONSERVATION BIOGEOGRAPHY The Earth's ecosystems are in the midst of an
unprecedented period of change as a result of human action. Many habitats have been …

Community ecology and paleoecology are both concerned with the composition and
structure of biotic assemblages but are largely disconnected. Community ecology focuses …

Parthenogenetic organisms are all female and reproduce clonally. The transition from sex to
parthenogenesis is frequently associated with a major change in geographical distribution …