Turning back the tide of biodiversity loss

CORDIScovery – unearthing the hottest topics in EU science, research and innovation

What can we do to save species under threat from climate change and human encroachment? From the oceans to the forests, today we look at how vital evidence is to preserving biodiversity, a key barometer of the planet’s health.

Biodiversity is under threat, but it is not all grim news: science-based conservation can step in and halt a decline, as shown in a paper published recently in the journal ‘Science’, which did a meta-analysis of 186 studies comparing changes in biodiversity over time.

Today we’ll journey through rainforests, air and sea to hear about the latest research funded by the EU, that is gathering the data we need to make conservation effective, with Claire Fortunel who is based at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development; Alison Cleary, a molecular ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, and Ada Álvarez-Manzaneda, a fellow at the Department of Ecology at the University of Granada, in Spain.