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Title: Conservation for the People Author: Peter Kareiva and Michelle Marvier Date: October 2007 Source: Scientific American URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ClKlOEmqikHctDWvsGYZPJsINfhecdxx/view In 2004, three vultures were placed on the critically endangered list by the World Conservation Union, but no one knew what was causing the decline in the vulture population. Later, researchers discovered that the birds were being killed by a drug called diclofenac, which is usually given to cows, but very bad for vultures. Because the vultures disappeared, cow carcasses were piling up and started to be consumed by dogs. Therefore, the feral dog population increased, but as did the threat of rabies. In 1988, Norman Myers developed the idea of biodiversity hot spots, which are small areas that harbor endemic or restricted plant species. He went on to identify 25 hot spots to focus conservation projects to conserve the most amount of biodiversity. However, the word biodiv...

Title: Biodiversity in Forest Fragments Proves Precarious Author: Dennis Normile Date: 26 September 2013 Source: Science Magazine URL: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/09/biodiversity-forest-fragments-proves-precarious Deforestation is accelerating in many parts of the world, which is also hurting the biodiversity of the ecosystem. In Southern Thailand, the filling of the Chiew Larn Reservoir created an ample opportunity to study the effects of sudden isolation on small mammal communities because of the creation of more than 100 islands. A team went in the early 1990's to survey small mammals on 12 of the islands. After 5-7 years, they found the three biggest islands home to a larger range of species than that of the small islands. In 2012 and 2013, a team revisited those islands and found extreme decline in biodiversity, but a expansion in field rat populations, which is not normally found in the forest but likely migrated there. The researchers credit the rat a...