The sea covers more of Earth's surface and harbors more biochemical diversity than the land, yet marine bioprospecting has lagged behind efforts to find commercial products from terrestrial organisms. The reasons are simple: Gathering living things from the ocean is more difficult, dangerous, and expensive than collecting plants or microorganisms on land. Marine bioprospectors also lack the rich body of ethnobotanical knowledge available to their terrestrial counterparts, and fewer taxonomists specialize in marine life. Even when a promising compound is identified, finding enough of the source organisms and cultivating them may be difficult. As detailed in this special issue of BioScience, however, marine bioprospectors working in the pharmaceutical field have made great strides in recent years (see Carte, page 271 this issue). Part of a broader renaissance in bioprospecting that began in the 1980s, these scientists owe much of their success to the development of automated high-throughput screening methods, which allow researchers to test up to a thousand compounds a day for their bioactivity. In addition, a better understanding of many diseases has provided a wealth of new molecular targets for drugs. Bioprospecting has also received a boost from conservationists, whose warnings that many of Earth's biologically richest habitats are disappearing have created an imperative to find novel natural chemicals before it is too late. Such concerns

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The World Resources Institute has a 2nd guide to the environment to inform people about the condition of tropical forests and old growth forests in the US and what we can do to save them. The Earth loses 51 million acres of tropical forests each year. 57% of all tropical forests are in Latin America and 30% are in Brazil. Each hour 4 plant or animal species become extinct which tend to be from the tropics. Not only trees and animals die however traditions and livelihoods do too. Forest dwellers lose out to cattle ranching logging hydroelectric projects large-scale farms mining and colonization programs. During the 1980s 1000 such people including rubber tappers had been murdered as a result of disputes over forest resources and land. At the present deforestation rate 25% of the planets species will become extinct in 65-70 years. The real causes of deforestation are not the people who destroy the forest but population growth poverty inappropriate policies of governments and international agencies and improper decisions made by commercial interests or settlers to log mine or drill for oil and to transform forests to farms and ranches. Burning forests and the felled and decomposing trees release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air exacerbating the greenhouse effect which leads to global warming. This will only speed up the rate of species extinction. In developed countries air pollution makes forests more vulnerable to insects and disease. The situation is not hopeless however. Developing countries must overhaul their policies on agriculture population forestry and land tenure. Developed countries must control pollution and refurbish their policies on debt in developing countries international trade and foreign aid. Individuals should put pressure on their countries to follow sustainable policies and inform friends families and colleagues about the need to save forests and animals from extinction.

Journal Article Cataloging Costa Rica's diversity: To make tropical biodiversity useful to society—and thus to save it—the first step is finding out what there is to lose Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 40, Issue 9, October 1990, Pages 633–636, https://doi.org/10.2307/1311428 Published: 01 October 1990

Journal Article Fighting deforestation at home: The MacArthur Foundation has granted over $7.5 million to organizations trying to save tropical forests in the United States Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 4, April 1988, Pages 220–224, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310842 Published: 01 April 1988

number of parks has grown dramatically in recent years. According to Kenton R. Miller of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (Gland, Switzerland), between 1972 and 1982 the number of parks and other protected areas increased 47%; the amount of land covered by parks increased 82%. Sources of inspiration and national pride, these parks also have played a key role in the global conservation movement. But parks around the world are increasingly threatened. Even in developed countries, which generally have strong resource protection laws and constituencies, parks have begun to suffer from outside pressures. A 1980 US National Park Service report identified 73 categories of threats to US parks, including industrial development, urban encroachment, air and water pollution, roads, and invasion by exotic species (BioScience 36: 301-304).

Journal Article News update: Global warming … Acid rain … Biodiversity bill … Deforestation Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 8, September 1988, Pages 538–540, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310760 Published: 01 September 1988

Journal Article Beyond national parks: Conservationists increasingly see a need for new and innovative approaches to wildlands protection Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 3, March 1988, Pages 146–147, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310445 Published: 01 March 1988

Global momentum is building to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So far, so good. The less happy news is that Earth's temperatures will continue to rise for decades. And evidence shows that climbing temperatures are already having serious consequences for vulnerable people and regions through droughts, extreme weather, and melting glaciers. In this book, climate experts Michael Mastrandrea and Stephen Schneider argue that we need to start adapting to climate change, now. They write that these efforts should focus primarily on identifying the places and people most at risk and taking anticipatory action--from developing drought-resistant crops to building sea walls. The authors roundly reject the idea that reactive, unplanned adaptation will solve our problems--that species will migrate northward as climates warm, and farmers will shift to new crops and more hospitable locations. And they are highly critical of geoengineering schemes that are designed to cool the planet by such methods as injecting iron into oceans or exploding volcanoes. Mastrandrea and Schneider insist that smart adaptation will require a series of local and regional projects, many of them in the countries least able to pay for them and least responsible for the problem itself. Ensuring that we address the needs of these countries, while we work globally to reduce emissions over the long term, is our best chance to avert global disaster and to reduce the terrible, unfair burdens that are likely to accompany global warming.

Journal Article Studying (and saving) the tropics: At age 25, the Organization for Tropical Studies is adding more conservation activities to its successful teaching and research agenda Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 6, June 1988, Pages 375–385, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310922 Published: 01 June 1988

Journal Article Who's polluting Antarctica? While scientists worry about the impact of tourism, conservationists say science itself threatens the fragile Antarctic environment Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 9, October 1988, Pages 590–594, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310822 Published: 01 October 1988

News update: Ozone … Central American conservation … AID and biodiversity Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 2, February 1988, Pages 87–88, https://doi.org/10.1093/bioscience/38.2.87 Published: 01 February 1988

Journal Article A new era for biosphere reserves: Mexico's Sian Ka'an shows that it's hard to be everything a biosphere reserve should be Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 3, March 1988, Pages 148–155, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310446 Published: 01 March 1988

Journal Article Research priorities for conservation: For scientists who care deeply about the loss of biological diversity, it's difficult to separate research from the practice of conservation Get access Laura Tangley Laura Tangley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar BioScience, Volume 38, Issue 7, July/August 1988, Pages 444–448, https://doi.org/10.2307/1310945 Published: 01 August 1988