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Open Access Biodiversity Research

To celebrate 2010 as the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity and the importance of sharing our knowledge of the diversity of the natural world, we present a cross journal thematic series of open access biodiversity research. This selection highlights leading research from the disciplines of genetics and evolution of species richness, to conservation and biodiversity informatics. BMC Ecology expands scope (BMC Ecology 2010, 10:16) BMC Ecology has always been open to a wide range of topics from biodiversity research and in this 2010 International Year of Biodiversity we are keen to emphasise biodiversity studies within the scope of the journal. Rescued chimpanzees (BMC Ecology 2010, 10:2) The geographic origins of 46 chimpanzees who found refuge at the Limbe Wildlife Centre are traced by genotyping, indicating that hunting and the smuggling of live animals is widespread throughout Cameroon. Metazoa living without oxygen (BMC Biology 2010, 8:30) An expedition to a deep sea hypersaline anoxic basin in the Mediterranean has discovered the first multicellular animals that live and reproduce in the absence of oxygen.

  2. Protected areas are the most common and important instrument for the conservation of biological diversity and are called for under the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity. Growing human population ...

    Authors: Mungla Sieck, Pierre L Ibisch, Kirk A Moloney and Florian Jeltsch
    Citation: BMC Ecology 2011 11:12
    Content type: Review Published on:

  4. Diversity patterns of different taxa typically covary in space, a phenomenon called cross-taxon congruence. This pattern has been explained by the effect of one taxon diversity on taxon diversity, shared bioge...

    Authors: Carolina Toranza and Matías Arim
    Citation: BMC Ecology 2010 10:18
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. In systems where two or more species experience secondary contact, behavioural factors that regulate interspecific gene flow may be important for maintaining species boundaries and reducing the incidence of hy...

    Authors: Melanie L Lancaster, Simon D Goldsworthy and Paul Sunnucks
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:143
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. Functional diversity illustrates the range of ecological functions in a community. It allows revealing the appearance of functional redundancy in communities and processes of community assembly. Functional red...

    Authors: Axel Strauß, Erik Reeve, Roger-Daniel Randrianiaina, Miguel Vences and Julian Glos
    Citation: BMC Ecology 2010 10:12
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  9. Several unicellular organisms (prokaryotes and protozoa) can live under permanently anoxic conditions. Although a few metazoans can survive temporarily in the absence of oxygen, it is believed that multi-cellu...

    Authors: Roberto Danovaro, Antonio Dell'Anno, Antonio Pusceddu, Cristina Gambi, Iben Heiner and Reinhardt Møbjerg Kristensen
    Citation: BMC Biology 2010 8:30
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. Sloths are slow-moving arboreal mammals inhabiting tropical rainforests in Central and South America. The six living species of sloths are occasionally reported to display a greenish discoloration of their pel...

    Authors: Milla Suutari, Markus Majaneva, David P Fewer, Bryson Voirin, Annette Aiello, Thomas Friedl, Adriano G Chiarello and Jaanika Blomster
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:86
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. The increasing availability of gene sequences of prokaryotic species in samples extracted from all kind of locations allows addressing the study of the influence of environmental patterns in prokaryotic biodiv...

    Authors: Javier Tamames, Juan José Abellán, Miguel Pignatelli, Antonio Camacho and Andrés Moya
    Citation: BMC Microbiology 2010 10:85
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. Gibbons or small apes inhabit tropical and subtropical rain forests in Southeast Asia and adjacent regions, and are, next to great apes, our closest living relatives. With up to 16 species, gibbons form the mo...

    Authors: Van Ngoc Thinh, Alan R Mootnick, Thomas Geissmann, Ming Li, Thomas Ziegler, Muhammad Agil, Pierre Moisson, Tilo Nadler, Lutz Walter and Christian Roos
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:74
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. Traditional agroecosystems are known to host both large crop species diversity and high within crop genetic diversity. In a context of global change, this diversity may be needed to feed the world. Are these a...

    Authors: Hafid Achtak, Mohammed Ater, Ahmed Oukabli, Sylvain Santoni, Finn Kjellberg and Bouchaib Khadari
    Citation: BMC Plant Biology 2010 10:28
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. Inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity are expected to increase the extinction risk of small populations, but detailed tests in natural populations are scarce. We combine long-term population and fitness dat...

    Authors: Donald Blomqvist, Angela Pauliny, Mikael Larsson and Lars-Åke Flodin
    Citation: BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:33
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. While wild chimpanzees are experiencing drastic population declines, their numbers at African rescue and rehabilitation projects are growing rapidly. Chimpanzees follow complex routes to these refuges; and the...

    Authors: Lora Ghobrial, Felix Lankester, John A Kiyang, Akih E Akih, Simone de Vries, Roger Fotso, Elizabeth L Gadsby, Peter D Jenkins Jr and Mary K Gonder
    Citation: BMC Ecology 2010 10:2
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  17. This study reports progress in assembling a DNA barcode reference library for Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera ("EPTs") from a Canadian subarctic site, which is the focus of a comprehensive biodivers...

    Authors: Xin Zhou, Sarah J Adamowicz, Luke M Jacobus, R Edward DeWalt and Paul DN Hebert
    Citation: Frontiers in Zoology 2009 6:30
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Free-ranging horses (Equus caballus) in North America are considered to be feral animals since they are descendents of non-native domestic horses introduced to the continent. We conducted a study in a southern Ca...

    Authors: Stacey D Ostermann-Kelm, Edward A Atwill, Esther S Rubin, Larry E Hendrickson and Walter M Boyce
    Citation: BMC Ecology 2009 9:22
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  21. Natural History science is characterised by a single immense goal (to document, describe and synthesise all facets pertaining to the diversity of life) that can only be addressed through a seemingly infinite s...

    Authors: Vincent S Smith, Simon D Rycroft, Kehan T Harman, Ben Scott and David Roberts
    Citation: BMC Bioinformatics 2009 10(Suppl 14):S6
    Content type: Research Published on:

    This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 10 Supplement 14

  22. Currently primary scientific data, especially that dealing with biodiversity, is neither easily discoverable nor accessible. Amongst several impediments, one is a lack of professional recognition of scientific...

    Authors: Vishwas S Chavan and Peter Ingwersen
    Citation: BMC Bioinformatics 2009 10(Suppl 14):S2
    Content type: Research Published on:

    This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 10 Supplement 14

  23. Recent advances in sequencing strategies make possible unprecedented depth and scale of sampling for molecular detection of microbial diversity. Two major paradigm-shifting discoveries include the detection of...

    Authors: Thorsten Stoeck, Anke Behnke, Richard Christen, Linda Amaral-Zettler, Maria J Rodriguez-Mora, Andrei Chistoserdov, William Orsi and Virginia P Edgcomb
    Citation: BMC Biology 2009 7:72
    Content type: Research article Published on: