Today a new paper on biodiversity indicators came out in Nature Ecology & Evolution, co-authored by group members Emily Nicholson and Lucie Bland. The paper, lead by Prof Don Driscoll, also from Deakin University, argues that the lack of indicators for the drivers of biodiversity loss has hindered effective conservation action.

Using a conceptual model (below) of the hierarchy of fundamental drivers of biodiversity loss, resultant direct pressures, and biodiversity response to those pressures, we reviewed current biodiversity indicators in their capacity to represent the system as a whole. The gaps in the indicator set that were revealed by this process will hopefully spark new research into indicators and targets for more effective biodiversity conservation.

To go with the paper, we made the video below, also ably lead by Don – a quick and easily understood summary of the work. Enjoy!

Driscoll, D.A., Bland, L.M., Bryan, B.A., Newsome, T.M., Nicholson, E., Ritchie, E.G. & Doherty, T.S. (2018) A biodiversity-crisis hierarchy to evaluate and refine conservation indicators. Nature Ecology & Evolution [link]