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Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development

This collection is no longer accepting submissions.

New Content ItemBiodiversity helps to ensure a healthy and functioning planet. We depend on biodiversity to facilitate ecosystem services essential for life and our well-being. These include the microorganisms that enrich soil and purify water, the pollinators that give us food, and the plants that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, as the human impact on the planet intensifies, the ability of ecosystems to provide these services is increasingly compromised.

To highlight this issue and support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) 6: Clean water and sanitation, 13: Climate action, 14: Life below water and 15: Life on land, BMC Ecology and Evolution has published this collection to bring together research on:

  • the impact of human activity on biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems,
  • reducing degradation of natural habitats,
  • halting biodiversity loss and protecting threatened species,
  • sustainable use of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,
  • the trafficking of protected species and
  • the ecological impact of invasive species.

Meet the Guest Editors

Assoc. Prof. Gary Bucciarelli, UCLA, USA

New Content ItemDr Gary Bucciarelli currently serves as the Director of Research at the UCLA Stunt Ranch Biological Field Station and holds an Associate Professor position in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology. His research focuses on freshwater ecosystems to understand the drivers of population change, stressors affecting biodiversity patterns, and solutions to restore ecosystems. 


Assoc. Prof. Luisa Orsini, University of Birmingham, UK

New Content ItemLuisa is a Professor of Evolutionary Systems Biology and Environmental Omics at the University of Birmingham where she is affiliated both with Biosciences and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Data Science and AI. Luisa is also an Alan Turing Fellow at the UK Alan Turing Institute, the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. Prof. Orsini's mission is to improve environmental health by pushing the boundaries of research and innovation. Luisa applies high throughput sequencing technologies, data science and AI to understand the impact of environmental change on freshwater ecosystems. Luisa works with ghost DNA and resurrected crustaceans to identify the causes of biodiversity loss and the mechanisms of evolution that allow species to persist. Luisa loves multidisciplinary science and thinking out of the box. This thinking has led her to patent and commercialize a water reclamation and waste valorization technology that meets the net-zero carbon emission goals and delivers clean water to all. By translating cutting-edge multidisciplinary science into practical applications, she provides tools and processes for mitigation interventions that enable green growth and meet UN developmental goals. 

Assoc. Prof. Luke Jacobus, IUPUC, USA

New Content ItemLuke is Associate Professor of Biology at Indiana University Purdue University Columbus and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, West Lafayette. His research focuses on the diversity and distribution of mayflies worldwide, including their roles in ecosystem services. Among others, Luke teaches a Global Change Biology class and is an active member of his campus's Sustainability committee.

Published collection articles

  1. Biodiversity is generally reduced when non-native species invade an ecosystem. Invasive crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, populate California freshwater streams, and in the Santa Monica Mountains (Los Angeles, USA),...

    Authors: Gary M. Bucciarelli, Sierra J. Smith, Justin J. Choe, Phoebe D. Shin, Robert N. Fisher and Lee B. Kats
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2023 23:51
  2. Pesticides are identified as one of the major reasons for the global pollinator decline. However, the sublethal effects of pesticide residue levels found in pollen and nectar on pollinators have been studied l...

    Authors: Lotta Kaila, Anna Antinoja, Marjaana Toivonen, Marja Jalli and Olli J. Loukola
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2023 23:9
  3. In the last decades, Southeast Asia has experienced massive conversion of rainforest into rubber and oil palm monoculture plantations. The effects of this land-use change on canopy arthropods are still largely...

    Authors: Amanda Mawan, Tamara R. Hartke, Louis Deharveng, Feng Zhang, Damayanti Buchori, Stefan Scheu and Jochen Drescher
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:144
  4. Land-use is a major driver of changes in biodiversity worldwide, but studies have overwhelmingly focused on above-ground taxa: the effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of so...

    Authors: Victoria J. Burton, Sara Contu, Adriana De Palma, Samantha L. L. Hill, Harald Albrecht, James S. Bone, Daniel Carpenter, Ronald Corstanje, Pallieter De Smedt, Mark Farrell, Helen V. Ford, Lawrence N. Hudson, Kelly Inward, David T. Jones, Agnieszka Kosewska, Nancy F. Lo-Man-Hung…
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:135
  5. Exclosure becomes popular as a naming of the practice of excluding degrading agents from degraded lands for natural rehabilitation. However, its role on woody species regeneration in the Loma Bosa District of ...

    Authors: Assefa Ataro Ambushe, Girma Gezimu Gebre and Getahun Shanko Mamo
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:111
  6. In the last 171 years, the forests along the eastern bank of the Panama Canal have been pressured by anthropic activities. Studies of the influence of habitat fragmentation on braconid wasp communities in Cent...

    Authors: Louise A. Rodríguez and Enrique Medianero
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:98
  7. To accommodate an ever-increasing human population, agriculture is rapidly intensifying at the expense of natural habitat, with negative and widely reported effects on biodiversity in general and on wild bee a...

    Authors: Johannes Garlin, Panagiotis Theodorou, Elisa Kathe, José Javier G. Quezada-Euán, Robert J. Paxton and Antonella Soro
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:94
  8. High levels of standing genomic variation in wide-ranging marine species may enhance prospects for their long-term persistence. Patterns of connectivity and adaptation in such species are often thought to be i...

    Authors: Andrea Barceló, Jonathan Sandoval-Castillo, Chris J. Brauer, Kerstin Bilgmann, Guido J. Parra, Luciano B. Beheregaray and Luciana M. Möller
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:88
  9. The rising temperature of the oceans has been identified as the primary driver of mass coral reef declines via coral bleaching (expulsion of photosynthetic endosymbionts). Marine protected areas (MPAs) have be...

    Authors: Jack V. Johnson, Jaimie T. A. Dick and Daniel Pincheira-Donoso
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:58

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:81

  10. African pangolins are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of harvesting, feeding both local demands and the illegal international trade. So far, the lack of knowledge on the population genetics of Afri...

    Authors: Stanislas Zanvo, Chabi A. M. S. Djagoun, Akomian F. Azihou, Bruno Djossa, Komlan Afiademanyo, Ayodeji Olayemi, Clément Agbangla, Brice Sinsin and Philippe Gaubert
    Citation: BMC Ecology and Evolution 2022 22:16

Annual Journal Metrics

  • For BMC Evolutionary Biology (former title)

    2022 Citation Impact
    3.4 - 2-year Impact Factor
    3.6 - 5-year Impact Factor
    1.061 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    0.968 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    29 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    193 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage 
    1,882,764 downloads
    3,013 Altmetric mentions

  • Transparency and Openness
    TOP Factor score - 9

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