--- title: Biodiversity & Conservation description: This field studies the variety of life on Earth and the methods used to protect threatened species and habitats. Learners will understand ecological relationships, the drivers of biodiversity loss, and scientific strategies for habitat restoration and species preservation. category: sciences subcategory: earth-and-environmental-science difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/biodiversity-and-conservation --- # Biodiversity & Conservation This field studies the variety of life on Earth and the methods used to protect threatened species and habitats. Learners will understand ecological relationships, the drivers of biodiversity loss, and scientific strategies for habitat restoration and species preservation. ## Available Resources 4 Books • 1 Courses • 3 Websites ## Websites ### 1. IPBES Website of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the UN-affiliated body that publishes global and regional biodiversity assessments. Readers can access its assessment reports and summaries for policymakers to understand the drivers of biodiversity loss and nature's contributions to people. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.ipbes.net/ **Tags:** biodiversity, ecosystem-services, conservation-policy, environmental-assessment, science-policy ### 2. conservation.org Conservation.org is the official site of Conservation International, offering science-based insights and updates on protecting global biodiversity and natural ecosystems. It covers programs in forests, oceans, and climate, plus field projects, research findings, and ways to learn, engage, and support conservation efforts. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://conservation.org **Tags:** websites, science-research, environmental-science ### 3. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The IUCN's global database of species extinction risk, compiled from expert assessments. Species pages give taxonomy, range, population trends, threats and conservation actions, with search and data downloads. Users can look up a species' threat category and understand the evidence behind it. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://iucnredlist.org **Tags:** conservation-status, endangered-species, extinction-risk, biodiversity, species-assessment ## Books ### 1. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History **Author:** Elizabeth Kolbert Kolbert reports from field sites, including Panamanian frog labs, the Great Barrier Reef, and Amazon forest plots, to place the current wave of species loss beside five earlier mass extinctions, tracing causes from land use to ocean acidification. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/Sixth-Extinction-Unnatural-History/dp/0805092994?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** book, health-medicine, medical-sciences ### 2. Sustaining Life **Author:** Eric Chivian, Aaron Bernstein Oxford University Press volume edited by two Harvard physicians, with contributions from over 100 scientists, showing how medicines, biomedical research, infectious disease dynamics and food production on land and at sea depend on biodiversity. Readers can explain the human-health case for conservation. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195175093?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, science-research, environmental-science ### 3. The Sixth Extinction **Author:** Elizabeth Kolbert Reported account of the current mass extinction, moving between field sites and the history of extinction science. Explains how ocean acidification, habitat fragmentation and species movement are driven by humans, and how biologists measure those losses. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250062187?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** mass-extinction, biodiversity-loss, ocean-acidification, conservation-biology ### 4. Half-Earth **Author:** Edward O. Wilson E. O. Wilson's argument that halting mass extinction requires setting aside half of Earth's land and sea for nature. It surveys threatened ecosystems, critiques conservation approaches that accept managed landscapes, and identifies places where biodiversity can still be protected at scale. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631490826?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, science-research, environmental-science ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Biology: Ecology **Author:** Scott Solomon Rice University's nine-module Coursera introduction to ecology: niches and competition, island biogeography, species interactions, population growth, and conservation. You come away able to explain how habitat loss, invasive species and climate change destabilize ecosystems. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-to-biology-ecology **Tags:** ecology, community-ecology, population-ecology, island-biogeography, conservation-biology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/biodiversity-and-conservation