The ecosystem services (ES) concept is one of the main avenues for conveying society's dependence on natural ecosystems. On-ground applications of the concept are now widespread and diverse and include its use as a communication tool, for policy guidance and priority setting, and for designing economic instruments for conservation. Each application raises ethical considerations beyond traditional controversies related to the monetary valuation of nature. We review ethical considerations across major on-ground applications and group them into the following categories: anthropocentric framing, economic metaphor, monetary valuation, commodification, sociocultural impact, changes in motivations, and equity implications. Different applications of the ES concept raise different suites of ethical issues, and we propose methods to address the issues most relevant to each application. We conclude that the ES concept should be considered as only one among various alternative approaches to valuing nature and that reliance on economic metaphors can exclude other motivations for protecting ecosystems.

Bacteria navigating through a chemotactic gradient in their natural habitats or in large bioreactors are under the influence of noise (or fluctuations) inside the cells, at the interfaces of the chemical ligands with the chemoreceptors, and in the external environment that contains the chemoattractant. These sources of noise interact with one another and may strongly affect the chemotactic motility of the cells. Although bacteria have evolved filtering mechanisms, mainly through feedback loops, for intracellular noise and receptor-ligand binding noise, external filters are required for environmental noise. With Escherichia coli as a model system, these aspects are reviewed in terms of their effects on the chemosensory network, models for the filters, and optimization of Chemotaxis under noise-affected conditions. It is suggested that stochastic resonance may be a key feature determining the design of an optimal filtering strategy that encompasses all sources of noise.

We critically review the main approaches for standardizing and comparing selection differentials and gradients among traits, populations, and species and assess their differential merits. In particular, we explain why the most widespread approach to standardizing selection, which measures selection differentials in units of a trait's phenotypic standard deviation, is less appropriate for characterizing the strengths of natural selection in wild populations. In contrast, an alternative standardization approach that uses a trait's phenotypic mean in addition to its standard deviation results in another dimensionless measure: the mean-standardized selection gradient. This measure offers some key benefits over alternative approaches, such as ease of interpretation, independence of a trait's variance, and the natural interplay of ecological and evolutionary dynamics, and yet it remains rarely used by evolutionary biologists. We explain how the more routine application of this measure will facilitate comparisons of selection strengths in the wild among traits, populations, and species.

Evaluations of the local effects of global change are often confounded by the interactions of natural and anthropogenic factors that overshadow the effects of climate changes on ecosystems. Long-term watershed and natural elevation gradient studies at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and in the surrounding region show surprising results demonstrating the effects of climate change on hydrologic variables (e.g., evapotranspiration, streamflow, soil moisture); the importance of changes in phenology on water, carbon, and nitrogen fluxes during critical seasonal transition periods; winter climate change effects on plant and animal community composition and ecosystem services; and the effects of anthropogenic disturbances and land-use history on plant community composition. These studies highlight the value of long-term integrated research for assessments of the subtle effects of changing climate on complex ecosystems.

Environmental scientists are increasing their capitalization on advancements in technology, computation, and data management. However, the extent of that capitalization is unknown. We analyzed the survey responses of 434 graduate students to evaluate the understanding and use of such advances in the environmental sciences. Two-thirds of the students had not taken courses related to information science and the analysis of complex data. Seventy-four percent of the students reported no skill in programming languages or computational applications. Of the students who had completed research projects, 26% had created metadata for research data sets, and 29% had archived their data so that it was available online. One-third of these students used an environmental sensor. The results differed according to the students’ research status, degree type, and university type. Changes may be necessary in the curricula of university programs that seek to prepare environmental scientists for this technologically advanced and data-intensive age.

Natural history collections have existed for considerable time, and their contribution to research has been discussed and praised in recent decades. In scientific literature, however, there is a general lack of records from private and other small collections. Here, we show that these collections represent a highly valuable resource for research, because they may include an important number of specimens with a broad range of origins. We used the Iberian lynx to demonstrate that the wider and less-biased representation of specimens often found in these collections allows for additional and better inferences than those that are drawn exclusively from large institutions. Locating small zoological collections, however, is very time consuming, and, unfortunately, such collections often disappear quickly, putting their long-term persistence at risk. We propose that authorities, researchers, and curators work together to locate and legalize these specimens and facilitate their inclusion in public databases and, eventually, in larger natural history museums that will ensure their existence in perpetuity.