Classroom games: Strategic interaction on the internet. Journal of Economic Perspectives

Game theoretic concepts arise in many economics courses: for example, the prisoner’s dilemma in the principles course; Nash equilibrium in industrial organization; bargaining games in labor economics, strategic interactions in managerial economics, free-riding and common-pool resources in public economics, and so on. Learning about game theory can be enhanced b

Classroom Games: Strategic Interaction on the Internet

Economics is often taught at a level of abstraction that can hinder some students from gaining basic intuition. However, lecture and textbook presentations can be complemented with classroom exercises in which students make decisions and interact. The approach can increase interest in, and decrease skepticism about, economic theory. This feature offers short descriptions of classroom exercises for a variety of economics courses, with something of an emphasis on the more popular undergraduate courses.

Scaling sensitivity of drivers

International audienc

Distribution modelling as an approach to the conservation of a threatened alpine endemic butterfly (Lepidoptera: Satyridae)

Mountain butterfly species are often restricted in their distribution and under threat from habitat destruction and climate change. Due to the inaccessibility of their habitats the distributions of many such species are unknown. We have investigated whether information on the habitat requirements of the Alpine endemic species Erebia calcaria could be used for modelling its potential distribution. We surveyed part of its range using transects and recorded habitat and environmental parameters. The most important parameters determining the presence of the species were average height of the vegetation,maximum height of the vegetation, percentage area of bare ground, number of food plants and slope. Furthermore, the abundance of E. calcaria is strongly affected by site exposure and grazing intensity. Using these results we modelled the potential distribution of the species in its known historical range in Slovenia. In the region covered by the model 70% of the records of E.calcaria were within the predicted distribution. It is reasonable to proposethat such a high detection rate justifies the use of distribution models for predicting a species range and providing important additional information for their conservation. In the case of E. calcaria, we have shown that endemic mountain butterflies can be strongly threatened by fragmentation of their habitat, overgrazing and succession, which could be further amplifiedby changes in climate

Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation

Human actions, motivated by social and economic driving forces, generate various pressures on biodiversity, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, land use related disturbance patterns, or species invasions that have an impact on biodiversity from the genetic to the ecosystem level. Each of these factors acts at characteristic scales, and the scales of social and economic demands, of environmental pressures, of biodiversity impacts, of scientific analysis, and of governmental responses do not necessarily match. However, management of the living world will be effective only if we understand how problems and solutions change with scale. SCALES (http://www.scales-project.net), a research project lasting for five years from May 2009 to July 2014, was seeking for ways to build the issue of scale into policy and decision-making and biodiversity management. It has greatly advanced our knowledge of how anthropogenic and natural processes interact across scales and affect biodiversity and it has evaluated in a very practical way how this knowledge can be used to improve the scale-sensitivity and effectiveness of policy instruments for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. During the project we have especially emphasized approaches that utilize existing biodiversity databases as they are the most widely available information in applied biodiversity conservation. We also tried to integrate the most appropriate assessment tools and policy instruments into a coherent framework to support biodiversity conservation across spatial and temporal scales. While the guidelines, practical solutions and special tools are presented as a special web based portal at a central place, the SCALETOOL (http://scales.ckff.si/scaletool/), the scientific outcome is widely spread over the scientific literature in regional and international journals. With the SCALES book we want to bundle the main results of SCALES in a comprehensive manner and present it in a way that is usable not only for pure scientists but also for people making decisions in administration, management, policy or even business and NGOs; to people who are more interested in the “practical” side of this issue. Yrjö Haila, Tamper

Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation

The SCALES book is an attempt to bundle up the main results of SCALES in a comprehensive manner and present it in a way that is usable not only for pure scientists but also for people making decisions in administration, management, policy or even business and NGOs; to people who are more interested in the “practical” side of this issue

Risk Assessment of Aquatic Invasive Species Introductions via We stern

The present Atlas of Biodiversity Risk is the first of its kind to describe and summarise in a comprehensive, easy-to-read and richly illustrated form the major pressures, impacts and risks of biodiversity loss at a global level. The main risks identified are caused by global climate and land use change, environmental pollution, loss of pollinators and biological invasions. The impacts and consequences of biodiversity loss are analyzed with a strong focus on socio-economic drivers and their effects on society. Three scenarios of potential futures are the baseline for predicting impacts and explore options for mitigating adverse effects at several spatio-temporal scales. Elements of these futures are modeled, tested and illustrated. The Atlas is divided into sections which mostly deal with particular pressures. It furthermore is based on case studies from a large set of countries, which are completed by introductory and concluding chapters for each section. The Atlas combines the main outcomes of the large European project ALARM (performed by 68 partner organisations from 35 countries from Europe as well as other continents) with some core outputs of numerous further research networks. A total number of 366 authors from 180 institutions in 43 countries provided information and contributed to the Atlas. The Atlas is addressed to a wide spectrum of users. Scientists will find summaries of well-described methods, approaches and case studies. Conservationists and policy makers will use the conclusions and recommendations based on academic research output and presented in a comprehensive and easy-to-read way. Lecturers and teachers will find good examples to illustrate the main challenges in our century of global environmental changes. The Atlas is an indispensible tool to any library or institution in biodiversity and environmental sciences. Finally, all people concerned with environmental issues will find the Atlas a powerful weapon in their fight for saving the life on our Planet!Settele J, Penev LD, Georgiev TA, Grabaum R, Grobelnik V, Hammen V, Klotz S, Kotarac M, Kühn I, editors. Atlas of the Biodiversity Risk. Sofia; Moscow: Pensoft Publishers; 2010. p. 140–3