Biodiversity & Conservation : Home
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New to research? Explore the Library's Assignment Toolkit to learn all about the research process.
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Search the library's print and online resources to find books, ebooks, articles, recordings and more.
Here is a short guide to help you get started: Multisearch: A Quick Overview
The library catalogue lists physical items and ebooks purchased by the library.
Use Multisearch to search the library catalogue and online collections at the same time.
Google Scholar can be a useful search tool when starting your research, but it should not be the only tool you use. However, while you know you can rely on MTU library resources, it is up to you to make sure content you find on Google Scholar is safe to use for your assignments and research.
Did you know you can link Google Scholar to MTU Kerry library so it always tells you when the full text of an article is available in the library?
Here is our Link MTU Kerry Library to Google Scholar guide.
Use the A-Z of Online Journals to find a specific journal or journals on a specific subject.
Searching the library's online resources is a bit different to searching Google. Here are some tips to get you started:
- List keywords for each of the main concepts or ideas in your research question
- What is the impact of global warming on Adelie penguins on the Antartic continent
- Enter keywords not sentences into the search box
- Join keywords using AND
- global warming AND penguins
- Use OR between words with similar meanings and put OR'd words in brackets
- Adelie penguins AND (global warming OR climate change)
- Use quotation marks to look for phrases
- Adelie penguings AND "global warming"
- Try searching with different combinations of keywords and see what works best.
- Use your search results to find new keywords
Things to think about when making your list of keywords
- Synonyms (words that mean the same thing)
- drug abuse, drug addction or substance abuse
- Acronyms (abbreviations)
- GP or General Practitioner, HSE or Health and Safety Executive
- Specialist language
- narcotics vs drugs
- Word endings
- addict* will find addict, addicts, addicted, addiction, but child will not find children.
- Phrases (looks for words together and in order)
- "controlled substance"
- UK vs American Spelling
- colour vs color, analyse vs analyze, centre vs centre
For more search help, check out out the Effective Searching Module of the Assignment Toolkit. and our Top Tips for Smarter Searching guide for more search hints
Information Sources for (Subject)
Use these databases to do a more focused search for journal articles that relate to your music topic. Click on the "i" icon to see a description for each database.
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Cambridge University Press Journals This link opens in a new window Access to a wide range of full-text articles from hundreds of peer-reviewed, academic journals in the Sciences, Computer Sciences, Technology, Arts, Film, Music, Business, Social Sciences, Psychology, Law and Education areas.
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JSTOR – Life Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window JSTOR Life Sciences Collection provides provides full-text and peer-reviewed articles in the Biological Sciences, Health and General Science fields. Content includes high quality, full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles. Coverage includes: Botany, Conservation, Ecology, General Science, Health Science, Ornithology, Plant Sciences and Zoology. Search all JSTOR collections subscribed to by the library from the home page or click Browse, then Subject to limit your search to a specific Subject
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window ScienceDirect provides abstract and full text access to scholarly research in the Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, Health Sciences and Social Sciences and Humanity. Subject coverage is broad and includes topics such as business, management, accounting, finance, economics, early childhood, education and tourism.
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Springer Nature Link This link opens in a new window Springer provides access to a comprehensive collection of quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. Subjects: Biological Sciences, Business and Management, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Materials Science, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Statistics, Technology and Engineering.
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Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window Access to full-text journal articles across all key academic research areas. Subjects covered include: business, chemistry, computer science, engineering, law, life sciences, mathematic, physics, psychology and social sciences.
You can find a full list of library e-resources on the library's A-Z of Online Resources page.
Use Multisearch to find books and ebooks. Here is a selection of print and electronic books available through the library.
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Biodiversity and Climate Change
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An essential, up-to-date look at the critical interactions between biological diversity and climate change that will serve as an immediate call to action The physical and biological impacts of climate change are dramatic and broad‑ranging. People who care about the planet and manage natural resources urgently need a synthesis of our rapidly growing understanding of these issues. In this all‑new sequel to the 2005 volume Climate Change and Biodiversity, leading experts in the field summarize observed changes, assess what the future holds, and offer suggested responses. From extinction risk to ocean acidification, from the future of the Amazon to changes in ecosystem services, and from geoengineering to the power of ecosystem restoration, this book captures the sweep of climate change transformation of the biosphere.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780300206111Publication Date: 2019 -
Conservation Biology
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This book provides a thorough, up-to-date examination of conservation biology and the many supporting disciplines that comprise conservation science. In this, the Third Edition of the highly successful Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications, the authors address their interdisciplinary topic as it must now be practiced and perceived in the modern world. Beginning with a concise review of the history of conservation, the authors go on to explore the interplay of conservation with genetics, demography, habitat and landscape, aquatic environments, and ecosystem management, and the relationship of all these disciplines to ethics, economics, law, and policy. An entirely new chapter, The Anthropocene: Conservation in a Human-Dominated Nature, breaks new ground in its exploration of how conservation can be practiced in anthropogenic biomes, novel ecosystems, and urban habitats. The Third Edition includes the popular Points of Engagement discussion questions used in earlier editions, and adds a new feature: Information Boxes, which briefly recap specific case histories described in the text. A concluding chapter offers insight into how to become a conservation professional, in both traditional and non-traditional roles. The authors, Fred Van Dyke and Rachel Lamb, draw on their expertise as field biologists, wildlife managers, consultants to government and industry, and scholars of environmental law, policy, and advocacy, as well as their many years of effective teaching experience. Informed by practical knowledge and acquired skills, the authors have created a work of exceptional clarity and readability which encompasses both systemic foundations as well as contemporary developments in the field. Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications will be of invaluable benefit to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to working conservation scientists and managers. This is an amazing resource for students, faculty, and practitioners both new and experienced to the field. Diane Debinski, PhD Unexcelled wisdom for living at home on Wonderland Earth, the planet with promise, destined for abundant life. Holmes Rolston, PhD Van Dyke and Lamb have maintained the original text's emphasis on connecting classical ecological and environmental work with updated modern applications and lucid examples. But more importantly, the third edition contains much new material on the human side of conservation, including expanded treatments of policy, economics, and climate change. Tim Van Deelen, PhD Fred Van Dyke and Rachel Lamb break new ground in both the breadth and depth of their review and analysis of this crucially important and rapidly changing field. Any student or other reader wishing to have acomprehensive overview and understanding of the complexities of conservation biology need look no further - this book is your starting point! Simon N. Stuart, PhD Anyone who teaches, talks or writes and works on Conservation Biology, needs this latest edition of Conservation Biology (Foundations, Concepts, Applications, 3rd edition) by Fred Van Dyke and Rachel L. Lamb. This will be useful to both beginners and experts as well. The authors included almost all important issues in relation to conservation biology. This is really an outstanding book. Bidhan Chandra Das, Professor, Ecology Branch, Department of Zoology, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Call Number: 333.9516 VANISBN: 9783030395322Publication Date: 2020 -
Creating Resilient Landscapes in an Era of Climate Change
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This book delivers a realistic and feasible framework for creating resilient landscapes in an era of anthropogenic climate change. From across six continents, this book presents fifteen case studies of differing sociocultural, economic, and biophysical backgrounds that showcase opportunities and limitations for creating resilient landscapes throughout the world. The potential to create socio-ecological resilience is examined across a wide range of landscapes, including agricultural, island, forest, coastal, and urban landscapes, across sixteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Samoa, South Africa, the United States, Turkey, Uruguay, and Vanuatu. Chapters discuss current and future issues around creating a sustainable food system, conserving biodiversity, and climate change adaptation and resilience, with green infrastructure, nature-based architecture, green-tech, and ecosystem services as just a few of the approaches discussed. The book emphasizes solution-oriented approaches for an "ecological hope" that can support landscape resiliency in this chaotic era, and the chapters consider the importance of envisioning an unpredictable future with numerous uncertainties. In this context, the key focus is on how we all can tackle the intertwined impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and large-scale land-cover conversion in urban and non-urban landscapes, with particular attention to the concept of landscape resiliency. The volume provides that much-needed link between theory and practice to deliver forward-thinking, practical solutions. This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers who are interested in the complex relationship between landscapes, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-based conversion at local, national and global scales.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781000822946Publication Date: 2022 -
Monitoring Biodiversity
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This book is an exciting reappraisal of the role and practice of biodiversity monitoring, showing how new technologies and software applications are rapidly maturing and can both complement and maintain continuity with the best practice in traditional field skills. Environmental monitoring is a key component in a large number of national programmes and constitutes an important aspect of understanding environmental change and supporting policy development. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Monitoring Biodiversity begins by discussing monitoring as an established field and examines the various budgetary and technological challenges. It examines different methodologies, the variation between countries, and the design features relevant to understanding monitoring systems created for new policy goals or different funding situations. The huge variety of methods revealed across 18 chapters, which vary from statistical designs to remote sensing, interviews, surveys, and new ways of stacking and combining data and thematic information for visualization and modelling, underlines just how mature and multifaceted the modern practice of monitoring can be. It concludes with several problem-based chapters that discuss the design and implementation of environmental monitoring in specific scenarios such as urban and aquatic areas. All chapters include key messages, study questions, and further reading. With a focus on Europe but with international relevance, Monitoring Biodiversity will be an essential resource for students at all levels of environmental monitoring, assessment, and management.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781000840636Publication Date: 2023 -
What Works in Conservation 2021
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Does the creation of artificial reefs benefit subtidal benthic invertebrates? Is the use of organic farming instead of conventional farming beneficial to bat conservation? Does installing wildlife warning reflectors along roads benefit mammal conservation? Does the installation of exclusion and/or escape devices on fishing nets benefit marine and freshwater mammal conservation? What Works in Conservation has been created to provide practitioners with answers to these and many other questions about practical conservation. This book provides an assessment of the effectiveness of 2526 conservation interventions based on summarized scientific evidence. The 2021 edition containssubstantial new material on bat conservation, terrestrial mammal conservation and marine and freshwater mammals, thus completing the evidence for all mammal species categories. Other chapters cover practical global conservation of primates, amphibians, bats, birds, forests, peatlands, subtidal benthic invertebrates, shrublands and heathlands, as well as the conservation of European farmland biodiversity and some aspects of enhancing natural pest control, enhancing soil fertility, management of captive animals and control of freshwater invasive species. It contains key results from the summarized evidence for each conservation intervention and an assessment of the effectiveness of each by international expert panels. The accompanying website www.conservationevidence.com describes each of the studies individually, and provides full references. This is the fourth author-approved edition of What Works in Conservation, which is revised on an annual basis.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781800642737Publication Date: 2021
Use Multisearch to find journals and ejournals.
Here is a selection of print and ejournals available through the library. Click the "i" icon to quickly see if the journal is available in print or online
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Biodiversity and Conservation Biodiversity and Conservation is an international journal that publishes articles on all aspects of biological diversity, its conservation, and sustainable use. It is multidisciplinary and covers living organisms of all kinds in any habitat, focusing on studies using novel or little-used approaches, and ones from less studied biodiversity rich regions or habitats. It also features rapid assessment approaches, the estimation of species numbers and diversity (by traditional, molecular, or proxy indicator methods), habitat management, conservation policy and regulations, threats, biodiversity loss, extinctions, and the documenting of long-term changes, and ex-situ conservation.
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Bird Conservation International
Bird Conservation International is a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to promote worldwide research and action for the conservation of birds and the habitats upon which they depend. The official journal of BirdLife International, it provides stimulating, international and up-to-date coverage of a broad range of conservation topics, using birds to illuminate wider issues of biodiversity, conservation and sustainable resource use. It publishes original papers and reviews, including targeted articles and recommendations by leading experts.
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Conservation Biology
Conservation Biology, the flagship journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, is the leading journal in the field of conservation. Its ground-breaking research articles, essays, and reviews develop new theory and methods, define key problems, and propose solutions, exploring the social, ecological, and philosophical dimensions of the conservation of biological diversity. The journal offers globally relevant novel insights, approaches, and syntheses.
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Insect Conservation and Diversity
Insect Conservation and Diversity is a Royal Entomological Society journal that uniquely combines insect diversity and conservation, focusing on invertebrate preservation.
Emphasizing wild arthropods and their specific relationships, our journal covers topics like biogeography, climate change impacts, conservation genetics, and global biodiversity. We welcome submissions on past and present biodiversity distribution, monitoring arthropod populations, identifying harmful influences, and restoring ecosystem services. With a broad scope, we encourage submissions across insect and arthropod conservation, encompassing ecological theory and practical management.
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Marine Biodiversity Marine Biodiversity is a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to all aspects of biodiversity research in marine ecosystems and in particular, encourages contributions dealing with the understanding of the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity in marine systems and the role of species in structuring marine ecosystem functioning.
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Ireland's National Strategy for Plant Conservation: Progress towards 2020
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The National Botanic Gardens (OPW), in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) have carried out a progress report on Ireland’s ability to achieve the 16 Targets outlined in our National Strategy for Plant Conservation (NSPC).
Call Number: eBook -
Report of the Citizen's Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
"The Recommendations and Report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss – the first such national citizens’ assembly anywhere in the world...The report was produced as a result of seven meetings of the Assembly from May 2022 through to the end of January this year. It concluded with the 99 members of the Assembly agreeing 159 recommendations. These include 73 high-level recommendations and 86 sectoral specific actions and priorities."
Call Number: eBookPublication Date: 2023
Here are some website you may find useful. Remember to always check the quality and reliability of resources you find on websites.
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Biodiversity Information System for Europe (BISE) BISE serves as the European reference gateway for accessing data, information and knowledge regarding the status and progress towards EU biodiversity targets. This is derived from data collected through key nature-related policy instruments.
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European Commission Biodiversity Library Guide The Library Guide presents a curated selection of relevant sources on the topic: EU websites, EU publications, EU statistics and data, EU law, EU research results, international publications, peer-reviewed research journals and articles, books, think tank reports and news updates.
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National Biodiversity Data Centre The National Biodiversity Data Centre works to make biodiversity data and information more freely available in order to better understand and assist the protection of Ireland’s biodiversity.
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National Parks and Wildlife Service The role of National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is: To manage, maintain and develop State-owned National Parks and Nature Reserves. To promote awareness of natural heritage and biodiversity issues through education, outreach to schools and engaging with stakeholders.
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Teagasc - Biodiversity and Countryside Outlines a range of relevant Teagasc resources that address farmland biodiversity and the Irish countryside. These include an overview and further references to current and recent research projects, as well as a collection of Teagasc leaflets and information booklets.
Research Help
Need an idea? - Here are some suggested places to start:
- Multisearch - limit your results by subject or topic.
- Google Scholar - useful for finding existing research.
Not sure how to develop your topic?
- Watch this online tutorial from Sage Research Methods : Defining a topic.
- Read the Identifying a subject for an assignment or research area page of our Research Skills: Finding and evaluating information for essays and theses guide.
Referencing is an essential skill for academic writing. It is important to acknowledge the work of others to avoid plagiarism.
We recommend you complete the following online tutorials from the MTU Libraries Assignment Toolkit.
Here is a link to MTU Kerry Library's Guide to Referencing, Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism (MTU Kerry).
Look for a peer-review limiter on your search results page.
How do I know if a journal is peer-reviewed?
- If you are searching a library database such as CINAHL, use the peer-reviewed limiter.
- Google the journal home page; this information is almost always located on the publisher's website.
- Ask a librarian for help.
Be careful, however! Not all articles within a peer-reviewed journal are peer-reviewed articles.
TIP: Peer-reviewed articles will have an abstract and a list of references.
We recommend you complete the following online tutorials from the MTU Library Assignment Toolkit.
You can also check out the MTU Kerry's Academic Success Centre or MTU Cork's Academic Learning Centre
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Related Guides
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Botany Plant Science (Botany) Subject Guide
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Ecology Ecology Subject Guide
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Environmental Science Environmental Science Subject Guide
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Irish Wildlife Irish Wildlife Subject Guide
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Zoology Zoology Subject Guide
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