In advance of World Environment Day, RELX’s Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Dr Márcia Balisciano, talks to Dr Sam Scheiner, Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Biodiversity.
World Environment Day is the most renowned day for environmental action. Since 1974, it has been celebrated every year on June 5th, engaging governments, businesses, celebrities and citizens to focus their efforts on a pressing environmental issue. In 2020, the theme is biodiversity, a concern that is both urgent and existential. Recent events, from bushfires in Brazil, the United States and Australia, to locust infestations across East Africa – and now, a global disease pandemic – demonstrate the interdependence of humans and the webs of life in which they exist. To mark World Environment Day 2020, we have curated a special issue of 62 journal articles and book chapters devoted to biodiversity and humanity’s intimate interconnection with nature.
Sam is a theoretical biologist with work in various areas of evolution, ecology, and general biology. In evolution, he works on modeling phenotypic plasticity and the use of structural equation modeling for measuring trait relationships and natural selection. In ecology, he works on macroecological patterns of diversity, species richness relationships, and diversity metrics. In general biology, he has developed a set of general theories encompassing all of biology.
