Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly used for extrapolation, or predicting suitable regions for species under new geographic or temporal scenarios. However, SDM predictions may be prone to errors if species are not at equilibrium with climatic conditions in the current range and if training samples are not representative.

Climate change can affect the phenology, population dynamics and morphology of species, but it is difficult to study all these factors and their interactions at once. Using long-term data for individual yellow-bellied marmots, these authors show that climate change has increased the length of the marmot growing season, leading to a gradual increase in individual size. It has simultaneously increased the fitness of large individuals, leading to a rapid increase in population size.

Conservation planners represent many aspects of biodiversity by using surrogates with spatial distributions readily observed or quantified, but tests of their effectiveness have produced varied and conflicting results.

The pristine forest of Neora Valley National Park (NVNP) in Kalimpong hills, Darjeeling district, which has formed an ecological trijunction with Sikkim and Bhutan, is the last virgin wilderness in West Bengal. It is one of the oldest (1881) reserve forests in India. Since this area has been put under protection and is an unworkable working circle, the high forest remains intact.

Many large mammals became extinct worldwide at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, around 12,000 years ago. Here, it is shown that smaller mammals, which often provide much more comprehensive fossil records than large mammals, were much less likely to respond to the Pleistocene