To use biodiversity components sustainably, to maintain ecosystem functions that provide goods and services, to conserve, protect and restore the natural world to halt biodiversity loss, it is vital to understand and conserve the diversity of life on earth through research, education and outreach. Several international initiatives such as BIOTA, ERA-Nets, CBD, DIVERSITAS, GBIF, GTI, MEA, GEOSS and GEO promote scientific research, conservation and sustainable development of available biodiversity components in the recent years, as the present form of globalization has heavily been criticized for ignoring sustainable development and environmental concerns. More recently, helping species and ecosystems to survive becomes practically more difficult.

The remarkable discovery of new species shows that there is still much to discover and makes conservation more important for the future generations. There has now been increasingly substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on earth, currently threatened with extinction due to anthropogenic activities. Recently, IUCN notes that 1 bird out of 8, 1 mammal out of 4, 1 amphibian out of 3, and 6 marine turtles out of 7, are all threatened with extinction. One of the most comprehensive and recent study estimates that over a million species often within the borders of a single country will be lost in the next five decades. And so, assessing the causes and consequences of loss of biodiversity and the importance of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are the major challenges essential for our very survival on the earth.

Frontiers in Biodiversity Studies has wide range of such topics including the biodiversity of aquatic mollusks, freshwater ciliates, wild legumes, dipterans, coastal and freshwater fishes, mangroves, phytopathogenic fungi, terrestrial heteropterans and insect communities, habitat loss, fragmentation, land use-land cover change, ecological agriculture, ecosystem services and their value to society. The updated reviews serve as capital in supporting food security, agricultural productivity and environmental management for the ever increasing global population in the 21st century. And so, this book should be an excellent reference work for natural scientists, environmentalists, conservationists, taxonomists, biodiversity professionals, policy makers, stakeholders and anyone working on biodiversity research and applications.