Biodiversity hotspots understandably attract considerable conservation attention. However, deserts are rarely viewed as conservation priority areas, due to their relatively low productivity, yet these systems are home to unique species, adapted to harsh and highly variable environments. While global attention has been focused on hotspots, the world's largest tropical desert, the Sahara, has suffered a catastrophic decline in megafauna. Of 14 large vertebrates that have historically occurred in the region, four are now extinct in the wild, including the iconic scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah). The majority has disappeared from more than 90% of their Saharan range, including addax (Addax nasomaculatus), dama gazelle (Nanger dama) and Saharan cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) -all now on the brink of extinction. Greater conservation support and scientific attention for the region might have helped to avert these catastrophic declines. The Sahara serves as an example of a wider historical neglect of deserts and the human communities who depend on them. The scientific community can make an important contribution to conservation in deserts by establishing baseline information on biodiversity and developing new approaches to sustainable management of desert species and ecosystems. Such approaches must accommodate mobility of both people and wildlife so that they can use resources most efficiently in the face of low and unpredictable rainfall. This is needed to enable governments to deliver on their commitments to halt further degradation of deserts and to improve their status for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Only by so-doing will deserts be able to support resilient ecosystems and communities that are best able to adapt to climate change.

Abstract. Changes in atmospheric ozone have occurred since the preindustrial era as a result of increasing anthropogenic emissions. Within ACCENT, a European Network of Excellence, ozone changes between 1850 and 2000 are assessed for the troposphere and the lower stratosphere (up to 30 km) by a variety of seven chemistry-climate models and three chemical transport models. The modeled ozone changes are taken as input for detailed calculations of radiative forcing.When only changes in chemistry are considered (constant climate) the modeled global-mean tropospheric ozone column increase since preindustrial times ranges from 7.9 DU to 13.8 DU among the ten participating models, while the stratospheric column reduction lies between 14.1 DU and 28.6 DU in the models considering stratospheric chemistry. The resulting radiative forcing is strongly dependent on the location and altitude of the modeled ozone change and varies between 0.25 Wm −2 and 0.45 Wm −2 due to ozone change in the troposphere and −0.123 Wm −2 and +0.066 Wm −2 due to the stratospheric ozone change.Correspondence to: M. Gauss (michael.gauss@geo.uio.no) Changes in ozone and other greenhouse gases since preindustrial times have altered climate. Six out of the ten participating models have performed an additional calculation taking into account both chemical and climate change. In most models the isolated effect of climate change is an enhancement of the tropospheric ozone column increase, while the stratospheric reduction becomes slightly less severe. In the three climate-chemistry models with detailed tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry the inclusion of climate change increases the resulting radiative forcing due to tropospheric ozone change by up to 0.10 Wm −2 , while the radiative forcing due to stratospheric ozone change is reduced by up to 0.034 Wm −2 .Considering tropospheric and stratospheric change combined, the total ozone column change is negative while the resulting net radiative forcing is positive.

Two Bartonella strains from blood of two wild rats (Rattus norvegicus) living in a rural environment were isolated. These strains were distinct from all previously known Bartonella species based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. This new species is distinguished by its trypsin-like activity, the absence of the ability to hydrolyse proline and tributyrin, its 165 rRNA and citrate synthase gene sequences and by whole-DNA hybridization data. This new species, for which the name Bartonella tribocorum sp. nov. is proposed, seems to be genetically related to Bartonella elizabethae, an agent isolated in a case of human endocarditis. The type strain of Bartonella tribocorum sp. nov. is IBS 506T (CIP 105476T).

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We report the first large-scale surveillance of avian influenza viruses in water birds conducted in Africa. This study shows evidence of avian influenza viruses in wild birds, both Eurasian and Afro-tropical species, in several major wetlands of Africa.