The acceptance of the findings reported here will largely be determined by the credibility of the argument that links biodiversity with contemporary satellite measurements of landcover. The following sections establish those links. We begin the argument with this image.
We present an uncommon view of biodiversity. It is a landscape scaled view, an overview like this image, that seeks understanding of general trends rather than detail. Concern for biodiversity is sometimes disparagingly called biological stamp collecting. Using this metaphor, our concern is to understand the workings of the postal system.
