To celebrate 2010 as the United Nations’ International Year of Biodiversity and the importance of sharing our knowledge of the diversity of the natural world, we present a cross-journal thematic series on Open Access Biodiversity Research.

The rich diversity of life is essential to our presence on the earth and yet it is at risk of decreasing at an accelerated rate due to human activities. The action of the United Nations, in highlighting biodiversity during 2010, is an important chance to increase our understanding of the vital function of biodiversity and a prompt to act now to reduce its loss. To celebrate this initiative, we feature leading research from different disciplines that share common goals in conserving biodiversity.

A recent article published in BMC Ecology by Dr Axel Strauss and colleagues discusses the incidence of functional redundancy in tadpole communities in the species-rich streams in Madagascar, and how this is connected to the accumulation of new traits. Using a very different approach, Dr Clementine Pradal et al, also writing in BMC Ecology, employ a mathematical model to describe the temporal dynamics of an Arctic plant-pollinator network and how climate change could affect these delicate systems. The series also features articles from BMC Biology, BMC Evolutionary Biology, BMC Microbiology and Frontiers in Zoology.

For more information and to read further articles in this series please visit the series webpage.