The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
GCRI · Established platform
Ecosystem integrity, biodiversity loss and nature-related risks to human and economic systems. Biodiversity Nexus is an established platform published by The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation.
On the map below
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Layers 3
Habitats on land
Fire
Ocean habitats
Context
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Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Natural Earth
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Vegetation, land cover, fires, ocean chlorophyll, sea temperature, marine heat and sea ice from NASA satellites, each dated.Habitat condition indicators as NASA publishes them; no layer counts species or measures biodiversity directly; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Biodiversity loss is the decline in the variety of life at genetic, species and ecosystem level, driven mainly by land and sea use change, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive species, in IPBES assessments. Biodiversity Nexus covers ecosystem integrity, species and genetic diversity, forests, wetlands, coasts and oceans, restoration, ecosystem services and the rights that govern nature data.
Ecologists; conservation scientists; land managers; Indigenous/community stewards; biodiversity data experts.
Habitat observations; ecological indicators; remote sensing; impact uncertainties.
Biodiversity evidence notes; ecosystem maps; restoration evaluation guides.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Biodiversity | The variability among living organisms from all sources, including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems, as the Convention on Biological Diversity defines it. |
| Ecosystem services | The contributions ecosystems make to human well-being, such as pollination, flood regulation, clean water, food and cultural value. |
| Nature-related risk | Risk to an organisation or economy arising from its dependencies and impacts on nature, as the TNFD recommendations frame it. |
| Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework | The framework adopted under the CBD with goals for 2050 and targets for 2030 to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. |
| Direct drivers of biodiversity loss | Land and sea use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species, the five drivers IPBES identifies. |
The working screen behind this platform: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Landscape A · Assessment cycle 2
materiality, 0 low to 100 high
Scores are placeholders for an assessment the owner completes.
sites near high-integrity areas
| Water scarcity at site 3 | Physical, acute | Abstraction and drought | High | Water stewardship plan |
| Habitat conversion in supply chain | Transition, market | Land use change | Medium | Supplier screening |
| Community objection | Systemic, social | Consent gaps | Medium | Consent records review |
| Pollinator decline | Physical, chronic | Pesticide use | Low | Monitor |
Habitat condition and ecological thresholds.
TopicSpecies populations and genetic diversity.
TopicForest health and landscape fragmentation.
TopicWatershed and wetland resilience.
TopicMarine ecosystems, fish stocks and coastal integrity.
TopicMonitoring and effectiveness.
TopicPollination, flood buffering and livelihood dependencies.
TopicRights, consent and responsible ecological data.
Biodiversity Nexus studies the living fabric of the planet and the risks its loss creates for people and economies: ecosystem integrity, species and genetic diversity, forests, wetlands, coasts and oceans, restoration, ecosystem services and the rights that govern nature data. Its pages set out the science, the data, the methods and the decisions for each part of that system, with every value labelled by its evidence and every limit stated.
Condition, thresholds and collapse risk across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, measured against a stated reference.
Populations, extinction risk and genetic variation, with the gaps in data across groups and regions made explicit.
Forest loss, degradation and fragmentation, and the commodity and finance links that drive them.
Rivers, lakes, floodplains and peatlands, their connectivity, and the resilience they give to watersheds.
Coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, fish stocks and the open ocean under fishing, warming and acidification.
Monitoring and evaluating restoration and ecosystem-based measures against credible counterfactuals.
Pollination, flood buffering, water and livelihoods, and how their loss propagates into food systems and finance.
Licences, consent, sensitive locations and benefit sharing in the collection and use of ecological data.
Ecosystems are not a backdrop to human activity; they are working systems. Soils cycle nutrients and hold water, wetlands store floodwater and filter it, forests regulate local climate and stabilise slopes, reefs and mangroves absorb wave energy, and pollinators set the yield of many crops. Each of these functions rests on biodiversity: the variety of genes, species and ecosystems, and the interactions among them that keep processes running when conditions change.
The main drivers of loss are well established in ecological science: change in land and sea use, direct exploitation of species, climate change, pollution and invasive species. They rarely act alone. A fragmented forest is drier and more exposed to fire; a polluted river loses the species that would otherwise process the pollution; a warming sea weakens reefs already stressed by fishing. Because ecosystems respond to combined pressure in non-linear ways, decline can look gradual until a threshold is crossed and a system shifts into a different, often less productive state that is slow or costly to reverse.
When that happens the consequences travel. Lost flood buffering raises losses downstream, pollinator decline affects harvests and prices, fishery collapse reaches coastal livelihoods and food security, and degraded watersheds raise the cost of water treatment. These dependencies are often invisible in accounts and plans until they fail. The field exists to make them visible early enough for the people responsible to act.
Biodiversity Nexus produces biodiversity evidence notes, ecosystem maps and restoration evaluation guides. Its methods combine habitat observations, ecological indicators, remote sensing and explicit treatment of impact uncertainty. Its work is for researchers who need comparable evidence, for land and sea managers who need to know what is working, and for the public bodies and communities who decide how land and water are used.
Habitat surveys, species monitoring and satellite records combined into indicators of ecosystem condition, with the gaps in coverage stated.
Analysis of which communities, sectors and infrastructure depend on which ecosystem functions, and how loss would propagate.
Restoration and conservation outcomes compared against counterfactuals, so that effort follows evidence rather than intention.
Biodiversity Nexus stewards ecology and biodiversity science in the STEM Commons and applies Earth observation and remote sensing, spatial statistics, geospatial information systems, complex systems modelling, causal inference, hydrology and ocean and coastal science. The full set is on the STEM foundation page. The same field is governed at GRF and examined for financial exposure at GRA, so evidence produced here can inform both without either taking it over.
Every claim on Biodiversity Nexus rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organized community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
Fig.The Nexus cycle on this platform, from question to renewal. Design, not a record of a run.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework | Convention on Biological Diversity | Goals, targets and a monitoring framework for halting and reversing biodiversity loss, including area-based conservation, restoration and business disclosure |
| Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol | United Nations, CBD Secretariat | Conservation, sustainable use and fair sharing of benefits from genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge |
| Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) | CITES Secretariat, UNEP | Controls on international trade in listed species, including non-detriment findings |
| Ramsar Convention on Wetlands | Ramsar Convention Secretariat | Designation and wise use of wetlands of international importance |
| Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction | United Nations | Marine protected areas, environmental impact assessment and benefit sharing on the high seas |
| IPBES global and thematic assessments | Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services | Assessed evidence on status, drivers, nature's contributions to people and policy options |
| SEEA Ecosystem Accounting | United Nations Statistical Commission | Statistical standard for ecosystem extent, condition and service accounts |
| TNFD recommendations and the LEAP approach | Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures | Disclosure of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities by companies and financial institutions |
| IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions | International Union for Conservation of Nature | Criteria for designing, verifying and scaling nature-based solutions |
| Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15 | United Nations | Targets and indicators for life below water and life on land |
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Biodiversity Nexus links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.