Illustrative: a hexagonal population grid where a wave rises, peaks and recovers from seeded outbreaks

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ecology and Land Systems

Biodiversity and ecosystems

Biodiversity and ecosystems, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Biodiversity and ecosystems: foundations and practice

This area covers the condition of species, genetic diversity and ecosystems, the services people draw from them and the risks their decline creates for societies and economies.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

It strengthens the method base for assessing corporate nature dependencies and impacts, which feeds disclosure, lending and investment risk processes. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, 9 February 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define ecosystem services and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain species and genetic diversity and ecosystem integrity and condition with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against ecosystem services, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Species and genetic diversity
    • Species and genetic diversity
    • Ecosystem integrity and condition
    • Ecosystem services
  2. Wetlands and freshwater ecosystems
    • Wetlands and freshwater ecosystems
    • Forests and landscapes
    • Coastal and marine biodiversity
  3. Restoration and nature-based solutions
    • Restoration and nature-based solutions
    • Nature-related dependencies and impacts
    • Invasive alien species
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • The area of habitat that remains, and how intensely the rest is used, set how many species a landscape can hold; the species-area relation gives the expected loss, the Biodiversity Intactness Index the abundance left, and a threshold on either turns the numbers into a protection or restoration decision.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-N5 Biodiversity and nature risk and resilience
  • NRS-H27 Hazard family: Biodiversity and species stress
  • NRS-H64 Hazard family: Ecosystem regime shifts
  • NRS-H68 Hazard family: Biome tipping elements
  • NRS-M17 Method fabric: Climate, nature and biodiversity

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, 9 February 2026
  2. Newbold et al., Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity, 2015
  3. Mace et al., Quantification of extinction risk: IUCN's system for classifying threatened species, 2008
  4. Tilman et al., Habitat destruction and the extinction debt, 1994
02Live map

Habitat condition in the Andes

Vegetation, land cover, fires and ocean productivity and warmth from NASA satellites, over the Andes.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Habitat condition

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Habitat condition, framed on the Andes.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS Aqua ocean colour, NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group; distributed by the NASA Ocean Biology DAAC (OB.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (5 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
  • Gross primary production, 8-day total: MODIS Aqua GPP (MYD17), NASA LP DAAC · 30 Sep 2026
  • Sea surface temperature anomaly: GHRSST MUR25, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Ocean chlorophyll-a concentration: MODIS Aqua ocean colour, NASA OB.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Biodiversity and ecosystems: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed biodiversity and ecosystems between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Biodiversity and ecosystems: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

It strengthens the method base for assessing corporate nature dependencies and impacts, which feeds disclosure, lending and investment risk processes. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, 9 February 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in biodiversity and ecosystems since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce IPBES business assessment calls nature loss a systemic economic risk on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. IPBES business assessment calls nature loss a systemic economic risk
    • The IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, approved in Manchester, found every business depends on and affects biodiversity, that less than 1% of reporting companies disclose biodiversity impacts, and that finance harming nature far exceeds conservation spending.
    • It strengthens the method base for assessing corporate nature dependencies and impacts, which feeds disclosure, lending and investment risk processes.
    • IPBES, 9 February 2026
  2. IUCN Red List update: Arctic seals threatened, bird declines widen
    • The October 2025 update listed 48,646 of 172,620 assessed species as threatened, moved three Arctic seals closer to extinction because of sea ice loss, and found 61% of bird species declining; the green turtle improved to Least Concern.
    • Updated extinction-risk categories are a primary input for nature-related screening, site sensitivity and impact assessment, and show conservation measures can measurably work.
    • IUCN, 10 October 2025
  3. IPBES Transformative Change Assessment sets out root causes of nature loss
    • Approved in Windhoek, the assessment identified three underlying causes of biodiversity loss, estimated that delaying action by a decade could roughly double costs, and proposed five strategies for system-wide change, noting a large annual funding gap.
    • It gives practitioners an evidence base for addressing drivers rather than symptoms, and for weighing the cost of delay in nature-related risk decisions.
    • IPBES, 18 December 2024
  4. IPBES assessment links biodiversity, water, food and health
    • The IPBES Nexus Assessment found that biodiversity loss, water and food insecurity, health risks and climate change interact, estimated unaccounted costs of current economic approaches at least 10–25 trillion dollars a year, and identified over 70 joint response options.
    • Treating nature, water, food and health risks separately can be counterproductive; integrated assessment helps avoid responses that shift risk from one domain to another.
    • IPBES, 17 December 2024
  5. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  6. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Earth observation and acoustic monitoring, environmental DNA and GeoAI.
    • The governance of biotechnology releases, and data sovereignty.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-N5 Biodiversity and nature risk and resilience
  • NRS-H27 Hazard family: Biodiversity and species stress
  • NRS-H64 Hazard family: Ecosystem regime shifts
  • NRS-H68 Hazard family: Biome tipping elements
  • NRS-M17 Method fabric: Climate, nature and biodiversity

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 6 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

Open now in this discipline

References

  1. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment, 9 February 2026
  2. IUCN, Arctic seals threatened by climate change, birds decline globally – IUCN Red List, 10 October 2025
  3. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Transformative Change Assessment, 18 December 2024
  4. IPBES, Media Release: IPBES Nexus Assessment, 17 December 2024
  5. Newbold et al., Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity, 2015
  6. Mace et al., Quantification of extinction risk: IUCN's system for classifying threatened species, 2008
  7. Tilman et al., Habitat destruction and the extinction debt, 1994
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Ecosystem services

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems, such as food, clean water, flood regulation and pollination.

Term

Ecosystem integrity

The ability of an ecosystem to keep its structure, composition and functions within their natural range of variation.

Term

Nature-based solutions

Actions that protect, manage or restore ecosystems to address a societal challenge while benefiting biodiversity.

Term

Ecological tipping point

A threshold beyond which an ecosystem shifts to a different state that is hard to reverse.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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