Dr. Michael I. Goldstein has worked on many applied research and management issues across terrestrial and aquatic systems, addressing pesticides, dispersed recreation, timber harvest, minerals development, and other forms of human use and resource extraction. Mike's PhD focused on spatial optimization of stands across adjacent federal and private lands to benefit biodiversity, Mike's work in industry also included creating a 40-year habitat conservation plan, and Mike's Forest Service career has focused on building efficiencies in natural resources and planning. Mike was a principal architect and editor of Elsevier's reference module "Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences", and has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of a trilogy of recent books, namely the Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, the Encyclopedia of the World's Biomes, and Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation. These works tie together Mike's lifetime commitment to conservation planning, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biodiversity. Mark J. Costello is an ecologist with a longtime interest in biodiversity and biogeography from local to global scales, particularly in marine and freshwater ecosystems, and applications in conservation and aquaculture.

He is a professor at Nord University (Norway). Born in Ireland, he studied in Galway and Cork, followed by postdocs at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth England, and the Scottish Office and Napier University in Scotland. He became a lecturer in Trinity College University of Dublin, Managing Director of EcoServe (an environmental consulting company in Ireland), and Executive Director of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, Canada. He has supervised over 60 MSc and PhD students and published over 240 peer-reviewed papers. Driven by a lifetime fascination with nature, he is especially pleased to have pioneered a new field of "ocean biodiversity informatics" and, in that, played leadership roles in the development of useful world databases that list and map biodiversity across land and sea. Scott A. Elias grew up in Colorado, USA, and received both an undergraduate degree and Ph.D.

in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado. He went on to do postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and the University of Berne, Switzerland. Scott returned to the University of Colorado in 1982 and became a research associate of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. In 2000 he took a lectureship in Physical Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, and became a Professor of Quaternary Science in 2007. He has served as editor-in-chief of three editions of the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, and co-editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Geology and the Cryosphere Comprehensive.