Mass Extinction and Species Sustainability through Reproduction Biotechnologies, Biobanking, Species Restoration, and Conservation Breeding Programs

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecology and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1994

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sustainability America, La Isla Road, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize
Interests: herpetology; assisted reproductive technologies; endocrinology; cryobiology; biobanking; evolutionary ecology; sustainable management; conservation breeding programs; biodiversity; space colonisation

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center, Oak Grove, MI 64075, USA
Interests: amphibian conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global awareness of drastic biodiversity loss and the mandate for Intergenerational Entitlement and Rights for Nature has resulted in international incentives such as COP 15 and COP 28, regional governance, and community engagement to conserve biodiversity through habitat protection or restoration. However, these initiatives cannot prevent the extinction of many species in the wild due to inevitable ecosystem loss through direct destruction or ubiquitous environmental impacts such as climate catastrophe. Since the turn of the millennium, reproduction biotechnologies, biobanking, and conservation breeding programs (RBCs) have increasingly supported threatened species by maintaining genetic diversity or providing individuals for repopulation. However, for species suffering irreversible habitat loss, emerging biotechnologies have the potential to perpetuate species solely through biobanked cells and tissues. These resources can then be used to restore species and, along with assisted evolution, provide individuals adapted to modified or terraformed ecosystems. Largely unexplored are the potentials and ethics of RBCs to support terraforming as the conscious creation of ecosystems on Earth or through expanding the biosphere into space. This Special Issue presents a multi-disciplinary forum for the contemporary and futuristic use of RBCs to prevent biodiversity loss.

Dr. Robert K. Browne
Guest Editor

Dr. Ruth M. Marcec-Greaves
Co-Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • reproduction biotechnologies
  • biobanking
  • animal ethics
  • sustainable management
  • endangered species
  • terraforming

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Review

36 pages, 2822 KiB  
Review
The Sixth Mass Extinction and Amphibian Species Sustainability Through Reproduction and Advanced Biotechnologies, Biobanking of Germplasm and Somatic Cells, and Conservation Breeding Programs (RBCs)
by Robert K. Browne, Qinghua Luo, Pei Wang, Nabil Mansour, Svetlana A. Kaurova, Edith N. Gakhova, Natalia V. Shishova, Victor K. Uteshev, Ludmila I. Kramarova, Govindappa Venu, Mikhail F. Bagaturov, Somaye Vaissi, Pouria Heshmatzad, Peter Janzen, Aleona Swegen, Julie Strand and Dale McGinnity
Animals 2024, 14(23), 3395; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14233395 - 25 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1351
Abstract
Primary themes in intergenerational justice are a healthy environment, the perpetuation of Earth’s biodiversity, and the sustainable management of the biosphere. However, the current rate of species declines globally, ecosystem collapses driven by accelerating and catastrophic global heating, and a plethora of other [...] Read more.
Primary themes in intergenerational justice are a healthy environment, the perpetuation of Earth’s biodiversity, and the sustainable management of the biosphere. However, the current rate of species declines globally, ecosystem collapses driven by accelerating and catastrophic global heating, and a plethora of other threats preclude the ability of habitat protection alone to prevent a cascade of amphibian and other species mass extinctions. Reproduction and advanced biotechnologies, biobanking of germplasm and somatic cells, and conservation breeding programs (RBCs) offer a transformative change in biodiversity management. This change can economically and reliably perpetuate species irrespective of environmental targets and extend to satisfy humanity’s future needs as the biosphere expands into space. Currently applied RBCs include the hormonal stimulation of reproduction, the collection and refrigerated storage of sperm and oocytes, sperm cryopreservation, in vitro fertilization, and biobanking of germplasm and somatic cells. The benefits of advanced biotechnologies in development, such as assisted evolution and cloning for species adaptation or restoration, have yet to be fully realized. We broaden our discussion to include genetic management, political and cultural engagement, and future applications, including the extension of the biosphere through humanity’s interplanetary and interstellar colonization. The development and application of RBCs raise intriguing ethical, theological, and philosophical issues. We address these themes with amphibian models to introduce the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Special Issue, The Sixth Mass Extinction and Species Sustainability through Reproduction Biotechnologies, Biobanking, and Conservation Breeding Programs. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop