The academic literature behind our profiles, gathered in one place. Every entry links both to the underlying study (where publicly accessible) and to the Wild Earth Watch page that draws on it.
Studies on species population trends, taxonomy, and ecological function.
The genetic and morphological study that led to the Tapanuli orangutan being formally described as a third, distinct, and immediately Critically Endangered orangutan species.
Current Biology, 2017 Read: Orangutan →The primary scientific assessments underlying every species status classification cited across the Species tab, each independently peer-reviewed by IUCN Species Survival Commission specialist groups.
IUCN Red List, various years Explore: Species →The body of (genuinely contested) research proposing that wolf reintroduction altered elk browsing behavior and riparian vegetation — Wild Earth Watch presents this as a plausible but oversimplified popular narrative.
Multiple studies, Yellowstone Wolf Project Read: Grey Wolf →Studies establishing the Southern Resident orca population's unusually strong dietary specialization on Chinook salmon, in contrast to sympatric transient orca populations.
Center for Whale Research; NOAA Fisheries Read: Orca →Peer-reviewed research on ocean, coastal, and freshwater systems.
The peer-reviewed methodology behind the 64.5% sustainable / 35.5% overfished global stock split cited in our Overfishing profile, and the regional sustainability data (Antarctic 100% down to deep-sea 29%).
FAO, State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2025 Read: Overfishing →Multiple peer-reviewed methodologies for estimating annual ocean plastic input, whose wide range Wild Earth Watch treats as a genuine reflection of methodological uncertainty rather than picking one figure as authoritative.
Multiple peer-reviewed estimates, compiled 2025 Read: Ocean Pollution →The satellite-based heat-stress methodology underlying the finding that 84.4% of the world's reef area was affected by bleaching-level heat stress from 2023–2025 — the fourth global mass bleaching event on record.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch, 2025 Read: Coral Reefs →Acoustic tagging and return-rate research attempting to isolate the causes of declining ocean-phase survival in wild Atlantic salmon — an area our profile flags as less understood than freshwater pressures.
NASCO / ICES, compiled 2023 Read: Atlantic Salmon →Research on deforestation, land conversion, and climate-linked ecosystem change.
A 2025 study finding that landscape fragmentation reduces species richness by 12.1% even after controlling for the total amount of habitat lost — distinguishing fragmentation's effect from simple habitat-area loss.
Peer-reviewed ecology journal, 2025 Read: Habitat Loss →Research identifying Brazil's Cerrado savanna as the world's single largest hotspot of non-forest ecosystem conversion, and quantifying the ~4x faster conversion rate of grasslands and wetlands relative to forests.
Nature Communications, 2025; PNAS, 2026 Read: Grasslands →The research underlying NOAA's 2024 finding that Arctic tundra has flipped from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source for the first time in millennia, as permafrost thaw outpaces vegetation carbon uptake.
NOAA Arctic Report Card, 2024 Read: Arctic Tundra →The climate modeling underlying the finding that 9% of species face high extinction risk at 1.5°C of warming, roughly doubling to 18% at 2°C.
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Read: Climate Change →Research documenting that lower-elevation species are colonizing mountain summit habitats roughly five times faster than 50 years ago, compressing high-altitude specialists into shrinking climate zones.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science, 2025 Read: Mountains →Research quantifying the costs, benefits, and effectiveness of conservation interventions.
Research revising global invasive species cost estimates to as much as 16x higher than the commonly cited $423 billion/year figure, and quantifying the 25x cost gap between prevention and post-invasion management.
Peer-reviewed invasion biology literature, 2025 Read: Invasive Species →Research estimating $5–35 in ecosystem service benefits per dollar invested in wetland restoration, among the highest documented returns for any nature-based conservation intervention.
Ramsar Convention Global Wetland Outlook, 2025 Read: Wetlands →This index reflects the academic sources cited across Wild Earth Watch as of July 2026 and will grow as new profiles are published. Where a study is paywalled, we link to the publisher record rather than a full-text mirror.