February 16, 2013 — It’s easy to identify the obvious challenges to biodiversity: climate change, invasive species, habitat loss. Less obvious are the things we’re not thinking of but should. Led by Cambridge University conservation biologist William Sutherland, scientists from around the world recently completed an elaborate “horizon scanning” exercise to identify 15 relatively obscure global events and trends that stand to have huge impact on biodiversity conservation. Among them: growth of concentrated solar power, the increase in demand for coconut water and the use of antimicrobials in health care and food industries.