Conservation Biology最新文献

The design of experiments to investigate the combined effects of multiple stressors requires exposing target organisms to multiple combinations of stressor doses. Concurrent manipulation of stressors is often infeasible with wildlife, but long-lasting health effects allow individual health to be used as an integrator of prior stressor exposure. The population of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, experienced long-lasting health effects after exposure to oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. We investigated whether compromised health status affects dolphins' ability to respond to other stressors, specifically vessel traffic, potentially leading to increased collision risk. We used this case study to develop a hypothesis-driven experimental approach to assess the combined effects of multiple stressors in a large, long-lived vertebrate species. We conducted controlled vessel approaches to test whether the health status of targeted dolphins affected their behavioral responses. Our results highlighted some effects of health, suggesting that oil spills may exacerbate the effects of other stressors in coastal populations. For example, lung disease was associated with a delayed dive response, which could affect the ability to vertically avoid vessels and lead to increased collision risk. However, health effects on response probability were overall smaller than anticipated, and other contextual variables (e.g., sex, age, calf presence, prior experience, and exposure context) contributed to response variability. Our work demonstrated the value of formalizing stressor interactions as multidimensional dose-response functions and showed the feasibility of an experimental, multiple-stressor study in a wild system in which individual health status can be used as an integrator of prior stressor exposure. This approach has broad implications for other species that are difficult to handle experimentally. The quantification and management of the cumulative risk from multiple stressors on wildlife will require a combination of empirical and mechanistic approaches to inform long-term, population consequences.

The delineation of nature by political borders and the restricted accessibility of ecological research data present intertwined challenges to global biodiversity conservation. We examined how the nationalization of biodiversity and the privatization of ecological data hinder effective cross-boundary management of natural resources and perpetuate socioeconomic inequities. The ecological consequences of imposing geopolitical boundaries on species distributions include fragmented management regimes, inconsistent protection across ranges, and misaligned conservation priorities for transboundary populations. Biases inherent in national species assessments lead to systematic misclassification of conservation status, distorted estimates of biodiversity change, and inefficient allocation of conservation resources across borders. The limitations arising from anthropocentric terminology in conservation science can reinforce false native-non-native dichotomies, obscure context-dependent ecological impacts, and undermine transboundary management coherence. We argue that existing conservation frameworks have struggled to address these challenges at scale due to entrenched institutional constraints. As a way forward, we advocate for supranational ecological governance grounded in open-access data, equitable funding, and collaborative frameworks that transcend political boundaries.

Selecting effective surrogate species is essential for improving conservation planning efficiency under limited resources. However, the selection process is often hindered by conceptual ambiguities and inconsistent methodologies. Moreover, most existing studies focus on assessing surrogate species but fail to integrate them into practical spatial conservation planning. We developed a multidimensional effectiveness index (EI) that integrates umbrella, keystone, flagship, and protection dimensions to quantitatively evaluate the conservation potential of mammal species. Applying this framework to 346 mammal species in China, we ranked species by EI and incorporated top-performing subsets into systematic spatial prioritization with Zonation, with condition and cost layers representing climate vulnerability and human pressure, respectively. We assessed surrogate performance across 4 planning scenarios and 10 selection thresholds. Species with high EI scores achieved up to 80% or greater spatial representation based only on the 20-30% of species with the highest EI scores, substantially improving planning efficiency. The resulting priority conservation areas (PCAs) covered approximately 2.69 million km², accounting for ∼28% of China's land area. The PCAs were concentrated in biodiversity hotspots such as the Hengduan Mountains, southeastern Xizang, Yunnan, northeastern China, and Taiwan. Most of China's pilot national parks overlapped with the identified PCAs, underscoring the ecological validity of the framework. This study bridges the gap between species-level assessments and spatial conservation planning. The proposed framework is flexible and broadly applicable, offering a practical tool to optimize surrogate selection and support national and global biodiversity targets.

Following large-scale threatening events, a key challenge is to rapidly establish which species have been most affected and are in need of urgent conservation. For data-poor taxa, such assessments are challenging. In Australia, invertebrates represent over 90% of faunal diversity and are critical for ecosystem function, yet most are undescribed, and, of the described, most are poorly known. Thus, it is important to have a way to estimate susceptibility to major disturbance of data-deficient taxa. We developed a novel trait-based method for assessing the impact of a major wildfire on invertebrates. We applied it to 1220 species that showed high distributional overlap with the 2019-2020 Australian megafires. We estimated susceptibility based on the microhabitat species occupy, their life-history and ecological traits, and mechanisms that account for key data uncertainties (number of usable occurrence records, availability of traits data, and recency of taxonomic work). We found 748 species likely to be of potential conservation concern following the megafires; 169, 579, and 454 were highly, moderately, and mildly threatened by a major fire, respectively. Most species (867) were associated with poor or very poor data quality. Of the 867 poorly known species, 97 were most at risk from a major fire. Our approach is generalizable to other data-deficient taxa and to major disturbance events globally and can be used to improve representation of poorly known species in conservation assessments and threat mitigation decisions. If the uncertainties and knowledge gaps we identified are addressed, it is likely risk prediction could be improved.

Illegal wildlife trade is an important branch of global environmental crime. It relies heavily on transit countries to promote the cross-border movement of illegal wildlife products by boosting markets, laundering services, processing and packaging products, and concealing routes. However, transit countries' strategic role is not well understood. We constructed a dataset of 15 years of illegal wildlife seizure cases from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) air seizure database and Wildlife Trade Portal database. From the dataset, we determined transnational illegal wildlife trade routes with complete supply chain information. There were 84 transit countries, and the organisms involved in trade included mammals, birds, reptiles, marine species, amphibians, and arthropods. We identified that about 40% of illegal wildlife trade routes crossed one or multiple countries. Species being moved along these routes originated mainly from Africa and were transported through African, European, or Asian countries to East Asia or Southeast Asia. Transit countries for illegal wildlife products tended to be geographically close to and have a high trade volume of legal biological products with both the origin and destination countries and had advanced airport infrastructure. Transit countries were associated with 39.7% more individual animal products being illegally traded, particularly ivory, pangolin products, and rhinoceros horn, and served as key bridges among economically underdeveloped and geographically distant countries with weak trade links in legal biological products. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring and enforcement in transit countries and suggest that transit hubs be targeted based on location, trade in legal biological products, and transport infrastructure.

Human development is a driver of global change and a major threat to biodiversity. Protected areas maintain and support biodiversity, but outside stressors, such as climate change and land use change, can negatively influence natural resources within protected areas. We examined the effects of land surface temperature and the surrounding landscape context on the structure and composition of the breeding bird community in national parks in the Mid-Atlantic (USA). We used avian point count surveys, conducted annually from 2007 to 2024, to estimate the composition of 16 avian guilds and estimated land surface temperature at each survey point. We defined 3 landscape context types (forested, urban, and agricultural) based on the dominant land cover surrounding each survey point. We used multivariate generalized linear models to test community-level (all guilds combined) and guild-level (individual guilds) responses to local land surface temperature and landscape context. We hypothesized a negative relationship between within-guild abundance and land surface temperature, and stronger negative relationships in specialist guilds and variation in response based on the landscape context. Landscape context influenced local land surface temperature and, therefore, avian guild responses. Points in forest-dominated landscapes averaged 2°C cooler than points in urban or agricultural landscapes. The majority of specialist guilds had an interaction with land surface temperature and landscape context. There were negative effects of high land surface temperature on the bird community. These effects differed across landscape context, with less extreme negative relationships detected at points surrounded by forest relative to points in urban or agricultural landscapes. Because increased forest cover is important to retain natural cooling and mitigate the effects of urban heat, preserving or increasing forest cover could help preserve and maintain bird community resilience in a warming climate.

Exploring heat tolerance and acclimation capacity can provide an effective approach to evaluating species' sensitivity to extremely high temperatures due to climate warming. Despite some work on amphibian and reptile thermophysiological adaptation, related questions remain. We reviewed the literature to provide a synthesis of worldwide data on heat tolerance and to determine the relative importance of common evolutionary and environmental thermal variation in amphibians and reptiles in shaping species' heat tolerance and acclimation capacity. The phylogenetic conservatism in amphibian and reptile heat tolerance arose from distinct phylogenetic properties and thermal habitat variables, potentially attributable to their different environmental sensitivities and contrasting life-history characteristics. The heat tolerances of amphibians and reptiles showed significant correlations with thermal habitat variations, which is consistent with the climate variability hypothesis that species inhabiting thermally fluctuating environments develop broader environmental tolerance ranges. No significant association was detected between species' thermal habitat variation and acclimation capacity in these 2 taxa. This finding confirmed that the interaction between maintenance cost (i.e., overall external environments) and production cost (i.e., specific environmental variables) underlaid the evolution of thermal acclimation capacity. Our results showed the importance of adaptive evolution and phylogenetic conservation in molding thermophysiological traits in amphibians and reptiles. Future studies should focus on intraspecific associations between thermophysiological traits and phylogenetic factors in species across various environmental gradients.

Persistent demand for wildlife-derived products perpetuates international trafficking and the exploitation of legitimate globalized transport networks. The annual movement of millions of shipping cargo containers, of which few are inspected due to resource constraints, facilitates the smuggling of large quantities of wildlife contraband. Rapid, noninvasive screening tools are essential for border control agencies to effectively detect and intercept wildlife trafficking attempts, though such tools are currently limited. Detection dog programs could be highly effective in this context; however, their capacity to screen large volumes of cargo without disrupting port operations remains a challenge. We explored the feasibility of pairing an air extraction device, which samples air from sealed containers, with canine detection to improve screening measures. To evaluate this method, we used pelts from adult specimens of the African lion (Panthera leo), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), leopard (Panthera pardus), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), and tiger (Panthera tigris) concealed in containers to simulate smuggling scenarios. On average across the container configurations trialed, the detection dog achieved high diagnostic sensitivity (97.6%, 95% CI 95.1-100.0) and specificity (84.8%, 95% CI 79.1-90.6). Detection accuracy was not significantly influenced by airflow conditions (extraction only vs. mixed-mode ventilation) or pelt arrangement within the containers. These findings highlight the potential of this approach in enhancing the detection of concealed wildlife products. However, the air extraction protocol must be validated under real-world operational conditions to confirm its practicability. Through the integration of extraction-based air sampling into existing screening frameworks, this approach could offer a scalable, noninvasive strategy to strengthen wildlife trafficking detection.

For many large carnivores, minimizing the financial burden they impose on local people is critical to their conservation. Incentive-based programs that provide people with financial benefits for taking pro-conservation actions or achieving conservation goals are a promising tool for promoting human-carnivore coexistence. Although the number of incentive-based programs aimed at conserving large carnivores is growing, there has been little published research on the use of this approach. We reviewed the design, implementation, and results of a novel lion conservation incentive payment (CIP) program piloted in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Under the program, developed in collaboration with local stakeholders, villages earned direct payments based on the number of lions observed on their land each month. During the program's 3-year pilot period, villages earned more than double the value of livestock injured or killed by lions and used their earnings primarily to support education-related projects. A household survey conducted at the conclusion of the pilot indicated widespread awareness of and support for the CIP program. Lessons from this experience that may be valuable for the development of similar incentive-based conservation schemes in Tanzania and beyond include the importance of developing a practical and dynamic earnings framework, evaluating and adaptively managing program communications, supporting participating stakeholders to effectively deploy their CIP earnings, and identifying potential sources of sustainable funding.