Conservation Biology最新文献

Many central concepts of conservation biology-such as nativeness-are structured by ecological and social factors. However, the social consequences of using these concepts to make conservation decisions remain inadequately understood. Some researchers argue that nativeness, rather than acting as an objective proxy for important ecological relationships, may instead mask social and cultural values about which species belong in a given ecosystem. Yet, even as many non-native species decline, experts often prioritize the conservation of native species. We assessed the perceptions of people (n = 600) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, regarding local declines of native and non-native birds. We measured ecological grief (feelings of loss associated with ecological changes) and loss of cultural ecosystem service (nonmaterial benefits people derive from relationships with nature) associated with documented declines in 2 native and 2 non-native birds. We measured variations in perceptions across differences in nature experiences and sociodemographics. We used a 2-treatment experimental design in which we informed only half the participants about species' nativeness. Perceptions of loss differed among respondents based on their familiarity with birds, experiences with birds, and the native status of the bird. However, the effect of nativeness on feelings of loss was not moderated by ecological knowledge, whether a respondent was an urbanite, or experiences with birds. Instead, race was the strongest moderator of the effect of nativeness on feelings of loss. Only White people reported greater grief for declines in native species than non-native species, even when accounting for education, income, and other variables. Although native status may often be a useful heuristic for inference, relying on it for conservation decision-making may have unintended sociodemographic and equity consequences. Our results also demonstrate how pairing ecological grief and cultural ecosystem service questions with documented ecological declines can elucidate human-nature relationships, such as those between people and non-native birds.

Many reef-building tropical corals are becoming rare. We considered the meaning of rarity in corals and highlighted taxa that have reached low abundances in the last few decades. The difficulties of quantifying rarity in the marine environment arise from the sheer scale and 3-dimensional nature of the biome and the inherent challenges therein of ecological surveys with scuba. To meet the demands of coral conservation biology in the 21st century, we suggest that contemporary studies of coral communities will require enhanced capacity to identify species and a species-specific focus on corals occurring at low abundances, which traditional ecological approaches to quantifying populations of benthic marine organisms have a limited capacity to address. Now is the time to revise scientific approaches to respond to the challenges posed by the need to understand and protect rare tropical corals.

Many non-native plant species introduced by humans have become naturalized. At the same time many species are threatened in their native range. However, the number of plant species threatened in their native range that are naturalized elsewhere remains unknown. So too does the set of characteristics that distinguishes such species from other threatened species. For vascular plant species, we combined information from databases on threat status and naturalization success and information on growth forms, economic uses, and native and non-native ranges to identify plants that are threatened in their native range but naturalized in their non-native range. Among the 26,036 species assessed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, only 238 (∼1%) were naturalized elsewhere. Most of the species threatened in their native range that are naturalized elsewhere were trees or shrubs of economic value, for example, for building materials and landscaping. More threatened species than expected were naturalized in Europe, and these include species from nearly all continents. Although Africa was the largest source of species threatened in their native range but naturalized elsewhere in absolute numbers, the numbers were lower than expected due to the continent's overall large number of threatened species. Only a few threatened plant species have become naturalized, and they differed in some of their characteristics, including growth form, native origin, threats, and economic use, from other threatened species.

Mass mortality events (MMEs) are decimating populations and compromising key ecosystem functions around the globe. One taxon particularly vulnerable to MMEs is freshwater bivalve mollusks. This group has important ecosystem engineering capacities and includes highly threatened and highly invasive taxa. Thus, MMEs of freshwater bivalves have important implications for conservation and ecosystems. Despite this, little is known about the magnitude, frequency, duration, distribution, and causes of freshwater bivalve MMEs. Using a questionnaire, we compiled data from 239 reports describing freshwater bivalve MMEs across 22 European countries since 1960. With these data, we analyzed trends in MME timing, location, and magnitude; identified the species affected; and evaluated the suggested causes (including reporter certainty). We found that the frequency of reports of MMEs increased each year, MMEs affected a broad range of species, clear geographical patterns linking certain causes to specific locations were lacking, factors related to drying and habitat destruction predominated suggested causes, and considerable uncertainty surrounded the causes of many MMEs, particularly those associated with potential pollutants and disease agents. Based on our findings, we recommend the standardization of many aspects of MME research (e.g., reporting and recovery assessment protocols), increased surveying for MMEs, further investigation into the causes of MMEs, especially those with significant uncertainty, and immediate actions to improve waterbody management, mitigate the effects of high temperatures, and further protect freshwater bivalves through the development and implementation of appropriate management actions and legislation.

Prioritization in conservation is crucial for the development of efficient and effective decision-making policies. For many decades, the importance of some species and their habitats has been assessed and applied in conservation legislation, but bats and their diurnal roosts have ofbeen overlooked. Several approaches have been used to categorize bat roosts based on their conservation importance. However, such assessments are often limited to expert-level assessments, are developed for specific regions, or do not consider long-term monitoring data from community science. We devised an index, the bat roost priority index (BRP), for prioritization of bat roosts for conservation in which community science and roost seasonality, uniqueness, and vulnerability are integrated. Using community data from 568 bat roosts, we applied the BRP to the 50 most well-sampled  and compared the results with 3 other indices. We then examined the strengths and limitations of the different indices. We also used the BRP to define important bat conservation areas in specific regions in terms of underground and aboveground roosts, an important need and common request from policy makers. The BRP improved on previous prioritizations in that it classifies roosts based on biotic and vulnerability variables, provides a linear classification of all assessed roosts according to conservation action priority, and offers objective quantification of the threats affecting a roost. To illustrate the potential of the BRP, we defined important areas for bat conservation in Catalonia (Spain) based on the index. The BRP is available on the Bat Monitoring Programme online platform, where index values are calculated and shown for every registered bat roost. The BRP can be easily adapted and thus, has strong scalability potential for use with regional to continental datasets.

Consumer demand for ivory perpetuates the unsustainable and illegal killing of African elephants and other wildlife species. Interventions that aim to change consumer behavior are increasingly recognized as a crucial element of demand management. However, poor design and implementation have limited their effectiveness. We evaluated how ivory demand-management interventions in China and neighboring Southeast Asian countries align with best practices from the behavioral field of social marketing. Through a literature review, we identified 55 interventions conducted from 2008 to 2022. We used 2 social marketing frameworks to assess each intervention's capacity to influence behavior. We conducted semistructured interviews with 5 intervention practitioners to provide contextual grounding for our review findings. From 2018 to 2022, social marketing principles were more frequently applied and interventions were of a higher quality (n = 26) than interventions conducted from 2008 to 2017, reflecting a growing adoption of consumer-insight-driven strategies. Since 2018, 7 interventions applied no social marketing principles, and 9 interventions, to varying degrees, included monitoring and evaluation. Although 13 interventions contained some theoretical considerations, these were often vague and superficial. Despite identifying a shift from experiential practices to evidence-based approaches over time, the shift was largely restricted to communications-based social and behavior change approaches. This left the wide range of social marketing approaches underused. Ivory demand management must improve the breadth and depth of social marketing used to contribute to long-term elephant conservation. We suggest all consumer approaches tackling demand for wildlife meaningfully consider integrating behavioral theories in intervention design, undertake primary or secondary research to enable evidence-led decision-making, conduct systematic monitoring for evidence-based learning and adaptation, and use impact and process evaluation methods to understand the mechanisms and magnitude of behavioral change following interventions.

New Guinea, the most botanically diverse island on the planet, is the location for one of the boldest conservation initiatives. The Manokwari Declaration aims to achieve 70% conservation designation for the Bird's Head Peninsula. This is 40% higher than the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework target. However, there is a lack of species occurrence data to support evidence of where biodiversity can be best protected. To address this, we integrated plant trait data from taxonomic descriptions in species occurrence models that can inform conservation planning. Inclusion of traits improved the performance of co-occurrence models of ∼800 plant species across the 100,000-km² landscape. Traits generally improved model performance, but not all traits contributed equally (e.g., leaf size and red flower color most improved accuracy of occurrence prediction). Likewise, trait-parameterized models tended to be most useful with rare species occurrence prediction, but this was inconsistent among traits. Under 70% protection, three-quarters of the areas selected conserved trait diversity. Critically, trait diversity also increased the chances that areas at high risk of deforestation were selected as conservation priorities. Overall, we found that plant species' traits, often key parameters of ecosystem function and resilience, improved spatial conservation planning.

Forest managers recognize that proactive management strategies, such as forest assisted migration (FAM) of tree species, intended to accelerate the pace of forest adaptation, may be necessary to maintain resilient forests and combat the stressors of climate change. However, the impact of interactions between climate change and ungulate browsers of trees, both of which have profound effects on the landscape, on the success of FAM efforts is unknown. We used a forest landscape model (LANDIS-II) to simulate assisted migration and browsing by ungulate (white-tailed deer [Odocoileus virginianus]) populations on a northern Wisconsin (USA) landscape under alternate climate futures. After accounting for effects of FAM strategy and climate change scenario, simulated ungulate browsing reduced species richness and the proportion of the landscape with tree species preferred by browsers and resulted in more of the landscape developing into novel forest communities that supported fewer ecosystem goods and services. Our results suggest that managers may need to select FAM species less preferred by ungulates or use seedling protection measures to mitigate the negative effects of chronically high ungulate populations in efforts to transition future forests to sustain ecosystem goods and services.

Understanding how illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has changed over time is fundamental for biodiversity conservation; however, knowledge of the network remains limited. We used TRAFFIC's IWT dataset, legal trade data from the CITES legal wildlife trade database as a benchmark, and network analysis to identify changes in IWT from 2000 to 2022. The center of IWT shifted from Europe to Asia around the 2010s, especially through the direct flow of some species, such as rhinoceroses and pangolins, from Africa to Asia and within Asia. Despite the prominence of Africa and Asia, the network remained global and involved players on all continents, as demonstrated by a low tendency of high-degree nodes to connect to each other and a large core of about 50% of the nodes. The IWT network expanded significantly from 49 countries in 2000 to 110 countries in 2018. There was a similarly dramatic increase in the number of trade connections, from 52 edges in 2000 to 266 in 2018, highlighting the growing complexity of the trade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the IWT network exhibited resiliency; there was only a gradual decline in participating countries from 90 in 2020 to 72 in 2021. Also, during the pandemic, network clustering and geodesic distance were maintained, underscoring IWT's adaptability despite global disruptions. These network properties explain the persistent nature of IWT and suggest constant monitoring is necessary to keep up with changes in the network.