Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment最新文献

Originally developed for application to ecology courses for undergraduate majors, the Four-Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework offers possibilities for adaptation to courses with ecology content for many other audiences. Recognizing the extraordinary range of classroom contexts and constraints, we developed some general, flexible recommendations and approaches to guide instructors in adapting the 4DEE Framework for an array of non-major audiences and classroom context needs. Our hope is that 4DEE-aligned courses for non-majors will provide these students with greater appreciation of ecology and inspire them to use their knowledge to address many critical environmental issues in their personal and professional lives. Many of our recommendations likely apply to natural science, engineering, and math majors as well. We encourage more ecologists to embrace teaching non-majors courses as a response to the urgent need to improve ecological literacy for everyone.

Autonomous sensor networks providing real-time data are growing in popularity with community scientists due to instant availability of high-frequency data. What role does this monitoring play in watershed assessment alongside agency-run monitoring programs? How accessible, interoperable, and reusable are the data for other researchers? We compared a community science-led stream monitoring network—EnviroDIY—in the Delaware River Basin, in which more than 50 watershed organizations have deployed more than 100 stations monitoring temperature, electric conductivity, depth, and sometimes turbidity, with the Basin's US Geological Survey (USGS) stream gauge network. The EnviroDIY network (n = 124) complemented the USGS network (n = 102) by monitoring sites with different watershed sizes and land-use distributions. Although data were accessible and interoperable using a web data portal, community scientists had difficulty sharing metadata that would enable data reuse outside this project and they required support analyzing these large datasets to understand threats to watershed conditions. We address those needs here with a conceptual framework for interpreting data and communicating results.

Due to increasing alarm over lost diversity, the past few years have seen quantum leaps in making genetics more accessible and relevant for use in practice and policy. A historic advance for conservation was made at the 2022 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity COP15, when genetic diversity was protected for all species—not just socioeconomically and culturally valuable ones—in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Here, we highlight new, affordable, and inclusive tools for measuring genetic diversity and emphasize the importance of their use to benefit nature and society.

Improved application of genetic diversity data to conservation and management first requires documenting change across space and time. Meta-analyses have shown substantial genetic losses—incurred during the past century—in many species, especially those endemic to islands or that are heavily harvested (eg commercial fisheries). Genomic patterns across thousands of DNA nucleotides (eg runs of homozygosity) can now provide deeper insight into demographic histories, inbreeding, and the effects of natural selection. New models such as the mutations–area relationship can quantify the effects of habitat loss on genetic diversity at the population level, thereby helping to approximate the impacts of both threats and management (including restoration) activities.

Meanwhile, Genetic Composition Essential Biodiversity Variables were developed to standardize the reporting of genetic diversity and to facilitate comparisons across studies (Biol Rev 2022; doi.org/10.1111/brv.12852). FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) have also been embraced to enable better comparisons across species and regions and to allow for more transparent and rigorous conclusions. Major efforts have focused on compiling, aggregating, and creating detailed metadata for thousands of previously produced genetic datasets. Through such efforts, an entirely new discipline—macrogenetics, which involves analyzing thousands of datasets to identify ecological drivers of genetic change in space and time—has arisen. Macrogenetics can empower systematic conservation planning, while also enabling the comparison of global genetic diversity maps to species-richness maps (Nat Rev Genet 2021; doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00394-0).

Even as genetic data become more available, >99% of described species have yet to be studied genetically. Consequently, scalable and affordable non-DNA–based indicators were built on core evolutionary principles (eg maintaining sufficiently large distinct populations to prevent genetic erosion) and adopted by the GBF. These indicators enable rapid estimation of genetic diversity for more inclusive assessment and conservation action at large scales, including within developing and megadiverse countries (Conserv Lett 2023; doi.org/10.1111/conl.12953). Inclusivity is an important emphasis fo

Image credits: ©N Gloríková

Of the planet's terrestrial area, nearly 33% and 7% are covered by forests and tropical forests, respectively (Lee and Jarvis 1996). Forests in general provide ecological, economic, social, and aesthetic benefits to people, and tropical forests specifically hold more than 50% of the planet's biodiversity (Singh and Sharma 2009). Worldwide, 15.8 million hectares of tropical forests are lost annually (Weisse and Goldman 2018). Nearly all tropical forests occur within the Global South, which includes some of the most densely populated and economically impoverished nations. The growing need for forest resources in developing countries places tremendous strain on forests therein. India is one example of a country that exerts such pressure on its forests (Figure 1). In India, total (tropical and subtropical) forest and tree cover spans 80.9 million hectares, which is equivalent to nearly 25% of the country's areal extent (Sharma et al. 2023). Between 2015 and 2020, India lost 668,400 hectares of forest, placing it second to Brazil in terms of global losses (Ritchie 2021). Various laws, acts, and policies have been formulated and adopted in India to incorporate forests within legal and policy frameworks—these range from the colonial-era Indian Forest Act of 1865 to the more recent Forest Conservation Amendment Act of 2023 (hereafter, the Act), which modified the existing Forest Conservation Act of 1980. Since its inception, the Act has prompted many conservation-related questions across the world. More discussions and greater transparency on the Act are desperately needed.

In India, government land records generally refer to forests as belonging to one of three legal classifications: “reserved”, “protected”, or “unclassed” (FAO 2005). Reserved and protected forests “by definition are owned by [the] government [and by the] ‘Public’ at large”; as for unclassed forests, “the status of their ownership and control varies among various States in India” (FAO 2005). Many Indian forests are further categorized as “deemed” forests: that is, those that fall under the “dictionary meaning” of a forest (a subjective description) but do not merit official recognition in any government record. The Act rescinds protection completely for deemed forests, limiting protection only to “notified” forests (that is, reserved and protected forests for which there is “a legal notification in a government gazette under [the] Indian Forest Act [of 1927 that] creates or defines [their] boundaries” [FAO 2005]) and those documented in official records as of or after 25 October 1980. The Act encourages commercial activity in any area not officially acknowledged as a “forest”. As a consequence, up to 25% of the country's forests are now vulnerable to mining, urbanization, infrastructure development, and other destructive land-use changes due to the passage of the Act,

Stream drying is happening globally, with important ecological and social consequences. Most examples of stream drying come from systems influenced by dam operations or those with highly exploited aquifers. Stream drying is also thought to be driven by anthropogenic climate change; however, examples are surprisingly limited. We explored flow trends from the five recognized Mediterranean-climate regions of the world with a focus on unregulated (non-dammed or non-diverted) streams with long-term gauge records. We found consistent evidence of decreasing discharge trends, increasing zero-flow days, and steeper downward discharge trends in smaller basins. Beyond directional trends, many systems have recently undergone shifts in flow state, including some streams that have transitioned from perennial to intermittent flow states. Our analyses provide evidence of stream drying consistent with climate change but also highlight knowledge gaps and challenges in empirically and statistically documenting flow regime shifts. We discuss the myriad consequences of losing flow and propose strategies for improving detection of and adapting to flow change.

While considered ecological generalists in most aspects of their life history, horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have traditionally been regarded as reproductive habitat specialists, given that spawning is thought to occur primarily on beaches where conditions for embryonic development are considered optimal. Observations of horseshoe crabs spawning in other habitats were deemed isolated and the behavior non-adaptive. Here, we used spawning and egg surveys to compare the use of beach and salt marsh habitats for spawning by the horseshoe crab in three US states along the Atlantic coast. We found similar spawning and egg densities in both habitats but were more likely to find eggs in marsh habitats, indicating that spawning in marsh habitats is common and geographically widespread. These results suggest that the conservation of salt marshes may be critical for the protection of this species and that management strategies should be revised to incorporate this generalist behavior.