Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment最新文献

Recruitment and retention of a diverse scientific workforce depends on a more inclusive culture of science. Textbooks introduce prospective scientists to their chosen field and convey its cultural norms. We use ecology textbook data spanning two decades and document little change in representation of scientists during that time. Despite decades of multifaceted efforts to increase diversity in ecology, 91% of founders/innovators and 76% of working scientists introduced in textbooks were white men, poorly matching the demographics of scientists currently publishing in ecology. Textbook images depicted white men working as scientists, while women and people of color were frequently shown as nonscientists. Moreover, textbooks lack discussion of how science and society shape each other. Pathways to increase retention and sense of belonging for individuals from historically excluded groups include updating textbooks to accurately represent the scientists active in the field, contextualizing historical constraints on participation, and revealing how culture shapes scientific investigations.

Beyond the well-established benefits of wildlife road crossings and associated infrastructure—improving driver safety, reducing animal mortality, reconnecting habitats—there is another important but often underappreciated benefit: supporting wildlife and ecosystems in adapting to climate change. We explore this potential by (1) synthesizing the literature surrounding climate adaptation and wildlife crossings, (2) presenting a case study on how crossings support shifting animal migrations, and (3) describing key considerations for incorporating climate information into crossing prioritizations. Among other climate-adaptive benefits, research suggests crossings can support species range shifts and protect access to resources even as drought and human development compromise that access. Our case study outlines an approach for prioritizing crossing locations most likely to support animal migration both today and into the future. By accounting for such dynamics, wildlife crossings can be a cost-effective tool that protects wildlife as well as motorists and enhances the resilience of infrastructure and ecosystems in a changing world.

Forest avifauna in eastern North America have expanded their range across the Great Plains to the West, likely due to anthropogenic changes. The barred owl (Strix varia) is a focal example of the negative effects that these intracontinental range expansions can have, with this invasive species becoming a major threat to the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) and potentially larger biological communities. If barred owl populations are not managed immediately, northern spotted owl populations will likely be extirpated from large parts of their range and, ultimately, may become extinct. Of available management options, lethal control of barred owls has the greatest potential to rapidly benefit spotted owls and other impacted species. We argue that immediate action is necessary to buy time while other management options are explored and developed and that lethal control is an ethical management option. The barred owl conundrum exemplifies the challenges of managing native invasive species.

Across the planet, human mobilization of chemical pollution and widespread land-cover changes are key markers of the Anthropocene. However, because they occur at different spatial scales, contaminant mobilization and land-cover changes are generally studied as separate issues. Landscapes differ in how contaminants are processed and risk manifests. The way that landscapes are altered plays a critical role in the likelihood that any particular place will capture, sequester, and transform contaminants, ultimately impacting bioavailability to people and wildlife. This article introduces a conceptual framework—the “contaminant risk landscape”, which merges perspectives from geochemistry, landscape ecology, and ecotoxicology—to improve understanding of the transport, fate, and impact of toxic contaminants in the natural world. Successful management and mitigation of contaminant toxicity requires a merging of these diverse perspectives and traditions to achieve environmentally just solutions.

Globally, many species’ distributions are shifting in response to contemporary climate change. However, the direction and rate of shifts remain difficult to predict, impeding managers’ abilities to optimize resource allocation. Here, we developed a new approach for forecasting species range-limit shifts that requires only abundance data along environmental (for example, elevational) gradients. We posited that the distribution of species’ abundances could offer insights into the potential for future range-limit shifts. We then tested this prediction using data from several transect studies that compared historical and contemporary distributions. Consistent with our prediction, we found that strong asymmetry in abundance distributions (that is, “leaning” distributions) indeed preceded species’ lower-limit range shifts. Accordingly, surveying abundances along environmental gradients may represent a promising, cost-effective method for forecasting local shifts. Ideally, this approach will be incorporated by practitioners into species-specific management planning and will inform on-the-ground conservation efforts.

Well-known for consuming tree nuts, seeds, and fruits, squirrels occasionally eat other types of food, including fungi, lichens, and tree bark, especially when their main food sources are scarce. Squirrels adapt their diet to conform to changes in food availability through seasons and across environments. Interestingly, we observed several individuals of the Japanese squirrel (Sciurus lis) gnawing on the jawbones of sika deer (Cervus nippon) in Chino City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

Why would squirrels gnaw bones? The key to unraveling this mystery may lie in the fact that most individuals gnawing bones are lactating mother squirrels. In combination with anecdotal reports documenting bone consumption by pregnant and lactating eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) (Science 1940; doi.org/10.1126/science.91.2372.573.b), bone gnawing probably provides squirrels, especially lactating mothers, with important minerals such as calcium and phosphorus. Due to the energetic demands associated with reproduction and milk production, female squirrels have increased mineral requirements during breeding and lactation. It would be worth investigating whether bone consumption increases the reproductive fitness of squirrels.

“When you can't breathe, nothing else matters.”—slogan of The American Lung Association

The world's waters are losing oxygen, and we should be very concerned.

In 2017, Denise Breitburg, Lisa Levin, and I wrote a guest editorial for this column about ocean deoxygenation—the loss of dissolved oxygen in our oceans, estuaries, and coastal zones. At the time, deoxygenation was little known among many scientists, let alone the general public or policy makers, except as related to eutrophication. We pointed out that although many low oxygen events are tied to sewage pollution and agricultural runoff, deoxygenation is increasingly recognized as a climate-driven problem, affecting even waters without excess nutrients.

2017 was the year when we learned that the oceans had lost ~2% of their oxygen inventory since 1960. Then in 2018, scientists led by Denise and Lisa published a groundbreaking synthesis of what we then knew about coastal “dead zones” and oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), those vast regions of the open ocean where oxygen depletion occurs naturally, which are expanding due to the physics of warming on ocean circulation and ventilation. And in 2019, the IUCN published a summary volume on ocean deoxygenation, which was featured at that year's UN Climate Change Conference (COP25). These works were supported by a UNESCO–Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission working group, the Global Ocean Oxygen Network (GO₂NE), whose mission is to promote awareness, stimulate research, and provide advice to policy makers on all aspects of ocean deoxygenation.

Currently, efforts are underway to produce an open-access and community-driven Global Ocean Oxygen Database and Atlas (GO₂DAT), to make the growing volume of coastal and open ocean data accessible for displays and analyses. This will be part of the Global Ocean Oxygen Decade, a program within the UN Ocean Decade, and should help us with a better understanding of where problem areas are happening.

But deoxygenation is not limited to oceans: inland water bodies are also losing oxygen, due to a combination of warming, elevated organic matter loading from increased precipitation, longer seasonal stratification, and the attendant impacts of human population growth. In a survey of nearly 400 temperate lakes and reservoirs between 1980 and 2017, Stephen Jane and colleagues reported that surface waters lost >5%, and hypolimnions >18%, of their oxygen. Even rivers are deoxygenating, despite their flowing nature; Penn State's Wei Zhi and colleagues discovered that 70% of 580 rivers surveyed lost oxygen.

Colleagues of mine working in the Adirondack Mountains of New York are concerned about oxygen-related threats to coldwater fishes. Thermal refugia in Adirondack lakes are shrinking as hypoxic/anoxic periods extend longer into the fall. And in New York's Hudson River estuary, 28 years of high-resolution, continuous monito

Human development and population growth are placing immense pressure on natural ecosystems, necessitating the establishment of a balance between development and biodiversity preservation. Citizen science may serve as a valuable resource for monitoring biodiversity and informing decision-making processes, but its use has not been investigated within the realm of environmental review. We sought to quantify the extent to which citizen science data are currently being used, mentioned, or suggested in environmental impact statements (EISs) by analyzing more than 1300 EISs produced under the US National Environmental Policy Act. Among the sampled EISs, we found increasing incorporation of citizen science within the environmental review process, with 40% of EISs in 2022 using, mentioning, or suggesting use of such information, as compared with just 3% in 2012. Citizen science offers substantial potential to enhance biodiversity monitoring and conservation efforts within environmental review, but numerous considerations must be broadly discussed before citizen science data can be widely adopted.

Combating climate change and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are two important challenges facing humanity. Natural climate solutions (NCSs) can contribute to the achievement of these two commitments but can also generate conflicting trade-offs. Here, we reviewed the literature and drew on expert knowledge to assess the co-benefits of and trade-offs between 150 SDG targets and NCSs within 12 selected ecosystems. We demonstrate that terrestrial, coastal, and marine NCSs enable the attainment of different sets of SDG targets, with low redundancy. Implementing NCSs in various ecosystems would therefore maximize achievement of SDG targets but would also induce trade-offs, particularly if best practices are not followed. Reliance on NCSs at large scales will require that these trade-offs be taken into consideration to ensure the simultaneous realization of positive climate outcomes and multiple SDG targets for diverse stakeholders.