Pub Date : 2026-01-05DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111680
Costanza Geppert , Andree Cappellari , Maurizio Mei , Dino Paniccia , Lorenzo Marini
As more people live in cities, research on the ecological role of urban green for pollinators is accumulating. However, most studies have focused on the diversity patterns at the local scale, while an urgent question is to understand how to manage whole cities to maximise pollinator conservation.
Here, we selected 105 sites belonging to 6 habitat types (abandoned meadows, crop field margins, gardens, parks, parks managed with a pollinator friendly mowing regime, and road margins) in the city of Padua (Italy). We sampled bees and hoverflies using transect walks, from spring to late summer, and analysed species-habitat networks to understand how pollinator communities were organized across urban green areas.
We found that most pollinator species interacted with most habitat types in the city, creating a highly generalistic and robust network. Compared to all other habitats, road margins had a very small influence over the network and hosted the lowest pollinator abundance and species richness. Green areas in the landscape positively affected wild bees but local patch quality, in terms of flowers and low mowing regime, was key. Network robustness decreased when the patches with the highest quality were removed first, and pollinators depended on the patches with the highest flower cover and vegetation height.
Except for road margins, all habitat patches could support pollinator species. Therefore, urban planning strategies could be tailored without considering habitat identity, for example by increasing the overall amount of green areas and by implementing management practices that enhance the floral resources across all urban green spaces.
{"title":"Species-habitat networks inform pollinator conservation strategies in cities","authors":"Costanza Geppert , Andree Cappellari , Maurizio Mei , Dino Paniccia , Lorenzo Marini","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111680","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111680","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As more people live in cities, research on the ecological role of urban green for pollinators is accumulating. However, most studies have focused on the diversity patterns at the local scale, while an urgent question is to understand how to manage whole cities to maximise pollinator conservation.</div><div>Here, we selected 105 sites belonging to 6 habitat types (abandoned meadows, crop field margins, gardens, parks, parks managed with a pollinator friendly mowing regime, and road margins) in the city of Padua (Italy). We sampled bees and hoverflies using transect walks, from spring to late summer, and analysed species-habitat networks to understand how pollinator communities were organized across urban green areas.</div><div>We found that most pollinator species interacted with most habitat types in the city, creating a highly generalistic and robust network. Compared to all other habitats, road margins had a very small influence over the network and hosted the lowest pollinator abundance and species richness. Green areas in the landscape positively affected wild bees but local patch quality, in terms of flowers and low mowing regime, was key. Network robustness decreased when the patches with the highest quality were removed first, and pollinators depended on the patches with the highest flower cover and vegetation height.</div><div>Except for road margins, all habitat patches could support pollinator species. Therefore, urban planning strategies could be tailored without considering habitat identity, for example by increasing the overall amount of green areas and by implementing management practices that enhance the floral resources across all urban green spaces.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"315 ","pages":"Article 111680"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145895859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The alarming 2023–2024 fire season, with over 390 million hectares burned globally, reveals a pervasive environmental crisis affecting both fire sensitive and fire adapted ecosystems. We evaluated annual burned area trends in Brazil from 1985 to 2024 using a robust trajectory analysis, revealing complex and alarming patterns. Our findings highlight significant increasing and reversal trends in critical biomes like the Amazon and Cerrado, alongside record-breaking fire seasons in regions previously considered stable, with important ecological and human health implications. The fire dynamics is a consequence of a complex interplay of land use changes, climate extremes, and environmental policies adopted later than its corresponding problems emerge. The solutions for this global crisis demand an urgent, comprehensive Integrated Fire Management (IFM) approach and its effective implementation depends on robust multi-actor governance, substantial funding for agencies, and strong international cooperation. The upcoming COP 30 in Brazil presents a pivotal opportunity to elevate wildfire prevention and management as a global priority.
{"title":"Have we learned our lesson from fires of 2024 in Brazil?","authors":"Klécia Massi , Alessandra Fidelis , Nathália Nascimento , Vânia Pivello , Jerônimo Sansevero , Leandro Reverberi-Tambosi","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The alarming 2023–2024 fire season, with over 390 million hectares burned globally, reveals a pervasive environmental crisis affecting both fire sensitive and fire adapted ecosystems. We evaluated annual burned area trends in Brazil from 1985 to 2024 using a robust trajectory analysis, revealing complex and alarming patterns. Our findings highlight significant increasing and reversal trends in critical biomes like the Amazon and Cerrado, alongside record-breaking fire seasons in regions previously considered stable, with important ecological and human health implications. The fire dynamics is a consequence of a complex interplay of land use changes, climate extremes, and environmental policies adopted later than its corresponding problems emerge. The solutions for this global crisis demand an urgent, comprehensive Integrated Fire Management (IFM) approach and its effective implementation depends on robust multi-actor governance, substantial funding for agencies, and strong international cooperation. The upcoming COP 30 in Brazil presents a pivotal opportunity to elevate wildfire prevention and management as a global priority.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111691"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As global demand for seafood increases, reef fisheries expand with increasing mobility and market integration. Yet, many remain small-scale and informally regulated, where place-based knowledge shapes how fishing is distributed across space and between diverse resource users. These social geographies impact reef fish assemblages, with consequences for ecosystem function. However, this is challenging to document in data-poor fisheries. We used a mixed-methods approach with i. interview surveys to characterise perceptions of catch availability, spatial patterns and intensity of reef fishing and ii. in-water surveys to quantify the impact of fishing on fish communities, in the Lakshadweep archipelago (Indian Ocean). We found that although the fishery is nominally open access, subsistence fishing was limited to a distinct ‘home resource catchment’; confined to reefs proximate to inhabited islands. The recently emerged commercial reef fishery maintains profitability by focusing on distant, uninhabited atolls that have not experienced historical pressure and are perceived as richer fishing grounds. This represents a ‘spatial fix’, where problems of overaccumulation are solved by expanding or restructuring geographical space. Historically fished, proximate reefs are associated with significantly lower biomass (up to 69.8 %) and abundance (up to 97.14 %) of target predator species than reefs of distant, uninhabited atolls. The densely populated capital atoll shows the strongest fishing impacts with significant differences in size structure and community composition as well. Our approach reveals nuances in how subsistence and commercial fishers navigate shared resources and highlights a critical need for careful understanding of the social geographies of reef use.
{"title":"Fishing patterns shaped by history, place, and access leave lasting ecological signatures on coral reef fish assemblages","authors":"Radhika Nair , Siddhi Jaishankar , Mayukh Dey , Wenzel Pinto , B.T. Rajeswari Bhai , Teresa Alcoverro , Rohan Arthur","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111675","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111675","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As global demand for seafood increases, reef fisheries expand with increasing mobility and market integration. Yet, many remain small-scale and informally regulated, where place-based knowledge shapes how fishing is distributed across space and between diverse resource users. These social geographies impact reef fish assemblages, with consequences for ecosystem function. However, this is challenging to document in data-poor fisheries. We used a mixed-methods approach with i. interview surveys to characterise perceptions of catch availability, spatial patterns and intensity of reef fishing and ii. in-water surveys to quantify the impact of fishing on fish communities, in the Lakshadweep archipelago (Indian Ocean). We found that although the fishery is nominally open access, subsistence fishing was limited to a distinct ‘home resource catchment’; confined to reefs proximate to inhabited islands. The recently emerged commercial reef fishery maintains profitability by focusing on distant, uninhabited atolls that have not experienced historical pressure and are perceived as richer fishing grounds. This represents a ‘spatial fix’, where problems of overaccumulation are solved by expanding or restructuring geographical space. Historically fished, proximate reefs are associated with significantly lower biomass (up to 69.8 %) and abundance (up to 97.14 %) of target predator species than reefs of distant, uninhabited atolls. The densely populated capital atoll shows the strongest fishing impacts with significant differences in size structure and community composition as well. Our approach reveals nuances in how subsistence and commercial fishers navigate shared resources and highlights a critical need for careful understanding of the social geographies of reef use.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111675"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-02DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111677
Donovan A. Bell , Ryan P. Kovach , Zachary Robinson , Anthony Dangora , Jason Mullen , Alex Poole , Jim Olsen , Ronald Spoon , Coltan Pipinich , Lee Nelson , Andrew R. Whiteley
Genetic rescue—assisted translocation to reduce inbreeding and increase population viability—is a promising conservation strategy for mitigating the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. Most empirical studies of genetic rescue conducted in the wild focus on single populations, where environmental variability and concurrent management actions confound results. Moreover, nearly all genetic rescue studies in wild populations rely on outbred sources, but inbred donor populations are often the only available option for imperiled species. We conducted a rare experimental test of genetic rescue using wild, isolated westslope cutthroat trout populations with severely elevated levels of inbreeding. A small number of fish were translocated from inbred sources into four isolated recipient populations spanning a gradient of genetic variation and inbreeding. To explicitly evaluate effects of genetic rescue, we developed an integrated population model (IPM) that incorporates Mendelian inheritance and ancestry-specific vital rates. Three recipient populations with the highest degrees of inbreeding showed increased genetic variation, aggregate fitness, and abundance. There was a scaling effect of genetic rescue, with the strongest responses in the most inbred populations. Importantly, we provide strong evidence that inbred donor populations can facilitate genetic rescue, providing critical empirical support for genetic rescue as a viable conservation strategy for many threatened taxa in which ideal (outbred) donor populations no longer exist.
{"title":"Inbred source populations result in genetic rescue of imperiled trout populations","authors":"Donovan A. Bell , Ryan P. Kovach , Zachary Robinson , Anthony Dangora , Jason Mullen , Alex Poole , Jim Olsen , Ronald Spoon , Coltan Pipinich , Lee Nelson , Andrew R. Whiteley","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111677","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111677","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Genetic rescue—assisted translocation to reduce inbreeding and increase population viability—is a promising conservation strategy for mitigating the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. Most empirical studies of genetic rescue conducted in the wild focus on single populations, where environmental variability and concurrent management actions confound results. Moreover, nearly all genetic rescue studies in wild populations rely on outbred sources, but inbred donor populations are often the only available option for imperiled species. We conducted a rare experimental test of genetic rescue using wild, isolated westslope cutthroat trout populations with severely elevated levels of inbreeding. A small number of fish were translocated from inbred sources into four isolated recipient populations spanning a gradient of genetic variation and inbreeding. To explicitly evaluate effects of genetic rescue, we developed an integrated population model (IPM) that incorporates Mendelian inheritance and ancestry-specific vital rates. Three recipient populations with the highest degrees of inbreeding showed increased genetic variation, aggregate fitness, and abundance. There was a scaling effect of genetic rescue, with the strongest responses in the most inbred populations. Importantly, we provide strong evidence that inbred donor populations can facilitate genetic rescue, providing critical empirical support for genetic rescue as a viable conservation strategy for many threatened taxa in which ideal (outbred) donor populations no longer exist.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111677"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111678
Alice Bernard , Nicolas Courbin , Jérémy Tornos , Tristan J.B. Martin , Mathilde Lejeune , Aurélien Prudor , Pascal Provost , Adrien Lambrechts , Chris P. Gaskin , Jérôme Cabelguen , Matthieu Bécot , Frédéric Jiguet , David Grémillet
Studying fine-scale movements of seabirds during migration is logistically challenging, but GPS technologies allow accurate tracking of individuals on their migratory journeys. Such data provide essential information in the context of offshore wind farm (OWF) developments, notably to anticipate spatial OWF overlap with migratory corridors and main foraging areas used along the routes of vulnerable species. Using high-precision GPS-GSM tags, we investigated the end of summer, southbound migration of two emblematic seabirds of French waters: Juvenile and adult Northern gannets Morus bassanus, and adult Balearic shearwaters Puffinus mauretanicus. Both species travel along the Southwestern European coast, between the Bay of Biscay and Western Africa, or the Mediterranean Sea. Adult gannets thereby migrate through the EEZ of up to 10 countries, six for juvenile gannet, and four for shearwaters. Combining behavioural segmentation based on hidden Markov models and utilization distribution modelling, we found that between two and 6 % of migration routes overlapped with proposed OWFs, with similar impacts on transit and foraging/resting areas. Studied seabirds were most at risk within Portuguese compared to Spanish waters, as they flew closest to OWFs (<10 km on average). While massive OWF developments are being planned within Western European coastal areas, our study suggests that offshore developments should be set >22 km away from the coast, to preserve transnational seabird migratory corridors.
{"title":"The responsibility of Western European coastal states for the conservation of two emblematic migratory seabirds in the context of offshore wind farms","authors":"Alice Bernard , Nicolas Courbin , Jérémy Tornos , Tristan J.B. Martin , Mathilde Lejeune , Aurélien Prudor , Pascal Provost , Adrien Lambrechts , Chris P. Gaskin , Jérôme Cabelguen , Matthieu Bécot , Frédéric Jiguet , David Grémillet","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111678","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111678","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Studying fine-scale movements of seabirds during migration is logistically challenging, but GPS technologies allow accurate tracking of individuals on their migratory journeys. Such data provide essential information in the context of offshore wind farm (OWF) developments, notably to anticipate spatial OWF overlap with migratory corridors and main foraging areas used along the routes of vulnerable species. Using high-precision GPS-GSM tags, we investigated the end of summer, southbound migration of two emblematic seabirds of French waters: Juvenile and adult Northern gannets <em>Morus bassanus,</em> and adult Balearic shearwaters <em>Puffinus mauretanicus.</em> Both species travel along the Southwestern European coast, between the Bay of Biscay and Western Africa, or the Mediterranean Sea. Adult gannets thereby migrate through the EEZ of up to 10 countries, six for juvenile gannet, and four for shearwaters. Combining behavioural segmentation based on hidden Markov models and utilization distribution modelling, we found that between two and 6 % of migration routes overlapped with proposed OWFs, with similar impacts on transit and foraging/resting areas. Studied seabirds were most at risk within Portuguese compared to Spanish waters, as they flew closest to OWFs (<10 km on average). While massive OWF developments are being planned within Western European coastal areas, our study suggests that offshore developments should be set >22 km away from the coast, to preserve transnational seabird migratory corridors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111678"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-26DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111682
Klara Leander Oh , Ivo Raemakers , Jeroen Scheper , Mats de Boer , Joan Díaz-Calafat , Anne Hage , Ruud van Kats , David Kingma , Hanna Keurhorst-van Krimpen , Thirza M. de Kruijff , Wouter G. Oe , Frank Rooijakkers , Maarten Frank van der Schee , Janneke Scheeres , David Kleijn
Collaborative multi-actor conservation has been heralded as an effective way to address historical biodiversity loss because it makes landscape-level multi-habitat management strategies possible. However, its ecological effectiveness is not well understood. We examine a multi-actor approach in which 11 organisations collaborated to enhance wild bees in a 30 km2 landscape in the south of the Netherlands. Using a novel study design for landscape-level conservation initiatives, we compared six-year trends in wild bee abundance and species richness and flower cover and species richness in 47 sites with bee-friendly management aimed at increasing the spatio-temporal availability of flowers in five habitats (extensive pastures, road verges, field margins, hedgerows, water retention sites) with trends in similar numbers of conventionally managed controls inside and outside the landscape. Overall, wild bee abundance and species richness increased in sites with bee-friendly management relative to controls, though effectiveness varied by habitat. Across all sites, bee-friendly management resulted in significantly more positive trends in flower cover than in control sites, yet trends in managed sites were stable rather than increasing and flower cover declined by approximately 46 % in control sites. The implementation success of bee-friendly management varied by habitat type and year, and was a key factor underlying the ecological effectiveness of said management. Our results suggest that coordinated collaborative approaches across complementary habitats can produce conservation benefits, but that success depends on effective communication with and consistent participation of actors, guidance by a coordinator, and continuous monitoring of management implementation and ecological outcomes.
{"title":"Evaluating the ecological effectiveness of landscape-level collaborative conservation: A case study targeting wild bees","authors":"Klara Leander Oh , Ivo Raemakers , Jeroen Scheper , Mats de Boer , Joan Díaz-Calafat , Anne Hage , Ruud van Kats , David Kingma , Hanna Keurhorst-van Krimpen , Thirza M. de Kruijff , Wouter G. Oe , Frank Rooijakkers , Maarten Frank van der Schee , Janneke Scheeres , David Kleijn","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Collaborative multi-actor conservation has been heralded as an effective way to address historical biodiversity loss because it makes landscape-level multi-habitat management strategies possible. However, its ecological effectiveness is not well understood. We examine a multi-actor approach in which 11 organisations collaborated to enhance wild bees in a 30 km<sup>2</sup> landscape in the south of the Netherlands. Using a novel study design for landscape-level conservation initiatives, we compared six-year trends in wild bee abundance and species richness and flower cover and species richness in 47 sites with bee-friendly management aimed at increasing the spatio-temporal availability of flowers in five habitats (extensive pastures, road verges, field margins, hedgerows, water retention sites) with trends in similar numbers of conventionally managed controls inside and outside the landscape. Overall, wild bee abundance and species richness increased in sites with bee-friendly management relative to controls, though effectiveness varied by habitat. Across all sites, bee-friendly management resulted in significantly more positive trends in flower cover than in control sites, yet trends in managed sites were stable rather than increasing and flower cover declined by approximately 46 % in control sites. The implementation success of bee-friendly management varied by habitat type and year, and was a key factor underlying the ecological effectiveness of said management. Our results suggest that coordinated collaborative approaches across complementary habitats can produce conservation benefits, but that success depends on effective communication with and consistent participation of actors, guidance by a coordinator, and continuous monitoring of management implementation and ecological outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111682"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Proposed bans on the import of hunting trophies from African countries to Europe continue to spark international political tensions and public debate. Despite heated debates in Germany, Europe's largest and the world's second largest importer, empirical evidence on public perceptions is limited. Using an experimental vignette approach, we administered an online questionnaire to 882 rural and urban German participants and used ordinal regression to assess the acceptability of trophy hunting of African elephants and zebras. Overall acceptability was low, with 59.7–90.8 % of participants rating the hunting scenarios as unacceptable to a certain extent, but varied by context: while hunting a zebra was more acceptable than an elephant, participants showed consistency in whether they prioritised the need of people or that of wildlife, both in the usage of the hunted meat and the allocation of the revenue of the hunt. We did not find evidence for a rural-urban divide, while acceptability between zebra and elephant hunts was more pronounced among rural participants. Acceptability was higher among male participants, those who prioritised the interests of people over the interests of wild animals, and those who identified as hunters. Our findings emphasise the international complexities of public opinion on contentious issues in conservation and illuminate challenges decision-makers face when balancing the interests and perspectives of multiple publics.
{"title":"Context matters: German public perceptions of trophy hunting in sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"Emu-Felicitas Ostermann-Miyashita , Sophia Hibler , Lovemore Sibanda , Darragh Hare","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111681","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111681","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Proposed bans on the import of hunting trophies from African countries to Europe continue to spark international political tensions and public debate. Despite heated debates in Germany, Europe's largest and the world's second largest importer, empirical evidence on public perceptions is limited. Using an experimental vignette approach, we administered an online questionnaire to 882 rural and urban German participants and used ordinal regression to assess the acceptability of trophy hunting of African elephants and zebras. Overall acceptability was low, with 59.7–90.8 % of participants rating the hunting scenarios as unacceptable to a certain extent, but varied by context: while hunting a zebra was more acceptable than an elephant, participants showed consistency in whether they prioritised the need of people or that of wildlife, both in the usage of the hunted meat and the allocation of the revenue of the hunt. We did not find evidence for a rural-urban divide, while acceptability between zebra and elephant hunts was more pronounced among rural participants. Acceptability was higher among male participants, those who prioritised the interests of people over the interests of wild animals, and those who identified as hunters. Our findings emphasise the international complexities of public opinion on contentious issues in conservation and illuminate challenges decision-makers face when balancing the interests and perspectives of multiple publics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111681"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-24DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111673
Ana Caroline Cardoso Aragão , Ticiane de Lima Costa , Guarino Rinaldi Colli
Given the extensive loss and fragmentation of natural areas in the Brazilian Cerrado, ecological restoration of degraded lands is essential to halt biodiversity decline in this globally significant hotspot. Ambitious restoration targets, limited financial resources, and data-limited contexts demand strategies that address these challenges while ensuring cost-effectiveness. We developed an innovative spatial prioritization framework using the prioritizr package in R to identify priority areas for restoration in the Cerrado, integrating endemic lizard biodiversity, functional connectivity, and restoration costs. For species with few occurrence records, we built Species Distribution Models (SDMs) based on phylogenetic inference, applying the ENphylo method recently proposed in the literature, while conventional SDMs were used for species with sufficient records. By combining total species richness and the richness of threatened species as proxies for biodiversity value, we accounted for both conservation urgency and representativeness. Functional connectivity was assessed by quantifying the contribution of each restorable area to landscape connectivity, whereas restoration cost was estimated using natural regeneration potential as a proxy. The optimization produced an efficient and replicable solution that identified four focal regions for restoration—central, southeastern, western, and northern Cerrado—balancing ecological value with implementation feasibility. These results highlight the need for strategic restoration in regions under heavy agricultural pressure and habitat fragmentation. Our approach advances restoration planning in data-limited contexts by integrating cutting-edge biodiversity modeling and optimization tools, offering a robust framework to inform national and global restoration policies and biodiversity planning efforts across tropical ecosystems facing similar conservation and socio-economic challenges.
鉴于巴西塞拉多自然区域的广泛丧失和破碎化,退化土地的生态恢复对于阻止这一全球重要热点地区生物多样性下降至关重要。雄心勃勃的恢复目标、有限的财政资源和数据有限的环境需要在确保成本效益的同时解决这些挑战的策略。我们开发了一个创新的空间优先级框架,利用R中的优先级包来确定塞拉多的优先恢复区域,综合当地蜥蜴的生物多样性、功能连通性和恢复成本。对于发生记录较少的物种,采用文献中提出的ENphylo方法建立基于系统发育推断的物种分布模型(species Distribution Models, SDMs),而对于发生记录较多的物种则采用常规的物种分布模型。通过将物种总丰富度和受威胁物种丰富度作为生物多样性价值的代表,我们兼顾了保护的紧迫性和代表性。通过量化每个可恢复区域对景观连通性的贡献来评估功能连通性,而使用自然再生潜力作为代理来估计恢复成本。优化产生了一个高效且可复制的解决方案,确定了塞拉多中部、东南部、西部和北部四个重点恢复区域,以平衡生态价值和实施可行性。这些结果强调了在农业压力大、栖息地破碎化的地区进行战略恢复的必要性。我们的方法通过整合尖端的生物多样性建模和优化工具,在数据有限的背景下推进恢复规划,为面临类似保护和社会经济挑战的热带生态系统的国家和全球恢复政策和生物多样性规划工作提供了一个强大的框架。
{"title":"Optimizing restoration outcomes in the Brazilian Cerrado: A spatial planning framework integrating endemic lizard biodiversity, connectivity, and costs","authors":"Ana Caroline Cardoso Aragão , Ticiane de Lima Costa , Guarino Rinaldi Colli","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111673","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111673","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the extensive loss and fragmentation of natural areas in the Brazilian Cerrado, ecological restoration of degraded lands is essential to halt biodiversity decline in this globally significant hotspot. Ambitious restoration targets, limited financial resources, and data-limited contexts demand strategies that address these challenges while ensuring cost-effectiveness. We developed an innovative spatial prioritization framework using the <em>prioritizr</em> package in R to identify priority areas for restoration in the Cerrado, integrating endemic lizard biodiversity, functional connectivity, and restoration costs. For species with few occurrence records, we built Species Distribution Models (SDMs) based on phylogenetic inference, applying the ENphylo method recently proposed in the literature, while conventional SDMs were used for species with sufficient records. By combining total species richness and the richness of threatened species as proxies for biodiversity value, we accounted for both conservation urgency and representativeness. Functional connectivity was assessed by quantifying the contribution of each restorable area to landscape connectivity, whereas restoration cost was estimated using natural regeneration potential as a proxy. The optimization produced an efficient and replicable solution that identified four focal regions for restoration—central, southeastern, western, and northern Cerrado—balancing ecological value with implementation feasibility. These results highlight the need for strategic restoration in regions under heavy agricultural pressure and habitat fragmentation. Our approach advances restoration planning in data-limited contexts by integrating cutting-edge biodiversity modeling and optimization tools, offering a robust framework to inform national and global restoration policies and biodiversity planning efforts across tropical ecosystems facing similar conservation and socio-economic challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111673"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111672
G.A. Petrossian , J. Lang , J. von Ferber , U. Gondhali , B. Lieu , K. Bernstein , J. Barbosa , K. Sharma , S. Chakraborty , J. Freire
Since COVID-19, the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has made a massive transition from physical to online marketplaces, creating new challenges for identifying and tracking the trade of reptile leather products. Social network analysis has been used in the past to identify networks of key actors and generate strategies to dismantle these networks. However, these analyses have been limited to actors interacting in the physical space. We utilise machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs) to extract advertisements on potential illegal sales of small leather items on eBay as the case-study marketplace. We use social network analysis to identify key actors, products, and eBay sites where these activities occur, and network percolation analysis to determine which network disruption strategies offer the most optimal network dismantlement. We found that online reptile leather trade is highly concentrated, with a small number of species, product types, and countries dominating the market, especially for such luxury products as crocodile bags. Network percolation analyses revealed that targeted interventions focusing on high-degree product types (rather than sellers or shipping countries) are most effective at disrupting the market. These findings suggest that regulatory agencies should prioritise enforcement at key market chokepoints by requiring all online listings of reptile leather products to display valid CITES permits, include the full scientific and common species names, and show non-reusable CITES tags in product images. E-commerce platforms like eBay must enforce these requirements to ensure compliance with domestic and international wildlife trade laws.
{"title":"Scaling the web: Unraveling online reptile leather trade networks with machine learning and network analysis","authors":"G.A. Petrossian , J. Lang , J. von Ferber , U. Gondhali , B. Lieu , K. Bernstein , J. Barbosa , K. Sharma , S. Chakraborty , J. Freire","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since COVID-19, the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has made a massive transition from physical to online marketplaces, creating new challenges for identifying and tracking the trade of reptile leather products. Social network analysis has been used in the past to identify networks of key actors and generate strategies to dismantle these networks. However, these analyses have been limited to actors interacting in the physical space. We utilise machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs) to extract advertisements on potential illegal sales of small leather items on eBay as the case-study marketplace. We use social network analysis to identify key actors, products, and eBay sites where these activities occur, and network percolation analysis to determine which network disruption strategies offer the most optimal network dismantlement. We found that online reptile leather trade is highly concentrated, with a small number of species, product types, and countries dominating the market, especially for such luxury products as crocodile bags. Network percolation analyses revealed that targeted interventions focusing on high-degree product types (rather than sellers or shipping countries) are most effective at disrupting the market. These findings suggest that regulatory agencies should prioritise enforcement at key market chokepoints by requiring all online listings of reptile leather products to display valid CITES permits, include the full scientific and common species names, and show non-reusable CITES tags in product images. E-commerce platforms like eBay must enforce these requirements to ensure compliance with domestic and international wildlife trade laws.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111672"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111674
Cristóbal Anguita , Alejandro Simeone , Cristián F. Estades
Human-induced rapid environmental change increasingly causes animals to select habitats of poor quality based on misleading cues, creating ecological traps that drive demographic decline and elevate extinction risk. Yet research on ecological traps has focused mainly on terrestrial and freshwater systems, while marine traps—particularly those linked to fisheries, the dominant marine industry and a potential source of traps for seabirds and other vertebrates—remain understudied. In this marine context, fisheries represent a double-edged sword for seabirds: the trophic subsidies they provide (bait, discards, and catches) offer predictable food but also attract birds to vessels, thereby increasing their risk of mortality from bycatch. Here, we analyze the interaction between seabirds' scavenging behavior and bycatch in fisheries, as well as the effect of the slow–fast life-history continuum on their vulnerability to ecological traps. Through a systematic literature review and Bayesian multilevel models accounting for phylogenetic relatedness (341 species), we show a clear preference–performance mismatch: slow-lived seabirds, such as albatrosses, are more likely to exploit fishery-derived trophic subsidies and are consequently more threatened by bycatch. Building on recent evidence that ecological traps are a common phenomenon in marine ecosystems, we propose that they should be recognized as a primary mechanism underlying seabird–fishery interactions. Moreover, incorporating ecological traps into theoretical frameworks could strengthen ecosystem-based fisheries management by clarifying the causes and consequences of fishery impacts on seabirds, enhancing the effectiveness of management and conservation strategies, and supporting the enforcement of mitigation measures.
{"title":"The emergence of ecological traps in marine ecosystems: The case of seabirds and fisheries","authors":"Cristóbal Anguita , Alejandro Simeone , Cristián F. Estades","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111674","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111674","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Human-induced rapid environmental change increasingly causes animals to select habitats of poor quality based on misleading cues, creating ecological traps that drive demographic decline and elevate extinction risk. Yet research on ecological traps has focused mainly on terrestrial and freshwater systems, while marine traps—particularly those linked to fisheries, the dominant marine industry and a potential source of traps for seabirds and other vertebrates—remain understudied. In this marine context, fisheries represent a double-edged sword for seabirds: the trophic subsidies they provide (bait, discards, and catches) offer predictable food but also attract birds to vessels, thereby increasing their risk of mortality from bycatch. Here, we analyze the interaction between seabirds' scavenging behavior and bycatch in fisheries, as well as the effect of the slow–fast life-history continuum on their vulnerability to ecological traps. Through a systematic literature review and Bayesian multilevel models accounting for phylogenetic relatedness (341 species), we show a clear preference–performance mismatch: slow-lived seabirds, such as albatrosses, are more likely to exploit fishery-derived trophic subsidies and are consequently more threatened by bycatch. Building on recent evidence that ecological traps are a common phenomenon in marine ecosystems, we propose that they should be recognized as a primary mechanism underlying seabird–fishery interactions. Moreover, incorporating ecological traps into theoretical frameworks could strengthen ecosystem-based fisheries management by clarifying the causes and consequences of fishery impacts on seabirds, enhancing the effectiveness of management and conservation strategies, and supporting the enforcement of mitigation measures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"314 ","pages":"Article 111674"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}