Biological Conservation最新文献

Blue carbon projects in Mexico, or the conservation and restoration of tidal wetlands such as mangroves, can reduce carbon emissions while providing additional ecosystem services for local communities. However, at the national scale, the “additionality” (or added project benefits) of mangrove projects is difficult to demonstrate due to recent slowing deforestation rates. While deforestation in Mexico decelerates, mangrove degradation is pervasive and spreading. Reversing or ending mangrove degradation could rapidly protect the carbon stored and reduce future greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we explore Mexico's conceptual, methodological, and social challenges for tackling mangrove degradation and achieving successful rehabilitation outcomes. We identified that the first challenge is establishing an accepted national definition of mangrove degradation compatible with earlier methods and measurable with spatial imaging techniques. Other challenges are aligning on-ground monitoring with remotely sensed degradation assessments, including reference sites, harmonizing national programs with global datasets, and standardizing information to meet blue carbon project accreditation requirements. Finally, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and reporting failed and successful projects are crucial for fast-forwarding reliable and verifiable blue carbon projects that effectively contribute to reversing mangrove degradation trends in Mexico.

We summarise evidence of extinction reported in Red List accounts of plants (170 species) and animals (816 species) listed as extinct (EX) or extinct in the wild (EW) under different versions of the Red List. We find that types of evidence and their frequency of use are remarkably consistent across plants, animals and Red List versions. The most common evidence is ‘long time missing, fewer than half of species accounts discuss search effort, and accounts of 15 % of EX/EW plants and 27 % of animals provide no reason for the EX/EW listing. We review use of extinction probability models for EX, EW and Critically Endangered species flagged as possibly extinct, and find that 155 species have been subjects of extinction probability models. Nearly all models applied to birds and mammals agree that the species are extinct. Seventeen statistical models for estimating the probability that a species is extinct based on search effort, traits and detection rate have been published since 1993 and applied to EX, EW, or CR(PE) species. A tiny fraction (0.6 %) of Red List accounts currently include published model results; thus extinction probability modelling has been largely independent of Red Listing. This is likely to change, because since 2019, Red List guidelines provide templates for quantitative estimates of extinction likelihood. Combining statistical models with assessments of species' probability of extinction based on other criteria can strengthen extinction listings of plants and animals, and add to our understanding of the scale of modern species loss.

Functionalism is a natural bridge between ecology and economics. Faced with a systemic issue like the biodiversity crisis, functionalism is particularly useful for economic reasoning, as it allows to break down a complex reality by estimating the contribution of the parts to the general performance of the whole. In this manner, items that are crucial to the functioning of the ecosystem can be preserved in priority. However, while functionalist language is relatively common in environmental sciences, its use is very debated in the philosophy of sciences and ecology. In the philosophy of science, functionalism raises question because it implicitly introduces finalism into scientific reflection. In ecology, it interrogates because it implies a certain degree of organicism, which contemporary ecologists are relatively reticent about.

This article reviews the epistemological debates about functionalism in ecology. It attempts to identify its current area of scientific validity and highlights some important implications for economics. It emphasizes, in particular, that functionalism depends on the system examined and remains inapplicable wherever singularity prevails. Finally, we highlight the risk of conceptualizing the environment through purely abstract functionalism, which could lead to assume functional equivalences without empirical verification.

Habitat selection is influenced by landscape composition, resource distribution and social behaviour. Habitat selection is scale-dependent, and the spatial extent and the scale at which processes are measured are therefore of paramount importance. This study focused on the habitat selection of the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax). We developed habitat selection models with the aim of disentangling the relative effects of local habitat parameters (crop), landscape features and social factors (to take into account the exploded lek mating system of this species). We used the SILand package in R, which allows the estimation of simple and interactive effects, using spatially accurate counts of male little bustards over a 1074-km² study suite (over 11 consecutive years). Local and landscape-scale habitats were taken into account, including agri-environment schemes, allowing a quantitative analysis of these conservation measures. The predictive power of the models that only included local habitat was poor, but including landscape habitats – interacting with local habitat or not – statistically increased the model's predictive power (by 16 %). Adding the social factor further improved model quality (by 14 %). From a conservation perspective, the presence probability of a male increases by about 25 % when the field is managed with an agri-environment scheme. If the habitat around the field is of high quality (50 % of grasslands within a 500-m radius), this probability rises to 0.8, and if a male is already present within 250 m, it reaches 1. This confirms that conservation measures should preferentially target hotspots of male presence (i.e., larger leks).

Key resources for animal populations can vary seasonally. For pollinators, the availability of floral resources, nectar and pollen, can fluctuate temporally due to flowering phenology and competition. Because conservation strategies for bees and other pollinators often involve enhancing floral resources, targeting periods when these are in short supply would increase their effectiveness. However, there is currently no consensus regarding which months or seasons are most challenging for foraging pollinators in any region of the globe. Here, we carried out a systematic literature review of studies that reported measures of foraging favourability in northwest Europe. Our main aims were to determine: 1) whether foraging conditions vary seasonally; 2) whether certain months or seasons were consistently identified as challenging for pollinator foraging. A total of 18 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria and were primarily studies that used honeybees as indicators of seasonal changes in foraging favourability (15 studies). There was a general decline in foraging favourability throughout the year, with spring and early summer more likely to be categorised as favourable than late summer or autumn. August was most frequently identified as challenging for pollinator foraging, with 71 % of the studies reporting it as unfavourable. April was most frequently identified as the most favourable month for foraging, with 87 % of the studies reporting it as favourable. These results suggest that efforts to improve floral resource supply for pollinators may be more effective if targeted at late summer months, particularly August.

Ecological data are being opportunistically synthesised at unprecedented scales in response to the global biodiversity and climate crises. Such syntheses are often only possible through large-scale, international, multidisciplinary collaborations and provide important pathways for addressing urgent conservation questions. Although large collaborative data syntheses can lead to high-impact successes, they can also be plagued with difficulties. Challenges include the standardisation of data originally collected for different purposes, integration and interpretation of knowledge sourced across different disciplines and spatio-temporal scales, and management of differing perspectives from contributors with distinct academic and cultural backgrounds. Here, we use the collective expertise of a global team of conservation ecologists and practitioners to highlight common benefits and hurdles that arise with the development of opportunistic collaborative syntheses. We outline a framework of “best practice” for developing such collaborations, encompassing the design, implementation, and deliverable phases. Our framework addresses common challenges, highlighting key actions for successful collaboration and emphasizing the support requirements. We identify funding as a major constraint to sustaining the large, international, multidisciplinary teams required to advance collaborative syntheses in a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive way. We further advocate for thinking strategically from the outset and highlight the need for reshaping funding agendas to prioritize the structures required to propel global scientific networks. Our framework will advance the science needed for ecological conservation and the sustainable use of global natural resources by supporting proto-groups initiating new syntheses, leaders and participants of ongoing projects, and funders who want to facilitate such collaborations in the future.

Corridors are essential tools for promoting biodiversity resilience under climate change. However, corridor design studies are often conducted at spatial scales too coarse to guide implementation by local conservation practitioners. We mapped potential climate-resilient corridors linking lowland to highland protected areas within a highly biodiverse but fragmented landscape of southwestern Costa Rica (6311 km²) using least cost path and circuit theory approaches at high spatial resolution (10 m). We then applied an extensive camera trap dataset of medium-large vertebrates to examine corridor functionality. Although least cost paths (n = 40) were predominantly forested (median = 76 %, range = 57–82 %) and somewhat protected (median = 31 %, range = 3–55 %), they were also highly fragmented. Least cost paths from lowland to highland protected areas traversed medians of 252 forest patches (range = 162–328), 11,186 agriculture patches (range = 822–1,771), and 106 roads (range = 50–252), translating to 2 forest patches, 11 agriculture patches, and 1 road crossed every kilometer. Circuit analyses identified many high-connectivity areas outside of protected areas, including but not limited to least cost paths, but these high-connectivity areas were mostly small forest fragments. Nonetheless, capture rates for medium-to-large mammals at camera traps indicated that many species are currently unlikely to use unprotected, fragmented areas thought to be important for connectivity. In other words, additional conservation and restoration are necessary to establish functional corridors within the landscape. More broadly, this study exemplifies an approach to bridging the gap between regional-scale connectivity analyses and the needs of local practitioners by identifying locations that could be targeted for conservation or restoration within multi-use tropical landscapes.

As carnivores recolonize parts of their historical range, and such recolonization is increasingly recognized for its ability to reconfigure and revitalize degraded ecosystems, understanding where and when range expansion may continue is useful for facilitating scenario planning and identifying roles for conservation measures.

We developed an individual-based model to predict carnivore range expansion and applied it to cougars (Puma concolor) in North America between 2023 and 2100. We parameterized our model with empirical movement, demographic, and survival data, and validated its performance by hindcasting nine observed recolonization events from the 1990s – 2023.

Our model accurately recreated historical recolonization events and forecasted cougars reclaiming 2.1 % of unoccupied range by 2100, mostly in boreal Canada. Of currently unoccupied states/provinces (“jurisdictions”), only Manitoba received universal support across model runs for hosting a breeding population by 2100. Oklahoma, Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa, requiring dispersal across nonhabitat, had 30 %, 30 %, 11 %, and 2 % probability of recolonization, respectively. No other jurisdictions were forecast to be recolonized.

Mortality from harvest in Midwestern source populations and vehicle collisions dominated outcomes for eastward-moving females. Simulated management scenarios eliminating such hunting and adding nine wildlife crossing structures, however, did not significantly change recolonization probability.

In areas where current cougar range abuts unoccupied breeding habitat, we estimated slower rates of expansion, varying from 2 to 3 km·yr⁻¹, yielding roughly 150–230 km of linear expansion in those regions by 2100.

Our mechanistic model and underlying empirical data provide a credible and transferable approach to forecast carnivore range expansion.

Marine ecosystems are highly dynamic, and their connectivity is affected by a complex range of biological, spatial, and oceanographic factors. Incorporating connectivity as a factor in the planning and management of marine protected areas (MPAs) is important yet challenging. Here, we implemented a novel integrative framework that uses intraspecific genetic and genomic data for multiple marine species to characterise connectivity across a recently established South Australian MPA network. We generated connectivity networks, estimated cross-species concordance of connectivity patterns, and tested the impact of key spatial and oceanographic factors on each species. Connectivity patterns varied markedly among species, but were most correlated among those with similar dispersal strategies. Ordination analyses revealed significant associations with both waterway distances and oceanographic advection models. Notably, waterway distances provided better predictive power in all-species combined analyses. We extended the practical relevance of our findings by employing spatial prioritisation with Marxan, using node values derived from both genetic and geographic connectivity networks. This allowed the identification of several priority areas for conservation, and substantiated the initial decision to employ spatial distance as a proxy for biological connectivity for the design of the South Australian marine park network. Our study establishes a baseline for connectivity monitoring in South Australian MPAs, and provides guidelines for adapting this framework to protected networks elsewhere in the world.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species underpins much decision-making in conservation and plays a key role in monitoring the status and trends of biodiversity. However, the shortage of funds and assessor capacity slows the uptake of novel data and techniques, hampering its currency, applicability, consistency and long-term viability. To help address this, we developed sRedList, a user-friendly online platform that assists Red List assessors through a step-by-step process to estimate key parameters in a standardised and reproducible fashion. Through the platform, assessors can swiftly generate outputs including species' range maps, lists of countries of occurrence, lower and upper bounds of area of occupancy, habitat preferences, trends in area of habitat, and levels of fragmentation. sRedList is compliant with the IUCN Red List guidelines and outputs are interoperable with the Species Information Service (SIS; the IUCN Red List database) in support of global, regional and national assessments and reassessments. sRedList can also help assessors prioritise species for reassessment. sRedList was released in October 2023, with a complete documentation package (including text documentation, ‘cheatsheets’, and 15 video tutorials), and will soon be highlighted in the official Red List online training course. sRedList will help to bridge the gap between extinction risk research and Red List assessment practice, increase the taxonomic coverage and consistency of assessments, and ensure the IUCN Red List is up-to-date to best support conservation policy and practice across the world.