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Why it matters how biodiversity is measured in environmental valuation studies compared to conservation science Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Niels Strange, Sophus zu Ermgassen, Erica Marshall, Joseph W. Bull, Jette Bredahl Jacobsen
The undervaluation of biodiversity in decision-making is a critical issue that contributes to continued biodiversity declines and loss of environment. This issue is exacerbated in environmental economics by the need to keep measures of biodiversity simple for communication to the public due to limited background knowledge and cognitive limitations. Therefore, there is a clear need to improve the biodiversity
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Spatial and temporal factors influencing wildlife use of overpass crossing structures and landscape siphons along a major canal Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Kaela M. Hamilton, Thomas Bommarito, Jesse S. Lewis
Anthropogenic linear infrastructures can reduce landscape connectivity for wildlife, and crossing structures are a mitigation strategy to facilitate animal movement across potential barriers. However, the spatial and temporal factors promoting crossing structure use by the wildlife community across scales are not fully understood, especially for major water canals. We tested multiple hypotheses and
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How to deal with invasive species that have high economic value? Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Gustavo F. de Carvalho-Souza, Melina Kourantidou, Irene Laiz, Martín Andrés Nuñez, Enrique González-Ortegón
The ever-accelerating process of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species (IAS) in marine waters requires engaging different actors in the management and planning. To address this challenge, stakeholders need an integrated approach for defining actions of control and management within an ecosystem-based framework: to seek and enhance coordination, collaboration and trust among all stakeholders
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Content analysis of nature documentaries in China: Challenges and opportunities to raise public conservation awareness Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Haonan Wei, Violeta Berdejo-Espinola, Yunjie Ma, Tatsuya Amano
People's daily life is inevitably linked to major threats to biodiversity. It is thus important to improve people's conservation awareness. While a growing body of research has demonstrated the potential of English-language nature documentaries to raise public conservation awareness, little attention has been paid to nature documentaries that are available only in non-English languages. Here, we assessed
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Coupling marine ecosystem state with environmental management and conservation: A risk-based approach Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Rebecca V. Gladstone-Gallagher, Judi E. Hewitt, Jasmine M.L. Low, Conrad A. Pilditch, Fabrice Stephenson, Simon F. Thrush, Joanne I. Ellis
The sustainability of marine ecosystems demands a focus on ecological improvement, necessitating managers and conservationists to consider a range of actions from those that limit stressors to those that actively restore. Deciding the most appropriate action should be informed by environmental context, which includes assessing information on both degradation and recovery potential. Here, we provide
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Transformation of natural habitat disrupts biogeographical patterns of orchid diversity Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Edicson Parra-Sanchez, Robbert Freckleton, Matthew G. Hethcoat, Juan Manuel Ochoa-Quintero, David P. Edwards
Physical gradients are major natural drivers of global biodiversity. A key question is understanding how biogeographic patterns are impacted by transformation of natural habitats. We aim to elucidate the complex relationships between two core biogeographic drivers of biodiversity—elevation and precipitation—, local deforestation, and their additive and interactive effects on Andean orchid diversity
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The impact factor of engaged research: Metrics for conservation outcomes Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Simon Lhoest, Candice Carr Kelman, Chris J. Barton, J.A. Beaudette, Leah R. Gerber
Will this paper lead to any measurable impact on biodiversity conservation? In this essay, we examine the relevance of scientific publications for conservation outcomes and propose specific recommendations to encourage procedural reforms in academia. While many conservation scientists dedicate significant effort to making their research accessible and actionable for conservation outcomes, academia
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Legacy over a thousand years: Canopy soil of old-growth forest fosters rich and unique invertebrate diversity that is slow to recover from human disturbance Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Ikuyo Saeki, Sho Hioki, Wakana A. Azuma, Noriyuki Osada, Shigeru Niwa, Aino T. Ota, Hiroaki Ishii
Canopy ecosystems provide a wide range of ecosystem services, but because they are difficult to access, knowledge about their conservation is limited. Yakushima World Heritage Site in Japan is characterized by old-growth forests with huge Japanese cedars (). Canopy soil, originating from litter, is present in the cedars' crowns, and offers habitat for abundant epiphytes. We hypothesized that the canopy
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When and why ecological systems respond to the rate rather than the magnitude of environmental changes Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Karen C. Abbott, Christopher M. Heggerud, Ying-Cheng Lai, Andrew Morozov, Sergei Petrovskii, Kim Cuddington, Alan Hastings
Ecologists and conservation biologists have become quite familiar with the concept of tipping points: abrupt changes in an ecosystem's state that occur after a period of relative stasis. Most of the familiar ecological examples of tipping points occur either because a once-stable state has lost stability, or the system has been subjected to a particularly large perturbation and transitions to an alternative
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Optimizing community science contributions in ecology: A case study on Zooniverse's ‘Chicago wildlife watch’ Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Kimberly Rivera, Mason Fidino, Elizabeth W. Lehrer, Holly R. Torsey, Sarah Allen, Laura Trouille, Seth B. Magle
Public participation in research, or community science (CS), has an important role in advancing ecological research, especially data processing. CS contributions to camera trap studies have supported wildlife conservation through the rapid processing of images and videos. However, more studies are needed to quantify the accuracy and efficiency of CS participation. We used a case study from Chicago
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Selecting umbrella species as mammal biodiversity indicators in tropical forest Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Ardiantiono, Nicolas J. Deere, Eka Ramadiyanta, Marsya C. Sibarani, Adhi Nurul Hadi, Noviar Andayani, Yosia Ginting, Joseph W. Bull, Matthew J. Struebig
Conservation managers often monitor umbrella species as indicators of broader biodiversity patterns, but this assumption is seldom evaluated due to lack of survey data and objective umbrella criteria. We evaluated the performance of eight candidate umbrella species in representing broader patterns of mammal biodiversity in Sumatra, Indonesia, using a comprehensive camera trap dataset from the island's
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Benefits of Golden-winged Warbler and Cerulean Warbler habitat restoration for non-target forest birds: An empirical examination of the focal species concept Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Tessa A. Rhinehart, Darin J. McNeil, Cameron J. Fiss, Jeffery L. Larkin, Amanda D. Rodewald, Jonathan Cohen, Justin Kitzes
Despite the growing popularity of using single species as surrogates for biodiversity, conservation interventions for a single taxon do not always benefit other species within the community. Using a suite of multiple focal species, together, may better guide management that benefits entire ecological communities. Here, we provide the first empirical evaluations of community-level outcomes of two real-world
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Beware of the impact of land use legacy on genetic connectivity: A case study of the long-lived perennial Primula veris Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-02 Iris Reinula, Sabrina Träger, Hanna-Triinu Järvine, Vete-Mari Kuningas, Marianne Kaldra, Tsipe Aavik
Land use change over the past century has drastically decreased the amount of semi-natural grasslands and jeopardises the functional connectivity, i.e., exchange of genes through pollen and seed dispersal, among populations of plants characteristic to these valuable habitats. Increasing evidence shows that landscape elements can influence gene flow between isolated plant populations. Still, the role
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Rapid worldwide return to nature after lockdown as a motivator for conservation and sustainable action Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-02 Mitra L. Nikoo, Cerren Richards, Amanda E. Bates
Exposure to nature is increasingly regarded as a key part of human health, and the recognition that urban environments must provide access to green spaces for the wellbeing. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to many governments issuing stay-at-home orders and closing parks, limiting the options of accessible green spaces for people seeking to safely socialise and cope with stress.
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Site unseen: Engaging communities on marine protected areas Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Melissa Nursey-Bray, Nina Wootton, Shane Holland, Kira Page, Bronwyn M. Gillanders
Marine protected areas are ‘sites unseen’ and hence the human communities that live on and around them often struggle to accept their existence. This paper presents an account of a project that sought to establish what are the most effective modes of community engagement to raise awareness of the ecological integrity and values of, and social license to operate for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), especially
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Terrestrial lidar reveals new information about habitats provided by large old trees Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Alexander Holland, Philip Gibbons, Jason Thompson, Stanislav Roudavski
Large old trees have been described as keystone habitats for several species. However, current research does not fully explain why these species show a preference for such trees. In this study, we combined field observations of birds with terrestrial lidar scans and computational feature-recognition to describe habitats provided by trees at an unprecedented level of detail. We conducted field observations
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Harnessing historic records and long-term monitoring data to evaluate amphibian extinction dynamics Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Matt West, David Hunter, Michael P. Scroggie, Glen Johnson, Steve Smith, Michael A. McCarthy, Graeme R. Gillespie
Understanding the nature and extent of global amphibian declines has been hampered because pre-decline data rarely exist, post-decline data can be incomplete and amphibian population fluctuations can be influenced by multiple factors. Importantly, data deficiencies have impeded assessments of the roles of the pathogen, chytrid fungus , and co-occurring host or competitor species in amphibian population
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Synthesis of natural history collections data reveals patterns of US freshwater mussel diversity and decline Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 John Pfeiffer, Traci P. Dubose, Sean M. Keogh
Natural history collections are uniquely positioned to chronicle biodiversity change and are a fundamental data source in taxon-based research and conservation. With 85 species federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, freshwater mussels are one of the most imperiled animal assemblages in the United States and are the focus of extensive conservation efforts. Unfortunately, natural history
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Ecological restoration of coastal wetlands in China: Current status and suggestions Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Ningning Liu, Zhijun Ma
Globally, coastal wetlands have experienced extensive loss and degradation over the past half-century. Ecological restoration is widely recognized as essential for maintaining ecosystem services. China has increased restoration efforts over the past twenty years, but there has been limited understanding of restoration's effectiveness. Through a review of 86 coastal wetland restoration projects in China
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The Atlantic Forest of South America: Spatiotemporal dynamics of the vegetation and implications for conservation Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Maurício Humberto Vancine, Renata L. Muylaert, Bernardo Brandão Niebuhr, Júlia Emi de Faria Oshima, Vinicius Tonetti, Rodrigo Bernardo, Carlos De Angelo, Marcos Reis Rosa, Carlos Henrique Grohmann, Milton Cezar Ribeiro
The Atlantic Forest in South America (AF) is one of the world's most diverse and threatened biodiversity hotspots. We present a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis of 34 years of AF landscape change between 1986 and 2020. We analyzed landscape metrics of forest vegetation only (FV), forest plus other natural vegetation (NV), and the sensitivity of metrics to linear infrastructure. Currently, the
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Stress testing protected areas against global change Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 V, i, r, g, i, l, i, o, , H, e, r, m, o, s, o
Efforts to preserve biodiversity, mostly in protected areas (PA), are challenged by global change. To date, most of assessments are biased towards the impacts of climate change alone, focused on changes in the distribution of some species within PAs, missing other key ecological aspects, such as ecosystem functions, genetic and trait diversity, network analyses across multiple PAs or interactions of
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A global synthesis of the patterns of genetic diversity in endangered and invasive plants Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Zhi-Zhou He, Gisela C. Stotz, Xiang Liu, Jia-Jia Liu, Yu-Guo Wang, Ji Yang, Lin-Feng Li, Wen-Ju Zhang, Peng Nan, Zhi-Ping Song
Genetic diversity (GD) in populations is important in determining the adaptive potential of populations and is thus thought to influence whether populations decrease or increase in abundance. Yet, a robust evaluation of this premise is needed. By integrating data of 1636 observations from 589 studies globally, we evaluated the relative GD (measured as log response ratio of expected heterozygosity,
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Restoration opportunities beyond highly degraded tropical forests: Insights from India's Western Ghats Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Anand M. Osuri, Srinivasan Kasinathan, T.R. Shankar Raman, Divya Mudappa
Tropical rainforest remnants in human-modified landscapes exhibit varying levels of degradation, from highly degraded open-canopied and invasive plant-invaded forests to closed-canopy forests that appear structurally intact. The former are frequently identified as being in a state of arrested recovery, and targeted for restoration, but restoration needs and opportunities in the latter remain underexplored
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Determinants of livestock depredation risk by Persian leopards in southern Iran Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Rasoul Khosravi, Leila Julaie, Guillermo Fandos, Tobias Kuemmerle, Arash Ghoddousi
Human-wildlife conflict is a major conservation challenge worldwide, with negative consequences for people and wildlife alike. Large carnivores, despite their key role in ecosystem functioning, are persecuted throughout their ranges as a response to perceived or actual risks to livestock and humans. To promote human-carnivore coexistence, a better understanding of the determinants of conflict is necessary
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Artificial refuges provide post-fire habitat for small vertebrates Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Darcy J. Watchorn, Chris R. Dickman, Aaron Greenville, Barbara A. Wilson, Mark J. Garkaklis, Don A. Driscoll, Pat Hodgens, Dayna Hoadley, Heidi Groffen, Tim S. Doherty
The interacting threats of invasive predators and fire are key conservation issues for many species globally, yet few options are available to mitigate these threats. We tested how small vertebrates in post-fire environments responded to the provision of artificial refuges designed to provide protection from two globally significant invasive predators—the feral cat and European red fox. We undertook
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Too much of a good thing? Supplementing current species observations with fossil data to assess climate change vulnerability via ecological niche models Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Arianna M. Belfiore, Alessandro Mondanaro, Silvia Castiglione, Marina Melchionna, Giorgia Girardi, Pasquale Raia, Mirko Di Febbraro
Ecological niche models (ENMs) are a powerful tool in ecological research and conservation planning. Since ENMs provide probability maps of suitable areas under environmental change, they may assist in designing conservation actions and addressing conservation priorities. However, ENMs are usually implemented by learning the species climatic preferences from their current geographic distribution, which
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Original plant diversity and ecosystems of a small, remote oceanic island (Corvo, Azores): Implications for biodiversity conservation Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Simon E. Connor, Tara Lewis, Jacqueline F.N. van Leeuwen, W.O. (Pim) van der Knaap, Hanno Schaefer, Nicholas Porch, Ana I. Gomes, Stephen B. Piva, Patricia Gadd, Petr Kuneš, Simon G. Haberle, Matthew A. Adeleye, Michela Mariani, Rui Bento Elias
Remote islands harbour many endemic species and unique ecosystems. They are also some of the world's most human-impacted systems. It is essential to understand how island species and ecosystems behaved prior to major anthropogenic disruption as a basis for their conservation. This research aims to reconstruct the original, pre-colonial biodiversity of a remote oceanic island to understand the scale
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Ghost fishing gear threatening aquatic biodiversity in India Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Kannan Gunasekaran, Bilal Mghili, Teresa Bottari, Monique Mancuso, Mayakrishnan Machendiranathan
For decades, wildlife has been observed getting entangled in and affected by plastic litter. Despite the increasing annual accumulation of plastic waste in the Indian environment and its potential threat to marine biodiversity, the specific impacts of this litter often go unmeasured in India. Based on a search of social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google), we evaluated the negative impacts
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Visit, investigate, ignore: Olfactory misinformation reduces browsing damage to valued seedlings by a mammalian herbivore Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Laura S. Grant, Clare McArthur, Peter B. Banks, Malcolm Possell, Catherine J. Price
Foraging by mammalian herbivores critically impacts threatened plants and ecosystems globally, resulting in numerous conservation challenges. Like many animals, herbivores incorporate olfactory cures to forage efficiently. When ‘misinformation’, i.e. misleading odour cues, degrade the reliability of odour information, forage efficiency often declines. How browsing mammalian herbivores respond to olfactory
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Patterns and drivers of taxonomic and phylogenetic endemism in regional fern floras across the world Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-20 Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Shenhua Qian, Jian Zhang
Endemism of lineages reflects how speciation, extinction, and dispersal have influenced current distributions of species and higher lineages. Understanding patterns of endemism of lineages provides important insights into variation in geographic community composition. The distribution patterns of endemism are considered fundamental data used for biological conservation plans. Here, we investigate geographic
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Mapping multigroup responses to land cover legacy for urban biodiversity conservation Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-20 Filipa Guilherme, Joana R. Vicente, Miguel A. Carretero, Paulo Farinha-Marques
Urban biodiversity plays a crucial role in the functioning of urban ecosystems and significantly impacts the well-being and quality of life for city residents. By focusing on the city of Porto as a case study, the influence of local-scale land cover evolution on urban biodiversity is investigated, using species richness of birds, reptiles, and amphibians as indicators, within a multimodel inference
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How values and perceptions shape farmers' biodiversity management: Insights from ten European countries Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Fabian Klebl, Anton Parisi, Kati Häfner, Anneli Adler, Sílvia Barreiro, Flaviu Valentin Bodea, Viviane Brönnimann, Jan Peter Reinier de Vries, Alice Dos Santos, Amelia S.C. Hood, Indrek Melts, Răzvan Popa, Flóra Vajna, Elena Velado-Alonso, Maria Lee Kernecker
Farmers play a pivotal role in addressing biodiversity loss whilst maintaining food production. To rethink conservation in agricultural landscapes, it is crucial to understand their decisions regarding biodiversity and its management on the farms. In this study, we conducted 48 semi-structured interviews across ten European countries in 2021/22 to explore how farmers' perceptions and valuations relate
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Impacts of future permafrost degradation and human modification on terrestrial vertebrates Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Chongchong Ye, Shuai Wang, Shaolin Wu, Tiancai Zhou
Ongoing warming-induced permafrost thawing and human pressures in alpine regions have a profound impact on biodiversity and are expected to further aggravate by the end of the century. However, their future impacts on the alpine species remain largely unexplored. Here, we present an assessment of terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, amphibians, birds, and reptiles) exposures to future permafrost degradation
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Keystones for conservation: Diversity, Wellbeing, Coexistence Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Lucrecia K. Aguilar, Christine E. Webb
The field of conservation has a history of divisive debates over what exactly its purview covers, how to carry out its mission, and whose perspectives matter. With the world facing a host of interconnected socioecological crises, the conservation community needs a pluralistic framework within which varied ideologies and identities can work together toward more equitable and effective outcomes. Here
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Prioritizing rare climate space enhances plant biodiversity in national conservation area networks Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Seunguk Kim, Hyeyeong Choe
Protected areas (PAs) planning often encounters obstacles globally due to the scarcity of reliable and systematic biodiversity data covering wide areas. Understanding the interaction between climate and biodiversity patterns can offer a novel approach to spatial conservation prioritization, considering the impact of climate on species distributions and the global availability of climate data. Here
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Functional connectivity and the current arrangement of protected areas show multiple, poorly protected dispersal corridors for the Eurasian lynx Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Mattia Iannella, Maurizio Biondi, Davide Serva
Landscape connectivity is essential for the conservation of large carnivores, particularly in highly fragmented landscapes. Despite was nearing extinction, the Eurasian lynx () recovers in Europe, owing to reintroduction projects that have re-established several subpopulations. However, some of these subpopulations are small and isolated, possibly incurring into reduced genetic diversity. To establish
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Demography of endangered juvenile green turtles in face of environmental changes: 10 years of capture-mark-recapture efforts in Martinique Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Pierre Lelong, Aurélien Besnard, Marc Girondot, Caroline Habold, Fabienne Priam, Mathieu Giraudeau, Guillaume Le Loc'h, Aurélie Le Loc'h, Pascal Fournier, Christine Fournier-Chambrillon, Paco Bustamante, Sophie M. Dupont, Orsolya Vincze, Jean-Raphaël Gros-Desormeaux, Jordan Martin, Ouvéa Bourgeois, Muriel Lepori, Sidney Régis, Nicolas Lecerf, Fabien Lefebvre, Nathalie Aubert, Cédric Frouin, Frédéric
Estimating demographic parameters is key for unraveling the mechanisms governing the population dynamics of species of conservation concern. Endangered green sea turtles navigate vast geographical ranges during their life cycle and face various pressures in coastal areas, especially during their juvenile life-stage. Here, we investigated survival, abundance, recruitment and emigration of juvenile green
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Practical models to guide the transition of California condors from a conservation-reliant to a self-sustaining species Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Victoria J. Bakker, Myra E. Finkelstein, Daniel F. Doak, Steve Kirkland, Joseph Brandt, Alacia Welch, Rachel Wolstenholme, Joe Burnett, Arianna Punzalan, Peter Sanzenbacher
California condors () are a conservation-reliant species, needing ongoing management to prevent extinction in the wild. The free-flying California population depends on captive releases to achieve population growth, and lead poisoning from ingestion of spent lead ammunition is their primary threat. We used a population viability management approach to assess status and compare management actions to
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Species- or habitat- based assessments of vulnerability to climate change? Informing climate change adaptation in Special Protection Areas for birds in England Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Simon J. Duffield, Michael D. Morecroft, James W. Pearce-Higgins, Sarah D. Taylor
It is increasingly important to understand the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems to support the development of effective adaptation strategies. The impact of climate change will vary for different species and habitats, with some at greater risk than others in any given location. Assessments of climate vulnerability are frequently the starting point for adaptation planning but
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Historical and contemporary impacts of an invasive fungal pathogen on the Yosemite toad Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Celeste M. Dodge, Cathy Brown, Amy J. Lind, Roland A. Knapp, Lucas R. Wilkinson, Vance T. Vredenburg
The emerging pathogen, (), causes a fatal amphibian disease called chytridiomycosis, and has impacted amphibian biodiversity. Amphibian declines were first noticed in the 1970s and 1980s, decades before was discovered (1998). In the Sierra Nevada mountains (California, USA), mass die-offs of Yosemite toads () occurred in the late 1970s. In this study, we investigated the historical and contemporary
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A systematic review of the effects of climate variability and change on black and brown bear ecology and interactions with humans Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 Katherine A. Kurth, Katherine C. Malpeli, Joseph D. Clark, Heather E. Johnson, Frank T. van Manen
Climate change poses a pervasive threat to humans and wildlife by altering resource availability, changing co-occurrences, and directly or indirectly influencing human-wildlife interactions. For many wildlife agencies in North America, managing bears ( spp.) and human-bear interactions is a priority, yet the direct and indirect effects of climate change are exacerbating management challenges. Understanding
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Insect-pollinated plants are first to disappear from overgrowing grasslands: Implications for restoring functional ecosystems Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 Virve Sõber, Tsipe Aavik, Ants Kaasik, Meeli Mesipuu, Tiit Teder
Loss and fragmentation of natural and seminatural grasslands threaten the persistence of numerous species and the associated interactions. Awareness of possible biotic filters generated by overgrowth of grasslands, and related shifts in functional trait composition are crucial for restoring ecosystem functions. Yet, changes in the patterns of pollination-related plant functional traits in response
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Temporal dynamics in gray wolf space use suggest stabilizing range in the Great Lakes region, USA Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 M. van den Bosch, D.E. Beyer Jr, J.D. Erb, M.G. Gantchoff, K.F. Kellner, D.M. MacFarland, B.R. Patterson, J.L. Price Tack, B.J. Roell, J.L. Belant
Species distribution models can facilitate conservation planning and action but presume species-environment relationships are stable, which is not the case for invasive or recolonizing species only partially occupying their potential distributions. This complicates our understanding of colonization and recolonization processes and their effects on species' distributions. We combined snow tracking data
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Does size matter? Investigation of the effect of wind turbine size on bird and bat mortality Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Julie C. Garvin, Juniper L. Simonis, Jennifer L. Taylor
Advancements in wind turbine technology have led to larger, more energy productive turbines. However, the degree to which increases in turbine size may affect wildlife mortality is not yet understood. We developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to investigate the potential influence of three turbine size parameters (ground clearance, rotor diameter, and power rating) on fatality rates and fall distances
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Population genetics of museum specimens indicate decreasing genetic resiliency: The case of two bumble bees of conservation concern Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Ashley T. Rohde, Michael G. Branstetter, Karen E. Mock, Joyce N. Knoblett, David S. Pilliod, Jeffrey G. Everett, Paul Galpern, James P. Strange
Genetic resiliency is the likelihood that populations retain sufficient genetic diversity to respond to environmental change. It is rarely examined through time in conservation genetic studies due to challenges of acquiring and sequencing historical specimens. Focusing on populations of two sibling bumble bee species of conservation concern with different recent patterns of decline, we used museum
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Catastrophic bifurcation in the dynamics of a threatened bird community triggered by a planetary-scale environmental perturbation Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Pablo Almaraz, Andy J. Green
Ecological modeling has been traditionally dominated by a focus on the asymptotic behaviour, but transient dynamics can have a profound effect on species and community persistence. We show a strong non-stationary coupling of ecological drivers in one of the world's major Mediterranean ecosystems, Doñana wetlands, which is currently threatened by many stressors. Recurrent changes in precipitation fluctuations
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Change in saproxylic beetle, fungi and bacteria assemblages along horizontal and vertical gradients of sun-exposure in forest Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Jonas Hagge, Jörg Müller, Claus Bässler, Roland Brandl, Andreas Schuldt, Simon Thorn, Sebastian Seibold
Microclimatic conditions in forests depend on canopy cover and thus differ between closed and open forests and similarly change along the vertical axis from the forest floor to the upper canopy. Yet, it is unknown whether this similarity in microclimatic conditions in forest gaps and the upper canopy provides equivalent habitats for wood-inhabiting species assemblages and thus, whether deadwood in
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Ecological cascades following trophic rewilding: A case of study with dung beetles in the Iberá wetlands of Argentina Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-10 Yanina Tamara Bobadilla, Mario Gabriel Ibarra Polesel, Andrés Gómez-Cifuentes, Gustavo Zurita
In the context of the biodiversity crisis, trophic rewilding became an important (but controversial) management practice to restore biological interactions and ecological processes. The success of this practice relies on the richness and abundance of other organisms, mainly invertebrates. In the Ibera wetlands of Argentina, a rewilding project reintroduced large herbivores locally extinct (the Tapir
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Reviving the Arabian leopard: Harnessing historical data to map habitat and pave the way for reintroduction Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Luciano Atzeni, Amiyaal Ilany, Eli Geffen, Samuel A. Cushman, Żaneta Kaszta, David W. Macdonald
The Arabian leopard () has experienced dramatic range and population contractions over the last century. Conservation efforts for this felid focused on captive breeding and identification of suitable conditions for reintroductions. With this study, we unravelled historical collaring and direct observations data to understand the spatial use of the last leopards recorded in the region of Israel and
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Tree diversity and liana infestation predict acoustic diversity in logged tropical forests Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Zachary Chu, Cindy C.P. Cosset, Catherine Finlayson, Patrick G. Cannon, Robert P. Freckleton, Kalsum M. Yusah, David P. Edwards
Logged tropical forests can retain a great deal of biodiversity, but there is substantial variation in the type and severity of habitat degradation caused by logging. Logging-induced habitat degradation can vary significantly at fine spatial scales, with differing effects on plant communities and the growth of lianas, which are woody, climbing vines that proliferate in degraded forests and infest trees
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Winners and losers at enhanced urban roadsides: Trait-based structuring of wild bee communities at local and landscape scale Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Simon Dietzel, Sandra Rojas-Botero, Anja Dichtl, Johannes Kollmann, Christina Fischer
Pervasive urbanization contributes to biodiversity declines globally, and with urbanization, road densities increase, amplifying habitat degradation and landscape homogenization. However, as a major part of urban green space, roadside vegetation permeates the urban fabric and, if enhanced, can be used to support insects, such as wild bees. To analyze local and landscape-scale effects of enhanced urban
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Indigenous pyrodiversity promotes plant diversity Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 L. Greenwood, R. Bliege Bird, C. McGuire, N. Jadai, J. Price, A. Skroblin, S. van Leeuwen, D. Nimmo
Pyrodiversity (temporally and spatially diverse fire histories) is thought to promote biodiversity by increasing environmental heterogeneity and replicating Indigenous fire regimes, yet studies of pyrodiversity-biodiversity relationships from areas under active Indigenous fire stewardship are rare. Here, we explored whether Indigenous pyrodiversity promoted plant richness and diversity in an arid ecosystem
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Conservation prioritisation of genomic diversity to inform management of a declining mammal species Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Brenton von Takach, Skye F. Cameron, Teigan Cremona, Mark D.B. Eldridge, Diana O. Fisher, Rosemary Hohnen, Chris J. Jolly, Ella Kelly, Ben L. Phillips, Ian J. Radford, Kate Rick, Peter B.S. Spencer, Gavin J. Trewella, Linette S. Umbrello, Sam C. Banks
In our present age of extinction, conservation managers must use limited resources efficiently to conserve species and the genetic diversity within them. To conserve intraspecific variation, we must understand the geographic distribution of the variation and plan management actions that will cost-effectively maximise its retention. Here, we use a genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset
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An approximation approach to spatial connectivity for a data-limited endangered species with implications for habitat restoration Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-06 Charles F. Wahl, Nika Galic, Richard Brain, Maxime Vaugeois, Michael Weber, Kevin J. Roe, Timothy Stewart, Nick Utrup, Louise Mauldin, Aleshia Kenney, Akira Terui
Among numerous concerns, restoration ecologists are routinely plagued with the problem of where to implement conservation efforts to best maintain spatial connectivity and population structure. Knowledge about connectivity within a metapopulation could offer valuable insight to address this issue and could help with the allocation of limited resources more effectively. However, direct estimation of
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Press, pulse, and squeeze: Is climatic equilibrium ever possible on mountains? Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-03 M, i, c, h, a, e, l, , E, ., , L, o, i, k
Mountains present challenging habitats for biological conservation assessment and intervention. Atmospheric warming is pressuring populations, communities and ecosystems to move toward higher elevations, but increasingly variable precipitation patterns could enhance or reverse the upward trend. The effects of warming pressure from lower elevations combined with irregular annual precipitation pulses
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Optimizing protected area expansion and enforcement to conserve exploited species Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Liam Timms, Matthew H. Holden
Illegal harvest (poaching) and habitat loss are two of the greatest threats to wildlife. While, in theory, protected areas can alleviate populations from these threats, they must be managed to achieve conservation goals. When faced with limited budgets, there is an inherent trade-off between acquiring property to protect against habitat loss versus spending that money to better manage the existing
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Public attention towards declining global amphibian species Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Batur Yaman, Alex Van Huynh
Amphibians are experiencing the fastest and most widespread population declines of any vertebrate group. The evaluation of amphibian conservation efforts is essential to understand the efficacy of current methods and promote an efficient use of resources. The International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the foremost source of information on the global conservation
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Managed as wild, horses influence grassland vegetation differently than domestic herds Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Clémentine Mutillod, Elise Buisson, Laurent Tatin, Gregory Mahy, Marc Dufrêne, François Mesléard, Thierry Dutoit
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Building capacity for climate adaptation planning in protected area management: Options and challenges for World Heritage Biol. Conserv. (IF 5.9) Pub Date : 2024-02-01 Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Brenda B. Lin, Mandy Hopkins, Rosemary Hill, Michael Dunlop, Nicholas MacGregor, Samuel D. Merson, Caitlin Vertigan, Luke Donegan, Marian Sheppard, Jacqui Meyers, Linda Thomas, Lola Visschers, Bianca McNeair, Lance Syme, Chrissy Grant, Nicholas Pedrocchi, Patricia Oakley, Amy Stevens, Denis Rose, Erin Rose, Jade Gould, John Locke, Lynda Maybanks, Tracy Ireland
Response and adaptation to the impacts of climate change is a vital and increasing requirement for protected area management. On the ground managers of cultural and natural values in protected places have requested practical guidance on how to undertake climate change impact analysis, vulnerability assessment, and adaptation planning together with enhanced capacity for planning with partners, rightsholders