Despite efforts of law enforcement, tech companies and other stakeholders, the illegal online trade in wildlife products continues to increase. A particular problem in tackling this online illicit trade is the misdescription of item materials, making the search for internationally CITES regulated materials, such as elephant ivory, challenging. We investigated the issue of misrepresentation of materials

In 2013, we conducted a baseline study on the presence, distribution and occupancy of medium- to large-sized mammals in Bolivia along the San Buenaventura-Ixiamas road that runs parallel to the Madidi National Park and Natural Area of Integrated Management boundary and cuts through the Tacana Indigenous Territory and a number of neighboring private properties. Establishing a 3 km buffer on each side

Background Despite the increasing knowledge of plant-pollinator interaction networks, the effects of human-induced disturbances on them have barely been studied. We analyzed whether land-use changes modified the structure and topology of plant-hummingbird interaction networks or promoted the integration of exotic plant species. Methods Fieldwork was carried out in two vegetation areas in Mexico: a

Tropical cyclone (hereafter as TC) is one of the serious environmental disasters. In order to promote theoretical research into prevention and control of TCs, the current developments and trends in research on economic loss assessment of TCs around the world need to be understood. In this paper, bibliometric visualization analysis is used to analyze research progress based on literature collected from

Many species in Southeast Asia have been over-hunted to supply the demand for Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM) ingredients. As access to their parts become more difficult, consumer’s demand is shifting to novel substitutes. Accurate estimation of the level of illegal wildlife trade is therefore important to ensure long term sustainability. The primary aim of this study is to provide an understanding

Cyclobalanopsis glauca is one of the most dominant species in the late succession stage of plant communities in the Guilin karst mountainous areas of China. In order to explore its role in community assembly and adaptation strategies, we quantified three continuous traits (LA, SLA and WD) for 52 woody species and documented community composition for 20 plots across different habitat conditions. We

Tropical home gardens are widely recognized as reservoirs of biodiversity. Typically, Maya home gardens have an area of intensive management and one of extensive management. In the latter, some wild plant species may find safe sites for establishment, since they exhibit a high degree of similarity (in terms in plant species composition) to the surrounding forest and are dominated by plants with fleshy

Pollination by animals contributes to the production of nearly 87.5% of the seeds and fruits in the world. Hummingbirds are one of the main groups of pollinating birds in the Americas, and they form pollination networks with the plants they visit. Few hummingbird-plant networks have been studied in tropical dry forest, which is one of the vegetation types most affected by deforestation worldwide. In

This paper studies the effects of Key Control Areas (KCA) policy implemented by the Chinese government in 2012 on city development transformation, in which strict environmental regulations were imposed in KCA cities in both tropical and subtropical zone. Based on the panel data of 155 tropical and subtropical cities in China from 2000 to 2017, we use a simple Differences-in-Differences approach to

Land degradation exacerbates poverty and food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tree planting is traditionally used to restore degraded lands, but the tree species used are often poorly adapted to the local climate conditions. We evaluated the suitability and efficiency of three planting techniques (half-moon, standard plantation and zaï) in a semi-arid climate using seedlings from two native Senegalia

The reintroduction of wild animal species into conservations areas is widely used to restore populations of species endangered with extinction. The assessment of the quality of the diet and the nutritional status of the animals is crucial to the success of herbivore reintroduction programs, given that adequate nutrition is essential to ensure the survival and fertility of ungulates. Given this, the

Understanding people’s attitudes towards wildlife species is key for developing and effectively implementing conservation initiatives. Although attitudes towards different wildlife classes have been examined separately within a variety of regions, there have been no comprehensive comparisons of attitudes towards wildlife between different tropical ecoregions over large spatial scales. Here, we examined

This study examines views on economic benefits, local participation in wildlife management and conservation ethic among 267 residents of three chiefdoms in Mambwe district, Eastern Zambia. Results show that 68% of the residents who live in the Lupande Game Management Area are not in any way involved in community wildlife management. For those involved, the main reason advanced for participating was

The nitrogen-fixing mimosid Leucaena leucocephala continues to be used for afforestation in degraded tropical forests. Yet, fast-growth and high drought stress tolerance enables L. leucocephala to outperform native species and L. leucocephala has been identified as one of the 100 most invasive species globally. This warrants development of effective control measures, including bio-controls, to prevent

Improved horticultural practices may help to reduce demand for wild cycads threatened by unsustainable collection. We determined the influences of leaf retention with or without anti-transpirants on the success and speed of adventitious root development of Zamia furfuracea L.f. and Zamia integrifolia L.f. stem cuttings. Root formation success for both species was greater than 95%. The experimental

Phytoplankton play a fundamental role in marine food webs but are affected by both natural and anthropogenic fluctuations in environmental conditions. Here, to simulate a dynamic coastal environment, we used mesocosms to examine how different salinity levels and suspended solids concentrations (SSCs) impact a natural phytoplankton assemblage collected from a tropical estuary in Singapore. Significant

The success of non-native plants in their recipient environments is often attributed to their relatively lower herbivorous attack (i.e., leaf damage). However, whether non-native plants are inherently more tolerant to leaf damage than native ones remains unclear. We conducted a field experiment to test the effects of clipping (25%, 50%, and 75% leaf area loss) on growth (stem height and production

Salazar-Rivera, G., Sánchez-Velásquez, L. R., and Inzunza, E. R. (2020) Passage Through a Bird’s Gut Confers a Germination Head Start to the Seeds of the Nightshade Witheringia stramoniifolia. Tropical Conservation Science; 13: 1–8. DOI: 10.1177/1940082920931093

The Meso-American slider turtle (Trachemys venusta) is a freshwater turtle that is widely distributed from Mexico to Colombia. Due to the overexploitation of populations of this species in Mexico, it has been placed within the “subject to special protection” category formulated by the Official Mexican Standard NOM-059-ECOL-2010. In the state of Tabasco, Mexico, Management Units for the Conservation

Coastlines are drastically altered globally due to urbanisation and climate-related issues. As a response, communities build coastal defence structures to protect people and property. Although these infrastructures fulfil engineering demands of coastal defences, the trade-off to nature includes a decrease in biodiversity able to live on these structures because of the lack of topographic complexity

Collecting data for reports on online wildlife trade is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Learning often focuses on the main item traded by each country only. However, online trade is increasing, providing potential to update the conversation from a national scale to a global scale. We demonstrate how hierarchical clustering can identify wildlife items that follow similar trading patterns. We

Ceratozamia miqueliana is a cycad (Zamiaceae) species endemic to southeastern Mexico. It is currently listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as “Critically Endangered” and under Mexican law as “Endangered”. The objective was to complement the evaluation of C. miqueliana based on criterion B of the IUCN, and the method proposed by the Mexican Norm. This information

An increasing body of evidence indicates that moonlight influences the nocturnal activity patterns of tropical mammals, both predators and prey. One explanation is that brighter moonlight is associated with increased risk of predation (Predation Risk hypothesis), but it has also been proposed that nocturnal activity may be influenced by the sensory ecology of a species, with species that rely on visual

Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) is one of the most productive and managed forests in the world. On the other hand, it has become a concern whether MMFR is being degraded as a result of exposure to industrial pollution. Industries located around MMFR dispose effluents contaminated by heavy metals. This study was conducted to analyze heavy metal contamination and risk assessment status in MMFR

Disposal of industrial wastewater has resulted in increased concentration of heavy metals (HMs) along the coastline of Malaysia. However, little is known about the accumulation capacity of HMs by Rhizophora apiculata in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) Malaysia. The aim of this study is to measure the concentration of HMs in different ages of mangrove forests. In this study, 15 and 80-year old

Global attention to the role of cattle production in Amazon deforestation led to the development of new public and private-sector supply chain policies designed to control deforestation in Brazil. These zero-deforestation Cattle Agreements (hereafter, CA) are between meatpacking companies and Greenpeace and other nongovernmental organizations, as well as with Brazil’s public prosecutors. However, after

The COVID-19 global pandemic highlights the need for integrated far-sighted solutions to biodiversity loss, planetary health, rural poverty, and restoring the integrity of social-ecological systems. Cross-scale community-based conservation (CBC) offers opportunities in producing positive outcomes across multiple sectors (Otto et al., 2013). Therefore, CBC represents a potential solution to mitigate

China’s tropical and subtropical zones have high levels of economic development and are densely populated. However, the economic development and population growth have exacerbated ecological problems. This special issue provides a platform for sharing the latest studies on the ecological environments in the tropical and subtropical regions of China. The studies in this issue can be divided into three

Initiatives that aim to regulate the international wildlife trade must take into account its multiple and often complex dimensions in order to be effective. To do this, it is essential to understand the interactions between three of the key dimensions of the wildlife trade: (1) taxonomic unit, (2) geographic origin, and (3) product form and transformation. We propose a framework to provide a structured

Estimations on the influence of evolutionary and ecological forces as drivers of population gene diversity and genetic structure have been performed on a growing number of colonial seabirds, but many remain poorly studied. In particular, the population genetic structure of storm-petrels (Hydrobatidae) has been evaluated in only a few of the 24 recognized species. We assessed the genetic diversity and

In frugivory networks, birds offer plants the advantage of dispersing their seeds away from the parent plants in exchange for macronutrients, primarily sugars, and water. The benefits for birds are clear, as they obtain food and water from fruits, and highly variable for plants, as birds may act in ways that vary from effective dispersers to seed predators. We studied two common species that interact

Post-dispersal seed removal by ground-foraging frugivores promotes secondary dispersal of large seeds, reducing seed predation and increasing recruitment and regeneration. We studied how habitat disturbance influences seed removal patterns in the large-seeded palm Phytelephas aequatorialis within three habitats forming a continuum of disturbance (agroforestry system, disturbed forest, and less-disturbed

Seven populations of Paphiopedilum micranthum from Southeast China were used to assess the influence of human disturbance on genetic structure through analysis with sequence-related amplified polymorphism technology. The results indicated that there was high genetic diversity at species level (p = 81.25%; I = 0.3709) and a significantly higher differentiation level compared to that those of other outcrossing

Birds are crucial in maintaining the balance of many ecosystems and provide various ecological services. Understanding their sensitivity to human disturbances should be prioritized in understudy areas for effective conservation practices. Using mist nets, this study characterized mostly understory bird communities (insectivorous, frugivorous, granivorous, and nectarivorous birds) in three habitat types

Given current urbanization trends, understanding the factors that affect local biodiversity is paramount for designing sound management practices. Existing evidence suggests that the assembly of urban communities is influenced by the environmental filtering of organisms based on their traits. Here, we investigate how environmental characteristics including isolation measurements affect the functional

Potential time lags between human-mediated disturbances and the subsequent responses of ecosystems are critical for planning and implementing conservation and restoration actions. In this context, decoupling between the temporal trajectories of ecosystems structure and functions is particularly critical. Here, we stand out the need to differentiate the temporal trajectories of ecosystem structure and

In the last two decades, payments for environmental services (PES) have become a mainstream environmental policy (Salzman et al., 2018). A recent global review identified 55 PES programs across nearly every continent (Ezzine-De-Blas et al., 2016). Initially used primarily as a tool to conserve existing forest, PES has also started to be used to reforest or to restore degraded ecosystems (Reid et al

The Magnoliaceae family is widely distributed in the New World in temperate and tropical zones of the Neotropics. In this geographical range, the family is represented by a single genus, Magnolia, with about 170 species, which represent 95% of the genus in the continent and 40% worldwide, with high levels of endemism. Within this range, Mexico is one of the three most diverse countries, along with

Plant functional traits, which reflect components of plant life history strategies (Ackerly, 2003; Violle et al., 2007), are often used to explore plant adaptation to external environmental stimuli (Klich, 2000) and predict the effects of environmental changes on plant communities (Suding et al., 2008). For example, leaf morphological traits have been demonstrated to predict vegetation distributions

Functional traits that include morphological (Mott, Gibson, & O'Leary, 2010), intrinsic physiological, and biochemical traits (McIntyre et al., 1999) are core attributes shared by plants (Cornelissen et al., 2003). These traits are closely related to plant morphology, physiology, and life cycle characteristics and can automatically reflect the adaptive mechanism of plants to the environments (Violle

Plant propagation is an important subdiscipline of horticulture and conservation biology. Standardized propagation protocols have been developed for most important horticultural species through a history of trial-and-error observations and sometimes through formal research (Davies et al., 2017). The use of stem cuttings for asexual propagation of cycad plants is a common endeavor of cycad horticulturists

With increasing global population, decreasing land energy and mineral reserves, and the rapid development of science and technology, the marine economy has become the new stage of world economic competition, and countries are now developing marine islands to promote the development of the marine economy. The California Gold Coast, Florida Metropolitan Circle, and the Kanto region, which is the most

Tropical forests are one of the main terrestrial carbon reserves (Whittaker & Likens, 1975). Moreover, Mesoamerica is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world (Myers et al., 2000; Robertson & Chan, 2011), and its forests provide a wide variety of ecosystem services (Aide & Grau, 2004; Wright & Muller-Landau, 2006). Despite the importance of the region, deforestation due to land-use

The subject of plant–pollinator interactions has been of interest due to the realization of its major influences on food security and ecosystem stability (Ballantyne et al., 2015). In terrestrial habitats, 67% of flowering plants are animal pollinated (Suttle, 2003), and one third of crop reproduction is solely via insect pollination (Garibaldi et al., 2011; Klein et al., 2007). As such, the global

Replacement of natural vegetation with agricultural systems exerts a strong pressure on the dynamics of plant and animal communities (Deheuvels et al., 2014; Gascon et al., 1999). Currently, rapid replacement of native vegetation with agricultural fields has increased the number and size of landscapes dominated by a matrix of crop fields (Maas et al., 2015; Perfecto & Vandermeer, 2008). This rapid

Overall, jaguars are considered a near-threatened species (International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2018) due to the fragmentation and loss of their habitat, reduction in the availability of their prey, and illegal hunting (Quigley et al., 2017). Mexico holds the northernmost populations in their range, and several of these populations qualify as critically endangered in the red list categories

Tropical forests are the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world (W. Laurance, 2002). However, human activities such as large enterprises pursuing economic development by mining, road construction, agriculture, and hydropower have converted large areas of continuous forest into forest mosaics with irregular sizes and shapes, inserted into a matrix of habitat usually unsuitable for biodiversity (Benchimol

Conservation and sustainability are intercorrelated (Jervis, 2000). Natural resource conservation activities are an integral part of improving human welfare (Kirkpatrick & Emerton, 2010). The utilization of natural resources must be carried out within sustainable biological boundaries so that management strategies can be used to create positive incentives for biodiversity protection practices (Hutton

Global warming caused by the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations is currently one of the most important issues to be addressed at a global scale (IPCC Climate Change, 2013). Soil respiration is the largest source of CO2 emissions from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere (Bond-Lamberty & Thomson, 2010; Wu et al., 2011). Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration

Over the years, there has been increasing concerns over declining wildlife populations, leading to calls for effective responses to ensure wildlife sustainability (Duffy et al., 2019). The calls range from the militarization of conservation (Mogomotsi & Madigele, 2017) to people-centered approaches such as Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM;Chevallier & Harvey, 2016). The latter approach

Of the 41 species of felids (Kitchener et al., 2017), 14 species exhibit a melanistic (black) coat morph that coexists with a wild-type “non-melanistic” coat pattern of visible spots, rosettes, or uniform color (Graipel et al., 2019; Schneider et al., 2012; Silva, 2017; Silva et al., 2016). The presence of alternative color morphs that coexist within a population, called coat color polymorphism, has

The journal sincerely thanks the following individuals who reviewed one or more manuscripts during 2019:

Reconciling the trade-offs between negative environmental impacts and societal benefits of roads is inherently challenging. In tropical developing countries, roads can increase the effectiveness of agricultural extension services and adoption of improved agricultural technology, increase school enrolment, increase market access by lowering transportation costs, and shift households from agriculture

The Andean Ibis (Theristicus branickii) inhabits open areas such as natural grasslands and wetlands shores over 3,700 m above sea level in páramos and puna ecosystems (BirdLife International, 2014; del Hoyo, Collar, & Garcia, 2016). It is discontinuously distributed in western South America from Ecuador to north Chile (del Hoyo et al., 2016; eBird, 2012), with isolated populations in the Ecuadorian

Tropical savannas cover between 15 and 24.6 million km2 in South America, Africa, and Asia (Silva & Bates, 2002). A large part of the world’s population lives and works in these ecosystems, with key economic uses being the production of both crops and livestock (Sankaran et al., 2005; Scholes & Archer, 1997), and increasingly commercial tree plantations, often with the objective of “reforesting” open

Understanding the relative contributions of niche- and neutral-based processes to the diversity and assembly of species-rich plant communities remains a fundamental goal in ecology (Chave, 2013; Chesson, 2000; Ricklefs, 2004; Zhang et al., 2018). Niche-based processes predict strong correspondence between the distance decay in species similarity and the spatial scale of environmental variation or neighborhood

Escobar-Ocampo MC., Castillo-Santiago MA., Ochoa-Gaona S., Enríquez PL., & Sibelet, N. (2019). Assessment of Habitat Quality and Landscape Connectivity for Forest-Dependent Cracids in the Sierra Madre del Sur Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, México. Tropical Conservation Science, 12, 1–16. Original DOI: 10.1177/1940082919878827

The illegal wildlife trade is major threat to biodiversity around the globe and a multimillion dollar a year industry (Nijman, 2010; Robinson & Bodmer, 1999; Wilson-Wilde, 2010). Dead plants and animals are traded for medicine, trophies, and as ornaments, as well as alive for pets and items among collectors (Oldfield, 2003; Souto et al., 2017). Indonesia represents one of the major leaders in illegal

Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate group in the world (Monastersky, 2014). One of the major threats to amphibian populations is chytridiomycosis, a disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). This pathogen has been linked to the declines of more than 500 amphibian species globally and represents the greatest documented loss of biodiversity attributable to a

Community-managed landscapes have valuable conservation potential (Harvey et al., 2008). For example, community-managed forests across the tropics have showed lower and less-variable annual deforestation rates than protected forests (Porter-Bolland et al., 2012). In particular, indigenous or native peoples’ community management has slowed deforestation and land degradation (Blackman, Corral, Lima,