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Understanding the relationship between functional traits and fragmentation is crucial for promoting biodiversity and ecosystem function. Orchid bees (Euglossini) are important pollinators in Neotropical forests, but how body size may be associated with fragmentation and its influence on community organisation remains unexplored. We systematically sampled orchid bee communities across 15 plots in a fragmented area in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin to evaluate how patch size and isolation are associated with body size and abundance. Our samples comprised large‐bodied bees (Eulaema, Euglossa and the parasitic Exaerete), with small Euglossa notably absent. The relative representation of Eulaema species of varying sizes changed across the fragmented landscape, leading to shifts in overall mean body size consistent with the prediction that larger‐bodied pollinators are better at long‐distance movement. Euglossa, the most abundant genus (67% of the total sample), was found across all patches regardless of body size. Euglossa intersecta and Euglossa orellana, the largest Euglossa in the region, were the most common species across the fragmented landscape. The abundance of male euglossines experienced a general decline with decreasing patch size and increasing isolation. However, at the species level, the abundance of some species was not affected at all. Because body size often mediates dispersal ability, thermoregulation, and resource use, we reinforce the importance of assessing body size patterns to understand changes in diversity, abundance and the composition of tropical pollinator communities in fragmented landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The relationship between habitat area and species evenness quantifies species relative abundance distribution changes across habitat fragments, providing more information than considering only the species richness to predict biodiversity distribution patterns in fragmented landscapes. However, unlike the species‐area relationships (SARs), the Species Evenness‐Area Relationship (SEARs) has yet to be explored across taxa at a large spatial scale. Here, we resolved how the relationship between species evenness and fragment area varies among taxonomic groups and environmental factors. Location: Global. Taxa: Insecta, Aves, Amphibians and Squamata, Plantae, Arachnida, Mammalia, Mollusca. Methods: We compiled 67 datasets from the FragSAD database, including information on fragments area, species richness, and species abundance of six taxa worldwide. We calculated the species evenness index for each fragment, which is independent of species richness, and tested the relationship between species evenness and fragment area across taxonomic groups. We also used the power model to fit SEAR for each dataset and identified landscape variables with a detectable impact on the occurrence of significant SEARs. Results: In contrast to the positive relationship between species richness and fragment area, species evenness was negatively affected by fragment area when controlling for other environmental factors and the relationships varied significantly among taxonomic groups. Specifically, there were significant negative associations between species evenness and fragment area for insects, birds, spiders, and mammals but not for plants and amphibians. Meanwhile, the occurrence of significant SEARs depends on the number of fragments and total fragment area. Main Conclusions: The contrasting patterns of SEARs and SARs among taxonomic groups highlight the complexity of the mechanisms regulating biodiversity patterns. Although the number of species increases with the increase of fragment area, the decreased evenness implies community instability on larger fragments. Therefore, understanding the prevalence and underlying mechanisms in determining SEARs has critical implications for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aim Method Results Main Conclusions Habitat destruction causes “extinction debt” and is also thought to produce ecosystem function debt, but theory of their magnitude and nature is limited. Heterogeneous landscapes are fundamental to the maintenance of species richness and ecosystem function, while directed or undirected dispersal behaviour, such as dispersal of seeds by animals or by the wind, is also important, especially after habitat destruction. We therefore consider extinction and ecosystem function debt under different dispersal rates and behaviours in heterogeneous landscapes.We use a classic heterogeneous metacommunity model to capture the dynamics of competing species in local patches linked by dispersal and varying in environmental conditions. We remove one patch at a time and measure extinction debt and ecosystem function debt by the number/proportion of delayed extinctions and the amount of biomass change, respectively.We reveal three species extinction regimes as dispersal increases: (1). species most adapted to the removed habitat are most at risk; (2). similarly adapted species are also at risk; (3). patch removal shifts competitive balance among the few species coexisting at high dispersal, where competition is strong. We find surprisingly that destruction of habitat can hasten the extinction of those species best adapted to harsh environments and that the proportion of diversity at risk from extinction actually increases with dispersal because competition is intense there. Finally, there can be a small ecosystem credit but extinction debt when dispersers reroute to potentially more favourable remaining habitats (directed dispersal), especially when harsh environments are removed. However, ecosystem debt occurs and can be large under undirected dispersal.The magnitude and nature of extinction and ecosystem function debts depend on species dispersal rates and behaviours, as well as the environmental conditions of the disturbed habitats. Conservation actions will be more successful if they consider these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying the main predictors of species' extinction risk while accounting for the effects of spatial and phylogenetic structures in the data is key to preventing species loss in tropical forests through adequate conservation practices. We recorded 22 705 precise geographical locations of primate occurrence across four major geographic realms (Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar and Asia) to assess predictors of threat status using a novel Bayesian spatio-phylogenetic approach. We estimated the relative contributions of fixed factors (forest amount, body mass, home range, diel activity, locomotion, evolutionary distinctiveness and climatic instability) and random factors (space and phylogeny) to primate extinction risk. Precipitation instability increased the extinction risk in the Neotropics but decreased it in mainland Africa and Madagascar. Forest amount was negatively associated with extinction risk in all realms except Madagascar. Body mass increased the extinction risk in the Neotropics and Madagascar, whereas home range increased the extinction risk in mainland Africa and decreased it in Asia. Evolutionary distinctiveness negatively influenced extinction risk only in mainland Africa. Our findings highlight the importance of climate change mitigation and forest protection strategies. Increasing the protection of large primates and reducing hunting are also essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss is one of the primary drivers of large felid decline. The leopard (Panthera pardus), a generalist large felid species, has the behavioural and dietary flexibility to exploit different habitat types of varying human influence. Understanding habitat selection in a shared landscape is critical for the development of conservation strategies and managing negative human–leopard interactions. The development of conservation policy requires data on large spatial scales, which is mostly lacking, especially within shared landscapes in India. This study aims to determine habitat selection by Indian leopards and the anthropogenic, environmental, and climatic variables contributing to this selection. Leopard occurrence records were obtained from an occupancy survey conducted in the five administrative districts in Karnataka (28,375 km2). 267 randomly selected 30 km2 grids were each walked for 10 km and all leopard signs were recorded. Environment variables were chosen to reflect land use, climatic, topographic, and human disturbances that could affect habitat selection at a resolution of 0.1 km2. The mean ensemble model was projected to the state of Karnataka. Habitat selection predicted by the ensemble model was driven by proximity to forest cover and rocky outcrops, higher precipitation, and negatively by distance to cropland and roads. Protected Areas and Reserved Forests in the study covered 47% of the predicted habitat, while 25% is within human‐use areas such as human habitation and croplands. This study predicts that half of the habitat selected by leopards is outside of protected areas and reserved forests. The selection of human‐use areas is predicted because of the availability of cover from irrigated croplands and the proximity to natural cover that provides refuge. Livestock density did not drive large‐scale habitat selection. The preservation of natural cover and rocky outcrops that provide refuge between protected areas is paramount for leopard conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human disturbance compromises the ecological integrity of forests, negatively affecting associated species. Assessing the impact of forest integrity on biodiversity is complex due to the interplay of various human activities, ecological factors, and their interactions. Current large-scale indices assess forest integrity but often lack a direct connection to the biotic environment. We tested the effectiveness of the global Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII) in evaluating aspects of anthropogenic forest degradation on the biotic community. We analyzed the relationship between changes in the ecological integrity of Finnish forests and variations in mammal species abundance, using the number of tracks from 17 different species collected during the winter seasons between 2016 and 2020 in south-central Finland. Beyond the FLII, we analyzed forest and canopy cover to enhance the accuracy of habitat preference assessments. We found that the FLII captures the varying degrees of forest integrity, as reflected by the correlation between the abundance of winter tracks and the FLII for most mammals. Species that were positively associated with forest integrity were all native to the boreal forest, while mammals that adapt well to human-disturbed environments including two invasive species were more common in lower FLII forests. Significant differences in habitat preferences were also observed in relation to forest and canopy cover, revealing additional nuances that the FLII alone did not capture. This study demonstrates that the FLII, when combined with a comprehensive dataset and supplemented with region-specific factors, can assess species' adaptability to human-modified forests, aiding in the development of conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of natural habitats for farming is a major driver of tropical biodiversity loss. To mitigate impacts, two alternatives are promoted: intensifying agriculture to offset protected areas (land sparing) or integrating wildlife‐friendly habitats within farmland (land sharing). In the montane and dry tropics, phylogenetic and functional diversity, which underpin evolutionary values and the provision of ecosystem functioning and services, are best protected by land sparing. A key question is how these components of biodiversity are best conserved in the more stable environments of lowland moist tropical forests.Focusing on cattle farming within the Colombian Amazon, we investigated how the occupancy of 280 bird species varies between forest and pasture spanning gradients of wildlife‐friendly features. We then simulated scenarios of land‐sparing and land‐sharing farming to predict impacts on phylogenetic and functional diversity metrics.Predicted metrics differed marginally between forest and pasture. However, community assembly varied significantly. Wildlife‐friendly pastures were inadequate for most forest‐dependent species, while phylogenetic and functional diversity indices showed minimal variation across gradients of wildlife‐friendly features.Land sparing consistently retained higher levels of Faith's phylogenetic diversity (~30%), functional richness (~20%) and evolutionarily distinct lineages (~40%) than land sharing, and did so across a range of landscape sizes. Securing forest protection through land‐sparing practices remains superior for conserving overall community phylogenetic and functional diversity than land sharing.Synthesis and applications: To minimise the loss of avian phylogenetic diversity and functional traits from farming in the Amazon, it is imperative to protect large blocks of undisturbed and regenerating forests. The intensification required within existing farmlands to make space for spared lands while meeting agricultural demand needs to be sustainable, avoiding long‐term negative impacts on soil quality and other ecosystem services. Policies need to secure the delivery of both actions simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species distribution models (SDMs) are algorithms designed to infer the distribution of species using environmental and biotic variables and have become an important tool for ecologists and conservation biologists seeking to understand the implications of environmental change.Global datasets of environmental variables at resolutions of a few metres are increasingly available. SDMs fitted using such high‐resolution data allow researchers to investigate how local factors affect species occurrences at unprecedented fine spatial scales.As the spatial resolution of SDMs increases, we see a critical need to consider the characteristics of habitat types within or around raster pixels. In particular, we argue that the effects of habitat patches (EHPs, including habitat area, habitat configuration, and habitat diversity), measured focusing on patches or landscapes, have yet to be fully realized in SDMs.We provide guidelines to incorporate EHPs in SDMs. We explain why this development is important, describe approaches to properly conduct such analyses, and discuss pitfalls we foresee in testing EHPs.Synthesis. Ensuring that SDMs incorporating EHPs are properly designed will be key to increasing model predictive performance and to understanding which environmental factors influence the distribution of species at fine spatial scales. At a crucial time for nature conservation, we foresee that this will be a key step forward to understanding and protecting biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1.  The replacement of native habitats by monocultures has led to the loss of insect biodiversity, including beetles.2.  In an attempt to minimize this loss, Brazilian legislation requires farmers to conserve a proportion of farmland as a Legal Reserve.3.  In this study, we investigated the decay of similarity in beetle communities of soybean monocultures compared to Legal Reserves.4.  To do this, we studied 77 sample points distributed across the transition zone between the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, with a maximum distance of 625 km between the farthest points.5.  Our results show that the transformation of forest areas into monocultures causes a drastic decrease in beta diversity for both herbivores and predators.6.  This pattern is not observed in Legal Reserves, where the communities are, for the most part, different in a short geographic space.7.  We noted an increase in beta diversity between sites at a shorter distance (200 km) compared with soybean monoculture areas (350 km).8.  In these environments, many species are generalist pests that benefit from the simplified landscape.9.  To verify the relationship between species dissimilarity and geographic distances, we used the Chord‐Normalized Expected Species Shared dissimilarity index, replacing Bray–Curtis due to its robustness in dealing with small samples or subsampling.10. We reinforce the importance of Legal Reserves in conserving beetle biodiversity, emphasizing the need for preserved areas distributed throughout the landscape as they play a crucial role in maintaining beta diversity and preserving ecosystem services in anthropized landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aim Location Time Period Major Taxa Studied Methods Results Main Conclusions Habitat loss is the dominant cause of biodiversity decline around the world, yet the complexity and stability of terrestrial assemblages related to suitable habitats have been almost unknown on a global scale.Global.Contemporary.Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Amphibia.We constructed gridded maps of species–habitat networks of terrestrial vertebrates based on global species distributions and a recently developed habitat type dataset. Then, we investigated the biogeographic patterns of emergent network structures and analysed network robustness to habitat loss by simulating habitat removals on a global scale.We found that, compared with reptiles and amphibians, the species–habitat networks of mammals and birds were characterised by higher habitat diversity, connectance and modularity. All four taxonomical groups have high robustness globally, but after adjusting for species and habitat diversity, we found a variation of surplus and deficiency of network structures and robustness. Temperature and precipitation contributed most to relative network robustness globally, whereas geographical and human population factors played important roles in scattered regions on all continents.Overall, we provide novel insights into the biogeographic patterns of species–habitat connections through a network approach, which can help to identify gaps for reestablishing species–habitat links to improve conservation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Global change, especially landscape simplification, is a main driver of species loss that can alter ecological interaction networks, with potentially severe consequences to ecosystem functions. Therefore, understanding how landscape simplification affects the rate of loss of plant–pollinator interaction diversity (i.e., number of unique interactions) compared to species diversity alone, and the role of persisting abundant pollinators, is key to assess the consequences of landscape simplification on network stability and pollination services. Location: France, Germany, and Switzerland. Methods: We analysed 24 landscape‐scale plant–pollinator networks from standardised transect walks along landscape simplification gradients in three countries. We compared the rates of species and interaction diversity loss along the landscape simplification gradient and then stepwise excluded the top 1%–20% most abundant pollinators from the data set to evaluate their effect on interaction diversity, network robustness to secondary loss of species, and flower visitation frequencies in simplified landscapes. Results: Interaction diversity was not more vulnerable than species diversity to landscape simplification, with pollinator and interaction diversity showing similar rates of erosion with landscape simplification. We found that 20% of both species and interactions are lost with an increase of arable crop cover from 30% to 80% in a landscape. The decrease in interaction diversity was partially buffered by persistent abundant generalist pollinators in simplified landscapes, which were nested subsets of pollinator communities in complex landscapes, while plants showed a high turnover in interactions across landscapes. The top 5% most abundant pollinator species also contributed to network robustness against secondary species loss but could not prevent flowers from a loss of visits in simplified landscapes. Main Conclusions: Although persistent abundant pollinators buffered the decrease in interaction diversity in simplified landscapes and stabilised network robustness, flower visitation frequency was reduced, emphasising potentially severe consequences of further ongoing land‐use change for pollination services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTFs) have long suffered from chronic, intensive and extensive landscape transformations due to human activities, challenging biodiversity conservation in this biome. The Caatinga is the largest Neotropical SDTF, serving as an excellent model to understand how land use changes modulate ecological communities. In this study, we assessed the effects of landscape configuration and composition on the abundance and diversity of Chrysomeloidea in a region of Caatinga. We sampled beetles in 10 landscape units, in which we measured landscape configuration (patch size, edge density) and composition (landscape diversity, patch richness). Hill numbers (q0, q1, q2) were used to analyze the diversities of Chrysomeloidea. A total of 484 individuals belonging to 82 species were collected. Landscape configuration affected Chrysomeloidea assemblages with a positive correlation between edge density and Chrysomeloidea diversity. We provide a new perspective regarding the spatial distribution of Chrysomeloidea in Caatinga and conclude that landscape configuration, but not composition, directly affects Chrysomeloidea assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical species richness is threatened by habitat degradation associated with land‐use conversion, yet the consequences for functional diversity remain little understood. Progress has been hindered by difficulties in obtaining comprehensive species‐level trait information to characterize entire assemblages and insufficient appreciation that increasing land‐cover heterogeneity potentially compensates for species loss. We examined the impacts of tropical deforestation associated with land‐use heterogeneity on bird species richness, functional redundancy, functional diversity, and associated components (i.e., alpha diversity, species dissimilarity, and interaction strength of the relationship between abundance and functional dissimilarity). We analyzed over 200 georeferenced bird assemblages in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. We characterized the functional role of the species of each assemblage and modeled biodiversity metrics as a function of forest cover and land‐cover heterogeneity. Replacement of native Atlantic Forest with a mosaic of land uses (e.g., agriculture, pastures, and urbanization) reduced bird species richness in a nonrandom way. Core forest species, or species considered sensitive to edges, tended to be absent in communities in heterogenous environments. Overall, functional diversity and functional redundancy of bird species were not affected by forest loss. However, birds in highly heterogenous habitats were functionally distinct from birds in forest, suggesting a shift in community composition toward mosaic‐exclusive species led by land‐cover heterogeneity. Threatened species of the Atlantic Forest did not seem to tolerate degraded and heterogeneous environments; they remained primarily in areas with large forest tracts. Our results shed light on the complex effects of native forest transformation to mosaics of anthropogenic landscapes and emphasize the importance of considering the effects of deforestation and land‐use heterogeneity when assessing deforestation effects on Neotropical biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding which species will be extirpated in the aftermath of large‐scale human disturbance is critical to mitigating biodiversity loss, particularly in hyperdiverse tropical biomes. Deforestation is the strongest driver of contemporary local extinctions in tropical forests but may occur at different tempos. The 2 most extensive tropical forest biomes in South America—the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon—have experienced historically divergent pathways of habitat loss and biodiversity decay, providing a unique case study to investigate rates of local species persistence on a single continent. We quantified medium‐ to large‐bodied mammal species persistence across these biomes to elucidate how landscape configuration affects their persistence and associated ecological functions. We collected occurrence data for 617 assemblages of medium‐ to large‐bodied mammal species (>1 kg) in the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon. Analyzing natural habitat cover based on satellite data (1985–2022), we employed descriptive statistics and generalized linear models (GLMs) to investigate ecospecies occurrence patterns in relation to habitat cover across the landscapes. The subregional erosion of Amazonian mammal assemblage diversity since the 1970s mirrors that observed since the colonial conquest of the Atlantic Forest, given that 52.8% of all Amazonian mammals are now on a similar trajectory. Four out of 5 large mammals in the Atlantic Forest were prone to extirpation, whereas 53% of Amazonian mammals were vulnerable to extirpation. Greater natural habitat cover increased the persistence likelihood of ecospecies in both biomes. These trends reflected a median local species loss 63.9% higher in the Atlantic Forest than in the Amazon, which appears to be moving toward a turning point of forest habitat loss and degradation. The contrasting trajectories of species persistence in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest domains underscore the importance of considering historical habitat loss pathways and regional biodiversity erosion in conservation strategies. By focusing on landscape configuration and identifying essential ecological functions associated with large vertebrate species, conservation planning and management practices can be better informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic habitat loss is widely recognized as a primary environmental concern. By contrast, debates on the effects of habitat fragmentation persist. To facilitate overcoming these debates, here we: (i) review the state of the literature on habitat fragmentation, finding widespread confusion and stigma; (ii) identify consequences of this for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management; and (iii) suggest ways in which research can move forward to resolve these problems. Confusion is evident from the 25 most‐cited fragmentation articles published between 2017 and 2021. These articles use five distinct concepts of habitat fragmentation, only one of which clearly distinguishes habitat fragmentation from habitat area and other factors ('fragmentation per se'). Stigmatization is evident from our new findings that fragmentation papers are more charged with negative sentiments when compared to papers from other subfields in the environmental sciences, and that fragmentation papers with more negative sentiments are cited more. While most empirical studies of habitat fragmentation per se find neutral or positive effects on species and biodiversity outcomes, which implies that small habitat patches have a high cumulative value, confusion and stigma in reporting and discussing such results have led to suboptimal habitat protection policy. For example, government agencies, conservation organizations, and land trusts impose minimum habitat patch sizes on habitat protection. Given the high cumulative value of small patches, such policies mean that many opportunities for conservation are being missed. Our review highlights the importance of reducing confusion and stigma in habitat fragmentation research. To this end, we propose implementing study designs in which multiple sample landscapes are selected across independent gradients of habitat amount and fragmentation, measured as patch density. We show that such designs are possible for forest habitat across Earth's biomes. As such study designs are adopted, and as language becomes more precise, we expect that confusion and stigma in habitat fragmentation research will dissipate. We also expect important breakthroughs in understanding the situations where effects of habitat fragmentation per se are neutral, positive, or negative, and the reasons for these differences. Ultimately this will improve efficacy of area‐based conservation policies, to the benefit of biodiversity and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various types of protected areas (PAs) are important for biodiversity conservation and essential for the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity. Rapid urban expansion affects the effectiveness of PAs in many ways. However, we still lack a clear understanding of the spatial relationship between urban expansion and different types of PAs in China during the last 30 years. Here, we analyzed the spatiotemporal changes in such relationship based on the boundaries of 2622 terrestrial PAs, as well as local Moran's and the Kruskal-Wallis H test during the period of 1992–2020 at the national, regional and provincial scales. The results showed that the number of PA threaten by urban expansion at the national scale fluctuated over time (10 to 80), while the median of the nearest distances between PAs and urban built-up areas decreased from 80.4 km to 2.6 km. At the regional scale, the PAs in east China were more affected by urban expansion than the ones in west China, with higher number of threatened PAs and closer distance between PAs and urban built-up areas. More importantly, non-national PAs were more severely affected by urban expansion than national PAs, and the proportion of threatened non-national PAs is 92.5% in 2020. Thus, future planning and management should place more attention to the non-national PAs that are severely affected by urban expansion. We investigate spatial relation between urban expansion and 2622 protected areas in China. Rapid urban expansion in recent years has posed a serious threat to PAs. Non-national PAs are more severely threatened than the national PAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first step towards understanding the conservation situation and informing conservation decision‐making is to identify the habitat loss drivers. However, for nearly all tropical biota, there is a glaring lack of information on the spatiotemporal patterns of anthropogenic drivers.Our objective was to analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of the main anthropogenic drivers of habitat loss for Bradypus torquatus and Bradypus crinitus, two endangered and endemic species to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.We used land‐use information associated with seven major IUCN‐based threats to sloths, covering a three‐generation time window (1988–2020), to quantify the current area occupied, temporal changes, heterogeneity, and intensity of drivers across species distributions.We found that cattle farming and ranching dominate the range of both species (from 49% to 56%) and cover an area larger than the remaining native forest. Other drivers also represent important spatial and temporal features of land conversion across species distributions.Driven mainly by livestock expansion, both sloth species have experienced a significant loss of forest cover (Bradypus torquatus – 659098.70 ha; Bradypus crinitus – 139013.20 ha) in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Overall, Bradypus torquatus showed a higher rate of deforestation than forest regeneration, whereas forest gains outweighed habitat loss for Bradypus crinitus.Our results show that a substantial area of native forest – essential for strictly arboreal species – is being continuously replaced by cattle ranching and agricultural activities, which may lead to population isolation and decline, threatening the long‐term population viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rangelands in the southwestern United States represent a current stronghold for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus); however, bobwhite populations in rangelands exhibit extreme inter‐annual variability in abundance in relation to fluctuating weather patterns. Recent declining bobwhite population trends within this region have led to the supposition that landscape‐scale processes, such as habitat loss and fragmentation and predation from increased raptor abundance, may be acting in conjunction with weather to reduce bobwhite populations. Our objective was to determine the relative effects of these factors on bobwhite populations in the rangeland environments of Texas and Oklahoma, USA. We obtained publicly available datasets for bobwhite counts (Breeding Bird Survey, state‐agency roadside counts), weather (PRISM), land cover (National Land Cover Database), and raptors (Christmas Bird Counts) for 3 5‐year periods (1990–1994, 1999–2003, 2009–2013). Data were collected at route and landscape scales based on routes within the Rio Grande Plains region of Texas and the Central Mixed Grass Prairie region of Texas and Oklahoma. We used generalized linear mixed models with a backward selection approach to determine top models for each dataset based on scale and ecoregion. Covariate relationships with bobwhite abundance followed expected patterns, with positive relationships with habitat, precipitation, and minimum temperatures and negative relationships with maximum temperatures and raptor abundance. Weather variables were the factors most consistently selected within both regions, while minimum winter temperature was overall the top variable. These relationships occurred within a landscape still containing relatively vast amounts of unfragmented bobwhite habitat (>60% rangeland; >15 million ha). Management within these regions should be focused on retaining habitat at a broad scale, while managing for suitable cover at a local scale to help mitigate weather effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: Baltic coastal meadows are ecologically unique habitats that have been severely impacted by habitat loss and environmental change. To determine the effects of habitat loss and isolation on their plant communities, we analysed the relationships between species richness and habitat size and amount. Because coastal meadows host species with a vast array of traits, we expected responses to vary between species groups. Location: Swedish Baltic coast. Methods: We inventoried the presence of vascular plant species in twenty‐eight 1‐m2 plots placed along edaphically defined transects in fifteen coastal meadows. We determined the richness of three species groups: all species, halophytes and inland grassland specialists. We then mapped the habitat for coastal grassland plants using GIS overlay analysis. Using this habitat map, we calculated two variables: "habitat size" and "habitat amount". We tested correlations between species richness measures and habitat variables, as well as determining the distribution of species traits within meadows. Results: We recorded 174 plant species, of which 6 were halophytes and 35 were inland grassland specialists. Species traits coincided with edaphic sea‐to‐land gradients. Halophyte and inland grassland specialist richness were significantly correlated with both habitat variables (r = 0.52–0.71). No correlations were found with total species richness. Our habitat map showed that there are 8,900 ha of managed Baltic coastal meadow left in Sweden, mostly in the south. Conclusions: Species traits and distribution play a major role in determining persistence in the face of habitat loss and environmental change. This is especially true for some halophyte populations, which are more susceptible to habitat size and isolation because of their specialisation. Furthermore, they risk being squeezed between the dual threats of encroaching succession and sea‐level rise. Preventing habitat loss, restoring meadows and increasing connectivity is crucial for the persistence of specialist plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Human‐driven landscape processes such as habitat loss and fragmentation act on biodiversity, but their effects are mediated by the spatial scale at which they are observed. We aim to analyse the scale‐of‐effects (direction and spatial extent) of landscape‐scale processes that best explain species richness and abundance across epiphyte communities. Location: Neotropics, Northern Andes, Colombia, Eastern cordillera. Taxon: Vascular epiphytes, Orchidaceae. Methods: We used field data to unravel the scale‐of‐effect of three landscape processes—habitat loss (forest cover), fragmentation (number of patches) and edge effects (edge density)—on epiphyte biodiversity. Vascular epiphytes were sampled in the understorey across 141 plots within 23 Andean forests in the eastern Colombian cordillera We focused on the community‐level responses (species richness and total abundance) of the hyperdiverse vascular epiphyte communities using generalized linear mixed models to quantify the direction and the spatial extent of the scale‐of‐effects. Results: Habitat loss and edge effects act at fine spatial extents (scale‐of‐effects = 200 m), predicting low species richness and abundance across groups. Likewise, fragmentation negatively impacts communities, but operates at larger spatial extents (scale‐of‐effects = 2000–2400 m radius). The detection of these effects is contingent upon the spatial extent and specific landscape processes involved. Models of habitat loss within a spatial extent of 800–1500 m (large confidence intervals), fragmentation below 300 m, and edge effects above 800 m show weak statistical support (marginal r2 = 0.02–0.1). Thus, the impacts of these landscape processes may be overlooked if studied at inadequate spatial extents. Main Conclusions: We showed that habitat loss, fragmentation and edge effects all play a negative role on understorey epiphytic communities, but their detectability is scale dependant. The scale‐of‐effects can assist landscape designs that are beneficial for epiphytic communities, by preserving forest cover, and reducing fragmentation and exposure to edge effects at small scales (200–300 m). Conversely, landscape‐scale actions directed at reducing habitat loss and fragmentation function at larger spatial extents (>2000 m). Selecting a priori or inadequate spatial extents of analysis can obscure the detectability of landscape processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is a significant driver of the global biodiversity crisis. Turtles are particularly impacted by urbanization because of the vulnerability of riparian habitats to habitat loss and road mortality. Behaviour plays a crucial role in determining the success of urban animals. Behavioural responses to urbanization, however, are rarely studied in turtles even though many turtles are at‐risk and sometimes live in urban areas. Therefore, we evaluated behavioural changes in painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) living in wetlands surrounded by a gradient of urbanization. We tested the consistency of painted turtle behaviour in the laboratory and examined the behaviour of painted turtles from 24 wetland sites across an urbanization gradient in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We assessed: (i) aggression by measuring the number of active defensive behaviours the turtles performed in response to handling, (ii) boldness by measuring the amount of time the turtles took to emerge from their shells and move from their initial locations in a circular arena and (iii) activity by measuring the amount of time the turtles spent moving in the same circular arena. We found that all behaviours were consistent in the laboratory. We also found that as the level of urbanization increased, turtles were more aggressive and bolder. Urbanization affects painted turtle behaviour, but further research is required to understand the mechanisms responsible and the conservation implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and land use change are two main drivers of global biodiversity decline, decreasing the genetic diversity that populations harbour and altering patterns of local adaptation. Landscape genomics allows measuring the effect of these anthropogenic disturbances on the adaptation of populations. However, both factors have rarely been considered simultaneously. Based on a set of 3660 SNPs from which 130 were identified as outliers by a genome–environment association analysis (LFMM), we modelled the spatial turnover of allele frequencies in 19 localities of Pinus leiophylla across the Avocado Belt in Michoacán state, Mexico. Then, we evaluated the effect of climate change and land use change scenarios, in addition to evaluating assisted gene flow strategies and connectivity metrics across the landscape to identify priority conservation areas for the species. We found that localities in the centre‐east of the Avocado Belt would be more vulnerable to climate change, while localities in the western area are more threatened by land conversion to avocado orchards. Assisted gene flow actions could aid in mitigating both threats. Connectivity patterns among forest patches will also be modified by future habitat loss, with central and eastern parts of the Avocado Belt maintaining the highest connectivity. These results suggest that areas with the highest priority for conservation are in the eastern part of the Avocado Belt, including the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. This work is useful as a framework that incorporates distinct layers of information to provide a more robust representation of the response of tree populations to anthropogenic disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss and change are often implicated as the primary causes of species extinction. Although any population can be instantly imperiled by catastrophe, most habitat loss occurs gradually, thus enabling affected individuals an adaptive advantage to occupy the best of their dwindling opportunities. I demonstrate how to infer the advantage between two habitats for any density and frequency‐dependent strategy of habitat selection. I explore the concept of an Adaptive Dispersal Strategy Landscape to reveal the Evolutionarily Stable Strategy separately for ideal‐free and ideal preemptive habitat selectors. Both solutions reveal an initially counterintuitive expectation that individuals living at high density gain insufficient adaptive advantage to disperse from a deteriorating habitat. Adaptive dispersal is constrained at high density because habitats of better quality are fully occupied. I test the theory with measures of movement and foraging in crossover experiments on a seminatural population of meadow voles. The experiment allowed the voles to choose among patches and between enclosures in which I differentially manipulated food and shelter. Although photographs from an infrared camera documented voles venturing from one habitat to the other, none became resident. Voles preferentially foraged in the richer of the two enclosures, even when I reversed treatments, and they foraged more in patches protected by mulched straw. The adaptive advantage of dispersal using a surrogate fitness proxy based on the voles' giving‐up densities mirrored that generated by theory. The convergence between theory and experiment yields much‐needed insight into our ability to test, predict, and hopefully resolve, the ecological, evolutionary, and conservation consequences of habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation, increasing urban development and associated infrastructure have resulted in widespread loss of roosting habitat for New Zealand's long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus, pekapeka-tou-roa). As a result, artificial roosts are increasingly proposed as a short to medium-term mitigation measure, despite the absence of specific protocols for the installation, maintenance, and suitability for New Zealand bats. As of 2021, more than 110 artificial roosts had been installed in urban parks within Hamilton City, New Zealand. To determine their uptake and suitability for long-tailed bats, 74 Kent style roosts of varying ages were monitored for 1 year, with 24 (32%) roosts observed occupied by long-tailed bats. Occupation was generally infrequent, with no clear seasonal pattern or specific areas of occupation. However, two older roosts were consistently occupied, with numbers notably increasing during the summer maternity season. Distance to stand edge was the only factor that could be used to predict occupation, with logistic regression indicating that long-tailed bats may prefer roosts in less exposed areas with stable microclimates, within tree stands or sheltered landscape features. Future artificial roost installations should site roosts away from the stand edge in sheltered locations, ideally near natural or already occupied roosts to facilitate discovery and uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishery is one of the most impacting human activities and is responsible for habitat loss in marine systems. While the effects of large‐scale fisheries have been largely investigated, impacts of small‐scale fisheries (SSF) on seafloor integrity are more often assumed than quantitatively investigated. We carried out a literature review at global scale, resulting in 19 studies with quantitative data on sessile benthic bycatch and only one documenting habitat loss driven by SSF. We also conducted a fine‐scale assessment within a Mediterranean partially protected area (PPA). Results showed that 513 m2 of the Posidonia oceanica meadow are removed annually by local SSF within the PPA, considering bycatch, fishing effort, and shoot density. Knowledge on fishing effort and fine‐scale mapping is critical to assess habitat loss, suggesting the need for specific recommendations for eco‐sustainable local fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tropical forests, about 60%–80% of woody plant species depend on animal–plant interactions for dispersal. The dependence on animal species for dispersal makes this interaction very fragile in the face of anthropogenic changes in land use. Disrupting seed‐dispersal processes, principally zoochoric dispersal, could significantly alter the long‐term carbon storage potential of tropical forests.An important question is how landscape structure changes tree carbon stocks in different types of tropical vegetation and how variation is mediated by the dispersal mode of animal (zoochoric) or abiotic (non‐zoochoric) seeds.We focused on tree plots at 126 sites in Brazil spanning four types of forest and savanna vegetation, and calculated carbon stored in zoochoric, non‐zoochoric, and large frugivore‐dispersed species.Our results showed that carbon stocks in zoochoric species and non‐zoochoric species differ significantly among vegetation types, with rainforests having higher stocks in zoochoric species and deciduous seasonally dry tropical forests having higher values in non‐zoochoric species. A greater area of native vegetation promotes higher proportions of carbon stocks dispersed by large frugivore species, whereas a higher mean shape index reduces this proportion.Synthesis. This study highlights that seed‐dispersal type underpins the variation in carbon stocks between vegetation types and that the maintenance of habitat of large dispersers and connectivity are key for retaining carbon stocks in zoochoric species, particularly in rainforest and cerrado sensu stricto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international agreements have strengthened and expanded commitments to protect and restore native habitats for biodiversity protection ("area‐based biodiversity conservation"). Nevertheless, biodiversity conservation is hindered because how such commitments should be implemented has been strongly debated, which can lead to suboptimal habitat protection decisions. We argue that, despite the debates, there are three essential principles for area‐based biodiversity conservation. These principles are related to habitat geographic coverage, amount, and connectivity. They emerge from evidence that, while large areas of nature are important and must be protected, conservation or restoration of multiple small habitat patches is also critical for global conservation, particularly in regions with high land use. We contend that the many area‐based conservation initiatives expected in the coming decades should follow the principles we identify, regardless of ongoing debates. Considering the importance of biodiversity for maintenance of ecosystem services, we suggest that this would bring widespread societal benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two strategies are central to the debate regarding agricultural development: one integrates farming and conservation (land sharing), and the other separates farming and conservation, intensifying production to allow the offset of natural habitat (land sparing). The role of wildlife‐friendly habitat in the wider surrounding landscape (landscape wildlife friendliness (WF)) in promoting farmland diversity is potentially an unexplored benefit of land sharing.We sampled birds across primary forests and cattle pastures in the western Amazon, where terrestrial biodiversity peaks. We tested the hypothesis that increased landscape WF will lead to increased species richness (SR) on farmland, even at low levels of 'on‐farm' wildlife‐friendly habitat (farm WF).We show that while there is a minor increase in SR linked to increased levels of landscape WF, a large component of the avian community is functionally absent. Most forest‐dependent species are missing from pasture, even at high levels of farm WF. For these species, the preservation of blocks of contiguous forest under land sparing is vastly superior.We modelled both strategies under different levels of production. Land sparing always retained significantly higher SR than land sharing, regardless of the level of landscape WF.Synthesis and applications. Landscape wildlife friendliness (WF) provided through land sharing is of limited benefit to many tropical forest‐dependent species that are unable to move across or utilise pasture, even at high levels of farm and landscape WF. To ensure the persistence of these species, policymakers should urgently implement sustainable intensification mechanisms to increase farmland productivity while enabling the protection of large blocks of spared natural habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this paper, we present the first diagnostic of the wintering birds in the wetlands of the Saïss plain and its adjacent Atlas Mountains (north–center of Morocco). The study revealed an unexpected diversity of bird species, for which we provide the population size, with their variations, over five years (2017–2018 to 2022–2023). Among these birds, we found four remarkable species: Oxyura leucocephala (endangered), Aythya ferina (vulnerable), Aythya nyroca (near-threatened) and Limosa limosa (near-threatened). In addition, we illustrated the wetland changes during the last 20 years (2003–2023), mainly the habitat loss for wintering waterbirds. Moroccan wetlands host up to half a million wintering birds and provide a stopover for tens of thousands of migrants, while they are inhabited by few nesting species. Most of this avifauna prefers to use the large coastal wetlands or reservoirs, while many species are dispersed across hundreds of small inland wetlands of various types. In this study, we monitored the wintering avifauna of 11 wetlands of the Saïss plain and its adjacent Atlas Mountains (north–center of Morocco), during six wintering seasons (2017–2018 to 2022–2023), with the objective of assessing the importance of this region as a waterbird wintering area. Using the richness of the species, we determine the bird population changes during this pentad and between the different types of wetlands (natural, human-made, and natural wetlands). During this study, we recorded 51 species, belonging to 17 families, among which exist four remarkable birds: the endangered Oxyura leucocephala, the vulnerable Aythya ferina and the near-threatened Aythya nyroca and Limosa limosa. Bird diversity is higher in human-made ecosystems than in peri-urban and natural ecosystems, while the populations' size is similar in urban and non-urban wetlands. With regard to bird conservation, these inland wetlands, mainly the small ones, are threatened by recurrent droughts and various anthropic stressors, which we describe using our observations of the two last decades (2003–2023). The loss of habitat is significant, reaching 348.5 hectares, while the impacts of reduced precipitation and temperature increase are particularly evident in the mountainous natural lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Habitat conversion is the number one threat to biodiversity. The loss of biodiversity due to habitat loss might be exacerbated if species are harmed by fragmentation per se—the breaking apart of natural habitat that remains (hereafter fragmentation). However, the evidence that species are harmed by habitat fragmentation is mixed. Studies at the patch scale tend to show that fragmentation reduces diversity due to negative demographic effects on species' dispersal, survival and fecundity. In contrast, studies at the landscape scale tend to show that fragmentation increases diversity. This discrepancy may be partly due to geometric effects, defined as greater species turnover between patches in more fragmented landscapes. Although these effects have been demonstrated theoretically and are expected to be stronger across larger spatial extents, it is unclear whether they are likely to occur in real‐world settings with both realistic landscape patterns and communities. Here, we investigated the possibility of geometric effects using simulations combined with real‐world landscape and community data. Location: New Jersey, northeastern USA. Time period: Current. Taxa studied: Bees. Methods: We focused on landscape sizes within the typical range for protected areas (36–576 ha), simulated forest loss using real landscape patterns, and simulated forest‐bee communities based on field data we collected. Results: We found weak but positive effects of fragmentation: immediately following forest destruction, the most fragmented forests harboured up to 7.3% more species than the least fragmented forests of the same area, in agreement with observational studies of biodiversity along fragmentation gradients. In contrast to expectations, however, the overall effects of fragmentation did not change with spatial extent. Conclusions: Our results suggest that fragmentation can mitigate biodiversity loss immediately following habitat destruction, but that the benefits do not vary strongly with spatial extent in real‐world landscapes and at extents relevant to land management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Endangered dhole Cuon alpinus is a medium-sized canid that was historically distributed widely across East, Central, South and Southeast Asia. In Nepal, following heavy persecution during the 1970s and 1980s, the species was locally extirpated across large parts of the country. After decades of near absence, the dhole is reportedly showing signs of recovery in various areas of Nepal. We carried out three surveys using camera traps (resulting in a total of 6,550 camera-trap days), reviewed literature and interviewed herders and conservation practitioners (40 interviews) to determine the historical and current distribution of dholes in the country, and the species' current status. Our camera traps recorded five images of dholes, and the literature review and interview survey provided further insights into the historical and current presence of dholes in Nepal. The combined findings suggest dholes have recolonized many areas where they had been locally extirpated, such as the Annapurna Conservation Area in central Nepal and the Tinjure–Milke–Jaljale forests in the eastern part of the country. Although these returns are encouraging, challenges remain for dhole recolonization, including conflict with livestock herders, human hunting of wild ungulates affecting the species' prey base, increasing infrastructure development in forested areas, and diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European mudminnow (Umbra krameri Walbaum, 1792) is a freshwater fish species with scattered distribution in the Danube and Dniester drainages, being the only native member of the Umbridae family in Europe. It inhabits irrigation canals, slow flowing and stagnant waters with dense vegetation, such as small ditches, oxbows and backwaters. In Croatia, it was first mentioned in 1897 in the Drava River drainage, and later on was recorded in the Mura River and in several localities of the Sava watershed. We studied 212 localities and recorded the presence of the species in 26 of them in the Drava, Sava and Mura river systems in Croatia. We present the first comprehensive data on the distribution and habitat preferences of Umbra krameri in Croatia, including historical data and recent data collected in the last six years. Our results show that U. krameri is an abundant and prevalent species in several localities in the Drava River system. Field data shows the suitability of secondary habitats for U. krameri, such as artificial canals with intensive organic load and pollution from anthropogenic sources, as well as the Sava River system being the southern border of the distribution of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of amphibian conservation efforts is highly dependent on the preservation of amphibian breeding habitats. Doñana National Park contains an abundance of ponds with heterogeneous characteristics, which has historically favoured its amphibian community. However, most of the park's ponds are groundwater dependent, and aquifer overexploitation outside the park is leading to shorter hydroperiods and even desiccation in the pond network. This problem has been exacerbated by the scarcity of rain over the last decade. In 2021-2022, we surveyed the occurrence of the park's 11 amphibian species, with a view to comparing our findings with those from the last previous survey in 2003-2004. We mapped the species occurrence within the park for the two survey periods. While all 11 amphibian species could still be found in Doñana, their occurrence had decreased across the board. In 2003-2004, 6 species were present across more than 50% of the sampling area. In contrast, 18 years later, such was the case for only two species (Pelophylax perezi and Hyla meridionalis). Declines were greatest for Epidalea calamita , followed by Pelobates cultripes , Triturus pygmaeus , and Lissotriton boscai. The mean number of species per sampling unit (i.e., grid cell) dropped from 4.3 to 3.1. To preserve Doñana's amphibian community, it is important to restore the park's pond network, which implies reducing regional groundwater overexploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balancing urban development with environmental sustainability is a major challenge that is increasingly recognized in planning decisions. Urban development proposals are often approved with the expectation that deleterious impacts on native species will be constrained, but this assumption is rarely tested over sufficient timelines to confirm its validity for long‐lived, at‐risk species. We tracked changes in Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) habitat availability and demography over 10 years near Ottawa, ON, Canada, to determine whether urban development and associated mitigation measures were sufficient to ensure long‐term population persistence. Suitable turtle habitat declined by 10% during the study, and wetland corridors were essentially lost. Habitat loss coincided with a marked reduction in adult turtle apparent survival, resulting in a 70% decline in population size. Adult females experienced the greatest decline, and despite wildlife fencing and culvert placement as conditions of project approval, turtle road mortality likely was the primary cause of the decline. Deterministic population viability analysis revealed that ~4 adult female road mortalities (of an initial 56 females) per year produced a comparable decline to that observed in our population estimates; at this rate, the population will likely breach its quasi‐extinction threshold (4 females) in under a decade. Accordingly, we infer that in our study area, approved urban development was not compatible with at‐risk turtle population viability. Our findings imply that urban development approval conditions, even when conducted in the context of seemingly robust species‐at‐risk protection, can be inadequate to ensure sustainability. We contend that if environmental sustainability is to be prioritized, urban development projects in areas occupied by at‐risk species must be subject to more stringent oversight during the planning, approval and implementation phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical tree species are increasingly being pushed to inhabit deforested landscapes. The habitat amount hypothesis posits that, in remaining forest patches, species diversity in equal‐sized samples decreases with decreasing forest cover in the surrounding landscape. We tested this prediction by taking into account three important factors that can affect species responses to forest loss. First, forest loss effects can be linear (proportional) or nonlinear, as there can be threshold values of forest loss beyond which species extirpation may be accelerated. Second, such effects are usually scale dependent and may go unnoticed if assessed at suboptimal scales. Finally, species extirpation may take decades to become evident, so the effects of forest loss can be undetected when assessing long‐lived organisms, like adult old‐growth forest trees. Here, we evaluated the linear and nonlinear effects of landscape forest loss across different spatial scales on site‐scale abundance and diversity of old‐growth forest trees, separately for four plant‐life stages (seeds, saplings, juveniles, and adults) in two rainforest regions with different levels of deforestation. We expected stronger (and negative) forest loss effects on early plant‐life stages, especially in the region with the highest deforestation. Surprisingly, in 13 of 16 study cases (2 responses × 4 life stages × 2 regions), null models showed higher empirical support than linear and nonlinear models at any scale. Therefore, the species richness and abundance of local tree assemblages seem to be weakly affected by landscape‐scale forest loss independently of the spatial scale, life stage, and region. Yet, as expected, the predictive power of forest cover was relatively lower in the least deforested region. Our findings suggest that landscape‐scale forest loss is poorly related to site‐scale processes, such as seed dispersal and seedling recruitment, or, at least, such effects are too small to shape the abundance and diversity of tree assemblages within forest patches. Therefore, our findings do not support the most important prediction of the habitat amount hypothesis but imply that, on a per‐area basis, a unit of habitat (forest) in a highly deforested landscape has a conservation value similar to that of a more forested one, particularly in moderately deforested rainforests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in landscape structure have increased the edge amount between different environments, and its implications for biodiversity may vary depending on the level of analysis, ecological groups, and species life history. We investigated the effect of distance from the forest edge on species of solitary wasps and bees and their associated natural enemies, on a gradient from 200 m into the anthropogenic matrix to 200 m into the forest, in Atlantic Forest biome in Brazil. In general, species were positively affected by forest edge proximity, while those forest specialists were more negatively influenced. The natural enemy species were more dependent on the distribution of their hosts than on the edge effect directly. Caterpillar and spider hunters seem to be positively affected by the edge, while pollen collectors progressively decrease their richness and abundance from the matrix towards the interior of forest area, and cockroach hunters present an opposite response. We demonstrate the importance of forest conservation and reforestation programs, not only by some cavity-nesting wasps and bees being entirely dependent on forests to persist, but also because most species sampled here depend on being close to a forest edge (less than 100 m) to carry out their ecological holes. Therefore, understanding how different species respond to environmental and landscape changes and may depend on staying close to forests is essential for effective management and planning strategies for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural expansion has markedly reduced forests and reconfigured landscapes. These changes incur a well‐known detrimental impact on the biodiversity of local forest patches, but the effects on species persistence in entire landscapes comprised of multiple patches are debated. Using data from ants collected in the Amazonian deforestation arc in Brazil, we investigated how regional diversity is affected by habitat loss, fragmentation, and cattle grazing, and how species respond to deforestation both locally and regionally. We also investigated how the heterogeneity in species distribution (beta‐diversity) buffers landscapes against local diversity losses. We used hierarchical multi‐species occupancy models to estimate these effects while controlling for errors in species detection. The vast majority of the 251 ant species found in our study were negatively affected by both habitat loss and cattle at local forest patches, drastically reducing diversity at these patches compared to continuous forests. Despite local declines in diversity, however, heavily fragmented landscapes could still retain most species due to the high heterogeneity in species distribution. We found that beta‐diversity is the main component of regional diversity. Results from several studies suggest that this component is maximized when remnant primary habitats in a landscape are spread across vast areas. Although preserving local diversity may be important for the adequate functioning of the ecosystem locally, our results indicate that the maintenance of many small forest patches in a landscape can buffer regional biodiversity against local species losses. Our results suggest that even small forest remnants in otherwise deforested landscapes can collectively prevent most regional‐scale species extirpations, and therefore also merit conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how synchronous species fluctuations affect community stability is a main research topic in ecology. Yet experimental studies evaluating how changes in disturbance regimes affect the synchrony and stability of populations and communities remain rare. We hypothesized that spatially heterogeneous disturbances of moderate intensity would promote metacommunity stability by decreasing the spatial synchrony of species fluctuations. To test this hypothesis, we exposed rocky shore communities of algae and invertebrates to homogeneous and gradient-like spatial patterns of disturbance at two levels of intensity for 4 years and used synchrony networks to characterize community responses to these disturbances. The gradient-like disturbance at low intensity enhanced spatial ß diversity compared to the other treatments and produced the most heterogeneous and least synchronized network, which was also the most stable in terms of population and community fluctuations. In contrast, homogeneous disturbance destabilized the community, enhancing spatial synchronization. Intense disturbances always reduced spatial ß diversity, indicating that strong perturbations could destabilize communities via biotic homogenization regardless of their spatial structure. Our findings corroborated theoretical predictions, emphasizing the importance of spatially heterogeneous disturbances in promoting stability by amplifying asynchronous spatial and temporal fluctuations in population and community abundance. In contrast to other networks, synchrony networks are vulnerable to the removal of most peripheral nodes, which are less synchronized, but may contribute more to stability than other nodes by dampening large fluctuations in species abundance. Our findings suggest that climate change and direct anthropogenic disturbance can compromise the stability of ecological communities through combined effects on diversity and synchrony, as well as further affecting ecosystems through habitat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Due to adaptations to a completely subterranean lifestyle, blind mole rats have become an interesting research model for longevity and cancer resistance. The lesser blind mole rat from the genus Nannospalax is additionally characterized by extensive chromosomal changes, with 74 chromosomal forms described. As a result of these changes and of their morphological similarity, their taxonomy is unclear; consequently, many unrecognized species are endangered due to habitat fragmentation and reduction. Their official conservation status is still undefined due to insufficient data. Among the 25 chromosomal forms of N. leucodon in Europe, five have been identified as completely reproductively isolated and genetically divergent cryptic species in Serbia. The most endangered, N. l. syrmiensis, which was described 50 years ago as a group of populations endemic to Serbia, has been declared extinct in the literature. Using nucleotide comparison of two mitochondrial gene segments between old, archived and recently sampled material, we provide evidence that N. l. syrmiensis is not extinct. However, it has disappeared in a large part of its former range, mainly due to urbanization, invasive agriculture, and treatment as a pest. In order to preserve biodiversity, detailed monitoring, population-structure studies, risk assessment and appropriate conservation measures are required. Blind mole rats (genus Nannospalax) attract a great deal of attention because of their cancer resistance and longevity. Due to the high rate of chromosome rearrangements, 74 Nannospalax chromosomal forms have been discovered. The convergence of their external morphology complicates their taxonomy, and many cryptic species remain unrecognized. Thus, the European N. leucodon supersp. is listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with "Data Deficient" status. It is crucial for the conservation of biodiversity to clarify its taxonomy, to recognize each cryptic species, and assign to them the correct conservation status. Of the more than 20 chromosomal forms described within N. leucodon, five cryptic species occur in Serbia. The most threatened among them—N. l. syrmiensis, described and named 50 years ago in the regions of Srem, Belgrade and Mačva—has been declared extinct in the literature, which may have negative consequences for the conservation of wildlife genetic diversity. Through five years of fieldwork and comparison of 16SrRNA and MT-CYTB gene segments between old, archived teeth and recently collected material, we show that N. l. syrmiensis is not extinct. However, its habitat has been fragmented and reduced, owing primarily to anthropogenic impact. Therefore, detailed surveillance, population-structure studies, risk assessment, and appropriate conservation measures are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic loss of biodiversity continues to increase worldwide, and existing conservation area networks (CANs) are inadequate for its adequate representation and persistence. To identify a set of new nominal conservation areas in Oaxaca, a Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot in Mexico, for terrestrial vertebrate species, we used a multi‐criteria systematic conservation planning approach. Besides minimizing the area incorporated into the nominal CAN, we incorporated 25 socioeconomic variables using multi‐attribute value theory. We constructed a portfolio of nominal CAN solutions for four different scenarios all of which satisfied a 10% representation target for the modeled suitable habitat of each vertebrate species: (1) existing protected area‐based (PA) solution; (2) voluntary conservation area‐based (VCA) solution; (3) PA‐VCA solution; and (4) R‐C solution (rarity‐complementary algorithm). The PA‐VCA and PA solutions were the most expensive in terms of area that had to be included in the nominal CANs (13,352 km2 and 12,587 km2, respectively). In all our multi‐criteria analyses, highest costs were associated with maximizing the number of airports, amount of tourism, and length of available highways in a nominal CAN. We have thus established a portfolio of multi‐criteria solutions to the problem of creating an adequate CAN for the representation of terrestrial vertebrate species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population size and geographical range are the key quantitative criteria used by the IUCN to assess the conservation status of a species. However, such information is often incomplete and inconsistent, even for seemingly abundant species. To assess the population and conservation status of Indian primates, we conducted a systematic review of recent research using the searching, appraisal, synthesis and analysis (SALSA) approach. We reviewed a total of 41 studies on Indian primates conducted during the last 2 decades (2000–2021) for information on various parameters that influence their conservation. We found that 20 out of a total of 26 primate species were evaluated for their population status, and the majority of these studies (71%) showed an overall declining population trend. Remarkably, all but one of the studies conducted exclusively within protected areas revealed declining population trends, whereas trends were more variable for primate populations in non-protected areas. Our data indicate that only 27% (n = 7) of Indian primate species have been surveyed or re-surveyed to assess their population status within the last 5 years. Although threats vary in time and space from species to species, 78% of the studies recorded natural system modifications including habitat loss and fragmentation among the main threats to the survival of Indian primates. Most studies on the population status of Indian primates have either been spatially limited or used outdated methods. We recommend that future studies adopt robust techniques to estimate populations and work across larger geographical scales to develop effective management strategies for the conservation of primates in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquatic species show different sensitivities and responses to chronic thermal stress, resulting in varying degrees of resistance to the negative impacts of climate change, which are ultimately expressed as range expansions or contractions. The choice of species appropriate for assessing climate change impacts in aquatic ecosystems should be guided by the robustness of the relationship between a chosen chronic stress thermal threshold and associated habitat contraction. Twelve aquatic species were evaluated as potential climate change indicators, from which six were selected for testing a conceptual framework for predicting the degree of utility of a species as a climate change indicator. Results indicate that species with a chronic biological thermal threshold below 20°C are likely to experience in excess of 50% loss of thermally suitable environment. Cooler thermal thresholds could inform the choice of suitable sentinel species for use as early indicators of chronic thermal stress, while thresholds above this reflect increasingly thermally resistant species within aquatic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seagrass meadows are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth and provide critical functions for marine life and associated fisheries. Yet, they are some of the most threatened ecosystems, mostly due to unregulated anthropogenic impacts and extreme climatic events associated with climate change. This study focuses on the seagrass ecosystems of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean, which have experienced a period of habitat loss. Through targeted assessment of satellite imagery and quantitative in situ habitat assessments, we demonstrate that the seagrass loss is more widespread than previously reported and includes the complete canopy loss of all described meadows of the dense, high-canopy seagrass species Thalassodendron ciliatum. Through support vector machine classification of a 14-year time series (2006—2020) of publicly available high-resolution satellite imagery, we demonstrate the temporal and spatial scale of the loss of the high-canopy seagrass meadows, which adds further evidence to the degradation of vegetated habitats at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. We also discuss the potential drivers and the ecological and social implications arising from the degradation of complex seagrass habitats in a remote atoll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some South American primates are well-studied, many are poorly known to science. This makes reports of their ecology very valuable, especially when the region inhabited is threatened by human activities. We combined data from three independent field studies to provide a better understanding of the behavior, ecology, chemical composition of plant items consumed, and conservation of the Parecis Plateau titi monkey (Plecturocebus parecis), a recently described species from the southern Amazonian Arc of Deforestation. Specifically, we collected behavioral data for eight groups over 8 months and quantified the monkeys' activity budget. To analyze the chemical compounds in the plants eaten, we used vanillin to determine condensed tannin and alkaline precipitation to quantify total alkaloid content. We also determined the extent of forest loss and fragmentation from 2000 to 2019 within the known range of the Parecis Plateau titi monkey using satellite imagery. We found that group size ranged 2–6 individuals, and the monkeys spent 31% of the day foraging, 22% resting, 19% feeding, 14% moving, and 14% in other activities. The monkeys ate 50 plant species from 24 families and appeared to be unusually tolerant of dietary tannins but avoided alkaloids. Habitat modification within the species' range has been extensive: forest cover declined by 16.1% in 2000–2019; the largest areas of continuous forest were reduced by 37.5%; mean fragment size decreased 67.5% (from 421.0–136.9 ha). Forest loss and fragmentation were most significant in the northern half of the species' range and its southern border. Given the Parecis Plateau titi monkey's tolerance for toxic dietary species, the intense modification of its geographic range, and its capacity to live in fragmented habitats, we recommend that future studies investigate these topics across all 37 species of titi monkeys. In addition, recordings of vocal repertoires will improve field surveys and help with population estimates, especially for titi monkey species living in geographic regions that have been heavily modified by humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Critically Endangered Nubian Flapshell Turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) is found in the White Nile River system in South Sudan and northern Uganda. Over the past few decades, its populations have sharply declined, primarily due to human-induced threats, leading to its near-extinction across almost its entire range. In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive threat analysis undertaken to pinpoint the challenges confronting the species within its natural habitat, specifically in the only known sites where it currently exists. We aimed to develop a conceptual framework to understand causal relationships among driving forces, threats and the target species. This framework allows the visualisation and analysis of the web of intricate interactions that contribute to the species' decline and vulnerability. We convened a panel of experts who identified three primary direct threats to the Nubian Flapshell Turtle: (1) Sand mining (IUCN code 3.2); (2) Overfishing by native fishers and refugees (code 5.4) and (3) Habitat loss at nesting sites (code 7.3). Among these threats, overfishing had the largest geographical extension, the highest intensity and duration, while habitat loss occurred at the highest frequency. These threats varied significantly in intensity and frequency. Additionally, when assessing the overall magnitude of these threats, habitat loss and overfishing had the highest impact, with significantly higher scores compared to sand mining. Our experts also identified the underlying driving forces behind these threats: (1) Economic interests driving sand mining activities along the Nile; (2) The influence of civil conflict and refugee populations, which contribute to the demand for bushmeat; (3) the Chinese expatriates, that lead to overfishing; (4) The removal of bank vegetation serves as a catalyst for habitat loss at nesting sites. The resulting conceptual framework serves as a valuable tool for defining targeted conservation measures for each distinct threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat loss (HL) is a major cause of species extinctions. Although the effects of HL beyond the directly impacted area have been previously observed, they have not been modelled explicitly, especially in an eco‐evolutionary context. To start filling this gap, we study a two‐patch deterministic consumer‐resource model, with one of the patches experiencing loss of resources as a special case of HL. Our model allows foraging and mating within a patch as well as between patches. We then introduce heritable variation in consumer traits related to resource utilization and patch use to investigate eco‐evolutionary dynamics and compare results with constant and no trait variation scenarios. Our results show that HL in one patch can indeed reduce consumer densities in the neighbouring patch but can also increase consumer densities in the neighbouring patch when the resources are overexploited. Yet at the landscape scale, the effect of HL on consumer densities is consistently negative. Patch isolation increases consumer density in the patch experiencing HL but has generally negative effects on the neighbouring patch, with context‐dependent results at the landscape scale. With high cross‐patch dependence and coupled foraging and mating preferences, local HL can sometimes even lead to landscape‐level consumer extinction. Eco‐evolutionary dynamics can rescue consumers from such extinction in some cases if their death rates are sufficiently small. More generally, trait evolution had positive or negative effects on equilibrium consumer densities after HL, depending on the evolving trait and the spatial scale considered. In summary, our findings show that HL at a local scale can affect the neighbouring patch and the landscape as a whole, where heritable trait variation can, in some cases, alleviate the impact of HL. We thus suggest joint consideration of multiple spatial scales and trait variation when assessing and predicting the impacts of HL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecomorphological attributes of fish are influenced by various factors inherent to their environment, enabling them to serve as indicators of environmental conditions resulting from habitat loss. We evaluated the variation in the ecomorphological characteristics of fish fauna considering the forest cover percentage in streams of the Iguaçu River basin, an ecoregion characterized by high endemism. Environmental variables were measured alongside fish collection by electrofishing with four samples per site. We evaluated 12 ecomorphological indices for 26 species. The combination of environmental variables resulting from forest cover loss and silting led to habitat homogenization, a significant factor in morphological structuring. Streams with lower forest cover showed a prevalence of morphological traits associated with enhanced performance in silted margins, such as caudal fin aspect ratio, dorsal and anal fin relative area, caudal peduncle relative width, pelvic fin aspect ratio. In contrast, the pectoral fin aspect ratio and ventral mouth orientation were traits positively related to the rocky substrate and forest streams. Thus, habitat loss and alteration have imposed selection pressures on species with more specialized traits and habitat use. These findings underscore the critical role of preserving forest cover in maintaining fish diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The iconic monarch butterfly has undergone a dramatic decline in western North America since the 1990s, but in recent years has shown a capacity for resilience. This review identifies and investigates the likely drivers of this decline and resilience, and discusses their relative importance from a holistic viewpoint. Pesticides (particularly neonicotinoid insecticides), climate change, and habitat loss are likely to be the prime drivers of contemporary decline and instability in monarch population dynamics. Natural enemies (predators, parasites, and pathogens) are less likely to be a major contributor to contemporary population fluctuations, except on a local scale. Adaptation to changing environmental conditions will be an important component of the ongoing ability of western monarchs to show resilience. Human involvement with monarchs is a good and necessary thing for sustainable conservation, helping to prevent the 'extinction of experience', and the loss of human-nature contact, which has major adverse implications for nature conservation generally. Monarch butterfly populations in western North America suffered a substantial decline, from millions of butterflies overwintering in California in the 1980s to less than 400,000 at the beginning of the 21st century. The introduction of neonicotinoid insecticides in the mid–1990s and their subsequent widespread use appears to be the most likely major factor behind this sudden decline. Habitat loss and unfavorable climates (high temperatures, aridity, and winter storms) have also played important and ongoing roles. These factors kept overwintering populations stable but below 300,000 during 2001–2017. Late winter storm mortality and consequent poor spring reproduction drove winter populations to less than 30,000 butterflies during 2018–2019. Record high temperatures in California during the fall of 2020 appeared to prematurely terminate monarch migration, resulting in the lowest overwintering population (1899) ever recorded. Many migrants formed winter-breeding populations in urban areas. Normal seasonal temperatures in the autumns of 2021 and 2022 enabled overwintering populations to return to around the 300,000 level, characteristic of the previous two decades. Natural enemies (predators, parasitoids, parasites, and pathogens) may be important regional or local drivers at times but they are a consistent and fundamental part of monarch ecology. Human interference (capture, rearing) likely has the least impact on monarch populations. The rearing of monarch caterpillars, particularly by children, is an important human link to nature that has positive ramifications for insect conservation beyond monarch butterflies and should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in land use are considered the main factor in the degradation of ecosystems, especially in continental aquatic environments. In this study, we evaluated the genotoxicity potential of the environmental matrix using tadpoles from three anuran species as a model, to test whether more genetic damage and changes in oxidative stress biomarkers occur in ponds on farms than in native grasslands. Tadpoles were sampled from ponds in the subtropical highland grassland region of southern Brazil. We quantified DNA damage in tadpoles of Scinax squalirostris, Ololygon aromothyella and Odontophrynus asper using the comet assay and oxidative stress changes using glutathione as a biomarker. Our results demonstrated that the tadpoles of the three anuran species collected in agricultural ponds accumulated greater DNA damage and alterations in biomarkers of oxidative stress when compared with those collected in ponds in the native grassland, corroborating our initial hypothesis. The DNA damage detected in tadpoles from farm ponds suggests that these populations are suffering impacts from environmental contamination, mainly from heavy metals and fertilizers, as indicated by our complementary data. Our results highlight the importance of grassland remnants for the conservation of amphibians in the subtropical region, which are under severe threat due to the replacement of natural areas by agriculture. Moreover, we emphasize the importance of monitoring and quantifying agrochemicals in habitats and organisms to ensure the viability of populations and support adequate management and conservation strategies for the species of pond-breeding anurans in the region of subtropical grasslands in southern Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Pseudophoxinus battalgilae is one of two species with the widest distribution of the genus in the Central and Southern Anatolia (Manavgat River) regions, the other being Pseudophoxinus firati. The species description was made based on samples from the Beyşehir Lake basin. Records are found from Suğla Lake (Seydişehir); the Akgöl (Ereğli) drainage canals; and the Zengen (Ereğli) and Ilgın (springs and small streams flowing into Çavuşçu Lake); the Kızılca, Akkaya, and Gümüşler reservoirs (Niğde), and the Manavgat River basin. This study attempts to identify new recorded localities of P. battalgilae and determines their general distribution areas. In parallel with this, an attempt has been made to evaluate the current state of the species' habitats. Materials and Methods: Pseudophoxinus battalgilae specimens were caught from Gödet Stream (Karaman) with an electrical shock device, with most being released back into the habitat. The metric and meristic characters of the samples were determined. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was created with closely related species and a haplotype network analysis was applied. Results: The study records the species to have also spread to the Gödet Stream in the Central Anatolia region, thus contributing to identifying the population number and distribution area of the species. The maximum genetic distance of the P. battalgilae populations was determined as 0.0061 between Gödet Stream and the Aşıklar (Ereğli) canal populations. In addition to the phylogenetic analysis, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) results confirm the Gödet Stream population to belong to the P. battalgilae species. Conclusion: As a result, the evaluations in the study show a total of eight populations of the species to have been found. However, many populations of the species are expected to disappear in a short time due to drought and to domestic and agricultural pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]