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The ongoing declines in Atlantic salmon populations across its range underscore the need for co-ordinated scientific-based knowledge to support management and decisions for their conservation. Current salmon management actions remain largely focused on addressing bottlenecks to production in the freshwater phase of the life-cycle, whereas the continued declines observed in the recent decades are thought to be driven primarily by constraints on the marine phase. The challenges brought by global warming and other emerging stressors require immediate actions, requiring us to re-think the methods behind stock assessment and forge stronger linkages between data, models and policies to promote more effective management actions. We outline a scientific framework that takes a wider ecosystem view, designed to evaluate holistically a suite of indicators and potential drivers of salmon mortality at key phases of the life cycle. The aims of the proposed "Likely Suspects Framework" are to enhance cross-fertilisation of ideas between assessment processes at the stock-complex scale and stock-specific focused management activities, and to develop new decision support tools to improve management efficiencies and scenario testing. Adopting such an approach provides a new way to catalyse the acquisition and deployment of both existing and new data and models that are urgently needed for assisting the conservation and future stewardship of salmon stocks on both sides of the Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populations of anadromous brown trout, also known as sea trout, have suffered recent marked declines in abundance due to multiple factors, including climate change and human activities. While much is known about their freshwater phase, less is known about the species' marine feeding migrations. This situation is hindering the effective management and conservation of anadromous trout in the marine environment. Using a panel of 95 single nucleotide polymorphism markers we developed a genetic baseline, which demonstrated strong regional structuring of genetic diversity in trout populations around the English Channel and adjacent waters. Extensive baseline testing showed this structuring allowed high-confidence assignment of known-origin individuals to region of origin. This study presents new data on the movements of anadromous trout in the English Channel and southern North Sea. Assignment of anadromous trout sampled from 12 marine and estuarine localities highlighted contrasting results for these areas. The majority of these fisheries are composed predominately of stocks local to the sampling location. However, there were multiple cases of long-distance movements of anadromous trout, with several individuals originating from rivers in northeast England being caught in the English Channel and southern North Sea, in some cases more than 1000 km from their natal region. These results have implications for the management of sea trout in inshore waters around the English Channel and southern North Sea., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The population genetic structure of free-ranging species is expected to reflect landscape-level effects. Quantifying the role of these factors and their relative contribution often has important implications for wildlife management. The population genetics of the European badger ( Meles meles ) have received considerable attention, not least because the species acts as a potential wildlife reservoir for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in Britain and Ireland. Herein, we detail the most comprehensive population and landscape genetic study of the badger in Ireland to date-comprised of 454 Irish badger samples, genotyped at 14 microsatellite loci. Bayesian and multivariate clustering methods demonstrated continuous clinal variation across the island, with potentially distinct differentiation observed in Northern Ireland. Landscape genetic analyses identified geographic distance and elevation as the primary drivers of genetic differentiation, in keeping with badgers exhibiting high levels of philopatry. Other factors hypothesized to affect gene flow, including earth worm habitat suitability, land cover type, and the River Shannon, had little to no detectable effect. By providing a more accurate picture of badger population structure and the factors effecting it, these data can guide current efforts to manage the species in Ireland and to better understand its role in bTB.

Tredennick et al. criticize one of our statistical analyses and emphasize the low explanatory power of models relating productivity to diversity. These criticisms do not detract from our key findings, including evidence consistent with the unimodal constraint relationship predicted by the humped-back model and evidence of scale sensitivities in the form and strength of the relationship., (Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

The search for predictions of species diversity across environmental gradients has challenged ecologists for decades. The humped-back model (HBM) suggests that plant diversity peaks at intermediate productivity; at low productivity few species can tolerate the environmental stresses, and at high productivity a few highly competitive species dominate. Over time the HBM has become increasingly controversial, and recent studies claim to have refuted it. Here, by using data from coordinated surveys conducted throughout grasslands worldwide and comprising a wide range of site productivities, we provide evidence in support of the HBM pattern at both global and regional extents. The relationships described here provide a foundation for further research into the local, landscape, and historical factors that maintain biodiversity., (Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)