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Humans are now recognized as the main drivers of environmental change, leaving the future of our planet dependent on human action or inaction. Although the outlook of our planet is often depicted in a “doom and gloom” manner due to recent troubling environmental trends, we suggest that a “good Anthropocene” (in which human quality of life may be maintained or improved without cost to the environment) is attainable if we engage in adaptive, multi-disciplinary actions capable of addressing the socio-ecological issues of today and tomorrow. Early-career conservation scientists and practitioners have an unmatched understanding of novel technologies and social connectivity and, as those left with the ever-growing responsibility to be the problem solvers of the attributed increasing environmental consequences of living in the Anthropocene, their perspectives on steps towards a good Anthropocene are valuable. Here we present a list of 20 actions derived by early-career conservation scientists and practitioners for conservationists to help achieve a good Anthropocene that utilize the social connectivity and technology of today. Central to these actions are the notions that multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary collaboratives that embrace diverse world views need to be integrated into decision-making processes; training and outreach platforms need to communicate both environmental challenges and solutions broadly; and conservation successes need to be acknowledged and disseminated in a forward-looking, adaptive capacity. Together the 20 actions identified here reinforce the underlying paradigm shift that must accompany living in the Anthropocene, given that biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are requisite for sustained human life. By sharing this list of actions, we look to promote positive socio-environmental changes towards the collective goal of achieving a good Anthropocene.

Public health and safety concerns around the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly changed human behaviour. Such shifts in behaviours, including travel patterns, consumerism, and energy use, are variously impacting biodiversity during the human-dominated geological epoch known as the Anthropocene. Indeed, the dramatic reduction in human mobility and activity has been termed the “Anthropause”. COVID-19 has highlighted the current environmental and biodiversity crisis and has provided an opportunity to redefine our relationship with nature. Here we share 10 considerations for conservation policy makers to support and rethink the development of impactful and effective policies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are opportunities to leverage societal changes as a result of COVID-19, focus on the need for collaboration and engagement, and address lessons learned through the development of policies (including those related to public health) during the pandemic. The pandemic has had devastating impacts on humanity that should not be understated, but it is also a warning that we need to redefine our relationship with nature and restore biodiversity. The considerations presented here will support the development of robust, evidence-based, and transformative policies for biodiversity conservation in a post-COVID-19 world.

The uplifting Twitter trend #BlackInNature highlights the stories of Black people in the outdoors, many of whom are life scientists who perform research in the field. We asked #BlackInNature scientists to share their experiences and motivations to get outside.

Increasing temperatures and declines One aspect of climate change is an increasing number of days with extreme heat. Soroye et al. analyzed a large dataset of bumble bee occurrences across North America and Europe and found that an increasing frequency of unusually hot days is increasing local extinction rates, reducing colonization and site occupancy, and decreasing species richness within a region, independent of land-use change or condition (see the Perspective by Bridle and van Rensburg). As average temperatures continue to rise, bumble bees may be faced with an untenable increase in frequency of extreme temperatures. Science , this issue p. 685 ; see also p. 626

Opportunistic citizen science (CS) programs allow volunteers to report species observations from anywhere, at any time, and can assemble large volumes of historic and current data at faster rates than more coordinated programs with standardized data collection. This can quickly provide large amounts of species distributional data, but whether this focus on participation comes at a cost in data quality is not clear. Although automated and expert vetting can increase data reliability, there is no guarantee that opportunistic data will do anything more than confirm information from professional surveys. Here, we use eButterfly, an opportunistic CS program, and a comparable dataset of professionally collected observations, to measure the amount of new distributional species information that opportunistic CS generates. We also test how well opportunistic CS can estimate regional species richness for a large group of taxa (>300 butterfly species) across a broad area. We find that eButterfly contributes new distributional information for >80% of species, and that opportunistically submitting observations allowed volunteers to spot species ~35 days earlier than professionals. Although eButterfly did a relatively poor job at predicting regional species richness by itself (detecting only about 35-57% of species per region), it significantly contributed to regional species richness when used with the professional dataset (adding ~3 species that had gone undetected in professional surveys per region). Overall, we find that the opportunistic CS model can provide substantial complementary species information when used alongside professional survey data. Our results suggest that data from opportunistic CS programs in conjunction with professional datasets can strongly increase the capacity of researchers to estimate species richness, and provide unique information on species distributions and phenologies that are relevant to the detection of the biological consequences of global change.

AGAP : équipe GE2pop; Genotype by genotype indirect genetic effects (G x G IGEs) occur when the phenotype of an individual is influenced by an interaction between its own genotype and those of neighbour individuals. Little is known regarding the relative importance of G x G IGEs compared with other forms of direct and indirect genetic effects. We quantified the relative importance of IGEs in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, a species in which IGEs are likely to be important as air-borne social interactions are known to affect growth. We used a collection of distantly related wild isolates, lab strains and a set of closely related mutation accumulation lines to estimate the contribution of direct and indirect genetic effects on mycelium growth rate, a key fitness component. We found that indirect genetic effects were dominated by G x G IGEs that occurred primarily between a focal genotype and its immediate neighbour within a vertical stack, and these accounted for 11% of phenotypic variation. These results indicate that G x G IGEs may be substantial, at least in some systems, and that the evolutionary importance of these interactions may be underappreciated, especially in microbes. We advocate for a wider use of the IGE framework in both applied (for example, choice of varietal mixtures in plant breeding) and evolutionary genetics (kin selection/kin competition studies).

Pollinators, such as butterflies, contribute to vital ecosystem services, but are susceptible to changing thermal regimes associated with recent climate change. While butterflies are responding to climate changes in many ways, they are not keeping pace. Rapid climate changes are leading to an accumulation of climate debts (or loss of climatic habitat) at continental scales. Climate change mediated shifts in distribution depend on many factors, but particularly on species-specific dispersal abilities and availability of larval host plants. We measured geographical variation in mobility for butterfly species across North America relative to their conservation status and the intensity of human land use. We identified areas where the rate and variability of recent climatic changes have been relatively low and could be managed for pollinator conservation, potentially augmenting existing protected area networks. Using the Yellowstone to Yukon region as a case study, we outline differences between connectivity analyses that incorporate (i) human footprint, (ii) human footprint in conjunction with climate change considerations, and (iii) human footprint in conjunction with climate change considerations weighted by species mobility and richness. All three approaches yield different connectivity recommendations. Conservation management efforts to enhance climate change-related dispersal should focus on improving landscape connectivity based on species-specific mobility, richness, and climate change, as well as landscape permeability. Improving connectivity is particularly vital in areas where mobility and landscape permeability are low but species are at greatest risk of extinction. Mobility matters when considering efforts to mitigate climate change impacts on butterflies.