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Synthesizing evidence is an essential part of scientific progress, but it is often done in a slow and uncoordinated manner, sometimes producing misleading conclusions. Here, we propose the idea of an ‘open synthesis community’ to resolve this pressing issue.

Decision triggers are defined thresholds in the status of monitored variables that indicate when to undertake management, and avoid undesirable ecosystem change. Decision triggers are frequently recommended to conservation practitioners as a tool to facilitate evidence-based management practices, but there has been limited attention paid to how practitioners are integrating decision triggers into existing monitoring programs. We sought to understand whether conservation practitioners’ use of decision triggers was influenced by the type of variables in their monitoring programs. We investigated this question using a practitioner-focused workshop involving a structured discussion and review of eight monitoring programs. Among our case studies, direct measures of biodiversity (e.g. native species) were more commonly monitored, but less likely to be linked to decision triggers (10% with triggers) than measures being used as surrogates (54% with triggers) for program objectives. This was because decision triggers were associated with management of threatening processes, which were often monitored as a surrogate for a biodiversity asset of interest. By contrast, direct measures of biodiversity were more commonly associated with informal decision processes that led to activities such as management reviews or external consultation. Workshop participants were in favor of including more formalized decision triggers in their programs, but were limited by incomplete ecological knowledge, lack of skilled staff, funding constraints, and/or uncertainty regarding intervention effectiveness. We recommend that practitioners consider including decision triggers for discussion activities (such as external consultation) in their programs as more than just early warning points for future interventions, particularly for direct measures. Decision triggers for discussions should be recognized as a critical feature of monitoring programs where information and operational limitations inhibit

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology.

Culling of overabundant and invasive species to manage their ecological impacts on target species is widely practised but outcomes are unpredictable and monitoring of effectiveness often poor. Culling must improve ecosystem function, so clear, measurable goals, such as improved breeding potential of target species, are necessary. Many overabundant and invasive species are also nest predators and nest predation is the principal cause of breeding failure of many birds of conservation concern. It is important for managers to know the likely effects on nest predation when culling one species among a suite of nest predatory species. We tested the effect of culling a hyperaggressive, overabundant bird and known nesting disruptor, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), on artificial nest predation rates in remnant eucalypt woodlands in a highly fragmented agricultural landscape of eastern Australia. Culling of noisy miners is already practised to manage this key threatening process, but evidence of improved breeding outcomes for target species is lacking. We found no significant change in artificial nest predation rates following the treatment, despite a 28% reduction in noisy miner abundance in treatment compared to control sites. We identified five other nest predatory bird species, the noisy miner being responsible for 18.3% of total predation. Our findings suggest a compensatory nest predation model, which is problematic for management. It means that, where culling is done with a view to improving breeding potential of target species by reducing nest predation, removing one nest predatory species may not result in a commensurate reduction in nest predation.

Transformation of intact vegetation into new kinds and configurations of human-modified habitats is a well established driver of biodiversity loss. Following initial conversion, many human-dominated landscapes are then subject to further large-scale changes in land use. The impacts on biodiversity of repeated changes in land use remain poorly known, particularly how changes in the matrix interact with initial patterns of vegetation clearing. We used an 18-year study of birds in remnant patches of endangered temperate woodland in south-eastern Australia to quantify the spatial and temporal effects of successive land use transformation in the surrounding landscape. We examined bird response to: (1) initial patterns of landscape modification (creating semi-cleared grazing land dominated by pastures that surrounded remnant woodland patches), (2) subsequent establishment and maturation of exotic tree plantations on the pastures surrounding woodland patches, and (3) additive and interactive effects of both types of landscape transformation. The majority of the 57 bird species modelled responded to conversion of grazing land to exotic plantations, either independently from initial patterns of landscape transformation (20 species), or interactively (18 species) or additively (15 species) with initial landscape transformation. The occurrence of only one species (the Common Bronzewing) was related to patterns of initial transformation but not subsequent transformation due to plantation establishment. Thus, despite many characteristics of the woodland patches within the plantation remaining largely unaltered throughout our 18 year investigation, the matrix had a profound effect on the kinds of species inhabiting them, with such impacts often magnified over time as the matrix continued to change. Plantation establishment triggered new regional-level spatial processes with effects on birds detected in woodland patches up to 2 km away from the plantation. Matrix conversion select

Culling of overabundant and invasive species to manage their ecological impacts on target species is widely practised but outcomes are unpredictable and monitoring of effectiveness often poor. Culling must improve ecosystem function, so clear, measurable goals, such as improved breeding potential of target species, are necessary. Many overabundant and invasive species are also nest predators and nest predation is the principal cause of breeding failure of many birds of conservation concern. It is important for managers to know the likely effects on nest predation when culling one species among a suite of nest predatory species. We tested the effect of culling a hyperaggressive, overabundant bird and known nesting disruptor, the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), on artificial nest predation rates in remnant eucalypt woodlands in a highly fragmented agricultural landscape of eastern Australia. Culling of noisy miners is already practised to manage this key threatening process, but evidence of improved breeding outcomes for target species is lacking. We found no significant change in artificial nest predation rates following the treatment, despite a 28% reduction in noisy miner abundance in treatment compared to control sites. We identified five other nest predatory bird species, the noisy miner being responsible for 18.3% of total predation. Our findings suggest a compensatory nest predation model, which is problematic for management. It means that, where culling is done with a view to improving breeding potential of target species by reducing nest predation, removing one nest predatory species may not result in a commensurate reduction in nest predation.

Monitoring programmes are intended to inform effective biodiversity conservation and management (Legge et al. 2018). Well‐designed programmes can establish baseline conditions, determine trends in threatened species populations, quantify the effects of management, and provide warning of ecosystem changes (Magurran et al. 2010). For these reasons, biodiversity monitoring underpins the activities of land management agencies worldwide. However, it is not always possible to directly monitor key variables at ideal spatio‐temporal resolutions, due to resourcing or logistic constraints. For example, direct monitoring of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) can be cost‐ and time‐intensive as koalas are cryptic, occur at low densities, and are difficult to reliably observe in dense forest canopies (McAlpine et al. 2006).

CESTES is a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space. It compiles 80 datasets from trait-based studies. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. CESTES presents a harmonized structure and covers a diversity of ecosystem types (marine, terrestrial, freshwater), taxonomic groups (plants, vertebrates, invertebrates...), geographical regions, and spatial scales. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available (https://icestes.github.io/sharedata). A zipped folder called “CESTES.zip” includes two alternative formats for the CESTES database: - a “xCESTES” folder that includes 80 Excel files (one file per dataset), each named according to the following structure: “AuthorPublicationYear.xlsx” - a “rCESTES” folder that includes the CESTES core processed database (comm, traits, envir, coord matrices) as an R list object “CESTES.RData” plus two R scripts, and two metadata tables for data processing and exploration. This “CESTES.zip” folder also includes: - an extended metadata table, “CESTES_metadata.xlsx”, that provides the general metadata information of all the datasets, - a tutorial document, “HOW_TO_SHARE_MY_DATA_FOR_CESTES.pdf”, that explains how to share data for integrating future datasets in the database. A second zipped folder, called "ceste.zip", corresponds to the non-spatial ancillary to CESTES. We provide access to 10 additional datasets that were not completely suitable for the CESTES database, due to the absence of spatial information or insufficient metadata but that were potentially valuable for their three other data matrices (comm, traits, envir). They follow the same structure as CESTES, except that they do not present the “coord” sheet and sometimes include only partial metadat, CESTES is a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space. It compiles 80 datasets from trait-based studies. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. CESTES presents a harmonized structure and covers a diversity of ecosystem types (marine, terrestrial, freshwater), taxonomic groups (plants, vertebrates, invertebrates...), geographical regions, and spatial scales. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available (https://icestes.github.io/sharedata). A zipped folder called “CESTES.zip” includes two alternative formats for the CESTES database: - a “xCESTES” folder that includes 80 Excel files (one file per dataset), each named according to the following structure: “AuthorPublicationYear.xlsx” - a “rCESTES” folder that includes the CESTES core processed database (comm, traits, envir, coord matrices) as an R list object “CESTES.RData” plus two R scripts, and two metadata tables for data processing and exploration. This “CESTES.zip” folder also includes: - an extended metadata table, “CESTES_metadata.xlsx”, that provides the general metadata information of all the datasets, - a tutorial document, “HOW_TO_SHARE_MY_DATA_FOR_CESTES.pdf”, that explains how to share data for integrating future datasets in the database. A second zipped folder, called "ceste.zip", corresponds to the non-spatial ancillary to CESTES. We provide access to 10 additional datasets that were not completely suitable for the CESTES database, due to the absence of spatial information or insufficient metadata but that were potentially valuable for their three other data matrices (comm, traits, envir). They follow the same structure as CESTES, except that they do not present the “coord” sheet and sometimes include only partial metadat