Conservation Letters最新文献

{"title":"An equity lens on behavioral science for conservation","authors":"Katherine M. Crosman,&nbsp;Ines Jurcevic,&nbsp;Carlin Van Holmes,&nbsp;Crystal C. Hall,&nbsp;Edward H. Allison","doi":"10.1111/conl.12885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12885","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent decades, interest in and application of behavioral insights to conservation theory and practice have expanded significantly. Yet the growth of integrated strategies to adapt and guide human behavior in service of conservation outcomes has included limited engagement with questions of equity and power. Here we examine the use of behavioral approaches in conservation efforts, emphasizing potential misapplications that may result from omitting equity and power considerations. Such omission may lead to an overemphasis on the role of individual behaviors relative to system-level drivers of biodiversity loss, result in misalignment between behavioral interventions and the actual drivers of behavior in situ, and incur unanticipated negative social welfare and distributional costs, all of which may undermine conservation success. We offer recommendations for centering equity when applying behavioral insights to conservation, including strategies for high-level agenda setters (scholars, advocates, funders and programmatic leaders) as well as conservation practitioners. The urgent need for biodiversity conservation is insufficient reason to side-step equity and power considerations; we contend that centering equity is consistent with this urgency and key for developing sustainable conservation theory and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12885","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5832546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Restored oyster reefs match multiple functions of natural reefs within a decade","authors":"Rachel S. Smith,&nbsp;Bo Lusk,&nbsp;Max C. N. Castorani","doi":"10.1111/conl.12883","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12883","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Global declines of foundation species have reduced ecological function at population, community, and ecosystem levels. Restoration of foundation species promises to counter such losses, despite unknown recovery timelines, undefined benchmarks, and uncertainty about whether restored ecosystems approximate natural ones. Here, we demonstrate through a 15-year large-scale experiment in coastal Virginia, USA, that restored oyster reefs can quickly recover multiple ecological functions and match natural reefs. Specifically, abundances of oysters and a key crab mesopredator on restored reefs equaled reference reefs in approximately 6 years, indicating that restoration can initiate rapid, sustained recovery of foundation species and associated consumers. As reefs matured and accrued biomass, they became more temporally stable, suggesting that restoration can increase resilience and may stabilize those ecosystem processes that scale with foundation species biomass. Together, these results demonstrate that restoration can catalyze rapid recovery of imperiled coastal foundation species, reclaim lost community interactions, and help reverse decades of degradation.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12883","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5705301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-resolution satellite imagery meets the challenge of monitoring remote marine protected areas in the Antarctic and beyond","authors":"Michelle LaRue,&nbsp;Cassandra Brooks,&nbsp;Mia Wege,&nbsp;Leonardo Salas,&nbsp;Natasha Gardiner","doi":"10.1111/conl.12884","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12884","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Remote, high-latitude oceans can prove challenging for the designation and implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs), partly due to issues in monitoring inaccessible localities and large spatial scales. A lack of protection combined with damage from growing human activities has contributed to the degradation of some of the Earth's richest marine biodiversity and highlights the urgent need to support improved marine conservation. High-resolution satellite imagery (VHR; 0.3–0.6 m spatial resolution) provides a much-needed tool for monitoring sentinel species in remote oceans, which would strengthen current and future MPA research and monitoring programs across the globe. This perspective specifies how recent advances in VHR studies have contributed to knowledge regarding occurrence, habitat suitability, and abundance of mesopredators in the Southern Ocean. We demonstrate how knowledge gained through VHR offers a cost-effective and easily accessible method for collecting previously unobtainable data to inform a representative network of Southern Ocean MPAs, and how the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) could utilize this technology. As VHR and automated detection algorithms continue to improve, we showcase a promising opportunity to use these methods to complement current research and monitoring efforts, thus strengthening MPA efforts in the Southern Ocean and beyond.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12884","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5880448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A way forward for wild fungi in international sustainability policy","authors":"Rodrigo Oyanedel,&nbsp;Amy Hinsley,&nbsp;Bryn T.M. Dentinger,&nbsp;E.J. Milner-Gulland,&nbsp;Giuliana Furci","doi":"10.1111/conl.12882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12882","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A series of international sustainability policies currently in negotiation will shape biodiversity conservation for decades to come. However, discussions of current sustainability policy have a huge blind spot: the absence of <i>Fungi</i>, one of the eukaryotic Kingdoms. Wild fungi are a key component of natural ecosystems (e.g., through parasitic symbiosis), maintain soil fertility by decomposing organic matter, and facilitate uptake of water and nutrients through mycorrhizal association with plant roots, enhancing carbon sequestration. Moreover, the harvest, use, and trade of wild fungi are essential economic and cultural activities, supporting livelihoods and providing food and medicinal ingredients. Still, the sustainability of wild fungi use is hard to assess because there is a lack of attention from research, legislation, and society at large. Here, we present a way forward for including wild fungi in international sustainability policy. We layout four key steps to foster a much-needed policy and societal transformation: acknowledge the existence of <i>Fungi</i> as an independent Kingdom; tailor sustainability policy targets to include <i>Fungi</i>; implement comprehensive monitoring of wild fungi status and trends; and promote responsible use of wild fungi as a livelihood opportunity in rural areas. These steps can facilitate a transition toward better recognizing, valuing, and conserving the ecosystem services wild fungi provide.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12882","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5806218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The disproportionately high value of small patches for biodiversity conservation","authors":"Federico Riva,&nbsp;Lenore Fahrig","doi":"10.1111/conl.12881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12881","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Small habitat patches have been historically neglected in conservation, primarily because extinction risk is higher in small patches. Nevertheless, sets of small patches usually harbor more species than one or a few larger patches of equal total area. Resolving this inconsistency is key to policy and practice in biodiversity conservation. Our analysis of 32 datasets (603 patches and 2290 taxa) provides two novel lines of evidence confirming that small patches have disproportionately high value for biodiversity. First, sets of small patches harbor more species than large patches even when considering only species of conservation concern. Second, sets of small patches harbor more species than large patches even when the small patches are very small compared to the large patches. Therefore, higher extinction risk in small than large patches does not decrease the cumulative value of small patches for biodiversity. We contend that acknowledging the conservation value of small patches, even very small patches, will be a necessary step for stemming biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12881","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5969641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Refining carbon credits to contribute to large carnivore conservation: The jaguar as a case study","authors":"Matthew Hyde,&nbsp;Valeria Boron,&nbsp;Samantha Rincón,&nbsp;Diego Francis Passos Viana,&nbsp;Letícia Larcher,&nbsp;Gustavo A. Reginato,&nbsp;Esteban Payán","doi":"10.1111/conl.12880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12880","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Carbon credits through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offer a unique opportunity to positively impact habitat and biodiversity conservation. Few financial tools are available to jaguar conservationists to conserve forest habitats; thus carbon credits are of great interest. In order to examine the opportunities and challenges of integrating conservation impact for jaguars and biodiversity into carbon credits, we review 44 REDD+ projects in Latin America certified by Verified Carbon Standard + Climate, Community and Biodiversity located within jaguar distribution, registered between 2011 and 2020. Of the 44, only eleven of those projects have jaguars as conservation targets, and seven of those eleven have a coherent plan for monitoring jaguar populations. While REDD+ projects promote forest cover and biomass conservation, tradeoffs based on limited financial resources at the onset and throughout the project may lead to limited monitoring capabilities and threat reduction, thus rendering co-benefit reporting deficient or absent. We suggest more rigorous baseline data requirements of fauna populations, greater collaboration between project developers, researchers and local communities to monitor wildlife and address human-jaguar conflicts, and clear requirements from national level REDD+ initiatives to ensure the conservation of a forest keystone species, the Americas’ largest felid.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12880","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"6168491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legal hunting for conservation of highly threatened species: The case of African rhinos","authors":"Michael ’t Sas-Rolfes,&nbsp;Richard Emslie,&nbsp;Keryn Adcock,&nbsp;Michael Knight","doi":"10.1111/conl.12877","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12877","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Legal hunting of threatened species—and especially the recreational practice of “trophy hunting”—is controversial with ethical objections being increasingly voiced. Less public attention has been paid to how hunting (even of threatened species) can be useful as a conservation tool, and likely outcomes if this was stopped. As case studies, we examine the regulated legal hunting of two African rhino species in South Africa and Namibia over the last half-century. Counter-intuitively, removing a small number of specific males can enhance population demography and genetic diversity, encourage range expansion, and generate meaningful socioeconomic benefits to help fund effective conservation (facilitated by appropriate local institutional arrangements).</p><p>Legal hunting of African rhinos has been sustainable, with very small proportions of populations hunted each year, and greater numbers of both species today in these countries than when controlled recreational hunting began. Terminating this management option and significant funding source could have negative consequences at a time when rhinos are being increasingly viewed as liabilities and revenue generation for wildlife areas is being significantly impacted by COVID-19. Provided that there is appropriate governance, conservation of certain highly threatened species can be supported by cautiously selective and limited legal hunting.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12877","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"6061319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Village modernization and reduced abundance of farmland birds: Why compensation for lost nesting sites may not be enough","authors":"Zuzanna M. Rosin,&nbsp;Tomas P?rt,&nbsp;Matthew Low,&nbsp;Dorota Kotowska,&nbsp;Marcin Tobolka,&nbsp;Pawe? Szymański,&nbsp;Matthew Hiron","doi":"10.1111/conl.12879","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12879","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;In their reply to Rosin et al. (&lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;), Hertzog et al. (&lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;), while generally agreeing that village modernization (VM) may be an overlooked driver of variation in farmland bird abundances, raise three issues of criticism: (1) an inappropriate space-for-time substitution was used for predicting declines, (2) the abundance of field nesting birds could be driven by a factor other than VM, and (3) our discussion of relevant EU programs for conservation measures targeted on rural buildings was too narrow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First, we agree our results could be misinterpreted as a space-for-time substitution if readers only consult the abstract. Our study was conducted in the context of documented population declines of farmland birds (along a temporal gradient), but our results concern predicted declines or changes in bird numbers across a spatial gradient. It is important for readers to understand that our models do not explicitly predict population trends in relation to future scenarios of VM or agricultural intensification (AI). This was carefully explained in both the methods and results. As a concession we acknowledge that these statements can be easily overlooked and perhaps we should have used a term like “change” rather than “decline” to avoid such misinterpretation. We also acknowledge that in our discussion we speculate on possible future and past changes based on these results. But this is hardly a damning criticism since this is common practice when long ecological data series are not available (Damgaard, &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;; Picket, &lt;span&gt;1989&lt;/span&gt;), and the same problems of interpretation also beset longitudinal studies (including the orthodox view that our results are challenging).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Second, we discussed possible reasons why field nester abundances may be related to VM. We were careful to make the correlative nature of these results clear and to mention the risk of confounding variables. Furthermore, the orthogonal design of the study was to explicitly remove confounding regional effects of wealth on both AI and VM. This was possible because the ownership of the “village” is largely independent of the surrounding agricultural land. It is worth reiterating that this study was designed and data collected to disentangle the simultaneous effects of VM and AI on bird abundances, rather than using some post hoc approach with data not specifically collected for purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finally, we agree that there are other avenues of financial support for addressing rural housing renovations. However, by viewing agrienvironmental schemes (AES) as not suitable instruments for our recommendations, misses an important point. VM relates not only to the increasing share of new and renovated homesteads, but also to the decreasing share of old farmsteads (via abandonment or conversion; Rosin et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Old farmsteads are associated with high domestic biodiversity (from farming animals and residues; Rosin et al., &lt;span&gt;2016","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12879","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"6015729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating the mitigation effectiveness of forests managed for conservation versus commodity production using an Australian example","authors":"Heather Keith,&nbsp;Brendan Mackey,&nbsp;Zoltan Kun,&nbsp;Martin Mikolá?,&nbsp;Marek Svitok,&nbsp;Miroslav Svoboda","doi":"10.1111/conl.12878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12878","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Forests are critical for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation: reducing emissions, increasing removals, and providing resilient ecosystems with stable long-term carbon storage. However, evaluating the mitigation effectiveness of forests managed for conservation versus commodity production has been long debated. We assessed factors influencing evaluation of mitigation effectiveness––land area, time horizon, reference level, carbon stock longevity––and tested the outcomes using analyses of carbon dynamics from an Australian ecosystem. Results showed that landscape scale accounting using carbon carrying capacity as the reference level and assessed over a series of time horizons best enables explicit evaluation of mitigation benefits. Time horizons need to differentiate between near-term emissions reduction targets (2030 and 2050), relative longevity of carbon stocks in different reservoirs, and long-term impacts on atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Greatest mitigation benefits derive from conservation through continued forest growth (52% gain in carbon stock by 2050) and accumulating carbon to attain carbon retention potential (70% gain). Cumulative emissions from harvesting result in permanent elevation of atmospheric CO₂ concentration (32 times the annual emission by rotation end). We recommend these time horizons and landscape scales for evaluating forest management to better guide policies and investments for achieving climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12878","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5800910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Undescribed species have higher extinction risk than known species","authors":"Jiajia Liu,&nbsp;Ferry Slik,&nbsp;Shilu Zheng,&nbsp;David B. Lindenmayer","doi":"10.1111/conl.12876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12876","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Newly discovered species are often threatened with extinction but in many cases have received limited conservation effort. To guide future conservation, it is important to determine the extinction risk of newly described species. Here, we test how time since formal description of a species is linked to its threat status to obtain a better insight into the possible threat status of newly described species and as yet undescribed species. We compiled IUCN Red List data for 53,808 species from five vertebrate groups described since 1758. Extinction risk for more recently described species has increased significantly over time; the proportion of threatened species among newly described species has increased from 11.9% for species described between 1758 and 1767 to 30.0% for those described between 2011 and 2020. Based on projections from our analysis, this could further increase to 47.1% by 2050. The pattern is consistent across vertebrate taxonomic groups and biomes. Current species extinction rates estimated from data of all known species are therefore highly likely to be underestimated. Intensive fieldwork to boost discovery of new species and immediate conservation action for newly described species, especially in tropical areas, is urgently required.</p>","PeriodicalId":157,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Letters","volume":"15 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.5,"publicationDate":"2022-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/conl.12876","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5787976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}