Erik Joaquín Torres-Romero, Timothy M. Eppley, Guillermo A. Woolrich-Piña, José I. González-Rojas, Heliot Zarza, Armando Sunny, Gerardo Ceballos
{"title":"Effectiveness of conservation lands in Mexico for safeguarding terrestrial endemic species from the human-induced extinction crisis","authors":"Erik Joaquín Torres-Romero, Timothy M. Eppley, Guillermo A. Woolrich-Piña, José I. González-Rojas, Heliot Zarza, Armando Sunny, Gerardo Ceballos","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70381","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The conservation of endemic species requires identifying areas within their range affected by human-modified landscapes, an unresolved challenge across Mexico, one of the world's most biodiverse countries. Although formally protected areas are the backbone of biodiversity conservation, there are often substantial gaps in their overall effectiveness. Here, we conducted a comprehensive national-scale analysis to assess the effectiveness of conservation lands in mitigating cumulative human impacts on endemic species of plants and animals. We processed national distributional maps for 1639 endemic species, showing the overlap of conservation lands with cumulative human impacts. We quantified overlap between species distributions, conservation lands, and human-pressure categories and evaluated differences among groups statistically. Our findings reveal that 56% and 26% of all endemic species' distribution ranges overlap ecoregions experiencing medium and high human pressure, respectively, while only 18% occur in regions with low human pressure. Biome-level analysis shows that 87% of endemic species' ranges overlap with biomes under medium human pressure, with just 13% persisting in low-impact biomes. Despite this, Protected Natural Areas overlap <b>∼</b>10% of these species' ranges, while Voluntary Conservation Use Areas and other effective Area-Based Conservation Measures overlap with <b>∼</b>1% and 3%, respectively. Our results indicate that existing conservation lands are insufficient to safeguard Mexico's endemic species, including those most at risk of extinction, thereby foreshadowing localized extirpations and potential species loss. This underscores the urgent need for a substantial expansion of conservation networks to secure biodiversity in a rapidly human-dominated landscape; however, achieving this goal will be politically, economically, and socially demanding without substantial national and international support. Our study advances understanding of these conservation challenges and, despite the potential difficulties, highlights the necessity for immediate, proactive measures to ensure the long-term persistence of Mexico's endemic species.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70381","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Igor Khorozyan, Pavel Weinberg, Elmar Babaev, Parviz Fatullayev, Alexander Malkhasyan, Elshad Askerov, Arman Kandaryan, Ismayil Mammadov, Arash Ghoddousi, Tobias Kuemmerle, Konul Ahmadova, Vasil Ananian
{"title":"Testing the reliability of a camera-trap based abundance proxy for assessing mountain ungulate populations","authors":"Igor Khorozyan, Pavel Weinberg, Elmar Babaev, Parviz Fatullayev, Alexander Malkhasyan, Elshad Askerov, Arman Kandaryan, Ismayil Mammadov, Arash Ghoddousi, Tobias Kuemmerle, Konul Ahmadova, Vasil Ananian","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70364","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70364","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Monitoring wildlife abundance is important for understanding species population status and trends and, thus, for informing conservation planning and wildlife management. Yet, abundance monitoring can be challenging and costly to implement, particularly for wildlife of conservation concern occurring in remote and rugged terrain. Remotely-sensed proxies, such as the relative abundance index (RAI) based on camera-trap data, can be a useful and cost-efficient approach in such situations. However, RAI is typically assumed to be linearly, continuously, and positively related to actual abundance—the assumptions that are rarely tested. In this study, we explored how well RAI from camera-traps corresponds to direct field estimates of the abundance of the bezoar goat (<i>Capra aegagrus</i>) in the rugged mountains of the South Caucasus. Specifically, we summarized the data of RAI and count estimates obtained during the same one-month periods (all in winter) and 5 × 5 km<sup>2</sup> grid cells in 2018, 2019, and 2022, and used linear regression to determine the relationship between both measures. We found that the RAI-abundance relationship was reliable, with a positive, statistically significant, accurate and precise effect, and a large effect size. We conclude that camera-trap based RAI can be a reliable metric for winter monitoring of bezoar goats in remote and rugged mountain regions such as the South Caucasus. This offers a widely applicable, relatively low-cost pathway to upscale mountain ungulate monitoring to larger areas to inform conservation planning and wildlife management.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70364","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Sarah P. Saunders, Sami Livingston, Nicole L. Michel, Lindsay M. Addison, Elizabeth Amendola, Abigail Burke, Shelby Casas, Allie Hayser, Vandana Menser, Erin Rogers, Abby Sterling, Ashley A. Dayer
{"title":"Community-based social marketing is associated with shorebird responses along the U.S. Atlantic coast","authors":"Sarah P. Saunders, Sami Livingston, Nicole L. Michel, Lindsay M. Addison, Elizabeth Amendola, Abigail Burke, Shelby Casas, Allie Hayser, Vandana Menser, Erin Rogers, Abby Sterling, Ashley A. Dayer","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70370","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Community-based social marketing (CBSM) is increasingly used in conservation to influence human behavior, yet its biological effectiveness is rarely evaluated. We assessed relationships between CBSM campaigns and both behavioral and demographic responses of six shorebird species across five U.S. Atlantic coast states during the 2024 breeding season. Using nearly 1000 point counts, >850 behavioral observations, and nest monitoring data analyzed with generalized additive models, we evaluated patterns across three CBSM campaigns (dog-leashing, dog-free beaches, and walk-around-flocks) alongside field-based stewardship presence. Walk-around-flocks campaigns coincided with significantly lower shorebird vigilance, reduced variability in vigilance, and evidence consistent with improved fledging success for the federally listed Atlantic coast Piping Plover (<i>Charadrius melodus</i>). In contrast, dog-leashing campaigns showed mixed outcomes: leashed dog presence was negatively related to shorebird abundance, and apparent campaign benefits diminished at sites with high numbers of unleashed dogs. Steward presence also corresponded with reduced disturbance and lower bird vigilance. Although not all interventions produced consistent responses, our findings suggest that CBSM strategies promoting bird-friendly, conflict-avoidance behaviors, particularly when paired with stewardship, may help reduce human disturbance and support improved conditions for shorebirds during critical breeding periods.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70370","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Anik Jarvis, Helena Jeffery Brown, Ashley Dias, Jeremiah K. Edmund, Indira Gamatis, Aria St.Louis, Philip J. K. McGowan
{"title":"Challenges for Small Island Developing States in meeting monitoring requirements of the Kunming-Montréal global biodiversity framework","authors":"Anik Jarvis, Helena Jeffery Brown, Ashley Dias, Jeremiah K. Edmund, Indira Gamatis, Aria St.Louis, Philip J. K. McGowan","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70348","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an ambitious agreement to halt the decline of the world's biodiversity by 2030 and restore nature by 2050. In order to measure progress toward the Framework's goals and targets, a monitoring framework has been established and this includes 27 headline indicators and 71 questions comprising 15 binary indicators that all Parties are expected to report against. There are a further 162 optional indicators. Parties vary enormously in human population size, with 13 Parties having a population of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants and 15 with more than 100 million, affecting their ability to meet reporting needs. Small Island Developing States face particular challenges in availability of data, access to existing data and data management, synthesizing and analyzing data, and reporting. Addressing these challenges requires high-level understanding and agreement on the importance of gathering and managing sufficient data to meet reporting requirements, adopting a unified approach to reporting so that data management and verification are efficient and effective. All of this requires adequate resources, whether nationally or regionally. The establishment of regional and subregional technical and scientific support centers through the Convention's Technical and Scientific Cooperation Mechanism provides an opportunity to develop realistic, appropriate and sustainable data management and reporting processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70348","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"From research to conservation: Site selection for habitat restoration of a narrowly distributed and critically endangered butterfly","authors":"Luca Anselmo, Enrico Caprio, Irene Regaiolo, Beatrice Gammino, Simona Bonelli","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70343","url":null,"abstract":"<p>An alarming loss of insect diversity is occurring globally, with a substantial portion of European endemic butterflies currently threatened with extinction. Species with narrow distributions are in urgent need of conservation actions. This study focuses on <i>Polyommatus humedasae</i>, a monophagous butterfly endemic to a restricted area in northwestern Italy, where its primary threat is woody encroachment. We developed a replicable and data-driven workflow to assist in selecting areas for habitat restoration, based on high-resolution species distribution modeling. Presence data derived from a recent mark-release-recapture study were combined with topographic variables and vegetation indices from remote sensing to generate a fine-scale habitat suitability model. Based on the habitat suitability map, we assessed connectivity to identify critical areas for species movement. We modeled the probability of presence as a function of vegetation cover, identifying the optimal tree cover for the species. Restoration areas were prioritized where patches were unsuitable due to excessively high tree cover and where intervention could enhance connectivity. An area of 0.6 hectares was selected for restoration, considering additional criteria such as impacts on other conservation elements, accessibility to the area, availability of financial resources, and stakeholder involvement. This approach demonstrates the practical applicability of species distribution models in guiding ecological restoration and enabled the development of a management plan aimed at maintaining landscape heterogeneity through a dynamic, small-scale strategy focused on key areas for species movement.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70343","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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":"Habitat changes and conservation challenges of black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea","authors":"Hyun-Ah Choi","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70365","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Black-faced Spoonbill (<i>Platalea minor</i>), a globally endangered species, classified as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as of 2024 and reassessed as Vulnerable on June 18, 2025, is facing increasing threats in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) due to habitat degradation, human activities, and reclamation projects. The species relies on the DPRK's coastal wetlands and tidal mudflats for breeding, migration stopover, and over-summering. While some areas are designated as National Migratory Bird Reserves, management measures have been limited, reducing their effectiveness. Previous data from 1997 to 2001 indicated significant Black-faced Spoonbill populations at key sites, yet recent assessments are scarce, with only a few surveys conducted after 2016. Extensive reclamation projects have significantly reduced suitable habitats, particularly in Ryongmae Island Mudflat, South Hwanghae Province, Southwest coast of DPRK, and Honggon Islands, North Phyongan Province, Northwest coast of DPRK. The lack of up-to-date field data poses challenges for conservation efforts. While DPRK has established environmental protection laws and made international commitments, balancing conservation with economic development remains a challenge. This study highlighted the urgent need for comprehensive ecological surveys, stronger habitat protection policies, and international collaboration to mitigate habitat loss and ensure the long-term survival of the Black-faced Spoonbill in the DPRK.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70365","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Christian J. Rivera, William R. Travis, Miguel Caireta Camps, Ruth M. Rocker, Javier Velásquez Varela, Pamela Montero Alvarez, Agustín Fuentes, David S. Wilcove
{"title":"Tourism, human–wildlife interactions, and wildlife trade in the globalizing Amazon","authors":"Christian J. Rivera, William R. Travis, Miguel Caireta Camps, Ruth M. Rocker, Javier Velásquez Varela, Pamela Montero Alvarez, Agustín Fuentes, David S. Wilcove","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70347","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Wildlife tourism is a globalization process and consequence that is increasing, yet still in its relative infancy in the Amazon. The drivers and impacts of tourism activities on conservation in the Amazon region are largely unknown. We assessed the role of tourism in wildlife-related activities in the city of Iquitos, Peru, one of the most important sites for both tourism and the wildlife trade in the Amazon. Our multidisciplinary approach entailed key informant interviews with conservation professionals (<i>n</i> = 30), structured surveys with national and foreign tourists (<i>n</i> = 370), participant observation at key tourism sites (<i>n</i> = 12 sites), and analysis of social media (<i>n</i> = 339 YouTube videos). Half of the key informants perceived tourism as a driver of active human–wildlife encounters and wildlife trade. Surveyed tourists participated in activities potentially harmful to wildlife, including taking photos/selfies with wildlife (73%), active interactions with wild animals (handling, playing, feeding; 72%), wild meat consumption (29%), purchase of live animals (15%), turtle egg consumption (13%), and kambo (use of frog secretions as medicine; 9%), with higher proportions of national (Peruvian) tourists than international tourists participating across all of these activities. Peruvian nationality was a statistically significant predictor of engaging in photos/selfies with wildlife, active human–wildlife interactions, purchase of live animals, and wild meat consumption. Active encounters with wildlife were detected in about half (46%) of the videos analyzed, and participant observation confirmed findings from videos that sites advertised as wildlife rescue centers provide opportunities for active tourist-wildlife interactions. We conclude by proposing five intervention points that consider the relationships among tourism and active human–wildlife encounters, the wildlife trade, and information spread via social media in the Peruvian Amazon.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70347","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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 wild honeybee population of Europe is in decline: Evidence from monitoring studies","authors":"Patrick L. Kohl, Benjamin Rutschmann","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70345","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Populations of wild western honeybees (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) have been neglected because the species has been considered to consist of managed colonies only. New data suggest that wild colonies (still) make up at least one sixth of the overall European honeybee population. Their population trends can be evaluated like those of other species, albeit with some methodological adjustments to account for the bias introduced by swarms emigrating from apiaries. We used data on the annual survival rates of free-living colonies from seven European countries and assumed a realistic swarming rate of two swarms per colony per year to estimate the intrinsic growth rates of wild populations. Observed variation in nest site reoccupation rates among years was taken as a measure of environmental stochasticity in population performance. We then simulated the autonomous wild population changes over 10-year periods, the time frame considered for assessments by the IUCN. Wild honeybee populations still exist in five of the seven countries with data, but they currently act as demographic sinks in most regions. With an estimated median population decline of 56% per decade, the honeybee can be considered “Endangered in the wild” at the European level.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70345","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Hervé R. Memiaghe, Bart R. Johnson, Chris Enright, Dennis Galvan, Nelson Ting
{"title":"A landscape framework for human-elephant coexistence","authors":"Hervé R. Memiaghe, Bart R. Johnson, Chris Enright, Dennis Galvan, Nelson Ting","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70346","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Forest elephant crop depredation incidents (CDIs) threaten both villagers' livelihoods and conservation efforts for endangered forest elephants in countries such as Gabon, Africa. We argue that improving crop protection alone will not solve the problem. Rather, CDIs will continue to escalate unless both villagers' and elephants' needs are mutually satisfied so as to create conditions for coexistence. For that reason, we developed a landscape framework for human-elephant coexistence to support collaborative planning at village and landscape scales by addressing both human and elephant needs. To this end, we interviewed villagers and conservation professionals, and searched the literature to identify actions to mitigate each of five previously identified CDI problem types that were derived from stakeholder interviews. These actions were synthesized to formulate five overarching coexistence strategies and detailed objectives that address unmet human or elephant needs underlying each problem type. The resulting landscape coexistence framework comprises a transferable structure with three goals: supporting elephants, supporting villagers, and differentiating their territories. Coexistence strategies are nested under goals, and objectives under strategies. The accompanying action toolbox organizes the 60 actions under the strategies and objectives, with sources for each action. The framework and toolbox are designed for use in collaborative planning forums to address a broad suite of spatially situated processes that interact to increase CDIs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70346","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Ronan Hart, H. Anu Kramer, Josh Barry, M. Zachariah Peery, Stephanie Eyes, Craig Thompson, Sarah Sawyer, Gavin M. Jones
{"title":"Habitat loss and fragmentation for an old-forest species is driven by severe wildfire and drought","authors":"Ronan Hart, H. Anu Kramer, Josh Barry, M. Zachariah Peery, Stephanie Eyes, Craig Thompson, Sarah Sawyer, Gavin M. Jones","doi":"10.1111/csp2.70349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.70349","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding drivers of habitat loss and fragmentation can inform conservation policy and action. However, drivers vary across space and time, and complete datasets of potential drivers that align with time series of species habitat are rare. We developed a 38-year time-series of nesting/roosting habitat for the California spotted owl in the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA, and used a novel disturbance dataset to attribute habitat changes to potential drivers. We found that the total area of high-quality nesting/roosting habitat declined by 43% between 1985 and 2022. Moreover, the average high-quality habitat patch became 68% smaller and 33% more isolated over the study period. During 2002–2022, drought was the most abundant disturbance in spotted owl habitat (49% of habitat affected), followed by high-severity fire (32%) and fuels management (20%). However, the amount of disturbance did not always match impact. Drought, while most common, was responsible for only 20% of estimated habitat losses. High-severity fire was responsible for nearly half (45%) of habitat loss, while fuels management was responsible for only 9% of habitat loss (and 14% of habitat gains). Dominant drivers of habitat loss varied spatially, suggesting the potential to use local information to calibrate conservation action. Previously, the absolute and relative impacts of fuels management, severe wildfires, drought, and other disturbance agents on spotted owl habitat were unknown. Here, we demonstrated that the most influential factor driving losses of high-quality spotted owl habitat was high-severity fire, and that fuels management, while associated with relatively smaller habitat losses, was also associated with habitat gains, suggesting net benefits of fuels management via its effect of reducing high-severity fire. We demonstrate the power of using dynamic species distribution models to map and track habitat over time and understand the factors that may be contributing to observed habitat losses and gains.</p>","PeriodicalId":51337,"journal":{"name":"Conservation Science and Practice","volume":"8 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.70349","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148699840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}