Environmental Management最新文献

{"title":"Factors Supporting Translational, Participatory Ecology Projects—Observations from Ten Years of Collaborative Research on Invasive Fish","authors":"Irene Adrian-Kalchhauser,&nbsp;Karen Bussmann-Charran,&nbsp;Anouk N’Guyen,&nbsp;Philipp Emanuel Hirsch,&nbsp;Joschka Wiegleb,&nbsp;Lukas Bergmann,&nbsp;Patricia Burkhardt-Holm","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02461-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02461-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Translational participatory research for environmental management occupies a demanding space at the interface of societal needs and academic research. Projects in this space usually face the challenge of reconciling stakeholder involvement and real-world applicability with academic career requirements such as excellence in fundamental research and the attraction of substantial research funds. Here, we share our experiences from a 12-year translational participatory research initiative on the management of invasive gobies in central Europe. We describe the project, synthesize inputs, outputs, and outcomes, and summarize conditions and practices across political, administrative, societal, institutional, team, and individual levels that we found important and beneficial in our attempts to produce both academic and applied outcomes. Our impression is that an interaction of factors across these levels created windows of opportunity, and that the team constellation and setting allowed us to seize these opportunities for the sake of both scientific progress and societal impact. By reflecting from the perspective of a multidisciplinary group of natural scientists directly engaged in such a project, we aim to contribute a personal account to social science frameworks on translational, participatory, inter- and transdisciplinary research. Our retrospective potentially can inform policy makers, funders, and institutions who seek to create enabling environments for interface research, and is helpful to fellow natural scientists who want to prepare the ground for their own translational participatory research initiatives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02461-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148458715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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":"How Governance Failures Drive Recurrent Flood Disasters in Pakistan: A Diagnostic Policy Analysis of the 2025 Flood","authors":"Wahid Ullah,&nbsp;Amjad Pervez,&nbsp;Ni Peng,&nbsp;Zhao Shaofeng","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02539-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02539-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Climate disasters are increasingly understood not as natural phenomena alone but as outcomes shaped by governance systems and institutional capacities. While existing scholarship has documented flood impacts and theorized governance deficits, few studies have traced the precise causal pathways through which institutional pathologies—fragmentation, spatial mismatch, and perverse incentives—produce recurrent disaster outcomes. This study addresses this gap by diagnosing the systemic governance failures that amplified the 2025 floods. Employing a Diagnostic Policy Analysis Framework for Recurrent Disasters through mixed-methods analysis of 27 official documents captured during the acute crisis phase, we demonstrate that the flood’s magnitude resulted from three interconnected governance failures: (1) institutional fragmentation that crippled coordination and response; (2) spatial mismatch between uniform national policies and Pakistan’s diverse hydro‑geographical regimes; and (3) perverse incentives that reward visible post‑disaster relief over proactive prevention. Our findings trace these failures to specific institutional mechanisms: irregularities in infrastructure contracting documented in audit reports, political interference in relief distribution, and the systematic disempowerment of district‑level disaster authorities. We further identify three transferable diagnostic pathways—fragmentation, spatial mismatch, and perverse incentives—that offer an analytical template for analyzing recurrent disasters in other complex governance contexts. The study concludes that building resilience requires confronting these specific institutional pathologies. For Pakistan, this means empowering district disaster authorities with mandated minimum budgets and evacuation authority under the NDMA Act, enforcing existing floodplain zoning regulations against politically connected developers, and restructuring disaster financing to pre‑position funds for pre‑emptive action triggered by meteorological forecasts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148443686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating Habitat Quality Fluctuations and Its Socio-ecological Drivers in Key Biodiversity Areas of the Kivu-Rusizi Transboundary Basin of Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC","authors":"Fabien Muhirwa,&nbsp;Lanhai Li,&nbsp;Duan Weili,&nbsp;Marie Fidele Tuyisenge,&nbsp;Albert Poponi Maniraho,&nbsp;Alexandre Tuyishime,&nbsp;Chrysi Laspidou,&nbsp;Barthelemy Harerimana,&nbsp;Vincent Nzabarinda,&nbsp;Leonidas Maniraho","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02552-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02552-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The Kivu-Rusizi basin, a transboundary biodiversity hotspot in East Africa and home to eight key biodiversity areas (KBAs), possesses resources essential for local and global communities, including critical minerals. However, it confronts various conservation challenges, primarily stemming from increasing socio-economic demands, security instability, a lack of joint monitoring, and insufficient comprehensive research across the basin among the involved countries. This study delivers the first assessment and projections of spatial habitat quality in the basin and its KBAs from 2017 to 2031 by integrating the InVEST habitat assessment model with land-use change predictions from the MOLUSCE-QGIS model to understand habitat quality status, the impacts of land-use dynamics, vulnerability hotspots, drivers of change, and needs to be addressed in the basin’s conservation. The results reveal widespread habitat vulnerability, particularly impacting rangelands, which are projected to decline by 9.4 percentage points. Basin-wide habitat quality is expected to decrease from 93.5 to 88%, with KBAs experiencing a decline from 95.1 to 90.1%. Specific KBAs, such as Virunga, Kibira, Rusizi, and Itombwe National Parks, show substantial declines, with 35 to 50% of their habitats in vulnerable conditions. Other KBAs, including Nyungwe, Kahuzi-Biega, and Gishwati-Mukura National Parks, are expected to face additional threats, particularly from roads and built-up infrastructure. Threat extent and intensity analysis revealed complementary threats with diverse impacts: deforestation, mining, and agriculture dominated by spatial coverage (78.5% of total impact; deforestation alone &gt;40%), while mining and urbanization showed the strongest per-unit impact (β = −8.20 and −5.48; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), with odds ratios near zero (OR = 0.0003 and 0.004), indicating that the presence of these drivers almost entirely eliminates the probability of suitable habitat quality at their operational sites. The study highlights the urgent need for continuous border monitoring, habitat conservation, and cross-border policy harmonization among the three countries within the basin.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148434770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conservation Value of Sudanese Savannah Land Use Systems for Birds in the Lagdo Area, North Cameroon","authors":"Jean Tonleu,&nbsp;Ghislain Noé Piebeng Kougoum,&nbsp;Vanessa Kamgang Wandja,&nbsp;Noelline Tsafack,&nbsp;Sébastien Lhoumeau,&nbsp;Solange Mekuate Kamga,&nbsp;Jan Riegert","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02557-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02557-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Aggregate biodiversity metrics frequently mask profound structural shifts in human-modified savannahs, creating a persistent paradox where apparent ecological stability conceals severe community reorganization and functional degradation. To resolve this tension in the Sudanese savannah of North Cameroon, systematic sampling of 4,166 individuals across 68 species quantified avian responses to landscape conversion into Mixed Rural Habitats, Rice Paddies, and Annual Crop Fields. Although aggregate species richness and abundance remained invariant across these land-use types, pairwise comparisons confirmed that each habitat supports a distinct avian signature, driving systematic community turnover rather than taxonomic attrition. Community identity partitioned decisively by land-use, with Annual Crop Fields supporting 39.7% of unique species, Rice Paddies at 26.5%, and Mixed Rural Habitats at 7.4%. Furthermore, 13.23% of recorded species were exclusively restricted to these agricultural systems, establishing land-use type as a statistically significant predictor of community assembly and confirming that each habitat contributes a unique structural component to the regional species pool. Functional organization mirrored this targeted reconfiguration; while most feeding guilds exhibited resilience to modification, Aquatic predator and Omnivore abundances proved highly sensitive to land-use variation, identifying these specific guilds as critical functional sentinels of anthropogenic disturbance. Ultimately, these dynamics fundamentally reframe the conservation value of agricultural savannahs, shifting the primary metric of success from gross species counts to the preservation of compositional turnover and functional integrity. The persistence of these diverse assemblages remains strictly contingent upon the structural complexity of the land-use mosaic rather than the mere localized absence of human activity. Consequently, effective conservation in the Sudano-Sahelian biome necessitates management frameworks that transcend simple habitat preservation to actively integrate native vegetation within productive agricultural systems, ensuring that unchecked agricultural expansion does not precipitate silent functional homogenization across the rapidly transforming African tropics.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148417500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Precautionary Principle in Adjudicating Uncertainties: A Short Review on Science and Law","authors":"Changdeok Gim,&nbsp;Nicola Ulibarri,&nbsp;David L. Feldman","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02555-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02555-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This research explores the institutional application of the “precautionary principle” to addressing scientific uncertainties, with a focus on how the international legal framework adjudicates environmental risks associated with the release of nuclear-polluted wastewater from the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster site. Scientific uncertainties tend to be amplified and escalated into political disputes due to the diversified assessments and standards on the potential risks of the discharged wastewater to public health in the East Asian region. This study asks: What institutional mechanisms can be an effective venue to manage scientific uncertainties and mitigate social amplifications of risk? This research analyzes the current legal frameworks, such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s resolution on genetically modified organism (GMO) imports to the European Union, to clarify the complexity of law and uncertainties and how they apply to the Fukushima case. Recognizing the innate gaps where technological assessment is limited, this paper suggests considering the precautionary principle as “gatekeeping” in international courts to bridge the gaps in conventional risk assessment. This approach aims to narrow methodological discrepancies between legal procedures and scientific corroboration on uncertainties, as a deliberative approach to scientific uncertainties in adjudication. Without such a mechanism, long-horizon environmental harms like those in the Fukushima case will continue to be excluded from international adjudication.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02555-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148417555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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":"Integrating Ecological Modelling and Local Knowledge to Understand Elephant Occurrence and Human–Elephant Interactions in the Southern Western Ghats","authors":"Simran Prasad,&nbsp;Krithi K. Karanth,&nbsp;Vikram Aditya,&nbsp;Jennifer Solomon","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02556-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02556-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Human–elephant conflict causes substantial damages to people and elephants worldwide through crop damage, property loss, injuries and fatalities. As interactions increase, identifying environmental drivers of reported elephant occurrence is essential for developing long-term mitigation strategies. We surveyed 420 community members living in conflict areas across Kerala and Karnataka, in the southern Western Ghats of south India using opportunistic and snowball sampling. We predicted that reported elephant occurrence would be positively associated with higher rainfall, lower human population density, higher years of residence, and suitable land cover, and negatively associated with distance to protected areas and water bodies. We used generalized additive models to estimate the probability of reported elephant occurrence, and a Markov Chain model to project future occurrence in 2030. Our results partially supported these predictions. Reported elephant occurrence increased with more rainfall and was higher when closer to protected areas and water bodies, however, human population density and years of residence showed significant non-linear effects, indicating their influence on reported elephant occurrence is more complex than anticipated. Across both landscapes, relationships between environmental variables and reported elephant occurrence shifted from near-linear in 2022 to non-linear patterns in 2030, indicating growing unpredictability in elephant movement under changing conditions. Thematic analysis of community responses revealed key themes of elephant habitat changes such as: perceived habitat changes and dense forest, increased human–elephant interactions, and mitigation measures. Findings highlight the importance of habitat restoration, maintaining functional ecological corridors, and integrating local knowledge with environmental modeling to better understand conflict and support coexistence.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148417586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How landscape factors relate to biodiversity-economic performance in an Estonian grassland-rich region","authors":"Takamasa Nishizawa,&nbsp;Johannes Schuler,&nbsp;Miguel Villoslada,&nbsp;Claudia Bethwell,&nbsp;Michael Glemnitz,&nbsp;Maaria Semm,&nbsp;Monika Suškevičs,&nbsp;Kalev Sepp,&nbsp;Rando Värnik,&nbsp;Florian Kestel,&nbsp;Meelis Ots,&nbsp;Peter Zander,&nbsp;Zander Venter,&nbsp;Sandra Uthes","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02533-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02533-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Halting biodiversity loss on semi-natural grassland has become a key priority of agri-environmental policies in Estonia. However, to what extent current schemes are sufficient to achieve biodiversity targets and the role of landscape factors is still insufficiently understood in this context. This study explored trade-offs between profitability and biodiversity conservation across heterogeneous Estonian agricultural landscapes to support the development of economically effective grassland conservation schemes. To this end, we selected twelve ‘landscape windows’ in a grassland-rich region that represent a gradient of several biodiversity-related landscape factors (semi-natural grassland share, yield potential and landscape complexity). Profitability was assessed using total gross margins derived from a bio-economic model, while biodiversity was evaluated through habitat values for different bird species, based on model outputs. We found that landscapes with higher complexity, which currently maintain higher biodiversity levels, had a corresponding lower farm profitability. In particular, landscape windows dominated by semi-natural grasslands with low grass yields showed the lowest profitability, largely due to limited capacity for feeding beef cattle. In contrast, arable land-dominated landscapes (i.e. those with higher yield potential) demonstrated considerable potential for enhancing biodiversity outcomes while minimising profitability losses. Therefore, conservation policy faces two main challenges: 1. preserving landscapes with high biodiversity value against further decline in profitability, 2. highlighting the need to explore and design biodiversity measures in arable-dominated landscapes that could improve biodiversity outcomes while limiting impacts on farm profitability. This study illustrates that landscape factors deserve greater attention in conservation planning.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02533-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148403155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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":"Perceiving Change: Local Perspectives on Ecological Transformation and Sustainability Dynamics in the Alpine Lake Idro Ecosystem","authors":"Chiara Mazzocchi,&nbsp;Simone Manna","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02553-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02553-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Freshwater lakes are increasingly affected by interacting ecological, infrastructural and socio-economic pressures, yet research on regulated deep lake systems has mainly focused on biophysical processes, with comparatively limited attention to how local stakeholders perceive ecological change and sustainability transitions. This study addresses this gap by examining how stakeholders interpret environmental change, water governance and future sustainability in Lake Idro, a regulated deep subalpine lake in northern Italy. The novelty of the paper lies in integrating limnological evidence with qualitative stakeholder perspectives to show how perceived ecological improvement, governance conflicts and institutional trust jointly shape local understandings of sustainability. The study combines documentary and scientific evidence with a focus group and semi-structured interviews with 21 stakeholders, including residents, institutional actors, environmental associations and tourism operators. Data were analyzed through an inductive approach inspired by the Gioia methodology. The findings identify two interrelated dimensions: Ecological Perception and Participatory Awareness, which captures how visible environmental changes and lived experience inform local interpretations of lake conditions; Territorial Governance and Local Development, which reflects concerns over water regulation, tourism, infrastructure and institutional legitimacy. Stakeholders generally perceive an improvement in the lake’s ecological and esthetic condition following reduced water-level fluctuations, while expressing concern that new hydraulic interventions could reintroduce ecological instability and undermine tourism-based development. By connecting ecological evidence with socially mediated perceptions of change, the study contributes to environmental management and adaptive water governance debates, highlighting the importance of knowledge exchange, participatory decision-making and institutional trust in managing regulated lake systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02553-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148395433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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":"Disentangling Environmental Variability and Mining Disturbance: A Five-year Assessment of Mammal Community Responses to Open-pit Expansion in a Semi-arid Landscape","authors":"Ruan W. Higgs,&nbsp;Gert Nicolaas Smit,&nbsp;Francois Deacon","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02549-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02549-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Open-pit mining is a major driver of habitat transformation, yet separating mining impacts from natural environmental variability remains challenging in semi-arid ecosystems. We evaluated mammal detection patterns over five years (2020–2024) in relation to mining expansion, rainfall, vegetation productivity, water availability, and habitat type in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Wildlife monitoring was conducted using 52 fixed camera-trap stations distributed across approximately 43,000 ha, generating 14,360 trap-nights. Detection activity varied with rainfall and herbaceous productivity, reflecting expected resource-driven dynamics. However, three nocturnal species, aardwolf (<i>Proteles cristatus</i>), Cape fox (<i>Vulpes chama</i>), and Cape porcupine (<i>Hystrix africaeaustralis</i>), showed consistent declines associated with mining expansion into wild olive shrubland. Detection rates were negatively correlated with the extent of mining disturbance (r = –0.55 to –0.72).</p><p>Because detection probability was not explicitly modelled, results are interpreted as activity-based associations rather than measures of abundance. Nevertheless, the consistency of observed spatial and temporal patterns suggests that mining-related habitat modification may influence wildlife activity beyond background climatic variability. These findings highlight the value of integrating long-term camera-trap monitoring with spatial disturbance mapping to support biodiversity management in semi-arid mining landscapes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02549-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148395375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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 Ecological Role Of Traditional Home Gardens In Facilitating Bird Movement In Human-Modified Tropical Landscapes","authors":"Fredy Vargas-Cárdenas,&nbsp;Daniel M. Auliz-Ortiz,&nbsp;Eliane Ceccon","doi":"10.1007/s00267-026-02554-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00267-026-02554-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to biodiversity, particularly in tropical agricultural landscapes, where natural forests persist as small and isolated patches. Identifying how human-managed habitats contribute to functional connectivity is essential to understanding species persistence in these landscapes. Agroforestry systems, particularly traditional home gardens (THG), support rural well-being by providing tangible products and enhancing landscape functional connectivity. This study evaluated whether THG facilitates bird movements between forest fragments in a mountainous region of Mexico. We recorded the arrival and departure directions of birds visiting THG and analyzed movement orientation using circular statistics. Then, we compared the directions observed in the sampling with hypothetical directions measured from a hypothetical route that birds may use, defined from the spatial arrangement of THG cover in the village, the surrounding forest fragments, and the location of the sampled THG. Our results show that most birds departed in the opposite direction from which they arrived, suggesting that THG act as biological stepping stones, forming corridors that enhance connectivity between fragmented habitats. This pattern was consistent when analyzing the complete assembly and across most trophic guilds, except for granivorous birds. Comparing observed arrival and departure directions with hypothetical directions shows that birds move through the THG along routes connecting the forest fragments surrounding the village. These findings highlight the potential of THG to enhance functional connectivity and support ecological flows in fragmented tropical landscapes. Thus, conserving and managing THG within broader landscape networks can safeguard biodiversity and ecological processes in human-modified environments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":543,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Management","volume":"76 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-026-02554-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148403109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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}