Biological Conservation最新文献

{"title":"Disentangling the effects of population mixing and propagule amount in rare plant translocations","authors":"Sarah Bürli ,&nbsp;Markus Fischer ,&nbsp;Andreas Ensslin","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111132","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111132","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Genetic diversity and propagule amount have been suggested to be pivotal determinants for translocation success. Population mixing, as a proxy for higher genetic diversity, may increase mean plant fitness and resilience, while higher propagule amount buffers against environmental stochasticity. However, population mixing may also decrease mean individual fitness in translocations (e.g. via maladaptation) and higher propagule amount may increase intra-specific competition or attraction of antagonists.</div><div>To disentangle the role of population mixing and propagule amount on the early fitness of translocated plants, we transplanted material from single or mixed source populations and manipulated propagule amount by introducing smaller or larger plant numbers in translocation plots of four threatened herbaceous species. By employing aster models with survival and reproduction data over two consecutive years, we assessed effects of population mixing and propagule amount on the mean individual-plant fitness.</div><div>Contrary to our expectations, high propagule amount negatively affected plant fitness during the early establishment phase of the translocation of two species, while population mixing slightly negatively affected plant fitness of the two other species. Increased attraction of plants' antagonists and source populations' maladaptation and low fitness may explain this. Although the long-term effects of our treatment will emerge in subsequent generations, our findings indicate that population mixing and high propagule amount may not always be the most effective strategies for achieving successful early establishment. Instead, we suggest creating multiple small translocation plots rather than a few large ones and carefully considering source populations' vitality and suitability when designing plant translocations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111132"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143769313","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":"Continental declines in North American small mammal populations","authors":"Alec Medd ,&nbsp;Amanda E. Martin ,&nbsp;Adam C. Smith ,&nbsp;Lenore Fahrig","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We initially speculated that non-tropical North American (USA and Canada) small mammal abundances might have increased over the past several decades due to declines in mammalian predators. To test this idea we assembled from small mammal researchers 818 time series of small mammal abundances, containing a total of 5317 individual abundance data points, for 66 species in 21 genera. The resulting database is the largest collection of multi-year abundance data for North American small mammals. We then used a hierarchical Bayesian modelling approach to estimate an overall abundance trend. Contrary to our initial speculation, we found strong support for an overall decline in North American small mammal abundance, with an estimated annual decrease of 3.6 %. Sixty species trends were negative while only six were positive. Given this decline and given that small mammals are important for ecosystem function as prey items, as predators, and for seed dispersal, we suggest conservation efforts should be directed to this generally neglected group. In particular, we need further work to uncover the causes and consequences of small mammal declines, and to develop mitigation strategies to avoid further declines in North American small mammals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111109"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143760552","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":"Wildlife consumption patterns during a complex humanitarian and environmental crisis","authors":"Cortni Borgerson ,&nbsp;Be Noel Razafindrapaoly ,&nbsp;Be Jean Rodolph Rasolofoniaina ,&nbsp;Antonin Andriamahaihavana ,&nbsp;Fanomezantsoa L. Ravololoniaina ,&nbsp;Megan A. Owen ,&nbsp;Timothy M. Eppley","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111106","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111106","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Each year, people living near the world's most biodiverse places experience seemingly insurmountable challenges, using limited natural resources to meet immediate needs. Unfortunately, such pressures can place endemic wildlife at risk of extinction. Despite the increasing occurrence of severe human crises, studies on human-wildlife interactions under such crises are limited. We interviewed 4150 members of 909 rural families living near an endangered UNESCO World Heritage Site during an extended severe drought and food crisis to better understand how humans and forests interact in places of critical need. Nearly every family was food insecure, with shortages severe enough to force frequent meal skipping, reduction, and seed stock consumption. Domestic meat consumption and availability was low, and one-third of families ate wild meat. One-fifth of wild meat was purchased, with lemur meat comprising a quarter of all wild meat bought. Further, almost half of all lemur meat was purchased. This is among the highest proportion of both purchased wildlife and lemur meat found thus far in rural Madagascar, highlighting an unexpected market-driven dynamic to wildlife consumption during this crisis. Families who ate lemurs were wealthier but significantly less food secure, using more strategies to cope with severe food shortages. As Madagascar's wildlife and food security decline, remaining lemurs may be increasingly purchased by rural food-insecure homes with sufficient access to cash income, especially in shock-prone rural regions. Improving meat availability and long non-staple food supply chains to such regions may improve the future of people and lemurs alike.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111106"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143769312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"The impact of taxonomic confusion on conservation resources – Why population genomics should inform threatened species determination","authors":"Manuela Cascini ,&nbsp;Chantelle A.T. Doyle ,&nbsp;Aaron Mulcahy ,&nbsp;Eilish S. McMaster ,&nbsp;Richard Dimon ,&nbsp;Patricia M. Hogbin ,&nbsp;Marlien van der Merwe ,&nbsp;Jia-Yee Samantha Yap ,&nbsp;Maurizio Rossetto","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111113","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111113","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Threat determinations are the primary legal tools guiding conservation decisions to protect threatened species. Therefore, accurate taxonomic delimitation of these taxa is crucial for effective actions. Advances in genomics now offer powerful and cost-effective tools for rigorous taxonomic assessment but current listing processes rarely use population genomics to inform taxonomic boundaries before finalising listings. Here we discuss two examples highlighting the consequences of inadequate taxonomic resolution on biodiversity conservation. To avoid misdirected efforts and resources, we advocate that genomics is incorporated into conservation policy and management as a key companion to taxonomic assessment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111113"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143760551","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":"Nest-site or landscape features, that is the question: Varying influence of anthropogenic and predation effects on nest survival of a threatened Amazon parrot","authors":"Miguel Ángel De Labra-Hernández ,&nbsp;Katherine Renton","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Anthropogenic activities are the major drivers of biodiversity loss, and human pressure of capture for trade is closely associated with decreasing population trends of Psittaciformes. We evaluated reproductive output and daily survival rate of 45 nests of the threatened Northern Mealy Amazon (<em>Amazona guatemalae</em>) in tropical moist forest of southern Mexico to determine the influence of anthropogenic and natural factors on nest survival. We applied GLMM to determine which variables, at three scales of: nest-site; habitat; and landscape level, influenced daily survival of nests when failure was due to anthropogenic factors or animal predation. Northern Mealy Amazons had a high 74 % loss of initial reproductive investment of 2.6 ± 0.6 eggs/female, resulting in a low reproductive output of 0.6 ± 1.1 nestlings &gt;50 days old/female, mainly due to human poaching of nests. GLMM determined that human impacts on nest survival were influenced by the landscape feature of distance from the nearest village, with nests located &gt;2.3 km from a human settlement having greater probability of survival. However, the risk of animal predation of nests was influenced by nest-site features, with higher, smaller, and deeper nest-cavities having increased daily survival. Our results suggest that while parrots may have evolved nest-site selection criteria to reduce the risks of animal predation, these may have less influence over survival when faced with anthropogenic threats. The increasing human pressures on wild populations require landscape level and socially-focused conservation strategies for threatened species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111123"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738182","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":"Maintaining shallow waters to maximize the potential of saltpans as foraging habitat for migratory shorebirds along an endangered flyway","authors":"Weipan Lei ,&nbsp;José A. Masero ,&nbsp;Ziwen Chai ,&nbsp;Bing-Run Zhu ,&nbsp;Tong Mu ,&nbsp;He-Bo Peng ,&nbsp;Zhengwang Zhang ,&nbsp;Theunis Piersma","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111100","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111100","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global expansion of human activities has led to a dramatic reduction in natural wetlands. While effectively managed artificial wetlands hold the potential to counteract this decline, there is often a lack of knowledge regarding how to enhance their value for wildlife. To bridge this gap, we studied one of the world’s largest saltworks in the Yellow Sea, China. This region has experienced significant natural wetland losses, resulting in marked declines in waterbird populations across the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). Our research examined the impact of biotic factors such as prey abundance, and abiotic factors including water depth and management practices of saltpans, on the distribution of foraging shorebirds, as well as other waterbirds. Findings reveal that shorebirds, accounting for 95% of all waterbirds, heavily utilize saltpan evaporation ponds. Although various factors affect the distribution of shorebirds and other waterbirds, water depth and abandoned ponds (with low water depth) emerged as the primary factors. Notably, prey biomass (and abundance) did not exhibit a significant correlation with bird distribution across all shorebirds and other waterbirds, indicating that prey accessibility is more crucial than biomass in determining habitat suitability in these saltpans. Based on these insights, we propose tailored management strategies for the Yellow Sea saltpans that enhance conditions for shorebirds without impeding salt production, including lowering water levels through modifications to pond structures and reducing the volume of water evaporated during each stage of production. These straightforward, bird-friendly strategies provide practical solutions for adapting artificial wetlands to support migratory waterbirds in the EAAF and offer valuable insights for global waterbird conservation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111100"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143738184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Road disturbance drives a more simplified soundscape in temperate forests revealed by deep learning and acoustics indices","authors":"Shizheng Wang,&nbsp;Yuxuan Duan,&nbsp;Ranxing Cao,&nbsp;Jiawei Feng,&nbsp;Jianping Ge,&nbsp;Tianming Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111115","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111115","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global increases in road networks have been a significant ecological stressor. There is a growing awareness of its negative effects on wildlife and soundscapes, particularly through habitat fragmentation and the introduction of anthropogenic noise. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of biodiversity may provide integrative indices for assessing road effects. However, little is known about the responses of soundscape characteristics to roads with different traffic volume levels, especially in temperate forests. Here, we combined acoustic scene classification (ASC) and acoustic indices to examine the effects of road disturbance on soundscape attributes and composition in Northeast China. We collected and analysed over 3300 h of recordings from 28 sites across high-, medium-, and low-traffic roads. We classified each recording into different acoustic scenes based on the ResNet50 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and calculated the acoustic complexity index (ACI), bioacoustic index (BIO), acoustic diversity index (ADI), normalized difference soundscape index (NDSI), and power spectral density (PSD) values. Our results showed that acoustic indices and the daily audibility of birds, insects, amphibians and mammals significantly responded to road disturbances over 24 h diel cycles but with contrasting patterns; roads with intensifying traffic volume advanced the peak of biophony (BIO). As the traffic volume increased, the soundscape composition became more simplified, as measured by significantly lower ADI2K and NDSI values and significantly fewer daily audibility of the mammals. The ASC results further revealed that vehicle and insect sounds dominated the soundscape along the high-traffic road where nocturnal insects became the strongest acoustic markers. This study highlights the complex interactions between road disturbances and diverse biological taxa and presents important evidence that the effects of traffic noise and road networks should be considered in ecosystem conservation and management plans for the wildlife and acoustic communities of the landscape. We argue that the ASC combined with multiple acoustic indices is required to adequately account for the complex responses of soundscapes to large-scale anthropogenic disturbances.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111115"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143734901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Increased megafauna stranding risk from sand mining: Lessons from the Yangtze finless porpoise","authors":"Ruilong Wang ,&nbsp;Qiyue Li ,&nbsp;Jiaxian Ren ,&nbsp;Yi Han ,&nbsp;Xiaodong Sun ,&nbsp;Yingen Dai ,&nbsp;Yuyin Guo ,&nbsp;Kexiong Wang ,&nbsp;Ding Wang ,&nbsp;Zhigang Mei","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sand mining has emerged as a pervasive environmental crisis with profound consequences for freshwater ecosystems. However, current conservation efforts primarily focus on regulating mining intensity, often neglecting the long-term ecological consequences that may lead to unforeseen risks. Here, we integrated 20 years of remote sensing data on sand dredging activities with eight field surveys of the megafauna, Yangtze finless porpoise (<em>Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis</em>) in Poyang Lake, to investigate the long-term impacts of sand mining. Our findings revealed that high-density sand mining creates numerous water-filled depressions during the dry season (equivalent to 153.5 % of the original lake area), which we refer to as sand traps. These activities exert dual impacts on porpoise populations: high-intensity dredging significantly limits porpoise distribution during active mining (<em>p</em> = 0.031); whereas the expansion of sand traps attracts porpoises after mining ceases (<em>p</em> = 0.0016). Within sand trap areas, untransported sediments accumulate to form sand reefs, leading to irregular water depth. Moreover, under extreme dry events, the expansion rate of sand reefs (&lt;1 m water depths) within sand traps is 2.15 times higher than that outside them, further exacerbating the risk of megafauna stranding. In addition to controlling mining intensity, our study highlights the urgent need for mitigating long-term stranding risks from sand mining through ecological water level management, intensified patrolling, and targeted dredging, particularly amid the increasing frequency of extreme drought events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111111"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143734900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Different objective, same mechanism, and unforeseen consequences: Insights into a pioneering species introduction for conservation","authors":"Roberto Pascual-Rico","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The introduction of exotic species to new habitats has been a historical human practice, ranging from utilitarian benefits to conservation efforts. This phenomenon has intensified over time, resulting in unexpected ecological and socio-economic impacts on receiving ecosystems. The case of the North African aoudad (<em>Ammotragus lervia</em>) introduction in the SE Iberian Peninsula in 1970 illustrates the multifaceted consequences and complexities associated with species introduction. Aoudad's introduction can be contextualized in four categories regarding socio-economic and ecological contexts, such as assisted colonization, hunting interest, taxon substitution, and trophic rewilding. Initially, the establishment of the species was promoted, and its growth favoured. However, its expansion along with ecological and socio-economic impacts led to conservation conflicts and impacts on human activities. Over the last two decades, aoudad management has shifted focus to active population control to mitigate ecological and socio-economic risks. Such species introductions highlight the challenge of predicting ecological and socio-economic outcomes, given the limited understanding of complex ecosystem dynamics and social context changes. Recent propositions regarding conservation strategies involving species introductions must heed the lessons from the aoudad case. The aoudad case emphasizes the importance of applying precautionary principles in species introductions, given the potential for irreversible consequences posed by established populations of introduced species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"306 ","pages":"Article 111119"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143725004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Forest restoration can bolster salmon population persistence under climate change","authors":"Michele S. Buonanduci ,&nbsp;Eric R. Buhle ,&nbsp;Michael J. Case ,&nbsp;Emily R. Howe ,&nbsp;James C. Robertson ,&nbsp;Nicholas VanBuskirk ,&nbsp;Ailene K. Ettinger","doi":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As climate change alters freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats, Pacific salmon need increasing levels of conservation action to maintain population health. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, coastal forests and estuarine ecosystems have experienced extensive anthropogenic change since the early 20th century, and significant investments in restoration and conservation are currently underway. Restoration is increasingly implemented within the broad-scale context of changing ocean conditions, but we lack an understanding of the relative extent to which land-based actions can contribute to the resilience of salmon populations under climate change. We addressed this challenge using an integrated population model of chum salmon (<em>Oncorhynchus keta</em>) in the Willapa basin (southwest Washington, USA). We first conducted a retrospective analysis, evaluating how chum population dynamics have varied with watershed-scale forest management, estuarine invasive species control efforts, and changing ocean conditions from 1984 to 2022. Forest management and estuarine restoration both had measurable effects on population dynamics, as did nearshore ocean conditions. Using this model, we projected chum population dynamics under a range of future climate and forest management scenarios. Our results suggest the viability of our focal populations may decline with ocean warming, but that maintaining and promoting watershed-scale forest structural complexity can decrease the risk of population collapse compared to a scenario in which forests are intensively harvested. Overall, our findings illustrate the capacity for multiple conservation actions to contribute to salmon population health and suggest that watershed-scale forest management has the potential to bolster the persistence of salmon populations under climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55375,"journal":{"name":"Biological Conservation","volume":"305 ","pages":"Article 111099"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143724532","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}