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A sound fallow program may potentially reduce food production and hence farmers' income in the short term but can help mitigate farmland pollution, improve food productivity, and enhance ecological protection in the long term. In China, degrading quality of arable land, soil pollution, and groundwater overexploitation require urgent implementation of suitable fallow schemes. We used existing spatial factors influencing the implementation of fallow schemes (including the delineated ecological protection red lines [EPRL], soil pollution, groundwater overexploitation, and arable land quality), and determined farmers' willingness to fallow to understand priority areas of fallow in China under multi‐scenario simulation. Results show that of all farmers willing to fallow, only 2.17% of farmers actively participated in a fallow scheme. Compared to other factors determining fallow implementation, our multi‐scenario simulation found that: (1) scales of the high fallow scheme exhibit a descending order of PES (priority to ecological security scenario, 20.58%) > MCL (minimum production capacity loss scenario, 19.52%) > PFW (priority to farmers' willingness scenario, 18.98%) > PFS (priority to food safety scenario, 15.30%) and that (2) the loss of grain production capacity in implementation of the high fallow scheme is PES (17.32%) > PFW (14.36%) > PFS (13.66%) > MCL (9.67%). We recommend that the implementation of the fallow program at a national level should consider farmers' willingness to participate in a fallow scheme, the loss of food production capacity in the short term, as well as the mitigation of arable land pollution, the improvement of ecological protection, and the safeguard of global food security in a long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticide use on tropical crops has increased substantially in recent decades, posing a threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services. Amphibians and reptiles are common in tropical agricultural landscapes, but few field studies measure pesticide impacts on these taxa. Here we combine 1-year of correlative data with an experimental field approach from Indonesia. We show that while pesticide application cannot predict amphibian or reptile diversity patterns in cocoa plantations, our experimental exposure to herbicides and insecticides in vegetable gardens eliminated amphibians, whereas reptiles were less impacted by insecticide and not affected by herbicide exposure. The pesticidedriven loss of a common amphibian species known to be a pest-control agent (mainly invertebrate predation) suggests a strong indirect negative effect of pesticides on this service. We recommend landscape-based Integrated Pest Management and additional ecotoxicological studies on amphibians and reptiles to underpin a regulatory framework and to assure recognition and protection of their ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging technologies based on the detection of electro‐magnetic energy offer promising opportunities for sampling biodiversity. We exploit their potential by showing here how they can be used in bat point counts—a novel method to sample flying bats—to overcome shortcomings of traditional sampling methods, and to maximize sampling coverage and taxonomic resolution of this elusive taxon with minimal sampling bias. We conducted bat point counts with a sampling rig combining a thermal scope to detect bats, an ultrasound recorder to obtain echolocation calls, and a near‐infrared camera to capture bat morphology. We identified bats with a dedicated identification key combining acoustic and morphological features, and compared bat point counts with the standard bat sampling methods of mist‐netting and automated ultrasound recording in three oil palm plantation sites in Indonesia, over nine survey nights. Based on rarefaction and extrapolation sampling curves, bat point counts were similarly effective but more time‐efficient than the established methods for sampling the oil palm species pool in our study. Point counts sampled species that tend to avoid nets and those that are not echolocating, and thus cannot be detected acoustically. We identified some bat sonotypes with near‐infrared imagery, and bat point counts revealed strong sampling biases in previous studies using capture‐based methods, suggesting similar biases in other regions might exist. Our method should be tested in a wider range of habitats and regions to assess its performance. However, while capture‐based methods allow to identify bats with absolute and internal morphometry, and unattended ultrasound recorders can effectively sample echolocating bats, bat point counts are a promising, non‐invasive, and potentially competitive new tool for sampling all flying bats without bias and observing their behavior in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for Lithium-ion batteries as a major power source in portable electronic devices and vehicles is rapidly increasing. I use cumulative data of vehicle, mobile phone, laptop, and digital camera production to show that demand will overshoot the available global Lithium resources before 2025. Even if 100% of all Lithium-ion batteries were recycled today, recycling could not prevent this resource depletion in time. As the increasing Lithium scarcity will increase the price, it will be feasible to mine diluted resources with a strong environmental impact. I highlight these impacts in Lithium-rich Bolivia, the potential new 'Saudi Arabia of Lithium.' Lithium extraction is likely to cause substantial water pollution, and-through impacts on native diversity-facilitate human health impacts from cyanobacteria that are normally kept at bay by native flamingos. The strongly intertwined Lithium extraction impacts on the environment, biodiversity, and human health from evaporative ponds and ore mining need to be taken into consideration when we discuss resource protection and opportunities from Lithium recycling. Overall, sensible Lithium recycling strategies can provide effective resource and environmental protection right now but urgently need to be supplemented by alternative technologies in the near-future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local and landscape-scale agricultural intensification is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Controversially discussed solutions include wildlife-friendly farming or combining high-intensity farming with land-sparing for nature. Here, we integrate biodiversity and crop productivity data for smallholder cacao in Indonesia to exemplify for tropical agroforests that there is little relationship between yield and biodiversity under current management, opening substantial opportunities for wildlife-friendly management. Species richness of trees, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates did not decrease with yield. Moderate shade, adequate labor, and input level can be combined with a complex habitat structure to provide high biodiversity as well as high yields. Although livelihood impacts are held up as a major obstacle for wildlife-friendly farming in the tropics, our results suggest that in some situations, agroforests can be designed to optimize both biodiversity and crop production benefits without adding pressure to convert natural habitat to farmland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]