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Introduction: Urbanization, characterized by the rapid expansion of human settlements and development, greatly impacts biodiversity, especially where developments and human settlements are not guided by proper environmental consideration. Methods: We used data collected through citizen science projects under the African Bird Atlas Project, based on standardized protocols to gather bird occurrence data. Species' ecological traits, related to foraging behavior, habitat speciality, and body mass, were analyzed to assess functional richness and functional diversity (FD) represented by Rao's quadratic entropy. Geospatial data, including the Global Human Settlement Layer and Human Modification Index (HMI), along with the probability of urban expansion up to 2030, were integrated to examine the impact of urbanization using Bayesian models. Results: Our findings reveal a marked decline in taxonomic richness, diversity, and functional richness associated with increasing urbanization and human modification, with a similar pattern observed along the gradient from mostly uninhabited areas to cities. However, FD increased with urbanization from uninhabited areas to cities. The relationship between FD and HMI was nonlinear, showing an initial negative trend that became positive as HMI increased. This suggests a transition in bird communities, where generalist species thrive in urban environments, potentially replacing specialized species and leading to functional redundancy. Discussion: Despite the complex relationships observed, urbanization has a predominantly negative impact on the richness and diversity of Afrotropical bird communities. The decline in avian diversity and functional richness has important implications for ecosystem functions and services, crucial for biodiversity and human well-being. Our research provides valuable insights into the ecological impacts of urban expansion and emphasizes the importance of preserving natural habitats amidst growing urban landscapes. Summary of taxonomic and functional richness and diversity trends along the urbanization gradient. Taxonomic Richness, Functional Richness, and Taxonomic Diversity decrease with increasing urbanization, as indicated by the downward red arrows (highest in uninhabited and rural areas). Functional Diversity, as measured by Rao's Quadratic Entropy, increases in more urbanized environments, as shown by the upward blue arrow (highest in cities). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Because of the complex interactions between socio-economic systems and remaining natural systems, conservation biology will need to be better integrated within a wider discipline of conservation science that is inherently integrated with the social sciences. Key to this progress will be the graduate training given to conservation scientists. We surveyed graduate students at the annual Student Conference on Conservation Science at Cambridge University in March 2007 to look at how current conservation science students view this need for integration. Our survey indicates that students want social science training alongside that in biology or ecology and that their current training in social science is inadequate for their future work in conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of human society and endeavor; the natural world and its conservation have not been spared. Through a process of expert consultation, we identified and categorized, into 19 themes and 70 subthemes, the ways in which biodiversity and its conservation have been or could be affected by the pandemic globally. Nearly 60% of the effects have been broadly negative. Subsequently, we created a compendium of all themes and subthemes, each with explanatory text, and in August 2020 a diverse group of experienced conservationists with expertise from across sectors and geographies assessed each subtheme for its likely impact on biodiversity conservation globally. The 9 subthemes ranked highest all have a negative impact. These were, in rank order, governments sidelining the environment during their economic recovery, reduced wildlife-based tourism income, increased habitat destruction, reduced government funding, increased plastic and other solid waste pollution, weakening of nature-friendly regulations and their enforcement, increased illegal harvest of wild animals, reduced philanthropy, and threats to survival of conservation organizations. In combination, these impacts present a worrying future of increased threats to biodiversity conservation but reduced capacity to counter them. The highest ranking positive impact, at 10, was the beneficial impact of wildlife-trade restrictions. More optimistically, among impacts ranked 11-20, 6 were positive and 4 were negative. We hope our assessment will draw attention to the impacts of the pandemic and, thus, improve the conservation community's ability to respond to such threats in the future., (© 2021 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.)