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Climate change is one of the major challenges to the current conservation of biodiversity. Here, by using the brown bear, Ursus arctos, in the southernmost limit of its global distribution as a model species, we assessed the impact of climate change on the species distribution in western Iran. The mountainous forests of Iran are inhabited by small and isolated populations of brown bears that are prone to extinction in the near future. We modeled the potential impact of climate change on brown bear distribution and habitat connectivity by the years 2050 and 2070 under four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) of two general circulation models (GCMs): BCC-CSM1–1 and MRI-CGCM3. Our projections revealed that the current species' range, which encompasses 6749.8 km2 (40.8%) of the landscape, will decline by 10% (2050: RCP2.6, MRI-CGCM3) to 45% (2070: RCP8.5, BCC-CSM1–1). About 1850 km2 (27.4%) of the current range is covered by a network of conservation (CAs) and no-hunting (NHAs) areas which are predicted to decline by 0.64% (2050: RCP2.6, MRI-CGCM3) to 15.56% (2070: RCP8.5, BCC-CSM1–1) due to climate change. The loss of suitable habitats falling within the network of CAs and NHAs is a conservation challenge for brown bears because it may lead to bears moving outside the CAs and NHAs and result in subsequent increases in the levels of bear–human conflict. Thus, re-evaluation of the network of CAs and NHAs, establishing more protected areas in suitable landscapes, and conserving vital linkages between habitat patches under future climate change scenarios are crucial strategies to conserve and manage endangered populations of the brown bear., VP was financially supported by the Excellence Project PID2020-114181GB-I00CGL2017-82782-P financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER, EU).

The accelerating global rate of species extinctions and the inevitable human impacts on biodiversity have increased the need to conserve, restore and use ecosystems sustainably. Indicators for biodiversity are the most frequently used tool to monitor the status of biodiversity, changes to biodiversity, and the effects of management actions. In this study, we aim to assess the magnitude of studies on indicators for biodiversity (IB) in European forest ecosystems, establish and analyze the link between IB and silvicultural management measures (MM), and define indicators for management (IM), that aim to support biodiversity at the stand and landscape level. We performed a systematic literature review and analyzed data from 162 studies. We identified 9 IB groups, corresponding to 32 IB and linked them to 7 IM groups corresponding to 44 IM. Arthropods, birds, and plants are the most frequently used IB in European managed forests. We found IB with clear links to specific IM, such as saproxylic species and Collembola (collembolans) with deadwood, bird families (Passeriformes, Piciformes, Accipitriformes) with links to microhabitats, and ground-dwelling species with links to regeneration. We identified 17 species as proposed umbrella species based on the studies examined. This review shows that high structural diversity is associated with an increase in diversity, especially with regard to vascular plants, birds and ground-dwelling species. The adaptation of forest management for biodiversity requires regular active monitoring of IM to assess the temporal and spatial changes and of IB to assess the effectiveness of measures.

The very particular (hypercarnivorous) diet of felids makes them naturally dispersed and rare; with the same size and habitat, the space needed for an adult felid is much more extensive than that of any other animals belonging to the order of Carnivora. This puts the currently recognized 40 species of wild felidae at increased direct and indirect risks due to the modifications that man has made to the natural environment. The large felids belong to the group that conservationists call “umbrella species,” whose active conservation indirectly involves the conservation of many other species within the ecosystem, and thus safeguards (at least in large part) its biodiversity and encourages self-sustaining ecological processes. In addition to the hunting that many felines have been subjected to for their precious and sought-after fur, there are numerous other causes that have facilitated the numerical decline of felids, or the total disappearance of some populations, species, and/or subspecies. The main threats worldwide are: 1. Sports hunting for trophies involving mostly the great wild cats such as the tiger, lion, leopard, jaguar, and puma; 2. Persecution by hunting and trapping when they are considered to be harmful and dangerous for both man and domestic animals; 3. Hunting and poaching to obtain parts of the animal for traditional pharmacopoeia; 4. The modification and fragmentation of natural habitats into increasingly small and isolated areas, and the loss of sufficient natural prey numbers necessary for the survival of felids; 5. The political and economic situations of some states can negatively affect the survival of felids and their conservation; 6. Hunting and poaching for bushmeat. Fortunately, today there are many associations that study felines in their natural states and draw up programs for their conservation.

The island of Borneo is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance that continues to suffer from one of the highest deforestation rates in the tropics. Selective logging concessions overlay a third of the remaining natural forests in the Indonesian part of Borneo, but many of these concessions have become inactive in recent years. Whereas the cessation of logging could be beneficial to biodiversity, the absence of a logging company's presence in the forest could also leave the concession open to deforestation by other actors. Using remote sensing analyses, we evaluate 1) whether inactive concessions are more likely to suffer from deforestation than active ones, 2) the possible reasons why concessions become inactive, and 3) which inactive concessions hold the most potential for biodiversity conservation, if protected from deforestation. Our analysis shows that, counterintuitively, inactive concessions overall suffer a higher rate of forest loss than active ones. We find that small concession size and high elevation are correlated with inactive status. We identified several inactive concessions that, if maintained as natural forest, could significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation, as exemplified by their importance to two umbrella species: Bornean orangutan (Critically Endangered) and Sunda clouded leopard (Vulnerable). Because timber operations in other tropical regions are likely to experience similar cycles of activity and inactivity, the fate of inactive timber concessions and the opportunities they create for conservation deserve much greater attention from conservation scientists and practitioners.

Assessment of a species' status is a key part of management decision making for endangered and threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Predicting the future state of the species is an essential part of species status assessment, and projection models can play an important role in developing predictions. We built a stochastic simulation model that incorporated parametric and environmental uncertainty to predict the probable future status of the Sonoran desert tortoise in the southwestern United States and North Central Mexico. Sonoran desert tortoise was a Candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act, and decision makers wanted to use model predictions in their decision making process. The model accounted for future habitat loss and possible effects of climate change induced droughts to predict future population growth rates, abundances, and quasi-extinction probabilities. Our model predicts that the population will likely decline over the next few decades, but there is very low probability of quasi-extinction less than 75 years into the future. Increases in drought frequency and intensity may increase extinction risk for the species. Our model helped decision makers predict and characterize uncertainty about the future status of the species in their listing decision. We incorporated complex ecological processes (e.g., climate change effects on tortoises) in transparent and explicit ways tailored to support decision making processes related to endangered species.

Biodiversity surrogates are commonly used in conservation biology. Here we review how fungi have been used as such in forest conservation, emphasizing proposed surrogate roles and practical applications. We show that many fungal surrogates have been suggested based on field experience and loose concepts, rather than on rigorously collected scientific data. Yet, they have played an important role, not only in forest conservation, but also in inspiring research in fungal ecology and forest history. We argue that, even in times of ecosystem oriented conservation planning and molecular tools to analyze fungal communities, fruit bodies of macrofungi have potential as convenient conservation shortcuts and easy tools to communicate complex biodiversity for a broader audience. To improve the reliability of future fungal surrogates we propose a three step protocol for developing evidence based schemes for practical application in forest conservation. peerReviewed

Landscape ecology is a search for patterns in ecological process as well as the causes and consequences of those patterns, often at landscape scales. Conservation biology, historically, was largely focused at a species level; however, there is an increasing acknowledgment among conservation biologists on the need to account for ecosystem and landscape perspectives that form the basis of a species’ existence. As such, the fields of landscape ecology and conservation biology are increasingly linked. The natural history characteristics of large carnivores often make them prone to extinction, but also excellent ambassadors for ecosystem or landscape-level conservation interventions as keystone or umbrella species. Research into the landscape ecology of snow leopards is still in its infancy. As such, much may be learned by considering the techniques and findings of research conducted on other cat species such as leopards and cougars, as well as other large carnivores.

Threatened species are those species most at risk of becoming extinct in the near future. Multiple systems have been created to classify species according to their extinction risk at national, regional, and global levels. The resulting threatened species assessments can provide valuable insight into current biodiversity status and trends. Threatened species lists have become important tools for conservation and are widely influential in informing national and international conservation policies and priority-setting strategies, conservation planning and resource allocation, directing scientific research and generating public awareness of the mounting biodiversity crisis and its impact on human well-being.

Publisher Summary Biodiversity is conceptualized in terms of the diversity of species (species richness, alpha diversity), although other measures are possible (beta and gamma diversity) when viewed at different spatial scales. Species are distinguished based on strict rules of taxonomy in the classification hierarchy of species, genera, families, orders, classes, and phyla. The term “biodiversity” (short for “biological diversity”) can be at the level of habitat or community diversity, species diversity, or at genetic diversity. Biodiversity is important according to the International Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) because at least 40 per cent of the world's economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change. A crucial point is that species are interdependent components of ecosystems; removing any one species will reduce ecosystem resilience and functioning. The geographic range of species is limited by physical and environmental barriers. Habitat mapping is often employed to manage the sustainable harvest of commercial species and the conservation of protected endemic species, but also to measure and quantify the biophysical conditions associated with the occurrence of a particular species or group of species, in order to attempt to explain spatial relationships between the physical environment and the occurrence of a particular species. The explanation for the relationship between island area and species richness is that the number of species present on an island is governed by the rates of colonization and extinction.

Identification of species-specific traits that make a species a better surrogate of biodiversity is a need in order to implement successful conservation programmes in the face of limited data and resources. This study analyzes the relationship between the abundance of different surrogate species and species richness for terrestrial native avifauna of autochthonous steppe and semiarid environments in Fuerteventura Island (Spain) at different spatial grains, and explores which species-specific ecological traits (body mass, ecological density, habitat breadth, coverage of urban and agricultural environments) and conservation features (endemicity, conservation status) make a species more efficient as a surrogate. Results indicate that abundance of those surrogate species which are typically targeted by local conservation managers (according to their rarity and increase public awareness) proves to be a poor predictor of three different measures of species richness of the native terrestrial avifauna of Fuerteventura at all spatial resolutions. Nonetheless, some species were found to perform better than others according to partial least squares regression analyses applied to relate species-specific ecological traits and conservation features with correlation coefficients between abundance of each bird species and total bird richness. The best surrogates for global bird species richness are those smaller birds of medium–high abundances, broad habitat preferences, less threatened status, and with a high degree of endemicity. No scale-dependency was observed in the surrogacy power of species. Conservation planners in island scenarios should use a selection of bird species with these characteristics to identify conservation target areas in order to maximize the efficiency of surrogacy approaches.

A habitat network is defined as a spatially explicit portrayal of environmental conditions across large landscapes that can be used to understand the status and trends of species of conservation concern, particularly in relation to how species' needs are met through management of habitat abundance and distribution. Habitat networks are specifically designed to account for and summarize spatial information across landscapes compatible in size and arrangement with the targeted species' activities and movements. Habitat networks provide several potential benefits, including conditions for large numbers of species of conservation concern can be addressed efficiently across space and time; a wide variety of habitat characteristics can be holistically integrated; and ecological characterizations provided as part of the network do not dictate a particular form of management, but rather provide the basis for development of a variety of follow-up on management strategies and options. Habitat networks exemplify spatial relationships in wildlife ecology; habitat patches are not only defined and located, but also mapped in relation to each other. Mapping habitat networks in a GIS thus allows for “spatial depictions of theoretical constructs,” such as core habitat and linkages.

Publisher Summary One can define an endangered species based solely on demographic characteristics; i.e., the abundance of the species is so low or abundance is declining so precipitously or the species range has retracted so greatly that the species is in danger of becoming extinct. Note that while an endangered species may be synonymous with a taxonomic species, it can also be defined as a distinct population segmentof the species. An alternate approach is to consider a species endangered because of threats that could lead to its extinction. Ultimately, what makes a species endangered is some marked change to the species itself or to its ecosystem (e.g., increased exploitation, loss of habitats, etc.). Many, if not most, marine mammal species considered being at risk of extinction reached this situation because of human activity (i.e., harvesting). Only in recent decades have humans affected marine mammal habitat sufficiently to place species at risk. These more recent habitat impacts now place more marine mammal species at risk of extinction, even those not formerly at risk due to harvesting. Various aspects of marine mammal demography also contribute to their extinction vulnerability. By the beginning of the twentieth century, many marine mammal populations had reached perilously low levels.

Despite their relatively small surface area and volume relative to the ocean or terrestrial habitats, inland waters are disproportionately rich in species. Some groups of species have exceptionally high species diversity, sometimes with unique assemblages of endemic species (species of restricted distribution) in a single lake, spring, or river drainage. Others are cosmopolitan (very widely distributed). Geologic origins, climatic setting, and persistence of particular habitats in specific regions influence the types of species, their spatial distributions, and their relative abundances within each ecosystem. The general relationships between habitat complexity, persistence, and size of inland waters create major differences in the number and kinds of species in each region. Each location reflects the dispersal history and isolation from other aquatic habitats as well as rates of speciation and localized extinctions over geologic time scales. Speciation, adaptation, and the composition of freshwater communities respond first to dispersal of species from other inland waters and, over time, adaptations of some marine and terrestrial species to inland waters. After a period of isolation and evolutionary change, new endemic species can develop as unique additions to inland aquatic habitats. Large concentrations of endemic species are often dominated by specific taxonomic groups (such as a single family of fishes, crustaceans, or gastropods), where speciation was enhanced by periods of evolution in particular types of habitats (such as deep lakes, large wetlands, or springs). These locations as constitute biogeographic ‘hot spots’ and are of great interest to ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and conservation biologists.

It is often assumed that conservation actions targeting a threatened community (e.g. habitat protection) will result in similar benefits for all species. However, complex interactions between species, such as interference competition, may result in displacement of subordinate, vulnerable species. We analysed here the spatio-temporal population dynamics of a threatened seabird community since the protection in the 1980s of several breeding sites at the Ebro Delta, western Mediterranean, Spain during 1980-2007. Competition for the most suitable patches was governed by body size, with smaller species avoiding associations with larger, dominant species. We tested whether the density increase of the larger species (yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis and Audouin's gull Larus audouinii) at La Banya (the highest quality patch within the Delta) affected species diversity at the local level. As expected, such diversity decreased, resulting also from the colonisation of other sites by smaller species, some abandoning the former area. The conservation paradox appeared because the interference competition was dominated not only by the largest species of the community, the yellow-legged gull, which is sometimes considered a pest species, but also by the vulnerable Audouin's gull, a flagship species which has ca. 65% of the total world population at La Banya. Nevertheless, the availability of alternative patches within the Ebro Delta ensured a high biodiversity at regional scale. Results highlight the role of turnover of competing species within a community in ecosystem function and stability, and the importance of alternative sites and dispersal abilities for the conservation of vulnerable communities. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., The study was partially funded by Parc Natural del Delta de l’Ebre (Generalitat de Catalunya) and grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ref. CGL2006-04325/BOS)

The Guadalquivir Marshes or Doñana wetland complex is the most important wintering site for migratory waterbirds in the Mediterranean region. However, there is a lack of previous information on the status of different species in this area. Using monthly aerial counts conducted from 1978 to 2005, we analysed the size of wintering populations of 21 waterbird species, their distribution within the Guadalquivir Marshes, and their long- term population trends. We used Underhill indices to replace missing values and to correct for flocks of unidentified ducks. Based on long-term means, we identified 16 species whose populations at Doñana exceed 1% of the biogeographical flyway population. For at least one month of the year, mean counts were around 10% of the flyway population for six species. The natural, temporary marshes of Doñana National Park were particularly important for Anatidae, ricefields for gulls, white storks and grey herons, fish ponds for flamingos, cormorants and avocets, and salt pans for shelduck. Four Anatidae species have undergone long-term declines and eight non-Anatidae have undergone long-term increases. Population trends were related with trophic guild, migratory status and habitat use. Winter visitors and herbivorous species showed more negative trends than resident, omnivorous-carnivorous species. Those species concentrated in strictly-protected natural marshes have tended to decline. The surface area of ricefields and fish ponds has increased over the study period, and bird species concentrated in these artificial wetlands have tended to increase. This raises questions about the value of waterbirds as flagship or umbrella species for wetland conservation. Keywords: wetlands, aerial counts, population trends, habitat transformation, migratory status, trophic guild

Publisher Summary Increasingly, a key component of development of, or expansion within, a transmission line right-of-way (ROW) is keyed into a determination of the presence or absence of local, state or federal Threatened and Endangered (T&E) species within or adjacent to/proximate to the corridor. The use of the Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEP) developed originally by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for determination of Habitat Suitability Indices (HSI) was adapted and used to determine the locations of critical habitat used by several threatened and endangered wildlife species. This method uses quantitative field measurements based on the behavior and life requisites of the individual T&E species to determine the suitability of right-of-way habitats for the species under evaluation. In addition, the method permits “screening out” of habitat areas and types that do not provide the life requisite components required by the species under evaluation. In this way, habitats that contain some or all of the species' requirements are separated from habitats that do not possess the important requirements of evaluation species. This method has been employed for both wildlife and plant species on a number of right-of-way projects and provides a quantifiable basis for evaluation of siting and routing studies in addition to providing sensitive species management options for corridor expansion programs.