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As a response to overall negative attitudes on nature conservation, Latvian scientists and artists launched a new initiative to communicate biodiversity. Unlike previous efforts, this initiative also included arts (poetry, music, dance and photo/video) as part of the information campaign. This project, named Nature Concert Hall, has been very successful between 2006 and 2012 in terms of receiving national and international recognition; this paper aimed to evaluate its efficiency in increasing the public’s knowledge and awareness of nature conservation issues and pro-environmental behaviour. We used an electronic web-form survey to investigate the views of the Nature Concert Hall’s audience. The collaboration between artists and scientists clearly led to larger audiences: 53% of enquiry respondents would not have attended if there was only the ‘scientific component’ and another 34% were uncertain about their choice. Overall, 80.8% of respondents noted an increase in knowledge on biodiversity issues after attending Nature Concert Hall and 43.4% of respondents reported an increase in their pro-environmental activities. Significant predictors of increased knowledge were gender, profession and the main living location (men, people with creative professions such as artists and scientists, as well as people residing in the countryside, were less likely to learn something new). Significant predictors of increased pro-environmental behaviour were age, the number of events participants attended and the increase of knowledge (older people and those who attended more Nature Concert Hall events were more likely to improve their pro-environmental behaviour, as well as those people who also reported increase of knowledge). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We studied the spatial connectedness of Natura 2000 site boundaries and the functional connectivity of the Natura 2000 network across the 34 terrestrial borders of the European Union. Connectivity was measured by the dispersal success of 192 reptile, amphibian, invertebrate and plant species from Annex II of the European Union Habitats Directive, based on the presence of same species on both sides of the borders. Connectedness and connectivity varied greatly between state borders, with good and bad examples found in all parts of the European Union. Connectedness and connectivity were positively correlated. However, a few outlying examples showed that good connectedness is not necessarily associated with good connectivity and that good connectivity is not always possible because of different habitats and/or different management on both sides of border. In 13 out of 34 borders the connectivity measure was 100% and in 11 other borders it was over 50%. Very few of the geographical and political factors tested to explain variation in connectedness and connectivity were significant. Better connectedness and connectivity, both at the border and site-pair level, was correlated with the rivers forming the border. The time since the designation of the second site in a site-pair was nearly significant, suggesting that connectivity might have always existed in nature but the ‘documentation of it’ required some time for additional site inventories. It seems that each country border has its own history with a unique subset of factors influencing Natura 2000 site selection and management thus generalising our findings to other international borders would be difficult. We did not find substantial differences in trans-boundary connectivity among taxonomic groups. The application of our method elsewhere in the World would perhaps bring interesting results at a large (continental or sub-continental) scale, provided that similar data are available. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Species are often defined as either associated or not associated with a habitat. • Definitions for species' habitat specialization are also static and categorical. • Relative habitat use, RHU, provides a scalable, continuous alternative measure. • We show that RHU scores and literature classifications are generally well aligned. • RHU should be considered when defining species' habitat specialization. In order to understand species' sensitivity to habitat change, we must correctly determine if a species is associated with a habitat or not, and if it is associated, its degree of specialization for that habitat. However, definitions of species' habitat association and specialization are often static, categorical classifications that coarsely define species as either habitat specialists or generalists and can fail to account for potential temporal or spatial differences in association or specialization. In contrast, quantitative metrics can provide a more nuanced assessment, defining species' habitat associations and specialization along a continuous scale and accommodate for temporal or spatial variation, but these approaches are less widely used. Here we explore relative habitat use (RHU) as a metric for quantifying species' association with and degree of specialization for different habitat types. RHU determines the extent of a species' association with a given habitat by comparing its abundance in that habitat relative to its mean abundance across all other habitats. Using monitoring data for breeding birds across Europe from 1998 to 2017; we calculate RHU scores for 246 species for five habitat types and compared them to the literature-based classifications of their association with and specialization for each of these habitats. We also explored the temporal variation in species' RHU scores for each habitat and assessed how this varied according to association and degree of specialization. In general, species' RHU and literature-derived classifications were well aligned, as RHU scores for a given habitat increased in line with reported association and specialization. In addition, temporal variation in RHU scores were influenced by association and degree of specialization, with lower scores for those associated with, and those more specialized to, a given habitat. As a continuous metric, RHU allows a detailed assessment of species' association with and degree of specialization for different habitats that can be tailored to specific temporal and/or spatial requirements. It has the potential to be a valuable tool for identifying indicator species and in supporting the design, implementation and monitoring of conservation management actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]