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In the current research, the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown period on sediment quality of the Meric-Ergene River Basin was evaluated by determining the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in sediment samples collected from 25 sampling points in the basin. Also some important ecological indicators including potential ecological risk index (PERI), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), biological risk index (BRI), and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and some important statistical indicators including the Pearson correlation index (PCI), factor analysis (FA), and cluster analysis (CA) were applied to collected data. Levels of all the investigated PTEs in sediment of the basin show significant differences between the pre-lockdown and lockdown periods. The PTE contents have considerably decreased by 12.8%–45.4% during the lockdown period. Similarly, the results of applied sediment quality risk assessment indices showed significant improvement and the values have decreased by 22.4%–35.8%. In the lockdown period, reduction of industrial activities or limited production at many industrial facilities located in the basin reduced the amount of effluent, leading to significant improvement in sediment quality.

Ecosystem restoration has been practiced for over a century and is increasingly supported by the emergent applied science of restoration ecology. A prerequisite for successful ecosystem restoration is determining meaningful and measurable goals. This requires tools to monitor success in a standardized way. Photogrammetry uses images to reconstruct landscapes and organisms in three dimensions, enabling non-invasive measurement of key success indicators with unprecedented accuracy. We propose photogrammetry can improve restoration success by: (i) facilitating measurable goals; (ii) innovating and standardizing indicators of success; and (iii) standardizing monitoring. While the case we present is specific to coral reefs, photogrammetry has enormous potential to improve restoration practice in a wide range of ecosystems.

South Brazilian grasslands are at risk due to climate change and activities that convert native vegetation into agricultural lands. We used 12 native palm species as ecological indicators of these ecosystems to evaluate the impact of climate and land-use changes on their geographical distribution. We estimated the potential distribution of species for current and future (year 2050; RCP 4.5 and 8.5) climate and land-use conditions considering two dispersal scenarios. We also assessed the coverage of protected areas (PAs) for current and future species distribution. Our results indicated that the future distribution of all species will decrease under scenarios with no dispersal and increase under scenarios with dispersal; however, a dispersal scenario might be unlikely considering species dispersal ability and the increased pressure on grasslands. A comprehensive strategy is fundamental to ensure species conservation and recovery since the current PAs network covers less than 2% of the current distribution for nine out of the 12 species. Assessing the synergy of trends in climate and land-use changes is essential to improve conservation strategies for these emblematic species.

Landscape conversion becomes a continuous process in a natural landscape for any strategic development. In a forest landscape mosaic, the conversion from non-forest land to forest land implies a constructive approach. Various bio-geographic processes are enriched and developed when the land was converted to forest land in a given landscape matrix. The present study evaluated how the increased forest cover improves the ecological quality of forest in Jhargram District of West Bengal State, India, from 1985 to 2015. The quality of forests includes dominance, fragmentation and connectivity, which are the basis ecological indicators of habitat structure. To address this issue, we extracted forest cover maps of 1985 and 2015 from land use/land cover classification. A grid framework was overlaid on these forest cover maps for patch-matrix model analysis. Reliable landscape ecological indices were used for the measurements of forest landscape quality in 1985 and 2015. Then a simple linear regression model was used to compare the results. Temporally, forest cover increased in Jhargram District from 1985 to 2015. The comparison of measurement indices depicts that although only a small amount of land was changed into forest land in the study area, this small change has greatly improved the structural compositional quality of the forest land. Compared with 1985, the forest land area increased by about 6930.56 ​hm2 in 2015. This increased forest cover improved the basic landscape ecological characters, such as inter patch connectivity, forest core area, forest habitat dependence, forest habitat dominance and forest edge effect. As a result, the ecosystem function in Jhargram District has been improved, which again attracts wildlife and enriches biodiversity.

Birds are considered as ecological indicators and most sensitive health indicators of an ecosystem. Wetlands are used by birds for various purposes such as breeding, nesting, roosting, and foraging. This study was designed to fulfill this research gap on avian diversity comparison of different wetlands in various habitats. The objective of the study was to generate information on avian diversity with seasonal variability of different wetlands of various habitats. Sampling was done in eight different wetlands from different districts of Odisha. The study was carried out during October 2015 to September 2018, and the point count method was used. A total number of 109 species of birds covering 16 order and 42 families were recorded. Maximum waterbird richness was found at Chilika (62%, N=68) and minimum species richness (15%, N=17) found at Talcher. Six species were recorded under Near Threatened category according to International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN 2020 ). The reason behind this occurrence of more numbers species in Chilika, Hirakud, and Koraput may be because of the habitat suitability and low anthropogenic pressure. The Talcher sampling site had the lowest species richness because of the highly polluted mining area with high anthropogenic pressure. Conservation of these small wetlands is also required to conserve the declining native avifauna.

There is an increasing need for long-term monitoring of ecosystems and their services to inform on-ground management and policy direction. The supply of many ecosystem services relies on connections that span multiple ecosystems. Monitoring the underlying condition of interconnected ecosystems, using established indicators, is therefore required to track effectiveness of past interventions and, ideally, identify impending change. Here we conduct performance testing of ecological indicators for a catchment-to-coast system with the aim of identifying the time-scales over which they respond to change. We chose a case-study of a coastal fishery in Northern Australia that exhibits strong catchment-to-coast connectivity, has long-term available data and is under threat from water resource development. We developed a novel approach to performance testing. Our model drew on state-space modelling to capture ecological dynamics, and structural equation modelling to capture covariation in indictors timeseries. We first quantified covariation among three established ecological indicators: pasture biomass, vegetation greenness and barramundi catch per unit effort. Covariation in the indicators was driven by river flow, with higher values of all indicators occurring in years with greater river flow. We then defined reference bounds for each indicator that accounted for natural variation in river flow. We predicted the emergence times for each indicator, as the time taken for each indicator to emerge from the background of natural variation. Emergence times quantified at 80% and higher confidence levels were >10 years in all cases. Past trends and current status of ecosystem service flows are often used by decision makers to directly inform near-term actions, particularly provisioning services (such as barramundi catch) due to their important contribution to regional economies. We found that the ecological indicators should be used to assess historical performance over decadal timespans, but not as short-term indicators of recent change. More generally, we offer an approach to performance testing of indicators. This approach could be useful for quantifying time-scales of ecosystem response in other systems where cross-ecosystem connections are important.

Environmental fluctuations, such as changes in climate, agricultural management and anthropogenic land-use patterns can affect the diversity of organisms inhabiting an area. Losses of biodiversity alter ecosystems processes, eroding their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Dung beetles are critical ecosystem service providers, making them an ideal ecological indicator to explore the effects of land-use change on biodiversity. Dung beetles were sampled across three land-use types, in the summers of 2015 and 2016 in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Game ranching is regarded as a relatively low-intensity land use type. It was compared with cattle ranching (medium intensity) and dairy farming (high intensity) to examine their effect on dung beetle assemblage metrics (abundance, species richness and true Shannon diversity index), guild diversity (as nesting guilds) and spatial turnover. The intermediate grazing intensity of cattle ranching supported a higher abundance and diversity of both whole dung beetle assemblage and the nesting guilds, followed by the game ranches and then dairy farms. Differences between the sampling years were dependent on the beetle nesting guild, and largely correlated with rainfall and temperature. Cattle and game ranches shared a higher number of species than either shared with dairy farms. Whittaker's Beta-diversity index showed the highest species turnover between game ranches and dairy farms. A mix of game and cattle ranching, minimising dairy farming or restricting it to already ecological degraded sites, appears the best alternative for maintenance of dung beetle diversity and their ecosystem services. The year-to-year trends of the data were in general consistent, confirming that dung beetles are reliable ecological indicators; but also suggest that climate change that affects rainfall will result in the reduction of the abundance and diversity of this key ecological group.

Ecological integrity is a term often used to describe the state of ecosystems subjected to anthropogenic pressures. It is usually defined closely to the literal definition of integrity: being whole or unimpaired. Considering the deep changes our world is undergoing, we argue here for ecological indicators that are not restricted to naturalness targets. We propose a conceptual framework for so-called level-2 indicators of ecological integrity, that evaluate how the integrity of ecosystems is preserved given their naturalness context. We develop reference relationships between indicator and contextual variables and then assess how an ecosystem is doing, compared to others in similar contexts, by its distance to this reference. We explore two such relationships: the amount of aboveground phytomass an ecosystem stores in a given volume (biomass packing efficiency) and the mean patch size given the total habitat amount in the landscape (habitat connectivity). Using datasets at the national and worldwide scale, we show that these indicators are objective measures of ecological integrity that allow the comparison of plant stands and landscapes across different environmental and naturalness contexts. This framework provides a basis to evaluate if the state of an ecosystem is degrading and paves the way to a triage system prioritizing conservation and restoration actions.

The coastal area, with its fragile environment and the characteristics of both marine and terrestrial, is getting increasing attention globally, highlighting a critical need to form a systematic management framework. The objectives of this article are to illustrate the status quo of Chinese regional ecological civilization and land-sea integrated development, then combine resilience theory and sustainable development goals (SDGs) of United Nations together for selecting social-ecological indicators to build a resilience assessment matrix applying to the coastal urban area, further explore the core mechanisms of coastal resilience evolution. Accordingly, we suggest a new method of evaluation matrix with 12 indicators, representing the function of the target system in four phases (prepare, absorb, recover and adapt) and three domains (economic, natural resources and eco-environment) respectively, which focusing on the dynamic progress instead of the static situation of the typical and unique urbanizing area is exactly one of its improvements in comparison with other existing assessment tools. The key findings reveal the dificient resilience of Dapeng New District in dealing with the rapid urbanization stressor, as well as its asymmetrical performance among three subsystems within the temporal scope of 2014–2016. Another contribution reflected in the regime shifts of land-sea integration, which uncovers the states of critical functions in the target system, correspondingly outlines how to integrate the land use, water management, and biodiversity conservation into resilience-based management and sustainability for the coastal zone, namely the Land-Water-Biodiversity Nexus. Our scope is taking the typical coastal zone, Shenzhen Dapeng New District, Greater Bay Area of China, as an example, and to promote the research technology in other coastal urban regions.

Background The ecological indicators are useful tools to determine the effects of human disturbances on woodland biodiversity. Nevertheless, ecological indicators not always responded in the same way to disturbances, and the responses can differ among taxa. In arid and semiarid woodlands, the use of deadwood associated with cattle raising can affect biodiversity and Nature’s contributions to people. Methods Our study aimed to assess changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of two assemblages, plants and mammals, in Prosopis woodlands under different land management types: grazed woodlands and a protected area. For plants, changes in structural diversity were also analyzed. Prosopis trees under different land management types were selected and their deadwood characteristics were registered. Through live traps and camera traps, we obtained data on the presence-absence of mammals per tree to estimate diversity indices. For plants, we measured the abundance of vegetation by species and by cover type through the Line-Intercept Method to estimated diversity. Finally, we built generalized linear models to assess the responses of diversity of each assemblage to covariables concerning deadwood and different land management types. Results We found that all diversity indeces for plants were either negatively affected by the presence of deadwood on the ground, or favored by its extraction. For mammals, removal of deadwood increased taxonomic diversity, while functional diversity increased with deadwood on the trees. Both structural diversity of plants and functional diversity of mammals were greater in grazed woodlands. Conclusions The sustainable use of woodland resources is essential for the activities of rural communities. Our study results indicated that land management of grazed woodlands promoted the structural diversity of plant assemblages and the functional diversity of mammals. The presence of deadwood negatively affected plant diversity but it increased mammal functional diversity. It is advisable to maintain trees that preserve their wooden structure within the managed areas to promote the functional diversity of mammals, while trees with extraction from standing wood will favor the functional diversity of the plant assemblage. Understanding the effects of human disturbances can contribute to management for the conservation of woodlands diversity and Nature’s contributions to people.

Hydropower generation has advantages for societies that seek low-carbon, renewable energy alternatives, but sustainable hydropower production will require an explicit consideration of potential tradeoffs between socioeconomic and environmental priorities. These tradeoffs are often explored during a formal environmental impact assessment process that can be complex and controversial. The steps taken to address stakeholder concerns through impact hypotheses and field studies are not always transparent. We have created a Checklist of River Function Indicators to facilitate stakeholder discussions during hydropower licensing and to support more transparent, holistic, and scientifically informed hydropower environmental analyses. Based on a database of environmental metrics collected from hydropower project studies documented by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the International Hydropower Association, the Low Impact Hydropower Institute, and peer-reviewed scientific literature, our proposed Checklist of River Function Indicators contains 51 indicators in six categories. We have tested the usefulness of the Indicators by applying them to seven hydropower projects documented by FERC. Among the case study projects, 44 of the 51 Indicators were assessed according to the FERC documentation. Even though each hydropower project presents unique natural resource issues and stakeholder priorities, the proposed Indicators can provide a transparent starting point for stakeholder discussions about which ecological impacts should be considered in hydropower planning and relicensing assessments.

Ecosystem restoration can play a vital role in conserving biodiversity, but its effectiveness can be difficult to assess for hyperdiverse biota such as insects. Species traits of insects can be used to understand their functional responses to restoration, but their use often requires considerable effort, and few studies have examined what additional insight can be gained from this approach. We used a spatially and temporally controlled restoration experiment to examine beetle species, grouped by flight ability, family membership and feeding guild, as indicators of ecosystem functional change. We tested for the effects of reduced vertebrate grazing on beetle assemblages sampled from two different microhabitats (next to log and in open ground) one year prior and two years after a vertebrate grazing treatment was applied. We compared the responses of the different beetle functional groupings, and then related these to the effort involved in employing these indicators. We found that beetle species traits gave several functional insights into their responses to reduced grazing, including responses to changes in vegetation structure and biomass. Species richness indicators and abundance indicators of beetle functional groups showed similar responses in many cases, whereas biomass indicators gave additional insights related to the extra biomass of vegetation and detritus resulting from the reduction in grazing. We found that most results were revealed by using family groups as indicators for functional change. This is because the traits that often define beetle families, such as size, flight ability and feeding guilds each have distinctive functional roles, allowing a link from family to function, and supporting the idea that phylogeny is often a useful shortcut to species ecology. We conclude that in our study system, the least-cost approach to identifying functional responses of beetles to reduced vertebrate grazing, and possibly other restoration actions, is to use abundance indicators of the most common family groups.

Even though bogs function as the most important terrestrial carbon store on Earth and play a crucial role in the conservation of highly endangered species, the area covered by peatlands is declining globally. Consequently, numerous restoration efforts within degraded bogs have been realized. In many cases, however, it is unknown whether the conservation measures have been successful. We used Odonata (hereafter referred to as dragonflies) as ecological indicators to evaluate the restoration success of rewetting measures in central European degraded raised bogs. Depending on their land-use history (rewetted industrial peat cuts with and without former agricultural use), two types of bog restoration were compared with rural peat cuts (control). Our study demonstrated that restored bogs are important habitats for dragonfly conservation. Both types of restored bogs were as diverse in overall species richness as the control plots. However, land-use history had a strong effect on restoration success. All raised-bog species of the study area were able to recolonize at least some of the nutrient-poor restored bogs. The situation was different for the nutrient-rich restored bogs. Due to the high nutrient content – caused by the former agricultural use – the characteristic dragonfly fauna of raised bogs will be unlikely to be able to recolonize in these locations in the long term. Nevertheless, the nutrient-rich restored bogs represent an important secondary habitat, especially for transition-bog species. In conclusion, the conducted restoration measures created a network of small oligo- to mesotrophic water bodies, which fosters aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity in bogs.

Secondary forests have received more attention in recent decades because their total area is increasing and the greater recognition of ecological and economical benefits provided by forest ecosystems. Therefore, the Chinese government has given high priority to implementing its Natural Forest Program that includes the restoration of degraded secondary forests. Hence, how ecosystem services (ESs) and their trade-offs are altered during the restoration process of secondary forests merits research. Here, we selected five key ecological indicators of forests, namely plant diversity and four ESs—air quality regulation, maintenance of soil fertility, global climate regulation, and timber provisioning—to examine the trends and patterns in the variation of multiple indicators and their trade-offs during forest restoration. Furthermore, secondary forests in subtropical China are characterized by a diverse tree species community that transitions from conifers in the early stage of restoration, to deciduous broadleaf and evergreen broadleaf species in its mid and late stages; this provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the influences of different tree functional groups on ESs and the trade-offs among them. Our results showed that late-forest had a greater capacity to supply higher and more evenly distributed benefits of ESs than did early or mid-stage restored forests. We also found that the magnitude of trade-offs between paired ESs changed with the stage of restoration. Furthermore, the variation of the beneficiary in critical trade-offs corresponded to the patterns of change in benefits of specific ESs. Trade-offs between plant diversity and other ESs were significantly influenced by tree functional group, in that the deciduous broadleaved species had significant positive effects whereas the conifer and evergreen broadleaved species had negative effects. We conclude that accurate prediction and management of ESs in restoration forests should explicitly account for tree functional groups, in addition to the effects from combined trade-offs among multiple ESs.

International audience; There is a growing demand in the last years for farm-level sustainability data reflected in various initiatives from farmers, science and food industries. An alternative to creating new tools and indicator assessment frameworks is to further develop existing farm monitoring systems, such as the EU-wide Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), towards inclusion of sustainability-related data. This article reports on a study carried out within the EU-project FLINT comparing indicators for pesticide costs, application quantity and pesticide toxicity calculated for 416 farms in four EU countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Poland). The farm sample was a non-representative subsample of the national FADN samples in these countries. Major focus of the comparison was to analyse the suitability of the indicators for implementation in a large so-far primarily economic farm-level monitoring system, such as the FADN. The FADN currently includes farm-level expenditure for crop protection as the only indicator with reference to pesticides. We show that it is possible to extend the current FADN with reasonable effort towards indicators for pesticide application quantity (pesticide usage, treatment index) and pesticide toxicity (here exemplarily used: lethal dose 50 in rats), while the data demands of more elaborated indicators could not be met with the current system. The correlation between indicators, reflecting the extent to which indicators come to the same conclusion, was small between pesticide costs and pesticide usage or toxicity, thus the use of pesticide costs as an ecological indicator, as was done in other studies, cannot be recommended. A combined consideration in the FADN system of pesticide quantity and toxicity, which showed moderate correlation, could be a suitable approach instead.

Ecosystem indicators are key to understanding, assessing, and managing ecosystems and to implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Management. We present a guidance framework for the selection and evaluation of indicators for assessment of ecosystem status, trends monitoring and reporting and apply it to the Scotian Shelf Bioregion, Nova Scotia, Canada. In particular, we focus on the selection of a parsimonious suite of complementary indicators using clear criteria and hierarchical cluster analysis to reduce redundancy in the indicator suite. In applying the framework to the Scotian Shelf Bioregion we separate the region into a range of spatial scales for indicator estimation to determine the impact of spatial aggregation on indicator redundancy. Overall results suggest patterns of redundancy among indicators were generally consistent at all spatial scales. Differences in indicator trends for eastern and western Scotian Shelf were observed, reflecting their different environmental properties and fishing histories. In a few cases, spatial differences in indicators trends were large enough to remove these indicators from a cluster representing all spatial scales. We recommend that the Redundancy Analysis should be repeated every 5–10 years to ensure that the clusters are still strong and that the indicator selected to represent the cluster is still optimal. Overall, the assessment of the Scotian Shelf Bioregion highlighted large coherent trends across indicators and attributes at all spatial scales indicating that this system has undergone massive, negative change since 1970. Despite reductions in fishing pressure in many fisheries through resource management actions, most attributes have not improved in recent years. This Framework represents a general approach that can be extended to additional system goals, attributes and indicators and is widely applicable across data rich and data poor systems.

Sandy beaches from tropical countries are currently facing many challenges due to rapid urban development and its impacts on coastal areas. Despite their aesthetic, recreational and ecological importance, these environments are neglected when it comes to assessment and conservation measures, which can be done in several ways, including biomonitoring. Nematodes are amongst the most suitable organisms to be used as ecological indicators in sandy beaches due to their high abundance on marine sediments and its rapid responses to different sorts of impacts. We analyzed the nematode assemblages and the environmental variables from seven sandy beaches under different types of pressure from Rio de Janeiro state, in Brazil, and applied the biological indexes that use nematodes as bioindicators in order to evaluate differences on the ecological status of these beaches. Sampling took place in the summer of 2015, during the spring low tide. Physicochemical characteristics, microbiology and granulometry were measured alongside human density on each of the beaches and linked to nematode distribution found on the intertidal zone. Botafogo beach, already known for being highly affected by sewage disposal, showed high values for organic matter content and the least diverse assemblage, with high dominance from genus Chromadorita. Despite the higher human density, most urban and touristic beaches (Barra da Tijuca and Copacabana) did not show distinct values for the diversity measures when compared to the most preserved beaches (Restinga da Marambaia and Fora - Urca). While the applied biological indexes did not show clear answers concerning the ecological health of the studied sites; the sediment sorting coefficient was the variable that best explained the nematode distribution and some genera are associated to certain spectrums with this variable. For instance, opportunist genera such as Daptonema and Theristus were found on broader spectrums of sorting coefficient while predators with bigger body diameters showed a more restricted distribution. As the mean grain size is still considered the main variable on nematode distribution for sandy beaches, this study reveals that the sorting coefficient also gives important answers for the nematode distribution.

The objective of the study was to examine changes in microbial parameters have been used to monitor changes in soil quality under different land uses in north of Iran. The microbial parameters included microbial respiration (MR), substrate induced respiration (SIR), carbon availability index (CAI), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), ratio of MBC/MBN, metabolic quotient (qCO2) and microbial ratio were determined under different land use/cover, i.e. virgin natural forest (VNF), degraded natural forest (DNF), alder plantation (AP), sequoia plantation (SP), improved fallow (IF) and home garden (HG) areas in northern Iran. Five composed samples per land use/cover were taken from the top 10 cm of the soil. MR and SIR (0.45 and 1.66 mg CO2-C g−1 day−1, respectively) were found to be significantly higher under AP land uses than in the other areas. CAI did not differ for the land uses; MBC (591 and 590 mg kg−1, respectively) had higher significantly under SP and VNF land uses than in the other areas. MBN (64.25 and 62.33, respectively mg kg−1) was significantly higher in AP and VNF land uses, ratio of MBC/MBN (17.02) was higher in SP land use than other areas, HG had significantly higher qCO2 (0.0012 μg CO2-C mg−1 MBC day−1) and finally microbial ratio was significantly higher under IF (599.16) in comparison with HG > AP ≈ DNF > VNF > SP areas. Overall, our results indicate that AP land use (Alnus subcordata C. A. Mey.) increase of soil quality and alder plantation is suitable for rehabilitation of degraded natural forests.

International audience; Autoecological traits of aquatic organisms are well known to provide crucial information on hydrosystems and are good complements to biotic indices for evaluating surface water ecological quality. In France, as in many other European countries, autoecological approaches concerning diatoms are based on a checklist developed in the Netherlands. While this work was pioneering and suited to the conditions of study, ecological indicators developed in such small scales and such specific natural environments often show reduced efficiency when used in other conditions. France is a vast and highly biogeographically diversified region with many situations that are not to be found in the Netherlands, such as limestone substrate rivers and torrents in mountainous areas. Consequently, the elaboration of a better suited autoecological reference system has been long requested by French water managers to support ecological diagnosis. In this study, we elaborated a new autoecological reference system gathering knowledge on environmental optima, tolerance and range values for 809 French diatom taxa, along with an ordinal classification for 7 autoecological traits: water acidity, water mineralisation, oxygen requirements, saprobity, trophic state, organic nitrogen and nitrates. By combining weighted averaging and regression tree techniques we also produced a simple, statistically robust and reproducible approach to study univariate taxa-environment relationships in a given region. This new trait matrix, in addition to providing autoecological attributes for over 200 French diatom taxa that had no correspondence in previous reference systems, also takes into account French specificities such as the scarcity of acidic situations and mineral nitrogen issues. On the basis of this new matrix, 3 autoecological functional groups have been identified in French diatom flora, mainly related to traits linked to anthropogenic disturbance. This revised autoecological classification will provide much more reliable information on French stream benthic diatoms ecology, and should therefore allow better ecological diagnosis if accompanied by rigorous management of synonyms and taxonomic levels.

Terrestrial ecoregions, including critical ecoregions (CEs), vulnerable ecoregions (VEs), and intact ecoregions (IEs) have been used by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to classify global biodiversity and are being affected by climate change, which was considered as one of the main threats to biodiversity conservation. However, the impacts of future climate change in shifted means and extremes of temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover under the representative concentration pathways (RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5) on the characteristics of these ecoregions have yet to be fully understood. The present study was designed using a dynamic global vegetation model and both current and future climate scenarios, to investigate the impacts of shifted means and extremes of temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover on five ecological indicators including net primary productivity (NPP), carbon storage, runoff, wildfire risk, and habitat transformation at the ecoregional scale. The analysis was performed for the terrestrial ecoregions as a whole, as well as for specific subsets of CEs, VEs, and IEs. The results showed that future climate scenarios (whether RCP 2.6, 4.5, or 8.5) were estimated to increase the mean NPP, runoff, wildfire risk, and habitat transformation for all ecoregion types, when comparing values for 2071–2100 to the baseline (1971–2000) period. In contrast, the mean carbon storage in the TEWs, VEs, and CEs was estimated to decrease from the baseline to the values under RCP 2.6 and RCP 4.5 and then increase to their largest values under RCP 8.5. The mean carbon storage in the IEs under RCP 8.5 was estimated to remain lower than the baseline period values. Climate change in shifted means and extremes of temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover are generally significant drivers of the variances of NPP, carbon storage, runoff, wildfire risk, and habitat transformation under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5. The dynamics of the climate change metrics and the five ecological indicators have significant implications for biodiversity conservation in changing climates.

The expansion of human-altered landscapes affects biodiversity on every continent. In the Cerrado biodiversity hotspot of central Brazil, Eucalyptus plantations increasingly claim large tracts of native habitats thanks to favorable soils, climate and booming pulp firm profits. Yet, the highs and lows of the economy including government incentives over the years riddled the landscape with abandoned plantations, which are not subject to active restoration. Despite the well-documented pattern anthropogenic disturbances negatively affect Cerrado biodiversity, little is known about the processes driving species co-existence within these abandoned plantations. Herein, we use phylogenetic community structure indices to test if potential processes assembling lizard communities differ between undisturbed Cerrado habitats and disturbed abandoned Eucalyptus plantations; and if so, are these processes predictable. In addition, we explore the applicability of phylogenetic community structure indices as ecological indicators of anthropogenic disturbance in the Cerrado biodiversity hotspot. We address these questions at a local scale, recording lizard species richness and abundance along transects of undisturbed Cerrado and adjacent disturbed abandoned Eucalyptus plantations. Morphological measurements were collected from captured lizards to test for trait conservatism. We investigated if phylogenetic community structure is altered in a predictable manner by comparing (i) phylogenetic species variability, (ii) phylogenetic species richness and (iii) phylogenetic species evenness. To test for significant differences between undisturbed and disturbed communities, we performed two-tailed paired t-tests for each phylogenetic community index. We also test for phylogenetic clustering and overdispersion to determine if potential processes assembling lizard communities differ between undisturbed and disturbed communities. Furthermore, we compare phylogenetic community structure indices to other commonly used diversity indices (taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity) to evaluate their applicability as ecological indicators of anthropogenic disturbance in the Cerrado. We demonstrated phylogenetic clustering in two out of three of the undisturbed Cerrado lizard communities supporting habitat filtering as the potential dominant assembly process; whereas 67% of the disturbed Eucalyptus communities showed phylogenetic overdispersion supporting competition as the potential predominate assembly process. This indicates anthropogenic disturbance, in the form of abandoned Eucalyptus plantations, may alter phylogenetic community structure in a predictable manner, leading to the loss of closely related species in the disturbed plantation forests. The highly endemic biota of the Cerrado is composed of closely related species that share similar traits for survival, most likely a consequence of frequent episodic fires during the dry season. Interestingly, phylogenetic community structure indices and diversity indices did not converge on the same disturbed site to prioritize for active restoration; thereby, providing a cautionary tale on the applicability of the indices as ecological indicators for the Cerrado biodiversity.

The estimation of forest attributes using active remote sensing data and sampling designs is a solid scientific discipline oriented to derive structural information from forest ecosystems. In this study, we examined the problem of selecting predictor variables derived from airborne laser scanning (ALS) when using stepwise and multiple linear regression, and when using kNN imputation using Random Forests (RF) to select predictor variables. Systems of forest attributes and ecological indicators were estimated using ALS statistics and ground data collected in Central-East Spain, on two Mediterranean pine forest areas. Co-registration errors were simulated by means of altering ground data coordinates. The larger the co-registration error, the higher the variation in the selected ALS-based predictors in the parametric approach, which was less affected than the RF-based selection. In both cases, the final performance of the models was not as affected by co-registration errors as the observed variation in the selection of variables: the impact was around 1% in the parametric approach while the value reached the 8% for both stand basal area and the Gini-index under the non-parametric method. The forest biophysical attributes of the set behaved differently towards altering the co-registration factor in both cases. To control the co-registration factor between remote sensing data sources and ground surveys is an essential step to reduce uncertainty in data interpretation and in the modeling of forest attributes.

The coordination of social economy, water, and ecology is an important foundation for sustainable development. However, the interaction among social economy, water, and ecology are complex. The data scales between socioeconomic factors (normally at the spatial scale of the administrative region and the temporal scale of a year or month) and river water quality and ecological factors (normally at the spatial scale of a sub-basin and the temporal scale of an instantaneous value) do not match. Therefore, many current regulation methods do not sufficiently consider the interaction mechanisms between socioeconomic, water, and ecological factors or cannot adequately deal with the scale of the data. In this study, we proposed a new framework to assess the coordinated development of social economy, water, and ecology (SWE) by integrating the distributed social economy-water-ecological model (SEWE) and the harmonious regulation model. We built the SEWE model by coupling a rainfall-runoff model, river water quality, and ecological models; we built the harmonious regulation model based on the harmony theory method. We applied the proposed method and framework to the Shaying River Basin, which exhibited typical characteristics of multiple sluices and dams, high pollution, and significant human activities. Results indicated that the coordinated development level of the SWE in the Shaying River Basin was poor, with the average coordination degree varying from 0.39 to 0.60. The average growth rate of the coordination degree of socioeconomic indicators was greater than that of the river water quality and ecological indicators. The coordination degree of water ecological indicators was small with a decreasing trend. These results indicated the increasing impact of socioeconomic development on river water quality and ecology. Therefore, the Shaying River Basin should focus on ecological and environmental restoration, such as the effective control of pollution draining into rivers. The proposed methods and framework could contribute to the integrated water resource management of the basin.

The degradation of marine habitats (especially coral reefs) and the loss of marine fauna can be mitigated by the construction of artificial reefs (ARs). Macrobenthic fauna are considered excellent indicators of how disturbance or succession affects ecosystems, but the integrated effects of AR construction on taxonomic and thermodynamic indicators of macrobenthic faunal communities have seldom been studied. In the current study, we investigated changes in the taxonomic diversity and ecological exergy (eco-exergy) of the macrobenthic faunal community for 2 years following AR construction in Daya Bay, China. The results indicated that macrobenthic faunal diversity, species richness, and evenness increased but abundance, biomass, eco-exergy, and specific eco-exergy decreased following AR construction; after declining, however, abundance, biomass, and eco-exergy appeared to be increasing at the end of the 2-year sampling period. In terms of biomass and eco-exergy, mollusks were the dominant group at each sampling period and were mainly responsible for the changes in biomass and eco-exergy. Eco-exergy was positively correlated with macrobenthic abundance and was negatively related with evenness. Effects of AR construction on the nearby non-reef habitat were similar to those on the AR habitat. These results indicate that long-term assessment of multiple ecological indicators at diverse study areas is needed to determine the effects of AR construction on marine biological resources.

Fish assemblage and their association with major ecological factors were spatiotemporally conducted from January to December 2016 in the Atrai River, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. A total of 14,137 specimens belonging to 61 species, 45 genera, 18 families and 6 orders was recorded. The proportion of threatened and omnivore fish was 22.85% and 66.66%, respectively. The dominated (> 4.60%) species were Pethia ticto followed by Aspidoparia jaya, Puntius sophore, Salmophasia bacaila and Barilius barna. Temperature, depth and rainfall were the main environmental gradients to alter species biomass, biodiversity and taxonomic indices and fish assembly. The low level of river flow and water availability during autumn and winter seasons forced the fish to aggregate at higher water depth for their existence expressing unequal aquatic state and taxa. However, the study on spatiotemporal diversity of fish assemblage in this river will be an effective tool to conserve both the native and threatened species. Keywords: Biodiversity and taxonomic indices, Ecological factors, Finfishes, Atrai River

Ecosystem services (ES) are dynamic over space and time. Understanding and quantifying spatio-temporal trade-offs and synergies among multiples ES, as well identifying the drivers of change provides an opportunity to make the link between ecosystems, policy and land management. We present an approach to understand the historical dynamics of ES and to analyze the regional diversity in ES changes in Switzerland. A spatio-temporal approach was used to examine changes of nine ES and their relationships from 1986 to 2015 across the twenty-six Swiss cantons. We found that ES supply was dependent on the spatial and temporal distribution of interacting factors. The relationships between ES shifted through time, and the correlation between the supply of ES and the distance between cantons was significant but remained almost constant through time. Each canton is providing a specific bundle (a set of positively correlated ES), dominated by just a few services. Trajectories in ES supply were related to changes in population density and the surface area of organic farming, reflecting trajectories in national strategies of land use planning and agriculture, respectively. Cantons with the lowest supply of ES had the highest population density, while the cantons with the greatest abundance of cultural ES had the lowest population density, which suggests that the densification trend in Switzerland could yield negative externalities. The promotion of organic farming and moderate population density was suitable to ensure sustainable supply of provisioning and regulating ES, but not cultural ES. We provide clear evidence of the dynamic nature of ES through time. Analyses of the relationships between the drivers and ES supply allows identifying the potential limits of national policies and new forms of land use planning based the ecosystem multifunctionality of territories.

Benthic diatoms are useful indicators of the ecological state of river systems. To understand the factors determining benthic diatom metacommunity composition in urban rivers, we studied in situ surface sediment diatom communities from 23 rivers in Shanghai City. Based on our study results on the metacommunity structure of benthic diatoms and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), we found substantial differences between restored (G1) and unrestored rivers (G2–G4) in taxa richness, relative abundances, and dominant and indicator taxa of benthic diatoms. The epiphytic diatoms Cocconeis placentula and Amphora libyca var. baltica were representative of the restored rivers (G1), where aquatic macrophytes were more abundant and the water was clearer. The motile epipelic diatoms Navicula recens and Navicula germainii dominated the moderately polluted rivers (G2). The eutrophic taxa Cyclotella meneghiniana, Aulacoseira granulata, and Cyclostephanos tholiformis dominated in G3, which comprised relatively heavily polluted rivers with low organic matter sediment and high disturbance. The polysaprobic taxon Nitzschia palea and the halophilous taxon Fallacia pygmaea represented relatively heavily polluted rivers with a comparatively higher sedimentary salinity (SSal) (G4). Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that total phosphorus (TP), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), dissolved oxygen (DO), Secchi depth (SD), SSal, and the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C/N) in the sediment were important environmental factors explaining variation among benthic diatom metacommunity composition. Partial RDA (pRDA) implied that the relative importance of environmental factors in structuring benthic diatom metacommunity was much higher than spatial factors. Classification and regression trees (CART) further indicated that DOC, the sediment C/N ratio, and SSal were the key local environmental factors affecting grouping patterns of benthic diatom metacommunities. Our study proposes that benthic diatom metacommunities respond to the complex characteristics of local environment in urban rivers and provides useful knowledge for consideration in the ecological monitoring of urban river systems.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals states that urban air pollution must be tackled to create more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. Urban green infrastructures can mitigate air pollution, but a crucial step to use this knowledge into urban management is to quantify how much air-quality regulation can green spaces provide and to understand how the provision of this ecosystem service is affected by other environmental factors. Considering the insufficient number of air quality monitoring stations in cities to monitor the wide range of natural and anthropic sources of pollution with high spatial resolution, ecological indicators of air quality are an alternative cost-effective tool. The aim of this work was to model the supply of air-quality regulation based on urban green spaces characteristics and other environmental factors. For that, we sampled lichen diversity in the centroids of 42 urban green spaces in Lisbon, Portugal. Species richness was the best biodiversity metric responding to air pollution, considering its simplicity and its significative response to the air pollutants concentration data measured in the existent air quality monitoring stations. Using that metric, we then created a model to estimate the supply of air quality regulation provided by green spaces in all green spaces of Lisbon based on the response to the following environmental drivers: the urban green spaces size and its vegetation density. We also used the unexplained variance of this model to map the background air pollution. Overall, we suggest that management should target the smallest urban green spaces by increasing green space size or tree density. The use of ecological indicators, very flexible in space, allow the understanding and the modeling of the provision of air-quality regulation by urban green spaces, and how urban green spaces can be managed to improve air quality and thus improve human well-being and cities resilience.

Soils and their functions are critical to ensuring the provision of various ecosystem services. Many authors nevertheless argue that there is a lack of satisfactory operational methods for quantifying the contributions of soils to the supply of ecosystem services. Therefore, it is difficult to automate and standardize the mathematical and statistical methods for the selection of indicators and their scoring. Our objective is the development of a novel soil quality and ecological indicator selection and scoring method based on a database representing the most common Hungarian soils typical for arable lands of Central Europe (Chernozems, Phaeozems, Luvisols, Cambisols, Gleysols, Solonetz, Arenosols). For evaluation purposes, soil texture, depth to groundwater table, soil organic matter (SOM), pH, calcium carbonate equivalent (CCE), electrical conductivity (EC), Na, available N, P, K, Mg, S, Cu, Zn and Mn of 1045 plots representing a total land area of about 5000 ha at 0–30 cm layer were analyzed. We classified the samples into 25 soil types. Using correlation, principal component analysis and discriminant analysis the direction and strength of the intercorrelation of indicators and their combinations were determined. Indicators were classified into the following categories: (1) indicators that characterize nutrient retention and cation exchange capacity: texture, SOM, EC and Na; (2) available nutrients, relatively independent from management practices: K, Mg, Cu; (3) indicators that determine base saturation: pH, CCE, available Mn; (4) highly variable available nutrients: N, S, P, Zn. By reviewing the results of Hungarian long-term experiments, we interpreted the soil indicators as a function of agricultural suitability. Following the parameterized and non-linear interpretation of the indicators, we analysed the variance of soils, in terms of their agricultural land suitability. According to the intercorrelation of input indicators and variance of scored indicators the minimum data set for soil quality assessment includes texture, depth of groundwater table, SOM, pH, Na, available K, P and Zn. In order to further advance our soil quality assessment model, our following goals target the determination the hierarchical ranking and grouping of soil parameters in a combined manner.

The environmental and social impacts of products are being increasingly scrutinized. This necessitates systematic assessment methods. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) provides a framework to addresses diverse sustainability issues over the product's life cycle, but its application is complicated. Major challenges, such as the selection of relevant indicators, multi-criteria comparisons of alternatives, the treatment of uncertainties, or the integration of spatially differentiated data, can be facilitated by adopting advanced analytical methods from Operations Research. This paper reviews 142 articles that use Operations Research methods for product-related sustainability assessments. The articles were selected from peer-reviewed scientific literature in a systematic search and screening process. Descriptive analysis shows that related publication output is growing over time and originates mainly in journals related to Environmental Management. While ecological indicators are considered by most articles, the integration of economic and social indicators is emerging. Focusing on the contributions of Operations Research, a detailed analysis shows that more than half of the articles adopt methods from Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM), followed by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM). Uncertainties with regard to inventory data and decision makers’ preferences are addressed using fuzzy logic, stochastic models, or sensitivity analysis. The use of spatially differentiated data is not frequently found in the reviewed articles. Research needs derived from this analysis comprise the integration of qualitative and semi-quantitative (social) indicators, the simultaneous consideration of global and local sustainability objectives, and the application of systematic procedures to address uncertainty.

Sampling strategies and methodological procedures are a theme of discussion in all areas of Science, considering their potential impacts on results, interpretations, and conclusions. In the case of ecological studies based on recent foraminifera, most of papers vary on collecting single samples or replicates, on counting living and/or dead assemblages, and on the depth of the sediment layer collected. In this study we discussed the implications of the following questions, especially in the intertidal zone of a tropical estuary: (i) Do collecting a single sample or replicates affect results and interpretations? (ii) Are there differences in results and interpretations generated from counting living (stained) or dead assemblages?; and (iii) Do varying the sampling depth of sediment layers influence the results and interpretations? We defined three collection points along the mangrove margins associated to the Itapanhau River (Bertioga, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil). In each point, we drilled three microcores with the depth of 20 cm, laterally distant 30 cm from each other. In each microcore sediment samples (3 mL) were extracted in the layer intervals of 0–1, 4–5, 9–10, 14–15, and 19–20 cm. Foraminifera from all the samples were compared regarding absolute abundances, species composition, diversity, evenness and, communities similarities. We observed that replicates produce better results than single samples, both for the living and dead assemblages. Pseudoreplication simulation produced divergent results. Replicates make possible the application of more accurate inferential statistical analysis because the spatial variations of the species are captured. There were significant differences in ecological indicators and respective interpretations between analyzes based on counting living and dead assemblages so that they should not be considered directly comparable to each other. Counting living foraminifera requires higher effort for collecting and picking tests to reach the statistical minimum recommended. Regarding sampling depth, the first centimeter seems to be sufficient to find the vast majority of living foraminifera, mainly to estimate species richness. However, thicker sediments result in a longer time interval integrated into the sample, so the time-scale and variables that control foraminifera may change for interpretation. Our findings are consistent with previous studies carried out in subtropical estuaries, also expanding methodological recommendations to tropical estuaries. Future studies should explore the best distances among replicates.

Mobile fishing gears are responsible of various direct effects on benthic communities. The most important (in volume and value) fishery in Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf is the 6-month trawl season for the green tiger shrimp. The fleet is composed of hundreds of artisanal boats carrying out short-duration tows of small trawls. To study the impact of this trawl season on local benthic communities, two different methodologies were adopted in three areas of different trawling intensities. The first study design was aimed at the seasonal effect and the second design examined the immediate impact after the pass of a trawl. Both studies were evaluated using univariate ecological indicators (richness, diversity, AMBI, M-AMBI) and the multivariate species composition. The seasonal study revealed a cyclic dynamics of the benthic assemblages. Most of the univariate ecological descriptors decreased during the trawling season and increased during the off-season while species composition undertook a round trip in multivariate space, thus supporting the conclusion that the impact of trawling on the benthic ecosystem during the shrimp season is reverted during the trawl ban. Although our results confirm predictions of synthetic statistical models, they also show that the impact of trawling on benthic communities strongly depend on the existence of a trawl ban period.

Recent studies on ecosystem services have highlighted the relationship between multiple services. It is widely accepted that the increase in one ecosystem service may alter the provision of another. However, the individual difference and time effect are often difficult to integrate when the relationship is explored. In this study, we took soil erosion control (SEC) and water yield (WY) as examples to analyze relationships between multiple ecosystem services. Firstly, the biophysical values were evaluated using seven series of land use data from 2000 to 2012. Secondly, the spatial relationship was explored using local autocorrelation and the barycenter model on the basis of correlation analysis on regional and watershed scale. Finally, the pooled regression models, fixed effects models, two-way fixed effects models, and random effects models were introduced to explore the relationship of two ecological indicators for considering time effect and individual differences. We concluded that the SEC and WY presented a positive linear correlation on a watershed scale across time, and showed co-occurrence patterns from a spatial perspective. The SEC was positively affected by WY and the year the data were collected in. There were opportunities to enhance co-benefits between SEC and WY to achieve win-win outcomes.

Artificial reefs (ARs) are widely used to restore coastal habitats and associated biological resources. Although research on the effects of ARs on benthos has been increasing, our understanding of the responses of taxonomic and thermodynamic macrobenthic indicators to AR construction is limited. In the current study, differences in the taxonomic diversity and ecological exergy (eco-exergy) of the macrobenthic faunal community before and after AR construction were explored in AR habitat and nearby non-reef control habitat in the Pearl River Estuary, China. The results indicated that macrobenthic faunal diversity, species richness, abundance, biomass, and eco-exergy tended to increase after AR construction regardless of habitat; the increases, however, were not statistically significant in the AR habitat and were only occasionally significant in the non-reef control habitat. After AR construction, macrobenthic faunal evenness and specific eco-exergy changed irregularly. AR construction did not change the composition of the dominant species of macrobenthic fauna in the study area but did change their dominance values. Eco-exergy was positively related with macrobenthic biomass and abundance, confirming that the eco-exergy of the macrobenthic fauna assemblage was mainly derived from biomass information. The results of this short-term study indicate that AR construction could increase macrobenthic faunal taxonomic diversity and thermodynamic health in both AR and nearby non-reef habitats. However, a long-term assessment of ecological indicators is still needed to determine the effects of AR construction on marine biological resources.

Este artículo contiene 8 páginas, 5 figuras, 1 tabla., Citizen science approaches are valuable tools for biodiversity management and conservation, particularly in urban areas. The OPAL Water Survey is a citizen science approach to assessing water quality by recording the presence/absence of 13 easily identifiable freshwater invertebrate groups. The survey generates a score (the Pond Health Score) that can usefully inform urban freshwater wildlife conservation, as well as engaging urban residents with nature. The main aim of this study was to investigate the capability of the OPAL Pond Health Score to assess the overall ecological status of urban drainage ponds. We applied linear regression between the OPAL Score from 78 drainage ponds across Scotland and a measure of ecological status obtained by the dimension reduction (Principal Coordinate Analysis) of five widely-used ecological indicators: taxonomic richness of amphibians, macroinvertebrates and macrophytes, and adjacent terrestrial habitat richness and degree of urbanization. The OPAL Pond Health Score was strongly correlated with ponds’ ecological status established using the five ecological indicators (Pearson’s r=0.86, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, this relationship was generally consistent, both across the entire range of OPAL Scores, and in relation to the different invertebrate groups involved. Thus, the OPAL Pond Health Score has great value as a quick stand-alone assessment method, and offers clear opportunities for collaboration between citizen scientists, government agencies and professional researchers.

This paper presents a summary of the conceptual development and the practical applications of exergy-based Environmental Indicators. After a brief historical introduction, the two most popular methods are presented and discussed: the Exergo-Environmental Analysis (here TEA, as a memento of Jan Szargut's original denomination “Thermo-Ecological Analysis”, currently adopted also by Valero's school) and the Extended Exergy Accounting (EEA). Both emerged from Szargut's idea of the existence of a consumption index, the Cumulative Exergy Consumption (CExC), which can be used to quantify the consumption of primary resources “embodied” in a final product or service. The extension introduced by both methods with respect to CExC consists in the explicit inclusion in the exergy budget of one or more of the Externalities, lumped in the original CExC formulation into the exergetic material contents of the single commodities. The differences between the three formulations are obviously reflected in the numerical values of the resulting indicators. The Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC) and the CExC differ because of the inclusion in the former of the exergetic resources that reflect the “penalty” in the use of primary non-renewable consumption caused by the anthropic intervention. The CExC index and the Extended Exergy Cost EEC differ because the latter explicitly includes in the calculation a “Labour and Capital equivalent exergy consumption” that allows for the survival of the individuals in a given region according to the respective life standards (variable in space and time). Another difference is the way the Environmental Externality is computed: while TEA takes an ex-post assessment, EEA introduces a calculation of the -ideal or real-remediation costs.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly deployed spatial management tool. MPAs are primarily designed for biodiversity conservation, with their success commonly measured using a narrow suite of ecological indicators. However, for MPAs to achieve their biodiversity conservation goals they require community support, which is dependent on wider social, economic and political factors. Despite this, research into the human dimensions of MPAs continues to lag behind our understanding of ecological responses to MPA protection. Here, we explore stakeholders’ perceptions of what MPA success is. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a diverse group of stakeholders local to a South Australian MPA. What constitutes success varied by stakeholder group, and stakeholders’ stated understanding of the purpose of the MPA differed from how they would choose to measure the MPA’s success. Indeed, all interviewees stated that the primary purpose of the MPA was ecological, yet almost all (>90%) would measure the success of the MPA using social and economic measures, either exclusively or in conjunction with ecological ones. Many respondents also stated that social and economic factors were key to the MPA achieving ongoing/future success. Respondents generated a large range of novel socio-economic measures of MPA success, many of which could be incorporated into monitoring programs for relatively little additional cost. These findings also show that success is not straightforward and what constitutes success depends on who you ask. Even where an MPA’s primary ecological purpose is acknowledged by stakeholders, stakeholders are likely to only consider the MPA a success if its designation also demonstrates social and economic benefits to their communities. To achieve local stakeholder support MPAs and associated monitoring programs need to be designed for a variety of success criteria in mind, criteria which reflect the priorities and needs of the adjacent communities as well as national and international conservation objectives.

Nutrient enrichment is one of the most important causes of ecological impairment in surface waters. More effective management of this problem is constrained by a lack of nutrient criteria that link phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations to levels of biological impairment as defined in management agency regulations. We used a new approach for identifying potential nutrient criteria using diatom assemblages and the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG). We first used diatom count data to assign study sites to BCG impairment categories (levels), then determined P and N concentrations corresponding with the boundaries between those levels. We studied diatom counts and environmental data from 95 river and stream sites throughout the state of New Jersey (NJ), USA. The sites represent five ecoregions, primarily forested uplands and coastal plains, and a wide range of nutrient concentrations (total P range of 15 to >200 µg L−1 and total N 0.5 to >4 mg L−1). Advantages of NJ as a study region are the ready availability of streams with a large gradient in nutrient concentrations and similarity to nutrient-stressed systems in many other geographic regions. BCG levels represent a range of ecological conditions from natural to highly impaired. A panel of experts on use of diatoms as ecological indicators assigned 57 study sites to BCG levels based on diatom assemblage composition. Potential nutrient criteria were subsequently derived by determining the measured TP and TN concentrations associated with the boundary between impaired sites and non-impaired sites (BCG levels greater than 4). Based on this approach, statewide criteria of no greater than 50 µg L−1 TP and 1.0 mg L−1 TN are indicated for maintaining or restoring sites to unimpaired condition. In some least-disturbed ecoregions, lower concentrations (e.g., 25 µg L−1 of TP) would be more appropriate to maintain current ecological conditions. Existing diatom TP and TN metric values for the study sites correlate well with BCG level assignments and can be used to determine if nutrient criteria are met. Overall, results demonstrate the usefulness of data derived from diatom assemblages in management of nutrient issues, and the potential widespread applicability of the BCG approach to develop nutrient criteria and to monitor compliance.

Cladoceran zooplankton subfossils have been widely applied as indicators of lake health and used to infer past environmental change. However, our understanding of how the environment controls the abundance and distribution of Cladocera, as recorded in lake sediments, is still developing; only a few large landscape studies have been conducted in temperate North American lakes. Here we examine cladoceran remains from across 72 lakes and through time by analysing sediments that were collected as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency 2007 National Lakes Assessment. Using both taxonomic and functional-trait approaches, we related both taxonomic and functional-trait subfossil cladoceran assemblages to a suite of biological, chemical, and physical variables of lake health by applying Redundancy Analyses and Multivariate Regression Trees. Primary gradients identified as predictors of the cladoceran assemblages were: calcium and pH, depth and measures associated with pelagic and littoral habitat, and climate. Notably, calcium was identified as the primary driver of the Bosminidae, with greater relative abundances of Bosmina longirostris at concentrations ≥3.99 mg L−1, and with Eubosmina spp. associated with lower concentrations. Comparison of surface and pre-industrial sediments on a northern (temperate) lake subset suggested that the primary agents of change were localized, as we did not detect consistent directional shifts in Cladocera. In particular, the quality and complexity of the littoral habitat were associated with changes in key cladoceran groups through time. Overall, our study identified insightful relationships between cladoceran subfossil assemblages and environmental variables across spatial and temporal gradients, which are critical for refining the utility of Cladocera as ecological indicators in paleolimnological studies.

Ecological indicators used to monitor fishing effects in the context of climate change and variability need to be informative to enable effective ecosystem-based fisheries management. We evaluated the specificity of the response of ecosystem indicators to different fishing and environmental pressure levels using Ecosim and Atlantis ecosystem models for the southern Benguela ecosystem. Three fishing strategies were modelled to represent a variety of ways of targeting fishing within an ecosystem: one focused on low trophic levels (i.e. forage species), another on higher trophic levels (i.e. predatory fish) and a third tested fishing pressure across the full range of potentially exploitable species. Two types of environmental change were simulated for each fishing mortality scenario – random environmental variability and directional climate change. The specificity of selected ecological indicators (mean trophic level of the community, proportion of predatory fish, biomass/landings, mean intrinsic vulnerability and marine trophic index) was evaluated for different combinations of fishing strategy, fishing mortality and both types of environmental change. While there were mostly large differences in indicator values computed from the Atlantis and Ecosim models, the specificity of the ecological indicators considered under changing climate generally corresponded between the two models. Certain indicators (i.e. mean trophic level of the community) were less specific in detecting effects of fishing in the southern Benguela for some of the three fishing strategies modelled (i.e. high trophic level fishing strategy) under climate change. This helped refine the most appropriate indicator set for our system, reflecting the focus of a particular fishing strategy, and improved confidence in the suitability of these indicators for monitoring fishing effects in the Southern Benguela.

9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.09.034, It is crucial that societies are informed on the risks of impoverished ecosystem health for their well-being. For this purpose, Ecological Integrity (EI) is a useful concept that seeks to capture the complex nature of ecosystems and their interaction with social welfare. But the challenge remains to measure EI and translate scientific terminology into operational language to inform society. We propose an approach that simplifies marine ecosystem complexity by applying scientific knowledge to identify which components reflect the state or state change of ecosystems. It follows a bottom-up structure that identifies, based on expert knowledge, biological components related with past and present changing conditions. It is structured in 5 stages that interact in an adaptive way: stage 1, in situ observations suggest changes could be happening; stage 2 explores available data that represent EI; stage 3, experts' workshops target the identification of the minimum set of variables needed to define EI, or the risk of losing EI; an optative stage 4, where deviance from EI, or risk of deviance, is statistically assessed; stage 5, findings are communicated to society. We demonstrate the framework effectiveness in three case studies, including a data poor situation, an area where lack of reference sites hampers the identification of historical changes, and an area where diffuse sources of stress make it difficult to identify simple relationships with of ecological responses. The future challenge is to operationalise the approach and trigger desirable society actions to strengthen a social-nature link, Funding for JH was provided by NIWA Coasts and Oceans Centre (MBIE CORE). SdJ was funded by H2020-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action MSCA-IF-2016 [Project ID: 743545]. MDS was funded by FONDECYT 1130580 grant and ICM grant CCM – RC130004 from Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo (Chilean Government)

Designing monitoring programs to detect impending climate change effects on marine vertebrates is challenging, as data sufficient for large-scale power analysis is severely limited, yet sensitivity and response time of potential indicator variables are key uncertainties. In the absence of such data, the experience of researchers can be used to inform decision making on monitoring design to detect impacts of climate change. We used expert elicitation to identify ecological traits of seabirds and marine mammals that have or were expected to respond to climate change. We analyzed the projected biological changes for five general categories of ecological traits that have been shown elsewhere to relate to climate signals: foraging and diet, body mass, breeding phenology, breeding success, and population size. Based on analysis of 106 traits in the five categories, 29 experts rated foraging- and diet-related traits to be the most responsive to climate change, although predictions for traits in this category were also the most variable across experts. Body mass related traits were projected to change almost as frequently, but with much lower variance. The timespan over which experts expected to see change also varied between trait categories. Foraging success was expected to respond most quickly. Considering sensitivity and response rate, we predict that the duration of foraging trips will be the best climate change indicator among the 106 traits. When combined with cost estimates, our results allow managers to choose ecological indicators that deliver information on system response in the most cost-effective manner.

Neotropical forests are extremely diverse ecosystems, listed within the biological hotspots of our planet. However, species from these forests are threatened by diverse anthropogenic activities. Small dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Aphodiinae) assemblages were studied within different habitats of the Brazilian Amazon. The monitored habitats encompassed the main gradients of disturbance, from pristine to highly anthropogenic situations, with the aim of supporting their use as indicators of neotropical forests’ ecological status. Additionally, seasonal patterns and bait attractiveness were evaluated in the scope of more effective monitoring studies. Our main results demonstrate that the diversity and distribution of small dung beetles along disturbance gradients, represented by the monitored locations, is associated with particular habitats within the forest landscape. Although spatially and temporally restricted, the results of this study highlight the potential of using small dung beetles, due to their sensitivity and habitat specificity, as ecological indicators for assessing the extent of disturbance in neotropical forest landscapes. We also suggest specific techniques and periods to be used in order to increase captures of small dung beetles within the different habitats.

Abandoned mines cause serious environmental damage to their surroundings with considerable impacts on freshwater ecosystems. These impacts occur mainly due to the uncontrolled discharge of polluted effluents, which may contain high concentrations of heavy metals. Currently, no real solution exists for this important environmental problem, leaving a legacy of global pollution. This study aimed to assess the impact of a metal mining effluent from an abandoned mine on freshwater ecosystems, using aquatic biofilms as an ecological indicator. At the same time, the efficiency of different innovative treatment technologies in reducing the ecological impacts caused by mining effluents was evaluated, consisting of nanofiltration and nanofiltration combined with electrocoagulation. To do that, aquatic biofilms obtained from a pristine stream, were exposed, under microcosms conditions, to a metal mining effluent, untreated or treated by the innovative treatment technologies and responses were compared with unexposed biofilm which served as control. The structural and functional responses of the biofilm were measured with throughout time. Biofilms that were exposed to the untreated mining effluent showed significant differences respect to the rest of treatments and the control, particularly exhibiting inhibitory effects on photosynthetic efficiency just after 24 h of exposure and a progressive shift of the photosynthetic community composition throughout the exposure period. The treatment technologies significantly reduced the ecological impact caused by the metal mining effluent. However, metal bioaccumulation in biofilm revealed a potential long-term impact. These observations evidenced the biofilm as a useful ecological indicator to assess the ecological impact caused by metal mining effluents on freshwaters and the efficiency of different treatment technologies to reduce it. This work was supported by the European Commission LIFE program throughout the LIFE DEMINE project (LIFE16 ENV/ES/000218).

Degraded red spruce (Picea rubens)-northern hardwood ecosystems are the focus of restoration efforts across high-elevation landscapes in the Central Appalachian region of the eastern United States. To promote ecosystem function and long-term sustainability of restored forests, it is important to understand the associated biota, including bird communities. Certain bird species could serve as ecological indicators, with potential applications for evaluating restoration efforts. However, contemporary and statistically rigorous studies of red spruce bird communities in this region are lacking, as is a formal analysis of indicator species. The purpose of this study was to use multivariate regression trees and indicator species analyses to determine if bird communities and individual bird species, respectively, are strongly associated with the red spruce-northern hardwood ecosystem in Central Appalachia. Specifically, we assessed those associations with three distinct but complementary sets of forest characteristics, focusing on (1) red spruce and northern hardwood forest types, (2) classes of percent red spruce cover, and (3) red spruce and northern hardwood stand size classes. Community-wide avian point count survey data were collected in mid-May to mid-July 2010–2019 at 645 sampling points located in forest stands throughout the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. We found that red spruce and northern hardwood forest types had distinct bird communities within the study area, and that community composition differed among red spruce cover classes. In addition, forest type was more influential on bird community composition than stand size class (poletimber or sawtimber). Eleven indicator species were consistently associated with red spruce forests, whereas fewer species were identified as indicator species for northern hardwood forests. Ultimately, the distinctiveness of the bird community in red spruce forests and strength of those associations highlight the critical need for and importance of restoration efforts targeting red spruce-northern hardwood ecosystems in the Central Appalachians to ensure long-term maintenance of regional avian diversity.

The Three-North Shelterbelt (TNS) program is one of China's major ecological restoration projects over the past few decades. However, evaluation of the ecological network in the TNS region has not been explored yet, in the face of intensified human activities. This study evaluated the ecological network in the TNS region from a policy-driven perspective (i.e., nature reserves). First, we mapped the ecological resistance surface in the TNS region using multiple remotely sensed ecological indicators. Then, using the derived resistance surface, we generated the ecological network and evaluated its connectivity (e.g., corridors) using the space syntax approach. Finally, we investigated the intensity of human activities and the occurrence of species around the derived ecological network. We found the ecological network is denser in humid regions than in arid areas. There are several vulnerable regions in the southern part of the Qilian Mountains and the northern part of Shaanxi. Besides, we observed overall consistent decreasing trends of human activities and species numbers along with the increase of distance to the ecological network, suggesting these corridors of ecological network play a crucial role in maintaining the biodiversity, although they are also under severe stresses of intensified human activities. Our study provides a paradigm of generating the ecological network at a large scale (i.e., the entire TNS region), showing great potential to support the phase III TNS program for sustainable development of ecological resources.

A first mass balance food web model was developed to parameterize and characterize the structure and functioning of the upwelling ecosystem in the Southern Taiwan Strait (STWS). The model representing the ecosystem state and trophic flows in 2001 includes 50 functional groups from primary producers to marine mammal and 6 fishing fleets. The basic outputs and trophic flows in the ecosystem are analyzed using ecological indicators. Results indicate that phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthos and shrimps are structuring groups while dolphins, top predatory fishes, seabirds, lizard fish, hairtail and mantis shrimps are the keystone groups within the ecosystem. Based on the maturity indicators, STWS is at a mature state. An analysis of control mechanisms indicates that the top-down effect was the primary ecosystem control mechanism, although bottom-up effects were also in play. In addition, fishing impacts were analyzed throughout the food web. Such modelling of the structure and functioning of ecosystem provides basic information for stakeholders and policy-makers to implement ecosystem-based management.

Coastal silt soil (CSS), hydraulically transported and filled by dredger and mud pump from the bottom of beach in coastal zone in the process of reclamation project, has a high salinity which poses difficulties for coastal development. The use of salt-tolerant plants to improve CSS is a green and efficient method. In this process, the rhizosphere of predominate salt-tolerant plants should enrich more functional microorganisms, which will exert an indispensable ecological influence on plant growth and benign soil transformation. Therefore, comparing the characteristics of plant rhizosphere bacterial communities with different growth capacities on the same CSS can help to find the key rhizosphere hub microorganisms, which will lay a theoretical foundation for the precise improvement of CSS. High-throughput sequencing technology was used to study rhizosphere bacterial diversity of wild salt-tolerant plants (Suaeda glauca, Tripolium vulgare, and Phragmites australis) in the CSS of Lianyun New-town, Lianyungang City, China, through α-diversity, β-diversity, community composition diversity and environmental correlation analysis, and the rhizosphere bacterial functions were predicted. The results showed that the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (Sulfurovum, Woeseia, and Thioalkalispira) which were dominant in all samples, might impart important salt-stress resistance. Bacteroidetes and sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfuromonas were enriched in the rhizosphere of S. glauca and P. australis. Bacteroidetes can increase the degradation of organic matter, provide electrons for sulfate-reducing bacteria, and thus promote efficient sulfur-cycling. Sulfate-reducing bacteria can serve as hub bacteria for the growth of salt-tolerant plants by connecting sulfur cycles and organic matter decomposition. In addition, S. glauca, as the dominant plant in CSS, can enrich more functional dominant bacteria, and its rhizosphere bacterial community composition was significantly positively correlated with TN and TOC. These rhizosphere bacteria include phototrophic bacteria Altererythrobacter and methane-oxidizing bacteria Methylophaga related to C cycling, Geothermobacter and Pelobacter related to Fe cycling, and nitrogen-cycle-related bacteria Marinobacterium, Halomonas, and Motiliproteus involved in nitrification/denitrification. This indicates that S. glauca growth can promote the turnover of soil C, N, S, and Fe by enriching these functional bacteria. The analysis of bacterial diversity, as an important ecological indicator, can help to understand the growth of dominant plants in CSS, and the mechanism of benign soil development. The results show that the rhizosphere of S. glauca can enrich a functionally complete bacterial community, which is beneficial to the positive evolution of CSS.

Mining is one of the main economic activities in the Amazon region, contributing substantially to the economy of countries that share its territory. This activity, however, brings environmental aftermaths as vegetation suppression, soil destruction, hydrological instability, and faunal displacement, making restoration of degraded ecosystems a challenge. In this sense, the objective of our study was to present the economic importance, the main restoration methods, and the bottlenecks to obtain successful restoration trajectories in degraded areas by industrial mining in the Amazon. We listed eight possible relevant procedures for successful restoration after mining and discussed worldwide adopted restoration methods such as seedling planting, inducing natural regeneration, hydroseeding, and nucleation. Despite the great development of restoration methods after mining, there are still barriers to obtain inputs, which include seedlings, and qualified labor to plan and develop restoration projects. These issues come in addition to operational restrictions, technical incapacity, deficient or inflexible legal basis, and lack of law enforcement. We suggest the selection of key species for planting, associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and biochar, establishment of lists with ecological indicators and reference values, usage of organic waste, and monitoring through unmanned aerial vehicles with high sensors resolution to correct revegetation failures and estimate aboveground biomass and carbon.

The aim of this study was to quantify uncertainty when assigning field investigation sites according to their species community composition to either undisturbed or disturbed reference sites by use of ecological indicators. In ecological risk assessment this problem arises when selecting control investigation sites or defining reference species communities. Uncertainty is quantified using a Type II error or misclassification rate. A probabilistic Bayesian model is used to integrate a priori domain knowledge, assess the error rate and come to recommendations about an adequate sample size. Application is demonstrated using data from a case study investigating off-crop arthropod communities in German grassy field margins and consequences for impact assessment of pesticides on terrestrial ecosystems. The model allows calculating statistical power when using such a classification system. By means of stochastic simulations, recommendations about experimental design and indicator size are derived. The study shows that to develop a classification system to typify newly observed sites a well-balanced ratio of undisturbed and disturbed sites as well as a high relevance of reference sites are needed. For the given data set, a much larger number of reference sites as well as increased relevance of selected reference sites would be needed to achieve a good classification result. An optimal number of indicators is calculated allowing for a compromise between sampling error and indicator quality. Uncertainty for correct assignment of an investigation site is compared using indicators for disturbance and reference conditions. Finally, misclassification rate is proposed as a new measure for indicator quality.