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It is now commonplace in community ecology to assess patterns of phylogenetic or functional diversity in order to inform our understanding of the assembly mechanisms that structure communities. While both phylogenetic and functional approaches have been used in conceptually similar ways, it is not clear if they both in fact reveal similar community diversity patterns or support similar inferences. We review studies that use both measures to determine the degree to which they support congruent patterns and inferences about communities.We performed a literature review with 188 analyses from 79 published papers that compared some facet of phylogenetic (PD) and functional diversity (FD) in community ecology. These studies generally report four main cases in which phylogenetic and functional information are used together in community analyses, to determine if: (a) there were phylogenetic signals in the measured traits in communities; (b) PD and FD were correlated with one another; (c) standardized PD and FD measures similarly revealed patterns of community over‐ or under‐dispersion; and (d) PD and FD were both related to other explanatory variables (e.g. elevation) similarly.We found that the vast majority of studies found both strong phylogenetic signals in their traits and positive correlations of PD and FD measures across sites. However, and surprisingly, we found substantial incongruencies for the other tests. Phylogenetic and functional dispersion patterns were congruent only about half the time. Specifically, when communities were phylogenetically over‐dispersed, these same communities were more likely to be functionally under‐dispersed. Similarly, we found that phylogenetic and functional relationships with independent predictors were incongruent in about half of the analyses.Synthesis. Phylogenetic signal tests and PD–FD correlations appear to strongly support the congruence between traits and phylogeny. It is surprising that strong phylogenetic signals appeared so ubiquitous given that ecological studies often analyse phylogenetically incomplete sets of species that have undergone ecological sorting. Despite the largely congruent findings based on phylogenetic signal tests and PD‐FD correlations, we found substantial incongruencies when researchers assessed either dispersion patterns or relationships with independent predictors. We discuss a number of potential ecological, evolutionary and methodological reasons for these incongruencies. Phylogenetic and functional information might reflect species ecological differences unequally with phylogenies better reflecting multivariate conserved elements of ecological similarity, and single traits better able to capture recent divergence, and both elements influence ecological patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary biologists tend to approach the study of the natural world within a framework of adaptation, inspired perhaps by the power of natural selection to produce fitness advantages that drive population persistence and biological diversity. In contrast, evolution has rarely been studied through the lens of adaptation's complement, maladaptation. This contrast is surprising because maladaptation is a prevalent feature of evolution: population trait values are rarely distributed optimally; local populations often have lower fitness than imported ones; populations decline; and local and global extinctions are common. Yet we lack a general framework for understanding maladaptation; for instance in terms of distribution, severity, and dynamics. Similar uncertainties apply to the causes of maladaptation. We suggest that incorporating maladaptation‐based perspectives into evolutionary biology would facilitate better understanding of the natural world. Approaches within a maladaptation framework might be especially profitable in applied evolution contexts – where reductions in fitness are common. Toward advancing a more balanced study of evolution, here we present a conceptual framework describing causes of maladaptation. As the introductory article for a Special Feature on maladaptation, we also summarize the studies in this Issue, highlighting the causes of maladaptation in each study. We hope that our framework and the papers in this Special Issue will help catalyze the study of maladaptation in applied evolution, supporting greater understanding of evolutionary dynamics in our rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecologists have generally concluded that species distributions are not random (e.g. aggregate), based on single‐species studies that applied single‐species–based statistical methods, like the negative binomial model. Although it is common knowledge that some specific species in an ecological community present aggregate distributions, this does not necessarily imply that the entire community presents an aggregate distribution. Studying community‐level distributional aggregation patterns requires different statistical methods.Herein, by utilizing a novel conspecific‐encounter index derived from a multiple species Markov transition model that accounts for the non‐independent sampling of consecutive individuals along line transects, we were able to show that tree assemblages in tropical forest ecosystems can present a strong signal of extensive distributional interspersion.This interesting result is not unexpected, given the fact that neighbouring tree individuals in highly diverse tropical forests are usually of different species, resulting in strong niche packing or interspersed patterns. In contrast, for the amphibian assemblages surveyed from southwestern China and central‐south Vietnam, the conspecific‐encounter index was found to be consistently high, implying that amphibian communities tend to be highly aggregate in space.Conclusively, using the conspecific‐encounter index derived from the Markov non‐independent sampling model, we provide a legible definition of community‐level distributional aggregation as an interspersed or cluster‐like distribution of different species. This definition is not idiosyncratic, as it is coincident with the definition of the contagion index used in landscape ecology. To this end, the model used in this paper establishes a framework explicitly linking community ecology and landscape ecology from a multi‐object perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a benchmark stochastic endogenous growth model of an agricultural economy. Producing food requires land, and increasing the share of total land devoted to farming mechanically reduces the share of land devoted to biodiversity conservation. However, safeguarding a greater number of species guarantees better ecosystem services, which in turn ensure lower volatility of agricultural productivity. The optimal conversion/conservation rule is explicitly characterized. Value of biodiversity is considered in its function of hedging against the volatility of agricultural production. Two aspects of biodiversity's value are examined. We first consider the total value of biodiversity as the welfare gain from biodiversity conservation, that is, the percentage increase in consumption that the society is willing to accept to give up the optimal level of biodiversity in favor of no biodiversity at all. We then consider the insurance value of biodiversity, extending the usual concepts to our stochastic dynamic framework, defining the insurance value of biodiversity as the change of the risk premium due to a marginal change in the level of biodiversity. To highlight the impact of risk on the optimal decision as in the value of biodiversity, we use the Epstein-Zin-Weil specification of preferences and represent preferences by a recursive utility function. This allows us to disentangle the effects of risk aversion and aversion to fluctuations. Thus, the preference for some rather uncertain outcomes and the propensity to smooth consumption over time are represented by two distinct parameters, and the effect of each of them are studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between landholders, practitioners and research scientists have greatly influenced landscape restoration activities in South‐eastern Australia. Vegetation connectivity projects undertaken by Holbrook Landcare Network in the Slopes to Summit (S2S) region of South‐eastern Australia have benefitted from the input of both scientists and practitioners. This paper explores what factors support an evidence‐informed restoration outcome, what constrains this and what we can learn from this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land‐use changes, which cause loss, degradation, and fragmentation of natural habitats, are important anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity change. However, there is an ongoing debate about how fragmentation per se affects biodiversity in a given amount of habitat. Here, we illustrate why it is important to distinguish two different aspects of fragmentation to resolve this debate: (a) geometric fragmentation effects, which exclusively arise from the spatial distributions of species and habitat fragments, and (b) demographic fragmentation effects due to reduced fragment sizes, and/or changes in fragment isolation, edge effects, or species interactions. While most empirical studies are primarily interested in quantifying demographic fragmentation effects, geometric effects are typically invoked as post hoc explanations of biodiversity responses to fragmentation per se. Here, we present an approach to quantify geometric fragmentation effects on species survival and extinction probabilities. We illustrate this approach using spatial simulations where we systematically varied the initial abundances and distribution patterns (i.e., random, aggregated, or regular) of species as well as habitat amount and fragmentation per se. As expected, we found no geometric fragmentation effects when species were randomly distributed. However, when species were aggregated, we found positive effects of fragmentation per se on survival probability for a large range of scenarios. For regular species distributions, we found weakly negative geometric effects. These findings are independent of the ecological mechanisms which generate nonrandom species distributions. Our study helps to reconcile seemingly contradictory results of previous fragmentation studies. Since intraspecific aggregation is a ubiquitous pattern in nature, our findings imply widespread positive geometric fragmentation effects. This expectation is supported by many studies that find positive effects of fragmentation per se on species occurrences and diversity after controlling for habitat amount. We outline how to disentangle geometric and demographic fragmentation effects, which is critical for predicting the response of biodiversity to landscape change. The response of species and communities to fragmentation involves geometric and demographic effects. However, so far, these two types are rarely disentangled. In this paper, we demonstrate approaches for the quantification of geometric fragmentation effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modeling of ecological data that include both abiotic and biotic factors is fundamental to our understanding of ecosystems. Repositories of biodiversity data, such as GBIF, iDigBio, Atlas of Living Australia, and SNIB (Mexico's National System of Biodiversity Information), contain a great deal of information that can lead to knowledge discovery about ecosystems. However, there is a lack of tools with which to efficiently extract such knowledge. In this paper, we present SPECIES, an open, web‐based platform designed to extract implicit information contained in large scale sets of ecological data. SPECIES is based on a tested methodology, wherein the correlations of variables of arbitrary type and spatial resolution, both biotic and abiotic, discrete and continuous, may be explored from both niche and network perspectives. In distinction to other modeling systems, SPECIES is a full stack exploratory tool that integrates the three basic components: data (which is incrementally growing), a statistical modeling and analysis engine, and an interactive visualization front end. Combined, these components provide a powerful tool that may guide ecologists toward new insights. SPECIES is optimized to support fast hypothesis prototyping and testing, analyzing thousands of biotic and abiotic variables, and presenting descriptive results to the user at different levels of detail. SPECIES is an open‐access platform available online (http://species.conabio.gob.mx), that is, powerful, flexible, and easy to use. It allows for the exploration and incorporation of ecological data and its subsequent integration into predictive models for both potential ecological niche and geographic distribution. It also provides an ecosystemic, network‐based analysis that may guide the researcher in identifying relations between different biota, such as the relation between disease vectors and potential disease hosts. SPECIES, an open web‐based platform designed for the exploratory analysis of large‐scale ecological datasets. SPECIES provides two perspectives: one based on ecological niche and geographic distribution modeling, and the other on ecological networks. SPECIES is optimized to support fast hypotheses prototyping and testing, analyzing thousands of biotic and abiotic variables and presenting descriptive results to the user at different levels of detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanisms that underpin the evolution of ageing and life histories remain elusive. Oxidative stress, which results in accumulated cellular damages, is one of the mechanisms suggested to play a role.In this paper, we set out to test the "oxidative stress theory of ageing" and the "oxidative stress hypothesis of life histories" using a comprehensive phylogenetic comparison based on an unprecedented dataset of oxidative physiology in 88 free‐living bird species.We show for the first time that bird species with longer lifespan have higher non‐enzymatic antioxidant capacity and suffer less oxidative damage to their lipids. We also found that bird species featuring a faster pace‐of‐life either have lower non‐enzymatic antioxidant capacity or are exposed to higher levels of oxidative damage, while adult annual mortality does not relate to oxidative state.These results reinforce the role of oxidative stress in the evolution of lifespan and also corroborate the role of oxidative state in the evolution of life histories among free‐living birds. A plain language summary is available for this article. Plain Language Summary [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, ecologists have embraced the human dimensions of their discipline and expanded their remit to explore issues traditionally addressed by the social sciences and environmental humanities. This expansion offers opportunities to engage with diverse methodologies, some of which challenge the orthodoxies of conservation research; however, ecologists do not have the expertise to use social science methodologies in their work. In this Toolkit, we outline ways to improve social‐ecological research and outcomes through partnerships with qualitative researchers. Ecologists – who lack the epistemological and methodological preparation needed for productive qualitative or mixed methods study design – have often used quantitative methods to investigate social‐ecological systems. Though this has enhanced our ecological knowledge and led to the development of evidence‐based conservation practices, the biodiversity crisis continues to worsen as a result of human behaviours. Qualitative inquiry offers powerful insights into the drivers of social and behavioural phenomena but remains under‐represented in ecological research despite its broadening demographic. This presents a substantial missed opportunity that warrants rectifying. Here, we outline the qualitative research paradigm and highlight its benefits to ecology and ecologists. We also discuss a range of pitfalls and caveats ecologists encounter by not using appropriate qualitative research designs to support the exploration of their questions. We conclude by providing guidance for ecologists who intend to conduct research embracing qualitative or mixed paradigm designs. In order to address the human dimensions of ecology and conservation, it is essential to engage qualitative experts within and beyond the ecological science community. When fruitful collaborations form, research teams are able to approach some of ecology's most challenging problems from new perspectives, incorporating the views and knowledge of stakeholders on whom we rely for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity remains relatively unknown and understudied in many parts of the developing world with significant information gaps, in stark contrast to many areas in the developed world, where knowledge about biodiversity can approach encyclopedic. Access to resources, such as funding, data, information, expertise, and biological collections (often collected by colonial‐era scientists from across the developing world), is often quite limited for developing‐world scientists. The life of a biodiversity scientist in the developing world is therefore one of manifold dilemmas and challenges, as well as numerous opportunities. Although collaborations exist between developing‐world scientists and developed‐world scientists, too many of those collaborations are not deep or permanent, and developing‐world scientists are too often relegated to a subordinate role. The focus in this contribution is on providing suggestions for how to open and build access to resources for developing‐world scientists. Everyone benefits if developing‐world and developed‐world scientists work together collaboratively to pose interesting and novel questions, generate new data, update existing data, carry out analyses, and arrive at interesting insights and interpretations. In this way, the biodiversity science community can replace "parachute" science with "global science." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the available knowledge in the literature on Mexican fishes and their parasites refers to information within political divisions and/or hydrological basins in the country. Indeed, only a few studies have analyzed the helminth fauna of these vertebrates as a biological group distributed nation‐wide. This lack of available knowledge prevents the study of several basic and applied aspects involving fish–parasite interactions at different spatial and temporal scales. In this dataset, we compiled all the available geographic information on fish–helminth parasite interactions involving native and exotic fish species recorded in continental waters throughout the Mexican territory. After an exhaustive filtering and the curation of information, our data set contains 5999 records of 361 freshwater fish species (roughly 70% of known freshwater fish species occurring in Mexico) and 483 endo‐ and ectoparasitic helminths collected over an 85‐year period (from 1936–2021) in 1070 localities distributed throughout Mexico. These records are mainly concentrated in only a few states located to the south and east of the country; although all states have been sampled and all major basins in Mexico are represented. The fish order with the highest number of records was Perciformes (n = 2325, 38.75%) while the fish family with the highest number of records was Cichlidae (n = 1741, 29.02%). Native species of fishes corresponded to 92.14% of the records (n = 5528) and fish‐associated parasites were found in 41 habitat types in/on their host bodies. Regarding fish parasites, we found that most of the records are from the phylum Platyhelminthes (n = 4495, 74.92%). At the class level, we observed that Trematoda reached the highest number of records (n = 2965, 49.42%). Moreover, we found that Diplostomidae (n = 917, 15.25%) were the family of trematodes with the highest number of records. Most parasites were registered in their adult stage (n = 3730, 62.17%), followed by larval stages (n = 2267, 37.78%). We hope that the fish–parasite interactions data set will encourage researchers worldwide to explore different ecological and coevolutionary aspects of fishes and their helminth parasites, as well as provide useful information for the better implementation of conservation initiatives. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when using its data in publications or teaching events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the papers of the journal "Conservation Biology," titled "The Ecological Effects of Salvage Logging after Natural Disturbance." The author pointed out that natural disturbance enhance ecological processes and biodiversity and can recreate some of the structural complexity and landscape heterogeneity of forests. He said that the papers provide a strong argument for increased research and monitoring on the effects of natural disturbances and disturbance logging on forest.

ABSTRACT In the literature, the terms species richness and species diversity are sometimes used interchangeably. We suggest that at the very least, authors should define what they mean by either term. Of the many species diversity indices used in the literature, the Shannon Index is perhaps most commonly used. On some occasions it is called the Shannon–Wiener Index and on other occasions it is called the Shannon–Weaver Index. We suggest an explanation for this dual use of terms and in so doing we offer a tribute to the late Claude Shannon (who passed away on 24 February 2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Discusses the achievements of the journal "Diversity and Distribution" since its launching in January 1998. Publication of papers dealing with the ecology of biodiversity; Papers describing the components of diversity of the parasites of fishes and cyanobacteria; Aim to move towards a focus on conservation biogeography.

Summary: Mature forests have structural habitat features that can take hundreds of years to develop, and large reserves alone are unlikely to ensure conservation of the species that rely on these features. This paper outlines a proposed new approach to managing mature forest features, the ‘mature habitat management approach’, in areas outside of reserves. The objective was to maintain a network of current and future mature forest habitat distributed across the landscape. The approach is designed to complement the existing reserve network and management actions and is tenure‐blind. Spatial information on the availability of mature forest habitat at the local (1‐km radius) and landscape (5‐km radius) scales is used for decisions on retention within a 1‐km radius of a harvest area, to reach the minimum target of 20% and 30% retention of mature forest at the local and landscape spatial scales, respectively. We believe this approach could contribute to meeting the conservation needs of many species that require mature forest features for refuge and breeding in Tasmania and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that intransitive competition (as in the game “rock‐paper‐scissors,” and in contrast to transitive or hierarchical competition) may be common in natural plant communities. This is important as theoretical analyses indicate that intransitivity promotes species coexistence. However, while intransitivity is common, competitive relationships among many species in communities may vary from transitive to highly intransitive. With increasing numbers of species, variation in competitive interrelationships among species can take on vastly more variable topologies. Consequently, several indices can be used to capture topological variation that is relevant to the prediction of species coexistence. Different indices capture different elements of topological variation. In addition, evidence indicates that these indices vary in their capacity to predict coexistence, and that variation not captured by these indices also contributes to variation in species coexistence. We used aspatial and spatial competition models to explore how well different indices (Slater's i, Kendall and Babington Smith's d, Monsuur and Storcken's ν, Bezembinder's ρ and Bezembinder's δ′, plus two binary indices we call “unbeatability” [u] and “always‐beatability” [a]) predict coexistence under the full spectrum of competitive tournament topologies for three to eight species, and a large sample of existing tournament topologies for nine species. All indices explored were generally better at predicting short‐term coexistence (i.e. the number of generations until the first extinction) compared to long‐term coexistence (i.e. generations until monoculture or long‐term species richness in aspatial and spatial models respectively). Indices also differed in performance: Kendall and Babington Smith's d (a measure of the number intransitive cycles among an assemblage's three‐species subsets that has also been reformulated as the relative intransitivity index) was the best predictor of short‐term coexistence; in terms of long‐term coexistence, the best predictor was typically d or u, the latter indicating the presence or absence of a species capable of outcompeting all its competitors. Synthesis. The indices employed here capture different elements of topological variation. Existing indices that capture aspects of intransitive competition vary in their capacity to predict coexistence in competition models. The more continuous nature of Kendall and Babington Smith's d index likely contributed to its robust performance; likewise, the ability of unbeatability to detect intransitivities involving the strongest competitors helps explain its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent studies have brought renewed attention to the importance of complex species interactions—notably intransitive interactions—to patterns of plant community diversity. One underappreciated avenue through which intransitivity can occur is through cyclic population dynamics. Although such cyclic intransitive relationships have been extensively studied in predator–prey systems, evidence of their importance in competitive communities, notably plant communities, is more limited. Most studies of coexistence in plant communities assume fixed‐point coexistence even while utilising models that allow for cyclic population dynamics. In this paper, we explore the potential for density‐dependent, cyclic population dynamics and intransitivity in a model for annual plants. We then examine how these density‐dependent cycles impact mutual invasibility and ultimately stable coexistence between plant species pairs. We do this using data collected from four co‐occurring annual plant species living in natural wildflower communities in SW Western Australia. To maximise the number of biologically plausible pathways by which coexistence mediated by density‐dependent cyclic intransitivity can occur, we use an annual plant model that allows for competitive direct interactions, facilitative direct interactions and higher‐order interactions between species. Results from our empirically parameterised model suggest that monocultures of all four focal species can have cyclic solutions with periodicity <1 under sunny (“open”) or shaded field conditions. Cyclic patterns drive variation in annual abundance patterns, with stable solutions for persistent monocultures and invasibility potential (the capacity of one population to invade another) common. Mutual invasibility in the face of cyclic population dynamics was found for just one of six species pairs, only under open environmental conditions. Our results illustrate the potential for cyclic intransitivity to both drive and prevent stable coexistence in environmentally heterogeneous biological communities. Synthesis. We provide analytical and empirical evidence that coexistence in competitive communities (annual plants) can be achieved under non‐equilibrium circumstances, through density‐dependent cyclic intransitivity. Our results suggest that cyclic population dynamics may be common and important for coexistence dynamics in some types of communities. In such communities, the exploration of stable coexistence should, therefore, include consideration of cyclic as well as fixed‐point equilibria for maximal accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To address the lack of information about the shape and extent of real dispersal kernels, Bullock et al. (Journal of Ecology 105:6‐19, 2017) synthesised empirical information on seed dispersal distances. Testing the fit of a variety of probability density functions, they found no function was the best‐fitting for all datasets but some outperformed others. Cousens et al. (Journal of Ecology, 2017) focus on the specific finding of the generally poor fit of the WALD function to wind dispersal data and use this to argue that mechanistically derived functions would not be expected to fit data particularly well. We agree in part with this argument and discuss the issues that may lead to poor fit, including the simplifying assumptions of the WALD and the complexity of the dispersal process. We explain the fundamental linkage between the mechanistic form of the WALD and the derived function used for fitting to data. We demonstrate, however, that the logic that a mechanistically based function could fit to data is valid, under the hypothesis that it encompasses the key processes determining the dispersal kernel. This argument is supported by the facts that: (1) our analyses and others have shown the WALD performs well in a number of cases; and (2) the WALD is the best‐fitting function for an example in which we simulate dispersal data using a realistic representation of variability in the wind dispersal process. Synthesis. While there are reasons that mechanistically derived functions may not fit well to empirical data, they do in some empirical and simulated cases and this suggests they can capture the dispersal behaviour of real systems. Mechanistic functions should be explored along with other more general functions when describing empirical data to investigate their simplifying assumptions and to add to our arsenal of functions for analysing dispersal data. Analyses using these functions are critical if we are to move from simply describing the system in which the data were gathered to gaining more general insights into dispersal and predicting its consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The overall aim in the development of the Local Ecological Footprinting Tool (LEFT) was to design a web‐based tool that could provide quickly obtained quantitative data on ecological risk to assist landowners when making land‐use change decisions. The Local Ecological Footprinting Tool works for almost any region in the world and uses freely available satellite imagery, biotic and abiotic data from existing global databases, models and algorithms to deliver a customised report for a selected area within one hour of job submission. Biotic data automatically obtained for a selected landscape includes terrestrial vertebrate and plant species occurrence data, information on their conservation status and remotely sensed vegetation productivity. Abiotic information obtained includes temperature, precipitation, water availability, insolation, topography, elevation, distribution of urban infrastructure and location of wetlands. The tool performs a number of analyses on the biotic and abiotic data to produce maps for the selected area at a 30 m resolution depicting land cover type, numbers of globally threatened terrestrial vertebrate and plant species, beta‐diversity of terrestrial vertebrates and plants, habitat intactness, wetland habitat connectivity, numbers of migratory species and vegetation resilience. Results are also aggregated to produce a summary map demonstrating areas of high and low ecological risk across the selected area. The Local Ecological Footprinting Tool has been designed to be intuitive to use, requiring no specialised software or user expertise. Input is extremely easy and requires the user to highlight the area of interest on a map or using grid co‐ordinates. Output is delivered via the web application and comprises a customised PDF containing the maps and a zip file of geographical information system (GIS) data for the area requested. Users may run an unlimited number of LEFT analyses and download reports free of charge. In addition to the free tool described in this paper, there is also a paid service: individual LEFT analyses can be upgraded for a charge to allow access to the geographically subsetted datasets generated for each report. These data are supplied as a zip file containing raster datasets for the layers in the LEFT analysis in GeoTIFF format. These can be opened and queried in a GIS software package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding if and how plant‐soil biota feedbacks (PSFs) shape plant communities has become a major research priority. In this paper, we draw on a recent, high‐profile PSF study to illustrate that certain widely used experimental methods cannot reliably determine if PSFs occur. One problem involves gathering soil samples adjacent to multiple conditioning plants, mixing the samples and then growing phytometers in the mixtures to test for PSFs. This mixed soil approach does not establish that the conditioning plant being present caused the soil biota to be present, the first step of a PSF. Also, soil mixing approximates replacing raw data with averages prior to analysis, a move certain to generate falsely precise statistical estimates. False precision also results from sample sizes being artificially inflated when phytometers are misinterpreted as experimental units. Plant biomass ratios become another source of false precision when individual plant values contribute to multiple ratio observations. Any one of these common missteps can cause still living null hypotheses to be pronounced dead, and risks of this increase with numbers of missteps. If soil organisms truly structure plant communities, then null hypotheses indicating otherwise will not survive proper testing. We discuss conceptual, experimental and analytical refinements to facilitate accurate testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Focus group discussion is frequently used as a qualitative approach to gain an in‐depth understanding of social issues. The method aims to obtain data from a purposely selected group of individuals rather than from a statistically representative sample of a broader population. Even though the application of this method in conservation research has been extensive, there are no critical assessment of the application of the technique. In addition, there are no readily available guidelines for conservation researchers. Here, we reviewed the applications of focus group discussion within biodiversity and conservation research between 1996 and April 2017. We begin with a brief explanation of the technique for first‐time users. We then discuss in detail the empirical applications of this technique in conservation based on a structured literature review (using Scopus). The screening process resulted in 170 articles, the majority of which (67%, n = 114,) were published between 2011 and 2017. Rarely was the method used as a stand‐alone technique. The number of participants per focus group (where reported) ranged from 3 to 21 participants with a median of 10 participants. There were seven (median) focus group meetings per study. Focus group discussion sessions lasted for 90 (median) minutes. Four main themes emerged from the review: understanding of people's perspectives regarding conservation (32%), followed by the assessment of conservation and livelihoods practices (21%), examination of challenges and impacts of resource management interventions (19%) and documenting the value of indigenous knowledge systems (16%). Most of the studies were in Africa (n = 76), followed by Asia (n = 44), and Europe (n = 30). We noted serious gaps in the reporting of the methodological details in the reviewed papers. More than half of the studies (n = 101) did not report the sample size and group size (n = 93), whereas 54 studies did not mention the number of focus group discussion sessions while reporting results. Rarely have the studies provided any information on the rationale for choosing the technique. We have provided guidelines to improve the standard of reporting and future application of the technique for conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The replication principle was first proposed by Hill (1973, Ecology 54: 247- 432) as an advantageous property of his family of diversity indices. Later Jost (2007, Ecology 88: 2427- 2439) discovered that diversity measures satisfying this principle allow partitioning of gamma diversity into independent alpha and beta components by simple multiplicative partitioning. Despite the emerging agreement on measuring taxonomic beta-diversity by multiplicative partitioning of Hill diversity, there is no consensus on how to measure functional beta diversity. Two different generalizations of Hill numbers for measuring functional diversity were proposed by Leinster and Cobbold (2011, Ecology 93: 477- 489) and Chiu and Chao (2014, PLoS One 9: e1000014). Both generalizations attempted to satisfy the generalized replication principle, but they formulate it in different ways. The aims of this paper are 1) to review approaches for measuring functional diversity in units of equivalent numbers without explicit reference to replication principle; 2) to compare the two proposed replication principle and to point out some important differences in the behavior of diversity families derived from the two principles; 3) to explore the conditions necessary for partitioning functional diversity of Leinster and Cobbold into meaningful alpha and beta components; 4) and, finally, to explore how transformation of among-species distances into similarities influences the sensitivity of functional diversity to the scale parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The pattern of increasing biological diversity from high latitudes to the equator [latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG)] has been recognized for > 200 years. Empirical studies have documented this pattern across many different organisms and locations. Our goal was to quantify the evidence for the global LDG and the associated spatial, taxonomic and environmental factors. We performed a meta-analysis on a large number of individual LDGs that have been published in the 14 years since Hillebrand's ground-breaking meta-analysis of the LDG, using meta-analysis and meta-regression approaches largely new to the fields of ecology and biogeography. Location Global. Time period January 2003-September 2015. Major taxa studied Bacteria, protists, plants, fungi and animals. Methods We synthesized the outcomes of 389 individual cases of LDGs from 199 papers published since 2003, using hierarchical mixed-effects meta-analysis and multiple meta-regression. Additionally, we re-analysed Hillebrand's original dataset using modern methods. Results We confirmed the generality of the LDG, but found the pattern to be weaker than was found in Hillebrand's study. We identified previously unreported variation in LDG strength and slope across longitude, with evidence that the LDG is strongest in the Western Hemisphere. Locational characteristics, such as habitat and latitude range, contributed significantly to LDG strength, whereas organismal characteristics, including taxonomic group and trophic level, did not. Modern meta-analytical models that incorporate hierarchical structure led to more conservative and sometimes contrasting effect size estimates relative to Hillebrand's initial analysis, whereas meta-regression revealed underlying patterns in Hillebrand's dataset that were not apparent with a traditional analysis. Main conclusions We present evidence of global latitudinal, longitudinal and habitat-based patterns in the LDG, which are apparent across both marine and terrestrial realms and over a broad taxonomic range of organisms, from bacteria to plants and vertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are investing billions of dollars in climate change adaptation to combat the effects of sea‐level rise, temperature extremes, increasingly intense storm events, flooding and water scarcity. Natural ecosystems have enormous potential to contribute to city resilience, and so, actions that rely on this approach could sustain considerable co‐benefits for biodiversity. In this paper we identify the prevalence of key themes of human adaptation response that could have biodiversity conservation outcomes in cities. We then quantify the area of impact for actions that identify specific targets for greening or green infrastructure that could involve natural ecosystems, providing an indicator of potential co‐benefits to biodiversity. We then extrapolate to explore the total area of land that could benefit from catchment management approaches, the area of waterways that could benefit from nature‐based improvement of these spaces, and finally the number of threatened species that could benefit across these cities. From 80 city climate adaptation plans analysed, we found that urban greening plays a key role in most adaptation strategies, and represents an enormous opportunity for biodiversity conservation, given the diversity of animal and plant species in urban environments. We show that the ranges of at least 270 threatened species overlap with the area covered by just 58 city adaptation plans, including watershed catchments totalling over 28 million km2. However, an analysis of 80 city adaptation plans (of a total 151 found globally) shows that this opportunity is being missed. Just 18% of the plans assessed contained specific intentions to promote biodiversity. We highlight this missed opportunity, as climate adaptation actions undertaken by cities represent an enormous incipient opportunity for nature conservation. Finally, we encourage planners and city governments to incorporate biological conservation into climate adaption plans, for the mutual benefit of urban societies and their biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the impact of anthropogenic activity on the environment has grown, research into biodiversity change and associated threats has also accelerated. Synthesising this vast literature is important for understanding the drivers of biodiversity change and identifying those actions that will mitigate further ecological losses. However, keeping pace with an ever‐increasing publication rate presents a substantial challenge to efficient syntheses, an issue which could be partly addressed by increasing levels of automation in the synthesis pipeline. Here, we evaluate the potential for automated tools to extract ecologically important information from the abstracts of articles compiled in the Living Planet Database. Specifically, we focused on extracting key information on taxonomy (studied species names), geographic location and estimated population trend, assessing the accuracy of automated versus manual information extraction, the potential for automated tools to introduce biases into syntheses, and evaluating if synthesising abstracts was enough to capture the key information from the full article. Taxonomic and geographic extraction tools performed reasonably well, although information on studied species was sometimes limited in the abstract (compared to the main text) preventing fast extraction. In contrast, extraction of trends was less successful, highlighting the challenges involved in automating information extraction from abstracts, such as deficiencies in the algorithms, linguistic complexity associated with ecological findings, and limited information when compared to the main text. In light of these results, we cautiously advocate for a wider use of automated taxonomic and geographic parsing tools for ecological synthesis. Additionally, to further the use of automated synthesis within ecology, we recommend a dual approach: development of improved computational tools to reduce biases; and enhanced protocols for abstracts (and associated metadata) to ensure key information is included in a format that facilitates machine‐readability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the plant‐pollinator interactions of the Mexican grass‐carrying wasp Isodontia mexicana—native to North America and introduced in Europe in the 1960s—through the use of secondary data from citizen science observations. We applied a novel data exchange workflow from two global citizen science platforms, iNaturalist and Pl@ntNet. Images from iNaturalist of the wasp were used to query the Pl@ntNet application to identify possible plant species present in the pictures. Simultaneously, botanists manually identified the plants at family, genus and species levels and additionally documented flower color and biotic interactions. The goals were to calibrate Pl@ntNet's accuracy in relation to this workflow, update the list of plant species that I. mexicana visits as well as its flower color preferences in its native and introduced ranges. In addition, we investigated the types and corresponding frequencies of other biotic interactions incidentally captured on the citizen scientists' images. Although the list of known host plants could be expanded, identifying the flora from images that predominantly show an insect proved difficult for both experts and the Pl@ntNet app. The workflow performs with a 75% probability of correct identification of the plant at the species level from a score of 0.8, and with over 90% chance of correct family and genus identification from a score of 0.5. Although the number of images above these scores may be limited due to the flower parts present on the pictures, our approach can help to get an overview into species interactions and generate more specific research questions. It could be used as a triaging method to select images for further investigation. Additionally, the manual analysis of the images has shown that the information they contain offers great potential for learning more about the ecology of an introduced species in its new range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equilibrium theory of island biogeography (ETIB) is a widely applied dynamic theory proposed in the 1960s to explain why islands have coherent differences in species richness. The development of the ETIB was temporarily challenged in the 1970s by the alternative static theory of ecological impoverishment (TEI). The TEI suggests that the number of species on an island is determined by its number of habitats or niches but, with no clear evidence relating species richness to the number of niches however, the TEI has been almost dismissed as a theory in favour of the original ETIB. Here, we show that the number of climatic niches on islands is an important predictor of the species richness of plants, herpetofauna and land birds. We therefore propose a model called the niche‐based theory of island biogeography (NTIB), based on the MacroEcological Theory on the Arrangement of Life (METAL), which successfully integrates the number of niches sensu Hutchinson into ETIB. To account for greater species turnover at the beginning of colonisation, we include higher initial extinction rates. When we test our NTIB for resident land birds in the Krakatau Islands, it reveals a good correspondence with observed species richness, immigration and extinction rates. Provided the environmental regime remains unchanged, we estimate that the current species richness at equilibrium is ~45 species (range between 38.39 and 61.51). Our NTIB provides better prediction because it counts for changes in species richness with latitude, which is not considered in any theory of island biogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, increased species extinction and habitat loss have significantly reduced biodiversity, posing a serious threat to both nature and human survival. Environmental factors strongly influence bird distribution and diversity. The potential distribution patterns and species richness offer a conservation modeling framework for policymakers to assess the effectiveness of natural protected areas (PAs) and optimize their existing ones. Very few such studies have been published that cover a large and complete taxonomic group with fine resolution at regional scale. Here, using birds as a study group, the maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) was used to analyze the pattern of bird species richness in Jiangsu Province. Using an unparalleled amount of occurrence data, we created species distribution models (SDMs) for 312 bird species to explore emerging diversity patterns at a resolution of 1 km2. The gradient of species richness is steep, decreasing sharply away from water bodies, particularly in the northern part of Jiangsu Province. The migratory status and feeding habits of birds also significantly influence the spatial distribution of avian species richness. This study reveals that the regions with high potential bird species richness are primarily distributed in three areas: the eastern coastal region, the surrounding area of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the surrounding area of Taihu Lake. Compared with species richness hotspots and existing PAs, we found that the majority of hotspots are well‐protected. However, only a small portion of the regions, such as coastal areas of Sheyang County in Yancheng City, as well as some regions along the Yangtze River in Nanjing and Zhenjiang, currently have relatively weak protection. Using stacked SDMs, our study reveals effective insights into diversity patterns, directly informing conservation policies and contributing to macroecological research advancements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate extremes are on the rise. Impacts of extreme climate and weather events on ecosystem services and ultimately human well‐being can be partially attenuated by the organismic, structural, and functional diversity of the affected land surface. However, the ongoing transformation of terrestrial ecosystems through intensified exploitation and management may put this buffering capacity at risk. Here, we summarize the evidence that reductions in biodiversity can destabilize the functioning of ecosystems facing climate extremes. We then explore if impaired ecosystem functioning could, in turn, exacerbate climate extremes. We argue that only a comprehensive approach, incorporating both ecological and hydrometeorological perspectives, enables us to understand and predict the entire feedback system between altered biodiversity and climate extremes. This ambition, however, requires a reformulation of current research priorities to emphasize the bidirectional effects that link ecology and atmospheric processes. Plain Language Summary: Climate extremes are increasing and impacting both nature and people. We hypothesize that intact ecosystems, particularly via their biodiversity, can mitigate the impacts of climate extremes. What happens when biodiversity decreases? Could this loss make the effects of climate extremes even worse or change how these events occur? We explore these two questions and summarize the current state of knowledge. We conclude that targeted research efforts at the interface of ecology and atmospheric sciences are needed to answer these questions conclusively. Key Points: Mounting evidence suggests that an ecosystem's capacity to buffer the impacts of climate extremes depends on its biodiversityNumerous mechanisms suggest that a reduction in biodiversity could exacerbate climate extremesA series of research gaps need to be addressed to understand the full feedback between biodiversity change and climate extremes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This study aimed to illustrate the changing diversity patterns of native freshwater fish in the past two centuries and to identify priority locations for native fish conservation to counter future degradation. Location: Japanese archipelago. Methods: We used the published native fish fauna data in 39 lakes across Japan, analysing historical and current diversity and projecting future distribution patterns based on the Japanese Red List. We assessed fish assemblages' taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional alpha and beta diversity across different periods. Additionally, we proposed a cumulative diversity index that incorporated taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional facets, and then examined its relationship with the latitudinal positioning of the lakes across periods. Results: We observed a significant decrease in the richness of native freshwater fish since historical periods. Accompanying this decline were significant reductions in both phylogenetic relatedness and functional redundancy. Fish beta diversity increased from the past to the present and is predicted to decline drastically, indicating an ongoing homogenization process. Using the cumulative diversity index, we identified Hokkaido and Kyushu as crucial habitats for endemic fishes. These islands, with unique biogeographical backgrounds, contributed substantially to the national dissimilarity patterns of native fish assemblages in the historical period. However, the contribution is diminishing due to the ongoing decline in fish endemism. Main Conclusions: The conservation priority of native freshwater fish in Japan should be assigned to Hokkaido and Kyushu due to the inhabited endemic species. The proposed framework for assessing the cumulative diversity of biotic communities presented the potential to aid macroecological explorations that underpin biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geodiversity—the diversity of abiotic features and processes of the Earth's surface and subsurface—is an increasingly used concept in ecological research. A growing body of scientific literature has provided evidence of positive links between geodiversity and biodiversity. These studies highlight the potential of geodiversity to improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns and to complement current biodiversity conservation practices and strategies. However, definitions of geodiversity in ecological research vary widely. This can hinder the progress of geodiversity–biodiversity research and make it difficult to synthesize findings across studies. We therefore call for greater awareness of how geodiversity is currently defined and for more consistent use of the term 'geodiversity' in biodiversity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Patterns of benthic biodiversity at the macroecological scale remain poorly characterised throughout the Chilean latitudinal gradient, in part due to the lack of integrated databases, uneven sampling effort, and the use of species richness alone to quantify biodiversity. Different diversity measures, encompassing taxonomic and functional components, may give us extra information on biodiversity relevant to conservation planning and management. Thus, evaluating the spatial complementarity of these measures is essential. Location: Coast and continental shelf of Chile. Methods: The latitudinal gradient of Chile was divided into five ecoregions according to the Marine Ecosystems of the World classification. Using a 55 × 55 km equal area grid, we estimated the incidence coverage‐based estimator (ICE), taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and three measures of functional diversity: functional richness (FRic), functional evenness (FEve) and functional divergence (FDiv). For each measure, we described spatial patterns, identified hotspots, evaluated hotspot congruence and evaluated complementarity between measures. Results: Diversity patterns varied between ecoregions and over the latitudinal gradient. ICE and Δ+ peaked in the Chiloense and Channels and Fjords ecoregions. Δ+ and FRic present a similar pattern at mid‐latitudes. FEve showed a contrary pattern, principally with FRic. Areas with high numbers of hotspots differed spatially according to each metric, and three latitudinal bands were observed. ICE, Δ+ and FRic were positively correlated, but the hotspot overlap at the grid cell level was more limited. Main Conclusions: The complementarity between taxonomic and functional diversity measures is limited when we observe the overlap between grid cells representing hotspots. However, some regions are consistently identified as highly diverse, with the Magellanic Province (Chiloense and Channels and Fjords ecoregions) being the most important for the richness, taxonomic and functional diversity of benthos. Confirmation of the importance of this region can help prioritise conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of People & Nature is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Global warming has intensified the intensity of compound drought‐hot extremes (CDHEs), posing more severe impacts on human societies and ecosystems than individual extremes. The vulnerability of global terrestrial ecosystems under CDHEs, along with its key influencing factors, remains poorly understood. Based on multiple remote sensing data, we construct a Vine Copula model to appraise vegetation vulnerability under CDHEs, and attribute it to climatic and biotic factors for five different vegetation types. High vulnerability is detected in central and southern regions of North America, eastern and southern regions of South America, Southern Africa, northern and western Europe, and northern and eastern Australia. The drier the climate, the higher will be the vulnerability. Furthermore, biodiversity and biomass are key biotic factors influencing the vulnerability of various vegetation types, such that ecosystems with richer biodiversity and higher biomass have lower vulnerability to CDHEs. The findings deepen understanding of terrestrial ecosystem response to CDHEs. Plain Language Summary: Drought and hot‐related extremes often coincide or follow one another, known as compound drought‐hot extremes (CDHEs), adversely affecting various vegetation processes. Thus, investigating the response relationship between vegetation dynamics and CDHEs is critical for maintaining the sustainable development of ecosystems under the background of climate warming. High ecosystem vulnerability is detected in central and southern regions of North America, eastern and southern regions of South America, Southern Africa, northern and western Europe, and northern and eastern Australia. Climatic factors (precipitation, arid index, temperature, and radiation) dominate the vulnerability of all vegetation types. The drier the climate, the higher will be the vulnerability of vegetation to CDHEs. Furthermore, biodiversity and biomass are key biotic factors influencing the vulnerability. The results provide us with essential insights for managing and adapting terrestrial ecosystems against climate change and are of interest to a wide range of audiences, including but not limited to ecologists, hydrologists, and climatologists. Key Points: A framework is developed to estimate the vegetation vulnerability in response to compound drought‐hot extremes and attribute it to various factorsVegetation vulnerability is higher for grasses and shrubs than for evergreen and deciduous forestsVegetation vulnerability is both affected by climate and biotic factors, but climate factors are more dominant [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization has far‐reaching consequences on birds, and knowledge of the impacts on taxonomic and functional diversity is necessary to make cities as compatible as possible for species. Avian diversity in parks in urban centers has been investigated multiple times, but rarely so in long‐term studies due to lacking data. The Tiergarten in Berlin is a large‐scale park in the city center of great value for people and many species including birds. We compiled bird species lists since 1850 and from monitoring in 2022 in one dataset to investigate how bird communities and guilds have changed over time and how these alterations were influenced by the eventful history of the park's vegetation conditions. Long‐term changes in species assemblages were analyzed with an ordination analysis, and changes in guild presence and functional richness were discussed with regard to landscape transitions. A gradual development of species assemblages yet only small changes in guild composition since 1850 was detected, whereas the 1950 community stands out with a drop in species richness and replacement of forest species with an open land community, which reflects the deforestation of the park during World War II. Consideration of habitat, lifestyle, trophic, and migration guilds revealed no sign of functional homogenization over the last 172 years (1850–2022). Despite the high frequentation of the park by humans it still allows for a high bird diversity due to the Tiergarten's sheer size and heterogeneity of vegetation and habitats. We recommend that the park is maintained and managed accordingly to preserve this condition and advise other urban parks to strive for these beneficial features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alocasia sakonakhonensis Chatan & Promprom (Araceae), a new species from northeastern Thailand, is described and illustrated. It is clearly different from other previously known species by leaves, spathe, ovary, sterile interstice, synandria, and appendix. Color illustrations, and a distribution map are provided, as well as comparative morphological characters about its similar species. The preliminary conservation status assessment of the new species was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant species respond to varying plant species diversity and associated changes in their abiotic and biotic environment with changes in their phenotype. However, it is not clear to what degree this phenotypic differentiation is due to genotype diversity within populations or phenotypic plasticity of plant individuals. We studied individuals of 16 populations of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale grown in plant communities of different species richness in a 17‐year‐old grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment). We collected 12 individuals in each population to measure phenotypic traits and identify distinct genotypes using microsatellite DNA markers. Plant species richness did not influence population‐level genotype and trait diversity. However, it affected the expression of several phenotypic traits, e.g. leaf and inflorescence number, maximum leaf length and seed mass, which increased with increasing plant species richness. Moreover, population‐level trait diversity correlated positively with genotype richness for leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and negatively with inflorescence number. For several traits (i.e. seed mass, germination rate, LDMC, specific leaf area (SLA)), a larger portion of variance was explained by genotype identity, while variance in other traits (i.e. number of inflorescences, leaf nitrogen concentration, leaf number, leaf length) resided within genotypes and thus was mostly due to phenotypic plasticity. Overall, our findings show that plant species richness positively affected the population means of some traits related to whole‐plant performance, whose variation was achieved through both phenotypic plasticity and genotype composition of a population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plot‐scale experiments indicate that functional diversity (FD) plays a pivotal role in sustaining ecosystem functions such as net primary productivity (NPP). However, the relationships between functional diversity and NPP across larger scale under varying climatic conditions are sparsely studied, despite its significance for understanding forest–atmosphere interactions and informing policy development. Hence, we examine the relationships of community‐weighted mean (CWM) and functional dispersion (FDis) of woody plant traits on NPP across China and if such relationships are modulated by climatic conditions at the national scale. Using comprehensive datasets of distribution, functional traits, and productivity for 9120 Chinese woody plant species, we evaluated the distribution pattern of community‐weighted mean and functional dispersion (including three orthogonal trait indicators: plant size, leaf morphology, and flower duration) and its relationships with NPP. Finally, we tested the effects of climatic conditions on community‐weighted mean/functional dispersion–NPP relationships. We first found overall functional diversity–NPP relationships, but also that the magnitude of these relationships was sensitive to climate, with plant size community‐weighted mean promoting NPP in warm regions and plant size functional dispersion promoting NPP in wet regions. Second, warm and wet conditions indirectly increased NPP by its positive effects on community‐weighted mean or functional dispersion, particularly through mean plant size and leaf morphology. Our study provides comprehensive evidence for the relationships between functional diversity and NPP under varying climates at a large scale. Importantly, our results indicate a broadening significance of multidimensional plant functional traits for woody vegetation NPP in response to rising temperatures and wetter climates. Restoration, reforestation actions and natural capital accounting need to carefully consider not only community‐weighted mean and functional dispersion but also their interactions with climate, to predict how functional diversity may promote ecosystem functioning under future climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands have been used as model systems to study ecological and evolutionary processes, and they provide an ideal set‐up for validating new biodiversity monitoring methods. The application of environmental DNA metabarcoding for monitoring marine biodiversity requires an understanding of the spatial scale of the eDNA signal, which is best tested in island systems. Here, we investigated the variation in Actinopterygii and Elasmobranchii species composition recovered from eDNA metabarcoding along a gradient of distance‐to‐reef in four of the five French Scattered Islands in the Western Indian Ocean. We collected surface water samples at an increasing distance from reefs (0 m, 250 m, 500 m, 750 m). We used a metabarcoding protocol based on the 'teleo' primers to target marine reef fishes and classified taxa according to their habitat types (benthic or pelagic). We investigated the effect of distance‐to‐reef on β diversity variation using generalised linear mixed models and estimated species‐specific distance‐to‐reef effects using a model‐based approach for community data. Environmental DNA metabarcoding analyses recovered distinct fish species compositions across the four inventoried islands and variations along the distance‐to‐reef gradient. The analysis of β‐diversity variation showed significant taxa turnover between the eDNA samples on and away from the reefs. In agreement with a spatially localised signal from eDNA, benthic species were distributed closer to the reef than pelagic ones. Our findings demonstrate that the combination of eDNA inventories and spatial modelling can provide insights into species habitat preferences related to distance‐to‐reef gradients at a small scale. As such, eDNA can not only recover large compositional differences among islands but also help understand habitat selection and distribution of marine species at a finer spatial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant trait data are used to quantify how plants respond to environmental factors and can act as indicators of ecosystem function. Measured trait values are influenced by genetics, trade‐offs, competition, environmental conditions, and phenology. These interacting effects on traits are poorly characterized across taxa, and for many traits, measurement protocols are not standardized. As a result, ancillary information about growth and measurement conditions can be highly variable, requiring a flexible data structure. In 2007, the TRY initiative was founded as an integrated database of plant trait data, including ancillary attributes relevant to understanding and interpreting the trait values. The TRY database now integrates around 700 original and collective datasets and has become a central resource of plant trait data. These data are provided in a generic long‐table format, where a unique identifier links different trait records and ancillary data measured on the same entity. Due to the high number of trait records, plant taxa, and types of traits and ancillary data released from the TRY database, data preprocessing is necessary but not straightforward. Here, we present the 'rtry' R package, specifically designed to support plant trait data exploration and filtering. By integrating a subset of existing R functions essential for preprocessing, 'rtry' avoids the need for users to navigate the extensive R ecosystem and provides the functions under a consistent syntax. 'rtry' is therefore easy to use even for beginners in R. Notably, 'rtry' does not support data retrieval or analysis; rather, it focuses on the preprocessing tasks to optimize data quality. While 'rtry' primarily targets TRY data, its utility extends to data from other sources, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The 'rtry' package is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN; https://cran.r‐project.org/package=rtry) and the GitHub Wiki (https://github.com/MPI‐BGC‐Functional‐Biogeography/rtry/wiki) along with comprehensive documentation and vignettes describing detailed data preprocessing workflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: Seagrass ecosystems are of fundamental importance to our planet and wellbeing. Seagrasses are marine flowering plants, which engineer ecosystems that provide a multitude of ecosystem services, for example, blue foods and carbon sequestration. Seagrass ecosystems have largely been degraded across much of their global range. There is now increasing interest in the conservation and restoration of these systems, particularly in the context of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis. The collation of 100 questions from experts across Europe could, if answered, improve our ability to conserve and restore these systems by facilitating a fundamental shift in the success of such work. Summary: Seagrass meadows provide numerous ecosystem services including biodiversity, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. In Europe, seagrasses can be found in shallow sheltered waters along coastlines, in estuaries & lagoons, and around islands, but their distribution has declined. Factors such as poor water quality, coastal modification, mechanical damage, overfishing, land‐sea interactions, climate change and disease have reduced the coverage of Europe's seagrasses necessitating their recovery. Research, monitoring and conservation efforts on seagrass ecosystems in Europe are mostly uncoordinated and biased towards certain species and regions, resulting in inadequate delivery of critical information for their management. Here, we aim to identify the 100 priority questions, that if addressed would strongly advance seagrass monitoring, research and conservation in Europe. Using a Delphi method, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with seagrass experience from across Europe and with diverse seagrass expertise participated in the process that involved the formulation of research questions, a voting process and an online workshop to identify the final list of the 100 questions. The final list of questions covers areas across nine themes: Biodiversity & Ecology; Ecosystem services; Blue carbon; Fishery support; Drivers, Threats, Resilience & Response; Monitoring & Assessment; Conservation & Restoration; Governance, Policy & Management; and Communication. Answering these questions will fill current knowledge gaps and place European seagrass onto a positive trajectory of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid changes, including increasing disturbance by herbivore populations, which can affect plant species coexistence and community assemblages. Although the significance of mosses in Arctic wetlands is well recognized, the long‐term influence of medium‐sized herbivores on the composition of moss communities has received limited attention. We used data from a long‐term (25 years) Greater Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens atlanticus) exclusion experiment in Arctic tundra wetlands to assess changes in the composition of moss communities at multiple spatial scales (cell, 4 cm2; quadrat, 100 cm2; exclosure, 16 m2). We investigated how snow goose grazing and grubbing can alter the composition of the moss community by measuring changes in alpha and beta diversity, as well as in the strength of plant interspecific interactions between moss species. Our results indicate that goose foraging significantly increased species diversity (richness, evenness, and inverse Simpson index) of moss communities at the cell and quadrat scales but not the exclosure scale. Goose foraging reduced the dissimilarity (beta diversity) of moss communities at all three scales, mainly due to decreased species turnover. Furthermore, goose foraging increased positive interaction between moss species pairs. These findings emphasize the critical role of geese in promoting moss species coexistence and increasing homogeneity in Arctic wetlands. This study illustrates how top‐down regulation by herbivores can alter plant communities in Arctic wetlands and highlights the importance of considering herbivores when examining the response of Arctic plant biodiversity to future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long‐term ecological studies have consistently reported slower than expected changes in biodiversity over time. One explanation for this phenomenon is that commonly used diversity measurements such as species richness are too coarse to detect mechanisms shaping community assembly. Theory suggests that similar phenomena may occur in abundance‐based diversity measurements, but the extent of this problem is currently unclear. We confront this theoretical prediction with field data by studying temporal changes in abundance‐based diversity indices across 3341 observations from 880 plots in 15 long‐term vegetation plot studies. We then partition diversity change into mechanisms of interest to ecologists: selection, drift, and immigration. We show that these resulting changes in relative abundances often produce non‐linear changes in diversity. These non‐linearities lead counterintuitive effects that are easy to miss when directly analysing changes in diversity. To resolve this we show that explicit partitioning of diversity change leads to one further, less‐studied partition: 'rarity shifts'. Rarity shifts measure how an individual's contributions to diversity changes over time. These rarity shifts are responsible for counter‐intuitive effects, for example when radical changes in community composition lead to negligible changes in diversity. We found rarity shifts are an important component of diversity change across many studies. Furthermore, rarity shifts tend to oppose selection, drift and immigration. Therefore, rarity shifts explain why changes in relative abundance do not consistently result in changes in abundance‐based diversity measurements. Ultimately, using rarity shifts can lead to a more accurate understanding of the temporal rate and nature of diversity change in ecology and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Description of the driving forces for genetic divergence is important for understanding spatial pattern of biodiversity and development of conservation plans. Paleo‐climate, geographical barriers and habitat heterogeneity are considered to be the main influential factors; however, an integrative study is still lacking to reveal their interactions. Location: Eastern North America. Methods: Here, we generated MIG‐seq SNPs of 403 Sanguinaria canadensis samples and seven plastome data. The methods of phylogeography and landscape genomics were applied to infer their genetic divergence, demography, species distribution modelling, ecological differentiation and local adaptation. Results: We identified three distinct genetic lineages corresponding to geographical distributions isolated by the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. Ecological niche modelling and population demographic inference demonstrated that the response of S. canadensis to Pleistocene climate changes was consistent with the pattern of southward contraction during the ice age and northward recolonization during the inter−/postglacial period. Isolation in multiple southern refugia was a key factor resulting in the genetic divergence, whereas secondary contact triggered by repeated range shifts allowed gene flow among different lineages. A greater effect of isolation‐by‐environment than isolation‐by‐distance was founded, which suggested heterogeneous environment was also a promotor of genetic differentiation. Candidate adaptive loci related to transposable elements were identified under the influence of divergent environmental selection. Ecological niche divergence also reflected adaptation to different environments. Main Conclusions: This study revealed that genetic divergence has occurred within S. canadensis populations under the combined effect of paleo‐climate, geographical barriers and habitat heterogeneity, and emphasized the necessity of establishing different conservation units in future biological conservation and management work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Biodiversity assessment and decisions rely on knowledge of the spatial distribution of species, yet most global biodiversity is inadequately represented by occurrence records. Efforts to improve our knowledge of biodiversity distribution include targeted taxon survey programmes aimed at generating records of new, or previously unrecorded, species. Here, we evaluate nearly 8 years of biodiversity record collection by Bush Blitz, Australia's largest species discovery programme, to test how efficiently knowledge was added through the programme. Location: Continental Australia. Methods: Because we expect locations that are environmentally distinct in comparison with those already surveyed to harbour novel records of species, we assess the extent to which Bush Blitz surveys complement continental environmental diversity (ED). We then assess how effectively this improvement in sampling of ED translates into the accumulation of records of new, or previously unrecorded, species. Our assessment is based on Bush Blitz data for six taxa (amphibians, spiders, land snails, moths and butterflies, reptiles and vascular plants), benchmarked against data accumulated over the same period by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)—Australia's largest aggregation of biodiversity records—as a comparison of effectiveness to the Bush Blitz programme. Results: Environments surveyed through the Bush Blitz programme are highly complementary to environments from which 'background' observations were made over the same period and aggregated in the ALA. Bush Blitz surveys result in large numbers of records of new, or previously unrecorded, species. Across most biological groups considered, additions were made highly efficiently with respect to survey effort, relative to background survey effort represented in the ALA. Main Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the ability of the Bush Blitz programme to contribute valuable data to conservation assessment and planning and the important role of surrogate‐based assessments of ED complementarity in planning new targeted biological surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation efforts have focused largely on species, yet ecosystem management is suggested to be a more efficient strategy for biodiversity management. With increasing numbers of threatened species, ecosystems and ecological communities, and limited resources, an approach that delivers the best conservation outcomes across multiple levels of biodiversity is crucial. In this study, we compared a species approach and a community approach to management by evaluating the number of threatened species benefiting from actions targeted at threatened ecological communities (TECs), and vice versa. We ran three analyses: one theoretical, and two spatially‐explicit analyses accounting for co‐occurrence in distributions and site‐based actions. We found that of 124 actions, 61 were common to species and TECs. Yet, the overlap of actions was lower when considering species and TEC co‐occurrences across the distributions, and was mostly lost at the site‐scale. In all analyses, focusing on species management resulted in a greater percentage of actions considered, thus potentially benefiting more species and TECs. We suggest that when there is limited capacity to perform formal prioritization analyses, our process could identify actions addressing widespread and common threats impacting both species and communities. Further, simultaneously managing both species and TECs would potentially deliver a more effective solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the boom in urban living has come a boom in urban gardening. In particular, urban community gardening is an increasingly popular form of horticultural production, community involvement and connection to nature. Through the establishment and management of community gardens, biodiversity can flourish, with community gardens as 'hotspots' of flora and fauna within the urban matrix. Gardeners can deeply connect with the natural elements of gardens and thus learn about and gain appreciation for the natural world. Such interactions can combat the loss of nature experiences in cities. Despite their benefits for nature and for people, community gardens are threatened ecosystems as often temporary fixtures in city landscapes due to lack of land tenure and policy protection.In this perspective, we recognize community gardens as an important ecosystem in urban conservation and argue for the defence of urban community gardens by city policy. We formalize this activity and the value of these ecosystems with scientific evidence from ecological and social‐ecological research in 39 community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany.Although our data reveal that these gardens support large amounts of biodiversity and catalyse human‐nature connections, a lack of comprehensive documentation of social‐ecological benefits at the city level can make community gardens vulnerable to urban planning threats; we have seen losses of multiple research sites in the last 4 years of biodiversity research.Policy implications: To protect community gardens now and for future urban generations, we call for systematic and comprehensive data collection on community gardening activities and policy support for these urban ecosystems. Some cities are starting to do this and this can be scaled out. We argue for the recognition of urban community gardens as a physical land use and also of the gardeners themselves as important habitat managers and stewards of urban biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a cross‐sectoral push among conservationists to simultaneously mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change, especially as the latter increasingly threatens the former. Growing evidence demonstrates that animals can have substantial impacts on carbon cycling. As such, there are increasing calls to use animal conservation and rewilding to dually overcome biodiversity loss and mitigate climate change.Specifically, trophic rewilding—which involves restoring intact animal communities, functional roles and trophic structure within food webs, and natural ecosystem processes—utilizes a rewilding framework to simultaneously support biodiversity conservation and carbon capture and storage. Trophic rewilding is a complex conservation approach to mitigating climate change, involving accurate estimations of baseline conditions and continuous monitoring of carbon cycling and species impacts within a system. It is also predicated on garnering social support for both the reintroduction and monitoring of a species, and obtaining the animals themselves.We are excited by the growing interest in this potential, but emphasize that a species' net impact on ecosystem carbon dynamics is context‐dependent. Caution is required whenever biodiversity conservation (including rewilding), climate change mitigation, and human welfare do not readily align. Hence—similar to other nature‐based solutions—these burgeoning efforts must avoid sweeping generalizations.To bolster successful trophic rewilding, we highlight a range of social and ecological context dependencies that can vary outcomes in a rewilded carbon cycle and provide ethical considerations for successful implementation.We conclude with an overview of the available technology to predict and monitor progress toward both biodiversity and climate mitigation goals. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]