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Phylogenetic diversity (PD) represents a fundamental measure of biodiversity, encapsulating the extent of evolutionary history within species groups. This measure, pivotal for understanding biodiversity's full dimension, has gained recognition by major environmental and scientific organisations, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Unlike traditional taxonomic richness, PD offers a comprehensive, evolutionary perspective on biodiversity, essential for conservation planning and biodiversity management. This manuscript describes the development of a BioDT (Biodiversity Digital Twin) prototype, aimed at facilitating the calculation and visualisation of biodiversity metrics from global, dynamic data sources. By utilising the PhyloNext pipeline and integrating with global phylogenetic and species occurrence databases like the Open Tree of Life (OToL) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the prototype aims to significantly reduce computation time and enhance user interaction. This enables dynamic visualisation and potentially hypothesis testing, making it a valuable tool for researchers, monitoring initiatives, policy-makers and the public. The prototype's development focuses on improving the PhyloNext pipeline's scalability and creating a more intuitive user interface, expanding its utility for conservation efforts and biodiversity exploration. Our work illustrates the potential impact of the BioDT prototype in supporting diverse user groups in visualising and exploring PD, thus contributing to more informed decision-making in conservation and biodiversity management.

Phylogenetic diversity (PD) represents a fundamental measure of biodiversity, encapsulating the extent of evolutionary history within species groups. This measure, pivotal for understanding biodiversity's full dimension, has gained recognition by major environmental and scientific organisations, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Unlike traditional taxonomic richness, PD offers a comprehensive, evolutionary perspective on biodiversity, essential for conservation planning and biodiversity management. This manuscript describes the development of a BioDT (Biodiversity Digital Twin) prototype, aimed at facilitating the calculation and visualisation of biodiversity metrics from global, dynamic data sources. By utilising the PhyloNext pipeline and integrating with global phylogenetic and species occurrence databases like the Open Tree of Life (OToL) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the prototype aims to significantly reduce computation time and enhance user interaction. This enables dynamic visualisation and potentially hypothesis testing, making it a valuable tool for researchers, monitoring initiatives, policy-makers and the public. The prototype's development focuses on improving the PhyloNext pipeline's scalability and creating a more intuitive user interface, expanding its utility for conservation efforts and biodiversity exploration. Our work illustrates the potential impact of the BioDT prototype in supporting diverse user groups in visualising and exploring PD, thus contributing to more informed decision-making in conservation and biodiversity management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Knowledge gaps and sampling bias can lead to underestimations of species richness and distortions in the known distribution of species. The goal of this study is to identify potential gaps and biases in marine organisms sampling at the Western Atlantic Ocean, determine their causes and assess its effect on biodiversity metrics. We tested the potential interference of this bias with the representation of environmental conditions, potentially affecting biodiversity model predictions. Location: Western Atlantic Ocean. Methods: This study compiled data of marine species in online and institutional databases. The analysis of sampling effort and bias was conducted by mapping the density of records. A spatial autoregressive model (SAR) was employed to investigate the influence of accessibility as a determinant factor of the sampling bias. We tested whether the effect of the sampling bias could result from environmental bias in the samples, contrasting the environmental variables of the study area with those present in the biodiversity records. We examined the correlation between sampling effort in species richness and endemism. Results: The USA has the highest number of records and density of records. There was a low correlation between the vertebrates, invertebrates and algae sample density patterns. Accessibility was identified as one of the main causes of sampling bias. The analysis of environmental bias indicated that the records do not represent all conditions present in the environment. Sampling density showed a strong relationship with endemism and a weaker relationship with species richness. Main Conclusions: We have identified a strong sampling bias related to ease of access that equally affects vertebrates, invertebrates and algae, resulting in a skewed sampling of the environmental conditions where species occur. Sampling patterns differ among the groups. The intensity of sampling effort significantly impacts measures of richness and endemism, potentially undermining the accurate recognition of real biological diversity patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring that companies can assess and manage their impacts on biodiversity will be crucial to solving the current biodiversity crisis, and regulatory and public pressure to disclose these impacts is increasing. Top‐down intactness metrics (e.g., Mean Species Abundance) can be valuable for generating high‐level or first‐tier assessments of impact risk but do not provide sufficient precision or guidance for companies, regulators, or third‐party assessors. New metrics based on bottom‐up assessments of biodiversity (e.g., the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration metric) can accommodate spatial variation of biodiversity and provide more specific guidance for actions to avoid, reduce, remediate, and compensate for impacts and to identify positive opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species distribution models are vital to management decisions that require understanding habitat use patterns, particularly for species of conservation concern. However, the production of distribution maps for individual species is often hampered by data scarcity, and existing species maps are rarely spatially validated due to limited occurrence data. Furthermore, communitylevel maps based on stacked species distribution models lack important community assemblage information (e.g., competitive exclusion) relevant to conservation. Thus, multispecies, guild, or community models are often used in conservation practice instead. To address these limitations, we aimed to generate fine-scale, spatially continuous, nationwide maps for species represented in the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) between 1992 and 2019. We developed ensemble models for each species at three spatial resolutions--0.5, 2.5, and 5 km--across the conterminous United States. We also compared species richness patterns from stacked single-species models with those of 19 functional guilds developed using the same data to assess the similarity between predictions. We successfully modeled 192 bird species at 5-km resolution, 160 species at 2.5-km resolution, and 80 species at 0.5-km resolution. However, the species we could model represent only 28%-56% of species found in the conterminous US BBSs across resolutions owing to data limitations. We found that stacked maps and guild maps generally had high correlations across resolutions (median = 84%), but spatial agreement varied regionally by resolution and was most pronounced between the East and West at the 5-km resolution. The spatial differences between our stacked maps and guild maps illustrate the importance of spatial validation in conservation planning. Overall, our species maps are useful for single-species conservation and can support fine-scale decision-making across the United States and support community-level conservation when used in tandem with guild maps. However, there remain data scarcity issues for many species of conservation concern when using the BBS for single-species models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand is increasing among investors to create portfolios that encourage positive outcomes for biological diversity. The evolution of investment strategies for transitions to zero carbon over the last two decades provides insights that will assist in shaping strategies for biodiversity‐positive investments. Many emerging approaches to capture company impact and dependence on biodiversity focus on nature‐related threats to an organisation by assessing ecosystem integrity. Other approaches focus on minimising an organisation's contribution to risks of species extinction by using data sets such as the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. However, while these approaches are useful for assessing threats to and from biodiversity for individual companies, to be effective for investment portfolio construction, metrics need to be comparable across companies in an investment universe. Many of the threat assessments that could link corporate activities to impacts are incomplete and omit critical information. If the investment community focuses on biodiversity without sufficient forethought, there is a risk of entrenching metrics with significant flaws. In this paper, we suggest that interim approaches are needed to support investors in understanding the approaches being taken by potential investee companies. To that end, we present and discuss a disclosure‐based Biodiversity Management Quality and a classification‐based Biodiversity Revenues metric for biodiversity‐related investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity offsetting seeks to balance losses in biodiversity from development with offset actions that generate biodiversity gains. In Victoria, Australia, native vegetation offset policy aims to achieve No Net Loss (NNL) in biodiversity, meaning gains from offsetting must be at least equivalent to development losses. Gains may be generated from measures that protect the existing biodiversity from loss (averted loss gains), and those that restore or enhance the biodiversity (improvement gains). However, previous work has suggested the Victorian offset policy overestimates averted loss gains, allowing a larger development impact for the same offset. Here, we undertake a detailed examination of five impact‐offset exchanges permitted under Victorian offset policy in 2019 and 2020, comparing gains under the policy to those resulting from plausible counterfactuals. We find that the projected gains from averted loss were likely to be overestimated by between 3 and 240 times, compared to the counterfactuals. If this level of over‐estimation holds throughout the scheme, it would mean that up to 86% of offsets purchased do not compensate for permitted impacts to native vegetation, thwarting Victoria's NNL policy objective. We discuss the key policy issues and make recommendations to address over‐estimating averted loss gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species diversity is crucial for promoting ecosystem resilience and stability. Species diversity promotes complementarity in resource use, resulting in a wider range of responses to adverse conditions. This enables populations of different species to fluctuate asynchronously, maintaining ecosystem functioning during extreme climatic events. However, incorporating such mechanisms into conservation decisions and ecosystem modelling requires scalable metrics that represent species diversity, which is currently lacking. To address this, we introduce spectral asynchrony, a metric that captures the spatial heterogeneity of species' functional responses occurring in distinct pixels. Here, we use remote sensing datasets to investigate the relationship between spectral asynchrony and productivity responses of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) to climatic fluctuations. Our findings reveal that spectral asynchrony is associated with increased resistance and recovery of SDTF productivity in following extreme drought years, as well as greater productivity stability over two decades. Furthermore, higher spectral asynchrony was associated with relatively wetter regions, suggesting that increasing aridity across SDTF could potentially reduce landscape heterogeneity and limit ecosystem resilience to increasing droughts in the future. Spectral asynchrony provides an easily measurable and monitorable metric for assessing ecosystem responses to global changes, reflecting and scaling‐up the effects of species diversity at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offsetting policies have increased worldwide, utilizing a range of biodiversity metrics to compensate for development impacts. We conducted a global analysis of offset legislation by reviewing policies from 108 countries, which have voluntary offsets, or which require offsets by law. We sought to understand how well biodiversity metrics and offset currencies are documented in current policies. Where biodiversity metrics are documented we aimed to understand how metrics were scored, combined, and multiplied to create offset currencies. We found only 22 jurisdictions (from 14 countries) had guidelines documenting how biodiversity should be assessed during offsetting, representing a significant gap in the guidance available for offsets. Of the 22 guidelines, 14 (63%) documented use of aggregated currencies, eight (23%) did not aggregate biodiversity metrics into a single currency, and three (17%) did not specify either approach. Habitat type and condition, as well as area, were widely recommended across policies (>50%). Where species‐level metrics were considered, guidelines generally focused on habitat distributions rather than abundance or population metrics. The lack of consistent and clear guidance about how biodiversity should be measured in offsets reduces our ability to determine the effectiveness of offsets in compensating for development impacts long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Biodiversity offsetting seeks to balance losses in biodiversity from development with offset actions that generate biodiversity gains. In Victoria, Australia, native vegetation offset policy aims to achieve No Net Loss (NNL) in biodiversity, meaning gains from offsetting must be at least equivalent to development losses. Gains may be generated from measures that protect the existing biodiversity from loss (averted loss gains), and those that restore or enhance the biodiversity (improvement gains). However, previous work has suggested the Victorian offset policy overestimates averted loss gains, allowing a larger development impact for the same offset. Here, we undertake a detailed examination of five impact‐offset exchanges permitted under Victorian offset policy in 2019 and 2020, comparing gains under the policy to those resulting from plausible counterfactuals. We find that the projected gains from averted loss were likely to be overestimated by between 3 and 240 times, compared to the counterfactuals. If this level of over‐estimation holds throughout the scheme, it would mean that up to 86% of offsets purchased do not compensate for permitted impacts to native vegetation, thwarting Victoria's NNL policy objective. We discuss the key policy issues and make recommendations to address over‐estimating averted loss gains.

Abstract Offsetting policies have increased worldwide, utilizing a range of biodiversity metrics to compensate for development impacts. We conducted a global analysis of offset legislation by reviewing policies from 108 countries, which have voluntary offsets, or which require offsets by law. We sought to understand how well biodiversity metrics and offset currencies are documented in current policies. Where biodiversity metrics are documented we aimed to understand how metrics were scored, combined, and multiplied to create offset currencies. We found only 22 jurisdictions (from 14 countries) had guidelines documenting how biodiversity should be assessed during offsetting, representing a significant gap in the guidance available for offsets. Of the 22 guidelines, 14 (63%) documented use of aggregated currencies, eight (23%) did not aggregate biodiversity metrics into a single currency, and three (17%) did not specify either approach. Habitat type and condition, as well as area, were widely recommended across policies (>50%). Where species‐level metrics were considered, guidelines generally focused on habitat distributions rather than abundance or population metrics. The lack of consistent and clear guidance about how biodiversity should be measured in offsets reduces our ability to determine the effectiveness of offsets in compensating for development impacts long term.

Evaluating the outcomes and tracking the trajectory of biodiversity offsets is essential to demonstrating their effectiveness as a mechanism to conciliate development and conservation. We reviewed the literature to determine the principles that should underpin biodiversity offset planning and the criteria for offset evaluation at the project level. According to the literature, the core principles of equivalence, additionality, and permanence are used as criteria to evaluate conservation outcomes of offsets. We applied the criteria to evaluate offsets of a large iron ore mining project in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. We examined equivalence in terms of the amount of area per biodiversity value affected and fauna and flora similarity, additionality in terms of landscape connectivity, and permanence in terms of guarantees to ensure protection and restoration offsets lasting outcomes. We found an offset ratio (amount of affected area:offset area) of 1:1.8 for forests and 1:2 for grasslands. Ecological equivalence (i.e., similarity between affected and offset areas) was found for forested areas, but not for ferruginous rupestrian grasslands or for fauna. Landscape metrics showed that connectivity improved relative to the preproject situation as a result of locating restoration offsets in the largest and best‐connected forest patch. Permanence of offsets was addressed by establishing covenants and management measures, but financial guarantees to cover maintenance costs after mine closure were lacking. Offsets should be equivalent in type and size, provide conservation outcomes that would not be obtained without them (additionality), and be lasting (permanence). To monitor and evaluate offsets, it is necessary to determine how well these 3 principles are applied in the planning, implementation, and maintenance of offsets. Achieving measurable conservation outcomes from offsets is a long‐term endeavor that requires sustained management support, and is information intensive. Thus, offsets require ongoing monitoring and evaluation as well as adaptive management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing quantitative syntheses on how biodiversity responds to anthropogenic habitat change appear to sometimes mix different biodiversity metrics in drawing inferences. This "mixing metrics" practice, if prevalent, would considerably bias our understanding of biodiversity responses and render uninterpretable conclusions. However, the prevalence of this practice remains unknown, and the bias it potentially renders has not been empirically assessed. We fill this gap by conducting a systematic literature assessment of existing syntheses on biodiversity responses to habitat change, along with an analysis of a global database specifically on forest restoration. We found that the "mixing metrics" practice was used in almost a quarter of existing syntheses across a wide range of ecosystem and habitat change types. This practice predictably altered the quantitative, and frequently even the qualitative, inferences on biodiversity responses to forest restoration, in ways contingent on the composition of metrics mixed. We call on future syntheses to be cognizant of the difference in metric meaning and behaviors, and to avoid mixing different metrics in studying biodiversity responses to habitat change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Existing quantitative syntheses on how biodiversity responds to anthropogenic habitat change appear to sometimes mix different biodiversity metrics in drawing inferences. This “mixing metrics” practice, if prevalent, would considerably bias our understanding of biodiversity responses and render uninterpretable conclusions. However, the prevalence of this practice remains unknown, and the bias it potentially renders has not been empirically assessed. We fill this gap by conducting a systematic literature assessment of existing syntheses on biodiversity responses to habitat change, along with an analysis of a global database specifically on forest restoration. We found that the “mixing metrics” practice was used in almost a quarter of existing syntheses across a wide range of ecosystem and habitat change types. This practice predictably altered the quantitative, and frequently even the qualitative, inferences on biodiversity responses to forest restoration, in ways contingent on the composition of metrics mixed. We call on future syntheses to be cognizant of the difference in metric meaning and behaviors, and to avoid mixing different metrics in studying biodiversity responses to habitat change.

[Display omitted] • The conservation status of all Argentine mammals was studied. • An explicit conservation indicator (Pixel Conservation Value) was used. • PCVs were analyzed across the country's protected areas, and including human pressure. • Priority areas for the conservation of Argentine mammals were identified. • We found a very low impact of Argentina's protected areas on mammal conservation. The objective of this work was to analyze the species richness and conservation status of terrestrial mammals in Argentina in relation to protected areas and human footprint intensity using a spatially explicit metric. We calculated the conservation value per species integrating taxonomic singularity, chorology and national conservation category. We superimposed conservation values per pixel in 25 km2 grids with the protected areas of the country under different types of administration and management defined in this study and with the human footprint. Richness ranged from 1 to 93 species per pixel, and conservation values from 3 to 589 per pixel. Pixels with the highest richness and high conservation values represented 0.5 % and 18.8 % of the studied area, respectively. High pixel conservation values had 2.5 % of their area protected. The protected areas of Argentina covered 8.7 % of the total area of distribution of mammals. Areas under national management (e.g., national parks) conserved only 1.8 %, while the remainder corresponded to areas under sub-national jurisdiction (e.g., provincial reserves) and under resource management. Most taxa had less than 10 % of their range within protected areas. The high, medium and low human footprint affected 12 %, 33.2 % and 53.3 % of the studied area, respectively. The high footprint impacted on 1.2 % to 14.5 % of the distribution of the different orders of mammals, with Lagomorpha and Pilosa being the most affected. Areas of high conservation value were poorly represented in protected areas, and were impacted by a high human footprint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a policy perspective, each of the metrics we considered achieve its intended policy target: no net loss of grassland, no net loss of curlew, or no net loss of lapwing. Keywords: biodiversity loss; biodiversity metrics; biodiversity offsets; no net loss; simulation model; compensaciones de biodiversidad; medidas de biodiversidad; modelo de simulación; pérdida de biodiversidad; pérdida neta cero; , , , , EN biodiversity loss biodiversity metrics biodiversity offsets no net loss simulation model compensaciones de biodiversidad medidas de biodiversidad modelo de simulación pérdida de biodiversidad pérdida neta cero , , , , 1 11 11 10/04/22 20221001 NES 221001 INTRODUCTION Goal 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to halt and reverse land degradation and the associated loss of biodiversity (United Nations, 2015). Three landscape configurations were generated using the three alternative metrics (no net loss of low-intensity grassland, no net loss of curlew, and no net loss of lapwing). Therefore, we compared the no net loss of low-intensity grassland metric with two species-based metrics: no net loss in the abundance of the Eurasian curlew ( I Numenius arquata i ) and no net loss in the abundance of the northern lapwing ( I Vanellus vanellus i ). [Extracted from the article]

Human activities alter ecosystems everywhere, causing rapid biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization. These losses necessitate coordinated conservation actions guided by biodiversity and species distribution spatial data that cover large areas yet have fine‐enough resolution to be management‐relevant (i.e., ≤5 km). However, most biodiversity products are too coarse for management or are only available for small areas. Furthermore, many maps generated for biodiversity assessment and conservation do not explicitly quantify the inherent tradeoff between resolution and accuracy when predicting biodiversity patterns. Our goals were to generate predictive models of overall breeding bird species richness and species richness of different guilds based on nine functional or life‐history‐based traits across the conterminous United States at three resolutions (0.5, 2.5, and 5 km) and quantify the tradeoff between resolution and accuracy and, hence, relevance for management of the resulting biodiversity maps. We summarized 18 years of North American Breeding Bird Survey data (1992–2019) and modeled species richness using random forests, including 66 predictor variables (describing climate, vegetation, geomorphology, and anthropogenic conditions), 20 of which we newly derived. Among the three spatial resolutions, the percentage variance explained ranged from 27% to 60% (median = 54%; mean = 57%) for overall species richness and 12% to 87% (median = 61%; mean = 58%) for our different guilds. Overall species richness and guild‐specific species richness were best explained at 5‐km resolution using ~24 predictor variables based on percentage variance explained, symmetric mean absolute percentage error, and root mean square error values. However, our 2.5‐km‐resolution maps were almost as accurate and provided more spatially detailed information, which is why we recommend them for most management applications. Our results represent the first consistent, occurrence‐based, and nationwide maps of breeding bird richness with a thorough accuracy assessment that are also spatially detailed enough to inform local management decisions. More broadly, our findings highlight the importance of explicitly considering tradeoffs between resolution and accuracy to create management‐relevant biodiversity products for large areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Biodiversity is a complex, yet essential, concept for undergraduate students in ecology and other natural sciences to grasp. As beginner scientists, students must learn to recognize, describe, and interpret patterns of biodiversity across various spatial scales and understand their relationships with ecological processes and human influences. It is also increasingly important for undergraduate programs in ecology and related disciplines to provide students with experiences working with large ecological datasets to develop students’ data science skills and their ability to consider how ecological processes that operate at broader spatial scales (macroscale) affect local ecosystems. To support the goals of improving student understanding of macroscale ecology and biodiversity at multiple spatial scales, we formed an interdisciplinary team that included grant personnel, scientists, and faculty from ecology and spatial sciences to design a flexible learning activity to teach macroscale biodiversity concepts using large datasets from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We piloted this learning activity in six courses enrolling a total of 109 students, ranging from midlevel ecology and GIS/remote sensing courses, to upper‐level conservation biology. Using our classroom experiences and a pre/postassessment framework, we evaluated whether our learning activity resulted in increased student understanding of macroscale ecology and biodiversity concepts and increased familiarity with analysis techniques, software programs, and large spatio‐ecological datasets. Overall, results suggest that our learning activity improved student understanding of biological diversity, biodiversity metrics, and patterns of biodiversity across several spatial scales. Participating faculty reflected on what went well and what would benefit from changes, and we offer suggestions for implementation of the learning activity based on this feedback. This learning activity introduced students to macroscale ecology and built student skills in working with big data (i.e., large datasets) and performing basic quantitative analyses, skills that are essential for the next generation of ecologists.

Several methods of measuring biodiversity in development‐offset trades exist. However, there is little consensus on which biodiversity metrics should be used for quantifying development impacts and assigning offsets.We simulated development impacts in a virtual landscape and offset these impacts using six biodiversity metrics: vegetation area, vegetation condition, habitat suitability, species abundance, metapopulation connectivity and rarity‐weighted richness. We tested long‐term impacts of metric choice during offsetting by combining simulated landscapes with population viability analyses.No net loss or net gains in habitat were achieved using all metrics except vegetation area and condition. Limited habitat and like‐for‐like requirements resulted in offsets exhausting available habitat in each vegetation class before offset requirements were met when using vegetation‐based metrics. We also found that impact avoidance was an important driver in how much compensation offsets could deliver. When impacts avoided high‐suitability habitats, all six metrics achieved no net loss or net gains for most species. However, when core habitats were developed, none of the metrics were able to consistently prevent population declines.Synthesis and application. When impacts on high‐quality habitat were avoided, and assuming the protection and restoration benefits can occur in practice, vegetation‐based metrics may produce offsets which deliver gains in species abundance equivalent to species‐specific metrics. However, species‐specific metrics outperformed vegetation‐based metrics when core habitats were lost. Applying avoidance measures as a first step to minimise biodiversity impacts during development will significantly improve offset outcomes for species and result in greater long‐term population benefits delivered through offsetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: Ecologists collecting field samples of biological data have a keen interest in addressing the following question: how many rare species are there in as‐yet unsurveyed additional samples? Depending on the size of a targeted additional sample, statistical models for estimating the number of rare species have not been systematically established and compared. Location: Global. Methods: For fairly comparing and predicting rare‐species richness at the same sample‐size baseline, we systematically developed and compared four estimators for rarefaction and extrapolation of rare‐species richness with a given specific abundance. These four estimators included a uniformly minimum variance unbiased (UMVUE), Bayesian‐weighted, Chao‐derived unweighted and naïve estimator. Results: After extensive numerical tests, for conducting rarefaction of rare‐species richness (i.e., when additional sample size was not larger than the original one) it is recommended to implement UMVUE, as it has zero bias and coverage percentage closest to 0.95. However, the performance of Bayesian‐weighted and Chao‐derived estimators is also satisfactory. By contrast, for conducting extrapolation of rare‐species richness (i.e., when the additional sample size is larger than the original one), the Bayesian‐weighted estimator is recommended, as it has the best performance among the four estimators (here UMVUE is inapplicable). Conclusions: There was no absolute winner, as the different estimators have their own merits and are recommended under different settings. When conducting rarefaction of rare‐species richness, UMVUE, which has the highest accuracy, is recommended. By contrast, when conducting extrapolation of rare‐species richness, the Bayesian‐weighted estimator is recommended, as it has the overall best performance. To facilitate the potential application in the comparison and prediction of rare‐species diversity using rarefaction and extrapolation techniques, an R package (fRSE) has been developed; it is freely distributed at the following URL: https://github.com/ecomol/fRSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The undervaluation of biodiversity in decision-making is a critical issue that contributes to continued biodiversity declines and loss of environment. This issue is exacerbated in environmental economics by the need to keep measures of biodiversity simple for communication to the public due to limited background knowledge and cognitive limitations. Therefore, there is a clear need to improve the biodiversity metrics used in biodiversity valuation and environmental economics, without using overly complex measures. However, it is unclear how much overlap exists in the metrics currently used in these fields as compared to those being used in more biodiversity focused disciplines such as conservation and ecology. Here, we use a rapid evidence assessment approach to categorise the measures and attributes used in environmental valuation studies into broad groups of biodiversity metrics. We compare this to previous research categorising biodiversity metrics used in conservation and ecology to determine how well environmental valuation studies are capturing the values important for measuring biodiversity in practice. We find a high degree of overlap in the broad biodiversity metrics used in environmental valuation compared to conservation and ecology. However, the overlap mostly consistent of simplistic easy to measure habitat attributes and species occurrence measures. The measures generally fail to capture the ecosystem processes driving biodiversity persistence and therefore may not capture the ecosystem services or welfare attributes important to people. We discuss the implications of these areas of mismatch, and point towards future directions in stated preference research and technological advances, which might allow for the valuation of more complete and complex dimensions of biodiversity. • Biodiversity is undervalued in decision-making • Biodiversity metrics used in biodiversity valuation and conservation must be the same • Overlap of metrics represent simplistic measures of biodiversity • Metrics fail to capture all welfare attributes important to people [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity is a complex, yet essential, concept for undergraduate students in ecology and other natural sciences to grasp. As beginner scientists, students must learn to recognize, describe, and interpret patterns of biodiversity across various spatial scales and understand their relationships with ecological processes and human influences. It is also increasingly important for undergraduate programs in ecology and related disciplines to provide students with experiences working with large ecological datasets to develop students' data science skills and their ability to consider how ecological processes that operate at broader spatial scales (macroscale) affect local ecosystems. To support the goals of improving student understanding of macroscale ecology and biodiversity at multiple spatial scales, we formed an interdisciplinary team that included grant personnel, scientists, and faculty from ecology and spatial sciences to design a flexible learning activity to teach macroscale biodiversity concepts using large datasets from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). We piloted this learning activity in six courses enrolling a total of 109 students, ranging from midlevel ecology and GIS/remote sensing courses, to upper‐level conservation biology. Using our classroom experiences and a pre/postassessment framework, we evaluated whether our learning activity resulted in increased student understanding of macroscale ecology and biodiversity concepts and increased familiarity with analysis techniques, software programs, and large spatio‐ecological datasets. Overall, results suggest that our learning activity improved student understanding of biological diversity, biodiversity metrics, and patterns of biodiversity across several spatial scales. Participating faculty reflected on what went well and what would benefit from changes, and we offer suggestions for implementation of the learning activity based on this feedback. This learning activity introduced students to macroscale ecology and built student skills in working with big data (i.e., large datasets) and performing basic quantitative analyses, skills that are essential for the next generation of ecologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developers are often required by law to offset environmental impacts through targeted conservation actions. Most offset policies specify metrics for calculating offset requirements, usually by assessing vegetation condition. Despite widespread use, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of vegetation‐based metrics for ensuring biodiversity persistence. We compared long‐term impacts of biodiversity offsetting based on area only; vegetation condition only; area × habitat suitability; and condition × habitat suitability in development and restoration simulations for the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. We simulated development and subsequent offsetting through restoration within a virtual landscape, linking simulations to population viability models for 3 species. Habitat gains did not ensure species persistence. No net loss was achieved when performance of offsetting was assessed in terms of amount of habitat restored, but not when outcomes were assessed in terms of persistence. Maintenance of persistence occurred more often when impacts were avoided, giving further support to better enforce the avoidance stage of the mitigation hierarchy. When development affected areas of high habitat quality for species, persistence could not be guaranteed. Therefore, species must be more explicitly accounted for in offsets, rather than just vegetation or habitat alone. Declines due to a failure to account directly for species population dynamics and connectivity overshadowed the benefits delivered by producing large areas of high‐quality habitat. Our modeling framework showed that the benefits delivered by offsets are species specific and that simple vegetation‐based metrics can give misguided impressions on how well biodiversity offsets achieve no net loss. Article impact statement: It is important to use offset metrics that account for the impacts of development on long‐term species persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaches to assess the impacts of landscape disturbance scenarios on species range from metrics based on patterns of occurrence or habitat to comprehensive models that explicitly include ecological processes. The choice of metrics and models affects how impacts are interpreted and conservation decisions. We explored the impacts of 3 realistic disturbance scenarios on 4 species with different ecological and taxonomic traits. We used progressively more complex models and metrics to evaluate relative impact and rank of scenarios on the species. Models ranged from species distribution models that relied on implicit assumptions about environmental factors and species presence to highly parameterized spatially explicit population models that explicitly included ecological processes and stochasticity. Metrics performed consistently in ranking different scenarios in order of severity primarily when variation in impact was driven by habitat amount. However, they differed in rank for cases where dispersal dynamics were critical in influencing metapopulation persistence. Impacts of scenarios on species with low dispersal ability were better characterized using models that explicitly captured these processes. Metapopulation capacity provided rank orders that most consistently correlated with those from highly parameterized and data‐rich models and incorporated information about dispersal with little additional computational and data cost. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly considering species' ecology, spatial configuration of habitat, and disturbance when choosing indicators of species persistence. We suggest using hybrid approaches that are a mixture of simple and complex models to improve multispecies assessments. Article impact statement: Not explicitly including ecological complexity in biodiversity metrics may result in misleading conclusions when assessing impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing marine protected area (MPA) networks has relied primarily on species- or habitat-based measures that assess spatial distributions of biodiversity. Molecular and functional data have the potential to unlock information regarding the evolutionary uniqueness and resilience of natural communities, making phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD) effective tools for spatial planning. These are, however, rarely used in marine conservation planning. In South Africa, MPAs have been implemented to protect rare and valuable fishery resources, such as members of the Sparidae (seabreams), but have not considered different dimensions of biodiversity, such as its phylogenetic and functional components. Here, we mapped species distributions, phylogenetic relationships and functional features of the Sparidae in South Africa to refine how biodiversity is spatially structured for this species-rich taxonomic group. Our results show strong spatial similarities between PD and FD, suggesting that, for this group, PD is an effective surrogate for functional data. However, there was a mismatch between areas selected with different biodiversity metrics (particularly endemicity levels) and established MPAs, highlighting the need for integrated approaches to conserve this unique marine fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity offsetting seeks to balance losses in biodiversity from development impacts with offset actions that generate gains in biodiversity. Under Victorian biodiversity offsetting policy, offsets are required to compensate for the permitted removal, destruction or lopping of native vegetation, and aim to achieve No Net Loss in biodiversity. In this paper, we outline the policy and examine a recently permitted impact-offset exchange. We review how No Net Loss is proposed to be achieved under this exchange and evaluate the gains that were predicted to be generated over the offset management period. Victorian data on the rates of change in native vegetation indicate that the gains from the offset are likely to be overestimated, meaning the offset does not compensate for the impact, resulting in a Net Loss in biodiversity. We discuss how the lack of a suitable assessment framework for offsets in Victoria is a significant limitation for a rigorous evaluation of the gains from offsetting and argue a review of Victorian offsetting policy is needed to address these failings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species diversity, functional diversity, species richness, and dominance are fundamental topics in conservation ecology, but studies on their interrelationship remain underexplored and controversial issues in the literature. This investigation is a critical analysis focusing on the interrelations between species taxonomic diversity (based on the Shannon diversity index), cell size-based functional diversity (as a measure of Rao’sQ), species richness (number of species), and species dominance (as per McNaughton’s dominance index) in marine phytoplankton communities. The results revealed no statistical relationship between Shannon’s and Rao’sQ diversity indices, as well as no correlation between these indices and species richness. The importance of the applied functional diversity metric (Rao’sQ) for data interpretation and the misuse of species richness as a species diversity surrogate in the literature were discussed. The taxonomic composition and cell size of the dominant species and the dominant index over time were described. The species dominance index was related to Shannon’s species diversity and Rao’sQ functional diversity according to a negative linear regression, and the inverse correlation between these properties was statistically significant suggesting the species dominance control over the examined diversity system. Patterns across the data sets of species dominance and total community cell abundance showed resembling temporal fluctuations over a 2-year period, implying that species dominance may be a critical driver affecting temporal variations in total community cell abundance. This work provides a comprehensive critical evaluation of the link between taxonomic and functional diversity, and information on the importance of phytoplankton species dominance in maintaining ecosystem functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity mitigation is a cornerstone of applied conservation. Mitigation encompasses a suite of practices, ranging from planned avoidance of impacts to creation of new natural habitats. Accurate and appropriate metrics quantifying impacts to natural systems and the effectiveness of restoration are necessary to measure the success of different mitigation strategies. Because effective mitigation requires adequate metrics, we developed a Biodiversity Metrics Framework to assist practitioners and policy makers in assessing biodiversity mitigation metrics. Based on Noss' Hierarchy of Biodiversity, the Scorecard highlights the mismatch between scientifically defined best practices and metrics required by policy. The Framework may serve a vital role in standardizing and validating mitigation projects into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity can be represented by different dimensions. While many diversity metrics try to capture the variation of these dimensions they also lead to a 'fragmentation' of the concept of biodiversity itself. Developing a unified measure that integrates all the dimensions of biodiversity is a theoretical solution for this problem, however, it remains operationally impossible. Alternatively, understanding which dimensions better represent the biodiversity of a set of communities can be a reliable way to integrate the different diversity metrics. Therefore, to achieve a holistic understand of biological diversity, we explore the concept of dimensionality. We define dimensionality of diversity as the number of complementary components of biodiversity, represented by diversity metrics, needed to describe biodiversity in an unambiguously and effective way. We provide a solution that joins two components of dimensionality – correlation and the variation – operationalized through two metrics, respectively: evenness of eigenvalues (EE) and importance values (IV). Through simulation we show that considering EE and IV together can provide information that is neglected when only EE is considered. We demonstrate how to apply this framework by investigating the dimensionality of South American small mammal communities. Our example evidenced that, for some representations of biological diversity, more attention is needed in the choice of diversity metrics necessary to effectively characterize biodiversity. We conclude by highlighting that this integrated framework provides a better understanding of dimensionality than considering only the correlation component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion and intensification of agriculture have led to global declines in biodiversity. This paper presents a systematic review protocol to clarify under what management and landscape contexts diversified farming practices are effective at improving outcomes for terrestrial biodiversity, and potential trade-offs or synergies with agricultural yields. The systematic review will be developed following the Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES). The review will include articles that compare levels of diversity (e.g., abundance, richness, Shannon’s diversity index) of any terrestrial taxon (e.g., arthropods, mammals) in diversified farming systems to levels in simplified farming systems and/or natural habitats, prioritising articles that also report agricultural yields. We will search for relevant peer-reviewed primary studies in two global repositories: Scopus and Web of Science, and among primary studies included in previous meta-analyses that are retrieved from the search. Full-texts of identified articles will be screened using a clear inclusion/exclusion eligibility criteria. All included articles will be assessed to determine their internal validity. A narrative synthesis will be performed to summarize, describe and present the results, and where the articles provide sufficient and appropriate data, we will conduct a quantitative meta-analysis.

In a context of land scarcity, food production and biodiversity conservation objectives compete for land. The shape of the relationship between these two objectives may be helpful to inform decision-making. However, the metrics used to evaluate this relationship have so far been restricted to species abundances and species richness, which give no information on possible consequences on ecosystem functioning or on evolution history. Indeed, the shapes of the relationship between food production and other diversity facets, such as functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity, have rarely been studied. We considered 3 diversity facets: taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and phylogenetic diversity. For each facet, several biodiversity metrics have been proposed. The objective of this work was to investigate whether the shape of the trade-off curve between food production and biodiversity metrics depended on the considered facet of biodiversity. Using data from the national agricultural statistics, we computed edible energy from crops and from livestock on a nation-wide gradient covering French agroecosystems. Using bird observation data provided by the French Breeding Bird Survey (FBBS), we computed 9 (3 for each facet) biodiversity metrics in 516 different sites of the FBBS. The trade-off curves were then computed using additive mixed models. All metrics decreased along a crop production gradient. For functional and taxonomic diversity metrics, the slope was steeper at high levels of production, suggesting that actions aiming at increasing local taxonomic or functional diversity may be more efficient in regions with highest crop production, if restoration follows the same trajectory as biodiversity loss. The decrease was steeper for functional diversity than for taxonomic diversity, suggesting that agriculture can reduce the functional diversity of birds more than their taxonomic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater belongs to the spatially most extensive, but least explored freshwater systems. On a global scale, the species richness of several subterranean invertebrate taxa parallels species richness found in surface waters, while on a local scale species richness hardly exceeds 20 species. This results in a high contribution of groundwater ecosystems to regional β- and γ-diversity, and to a smaller degree to α-diversity, and deserves focused attention. In general, more species are to be found in large cave systems. The second largest cave system in Europe is Hölloch in Switzerland. In this paper we revised the taxonomic, phylogenetic and ecological diversity of the amphipod community in the Hölloch cave system. While previous records listed five geographically widespread species of the genusNiphargusfor this cave system, we could not confirm the presence of any of those species, but rather found three highly distinct species new to science. In this paper we describeNiphargus styxsp. nov.,Niphargus murimalisp. nov., andNiphargus muotaesp. nov., and suggest that previous records from that cave were probably misidentifications. Although amphipod species richness in this cave system seems to be lower than previously thought in terms of absolute numbers, the cave retained its regional and international importance in terms of nature conservation for multiple reasons. First, all newly described species are probably endemic to this cave system. Second, they are phylogenetically distantly related and exhibit moderate to high phylogenetic diversity. Third, the species, as inferred from their functional morphology, are also ecologically highly divergent. Based on geographic distribution of their nearest relatives, we hypothesize that the cave system was most likely independently colonized from North, West and South and that the pre-adapted ancestors occupied different ecological niches within the system. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A19309E5-C06B-4844-A4D8-7571F05F25C9 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most businesses depend on biodiversity, either directly, indirectly as ecosystem services, or through their supply chains. In negatively impacting biodiversity, businesses risk losing essential resources and services. As a result, it is important for the private sector to demonstrate strong and improved performance on biodiversity. This paper reviews and compares tools and approaches that help businesses measure their performance on biodiversity issues. Through a literature review and interviews of tool developers, we assess how tools are constructed, how they measure biodiversity performance, how and where they are being used by different businesses and how they contribute to achieving international targets for biodiversity. We found that tools perform a range of functions and are mostly applied at product, site, and supply chain level. Further efforts are needed to align tools with global biodiversity goals. Key knowledge gaps remain to better capture dependence on biodiversity and spatial spillover effects. • There is a rising demand for tools to include biodiversity in business decisions. • To support biodiversity conservation, tools must be consistent and robust. • We compare tools on how they support business in mainstreaming biodiversity. • Tools can be leveraged to achieve real change in biodiversity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is generally recognized that global biodiversity is declining, few studies have examined long-term changes in multiple biodiversity dimensions simultaneously. In this study, we quantified and compared temporal changes in the abundance, taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, and phylogenetic diversity of bird assemblages, using roadside monitoring data of the North American Breeding Bird Survey from 1971 to 2010. We calculated 12 abundance and diversity metrics based on 5-year average abundances of 519 species for each of 768 monitoring routes. We did this for all bird species together as well as for four subgroups based on breeding habitat affinity (grassland, woodland, wetland, and shrubland breeders). The majority of the biodiversity metrics increased or remained constant over the study period, whereas the overall abundance of birds showed a pronounced decrease, primarily driven by declines of the most abundant species. These results highlight how stable or even increasing metrics of taxonomic, functional, or phylogenetic diversity may occur in parallel with substantial losses of individuals. We further found that patterns of change differed among the species subgroups, with both abundance and diversity increasing for woodland birds and decreasing for grassland breeders. The contrasting changes between abundance and diversity and among the breeding habitat groups underscore the relevance of a multifaceted approach to measuring biodiversity change. Our findings further stress the importance of monitoring the overall abundance of individuals in addition to metrics of taxonomic, functional, or phylogenetic diversity, thus confirming the importance of population abundance as an essential biodiversity variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many metrics can be used to capture trends in biodiversity and, in turn, these metrics inform biodiversity indicators. Sampling biases, genuine differences between metrics, or both, can often cause indicators to appear to be in conflict. This lack of congruence confuses policy makers and the general public, hindering effective responses to the biodiversity crisis. We show how different and seemingly inconsistent metrics of biodiversity can, in fact, emerge from the same scenario of biodiversity change. We develop a simple, evidence-based narrative of biodiversity change and implement it in a simulation model. The model demonstrates how, for example, species richness can remain stable in a given landscape, whereas other measures (e.g. compositional similarity) can be in sharp decline. We suggest that linking biodiversity metrics in a simple model will support more robust indicator development, enable stronger predictions of biodiversity change, and provide policy-relevant advice at a range of scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteria are essential for many ecosystem services but our understanding of factors controlling their functioning is incomplete. While biodiversity has been identified as an important driver of ecosystem processes in macrobiotic communities, we know much less about bacterial communities. Due to the high diversity of bacterial communities, high functional redundancy is commonly proposed as explanation for a lack of clear effects of diversity. The generality of this claim has, however, been questioned. We present the results of an outdoor dilution-to-extinction experiment with four lake bacterial communities. The consequences of changes in bacterial diversity in terms of effective number of species, phylogenetic diversity, and functional diversity were studied for (1) bacterial abundance, (2) temporal stability of abundance, (3) nitrogen concentration, and (4) multifunctionality. We observed a richness gradient ranging from 15 to 280 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Individual relationships between diversity and functioning ranged from negative to positive depending on lake, diversity dimension, and aspect of functioning. Only between phylogenetic diversity and abundance did we find a statistically consistent positive relationship across lakes. A literature review of 24 peer-reviewed studies that used dilution-to-extinction to manipulate bacterial diversity corroborated our findings: about 25% found positive relationships. Combined, these results suggest that bacteria-driven community functioning is relatively resistant to reductions in diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]