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Restoration plantings are an increasingly common management technique to address habitat loss in agricultural landscapes. Native fauna, including birds, may occupy planted areas of vegetation. However, unless restoration plantings support breeding populations, their effectiveness as a conservation strategy may be limited. We assessed breeding activity of birds in box-gum grassy woodland restoration plantings in the South-west Slopes bioregion of New South Wales, Australia. We compared breeding activity in plantings of different size (1.3–7.7 ha) and shape (linear and block-shaped) to breeding activity in a set of remnant woodland sites. Contrary to expectations, we found that bird breeding activity was greatest per hectare in small patches. This trend was driven by the superb fairywren – the most abundant species in the woodland assemblage. We also found a negative effect of planting age, with younger plantings supporting more breeding activity per hectare. We found no effect of patch type or shape on breeding activity, and that species' relative abundance was not predictive of their degree of breeding activity. Our results highlight the value of small habitat patches in fragmented agricultural landscapes, and indicate that restoration plantings are as valuable as remnant woodland patches for supporting bird breeding activity. We demonstrate the importance of breeding studies for assessing the conservation value of restoration plantings and other habitat patches for avifauna.

Habitat loss can trigger cascades of secondary extinctions, changing the organization of interacting assemblages. Until recently, most extinction models in interaction systems had limited ecological realism. Here, we estimate a realistic sequence of species extinctions resulting from habitat loss to assess its impacts on the structure of frugivory networks from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We show that realistic and random extinctions led to similar patterns. We also identified a threshold in the response of network structure to habitat loss. When forest cover was reduced to less than 40% of the landscape, network organization changed dramatically. Hence, the number of species being lost, rather than the order of species extinctions, is the key determinant of its impacts on the organization of frugivory networks. We highlight the need to conserve around 40% of forest cover to keep the basic organization of frugivory networks, a threshold already reached at the best‐preserved Brazilian Atlantic Forest bioregion.

Landscapes are being impacted by rapid change, especially by diversifying energy industries. As this process occurs, habitats with little development and fragmentation are now facing increasing anthropogenic change. We studied current patterns of land use and ecosystem services costs of energy development and predicted future impacts in the US Chihuahuan Desert. We measured land developed and modified by oil and gas, wind, and solar industries and mapped levels of development and fragmentation across the US Chihuahuan Desert, followed by an estimation of annual energy-related ecosystem services costs. Based on energy resource estimates, we then projected future risk of development in the bioregion. The oil and gas industry has developed and fragmented about 27% (58,000 km2) of the US Chihuahuan Desert. Wind and solar comprise small amounts of development and fragmentation. We estimated annual ecosystem services costs of all energy industries at 180 million USD, concentrated in climate regulation, raw materials, and cultural services. Two-thirds of the desert remains relatively unfragmented in a contiguous corridor along the western portion of the bioregion. However, this corridor is threatened by energy expansion, especially wind and solar energy. With this expansion, the bioregion could become highly fragmented and continuity of habitats compromised. We suggest conservation efforts focus on the remaining corridor, while future energy development should occur in areas already highly modified by energy infrastructure. With continuing expansion and diversification of global energy sources, our findings in the Chihuahuan Desert could represent threats to other ecologically valuable bioregions that have historically experienced little industrial development.

Protected areas are the primary strategy for maintaining natural landscapes and separating biodiversity features from preventable anthropogenic threats. The Convention on Biological Diversity calls for the coverage of at least 17% of land by protected areas, and the strategic prioritization of important biodiversity areas. Using the spatially explicit reserve design software, Marxan, this study combines climate refugia modelled under future climates in the year 2070 and bioregions to identify priority sites for protected area expansion under climate change in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Priority sites for new protected areas that meet bioregion and climate refugia targets were identified in central-western, northeast and patches of southeast NSW. Seven existing parks, including Kosciuszko National Park, overlapped with regions identified repeatedly as climate refugia under 12 future climate scenarios. The recommendations from this study support policy-makers in prioritizing the protection of biodiversity under a changing and uncertain climate.

Currently, the impact of introduced predators on small mammal population decline is a focal research direction in the Australian desert literature. In all likelihood though, single‐factor explanation of population dynamics is inadequate, leaving gaps in our knowledge of the multitude of potential influences on small mammal abundance and occupancy patterns in time and space. Here, we investigated floristic gradients across four potential refuge sites of the central rock‐rat, Zyzomys pedunculatus, a granivore rodent (50–120 g) that is endemic to central Australia and is categorised as critically endangered. The study took place in Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park in the MacDonnell Ranges bioregion. Floristic sampling was allocated across the four sites, the locations of which were predetermined by an established monitoring and management programme for the central rock‐rat. Our aim was to examine the relationship between environmental gradients and floristic composition across the four sites, and thereby test the extent to which the patterns of food type and food availability can inform central rock‐rat spatio‐temporal dynamics. We found high site‐scale floristic patterning that related foremost to elevation and then to antecedent rainfall and time‐since‐fire and fire‐severity effects. To interpret these results, we applied the principles of refuge theory and we described a gradient from core refuge habitat to intermittent and then marginal habitat within the current central rock‐rat stronghold area. Overall, our results implied a strong floristic basis to central rock‐rat site occurrence, and they thus compel us to take explicit account of spatial (elevation) and temporal (rainfall–productivity and fire‐disturbance) influences on the food axis of potential refuge sites of this critically endangered species.

The Australian Wet Tropics bioregion is a hotspot for bryophyte diversity. In 2004, 397 moss taxa were known from the bioregion, since when extensive field work and taxonomic studies have added many taxa to the Wet Tropics bryophyte flora, while revisions and nomenclatural changes have reduced the number previously published. In this paper we summarise the additions to our knowledge of Wet Tropics bryophytes, and accept 410 moss taxa from the bioregion, including 170 genera in 60 families. We add 55 taxa to the flora, and 24 are rejected on the basis of false records or misidentifications, or because the records were found to be outside the Wet Tropics bioregion. Records of 14 taxa from the bioregion are considered uncertain, and 6 taxa previously considered doubtful for the bioregion are confirmed. A number of records including Holomitrium cylindraceum and Taxithelium lindbergii are reported as new to Australia.

State‐level conservation in South Africa is structured around distinct political entities (i.e. municipalities). This is problematic because an ecological approach that considers species distribution is required to delineate meaningful management units. To do so, vegetation types can be used as management units—however, it is uncertain whether vertebrate communities are associated with vegetation types as defined by the national vegetation map. Here, we investigate mammal diversity patterns within and among biomes (savannah and grassland) and bioregions and test whether different mammal communities were associated with different vegetation types. We used an extensive database of species occurrences in the North West Province. We found that species richness was higher in the savannah than grassland biome. Beta diversity was higher within the savannah than grassland biome, due to greater environmental heterogeneity, though one grassland bioregion was similar to the savannah bioregions. Mammal communities were significantly different among bioregions, but not biomes, suggesting mammal communities are congruent with vegetation type at finer scales (i.e. bioregional), but not at coarser scales (biomes). It thus makes sense to use a bioregional framework to design mammal management strategies. The invasion of grasslands by savannah species should be monitored, specifically given the predicted changes in climate.

Worldwide, agricultural activities are associated with environmental impacts including riparian degradation and increased waterway pollution. The Fitzroy Basin of Central Queensland lies within the Brigalow Belt Bioregion, which is currently experiencing the highest rates of tree clearing in Australia driven by grazing activities, and this is likely to increase riparian degradation. Local riparian condition, however, has not been consistently monitored within the Fitzroy Basin, and its relationship with water quality has not been well established. This study assessed riparian condition of waterways in the Fitzroy Basin using two established scoring methods (the Rapid Appraisal of Riparian Condition and the Australian Rivers Assessment System Habitat Assessment) and statistically investigated the relationship between stream water quality and local riparian condition. Twelve sites in six waterways were sampled four times over two years, during ambient (nonflood) conditions. Upstream creeks with poorer riparian condition had elevated dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved manganese, sulfate, and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations. High concentrations of these water quality variables were associated with poor local riparian scores in principal components analysis. Dissolved manganese and sulfate were included in the multiple regression model for riparian scores (r values: 0.83 to 0.86; p

Fisheries have historically focused on single-species management, but there is a global movement to incorporate ecosystem-based processes. Marine protected areas (MPAs) offer an important management tool for enhancing ecosystem structure and function. This study investigated whether a non-lethal indicator of trophic position (TP) could be used to evaluate fishery health in southern California MPAs. We hypothesized that a common predator, kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus), would occupy a higher TP and smaller niche space inside MPAs than at fished reference sites, and that these patterns would be supported by trends in abundance and gut contents. Stable isotope analysis of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) were used to estimate the TP and niche space of kelp bass (N = 125) collected inside and outside of four MPAs during summer 2016–2017. Although all MPA sites supported a significantly higher biomass of kelp bass than reference sites, there was no consistent pattern in TP and niche space inside versus outside of MPAs. Gut contents showed that exploitation of ephemeral pelagic foods may reduce localized effects of MPAs on prey availability for this species. Our findings suggest that MPAs will not have consistent impacts on food web dynamics for higher level generalist predators and that ecosystem-level responses to protection may vary across locations within a bioregion. These results emphasize the importance of accounting for site-specific differences in food web structure before applying ecosystem-based metrics to fishery management.

Management of the feral Horse (Equus caballus) in the Australian Alps bioregion is a difficult and emotive issue, with interested parties working from vastly differing perspectives. Compounding this, information regarding ecology and distribution of horses, and the cost and effectiveness of management strategies is often unknown or uncertain. Resolving these issues requires an objective approach with the flexibility to incorporate different potential scenarios. We used a spatially explicit population model to compare the potential effects of two different management strategies on populations of horses in the Australian Alps bioregion: culling from helicopters versus trapping and mustering. We populated the model using the results of population surveys conducted in 2014, vegetation data and cost estimates. We then provided an estimate of the effect of each strategy on population size across the Alps, and their corresponding costs, compared to no management. To account for uncertainties, we simulated different scenarios for horse population densities, dispersal rates and population growth rates. Management using aerial culling was more effective than mustering in every scenario modelled, and three to six times cheaper. Aerial culling was only slightly more effective within its control region. However, because mustering is necessarily restricted by road access, this translated to a substantial improvement in population control – up to 2000 horses where growth and dispersal rates were high. Our results unequivocally suggest aerial culling as the only strategy that could effectively control horses within the modelled range of scenarios; this result stands in addition to its other potential benefits of lower cost, animal stress and landscape disturbance. A major advantage of this modelling approach is that we can easily update it with new data, test different measures of effectiveness and add new scenarios to adapt to the rapidly changing situation on the ground, both in terms of the ecology and the political climate.

Tropical rainforests are among the most important ecosystems on earth. After Brazil, Indonesia has the second largest tropical forest area in the world. Since the 1970s, Indonesia’s forests have decreased from covering 87% to 50% of its land area. With the ever increasing pressures from economic and human development it appears likely that much of the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by forest in Indonesia will only remain in conservation areas. National parks currently cover around 60% or 16 Mha of the total area of protected areas in Indonesia. Between 2012 and 2017, 42 terrestrial national parks in Indonesia lost 1.07% of their total forest cover. However, primary forest cover increased by 0.07%. National parks in the Jawa Bali bioregion, through their natural mountainous conditions and ecosystem services to the surrounding areas, as well as better management inputs, have contributed to the increase of primary forest covers and keeping total forest loss relatively low in Indonesia’s national parks.

It is a certitude at the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century, in the age of the Anthropocene, that we are in a situation of universal health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and immersed in the context of a dramatic scene within many of the metropolises that previously felt strong and safe. This immense health crisis must contribute to face, this time on time and with sufficient clarity, the greatest social, ecological, economic, and health-related challenge of the twenty-first century: Climate and Global Change (Salazar-Galan, Crisis sistemica y coronavirus (I). https://ctxt.es/es/20200302/Politica/31295/coronavirus-epidemia-crisis-capitalismo-recesion-joan-benach.htm, 2020, March 10). Nevertheless, while the uncertainty about the outbreak of the pandemic is cleared up, research on metropolitan areas can shed light on how health can be a right in Environmental Justice, rather than a matter of human control. In what follows, we will present a reflective methodology that prioritizes social cohesion and equity, proposing to expand the sense of the metropolitan to an idea of a bioregion.

This research investigates place-based making and experimental design practices in the field of contemporary jewellery as methods for embodying sensory connections to the land. Motivated by the proliferation of globalised materials, such as concrete and petrochemical plastics, that contribute to a sense of placelessness, this project is focussed on enhancing perceptions and knowledge of local materials foraged from the landscape. Constructing jewellery with materials local to Sydney, such as sandstone, coal and oyster shells, attends to social, cultural and temporal issues in terms of both historical and contemporary applications of materials when making jewellery. Drawing on the work of critical place-based designers and contemporary jewellers from Australia, New Zealand and Europe, I situate my practice in the field of experimental sustainable design. Informed by Shinto design traditions that honour materials within my Japanese heritage, I explore ideas for ecologically engaged critical making. The theoretical concepts of correspondence and textility presented by Tim Ingold then frame the creation of objects that explore the relationship between the maker, the material world and the sensory experience of wearing jewellery on the body. Sarah Pink’s methodology of sensory ethnography is used to examine aesthetic connections to local environments that emerge through the place-based method of bioregional foraging. The sensorial qualities of the jewellery series developed for this Master of Fine Arts practice-based research were critically considered to instrumentalise the naturally porous and activated surfaces of raw and unfinished materials. The works seek to enhance human connection to such materials and create embodied understandings of their local ecologies.

Bacopa llanorum, a new species from the seasonally flooded savannas of the “Llanos” region of Colombia (Arauca department) is described and illustrated, and its morphological relationships are discussed. On the basis of its dimorphic leaves (the innermost blade filiform, uppermost lanceolate-ovate), the new species does not appear to be allied to any other Bacopa species. However, it shares several other features with B. reptans. A new combination, Bacopa debilis, is proposed to replace Caconapea debilis. In addition, ecological information of the genus in “Los Llanos” of Colombia and Venezuela, and ecological and floristic notes about the eolic-limose plains, are included. A key for identifying species of Bacopa in this region is also provided. Bacopa llanorum is remarkable for its foliar dimorphism, in an otherwise predominantly homomorphic-leaved genus, and it increases to 20 the number of species of the genus in the “Llanos del Orinoco” bioregion.

Spike lavender, Lavandula latifolia Medik., is a species of economic importance for its essential oil (EO). The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of the variable climate and fixed factors such as soil and geographic location on EO yield and quality. The study material was collected in 34 populations from four different Spanish bioregions for three years. The EO extraction from spike lavender leaves and flowers was done with simple hydrodistillation, in Clevenger. Soil samples were also collected. Climate data were provided by the State Meteorological Agency. The EO average yield was obtained for the bioregion mean and in each bioregion. The higher EO yield is related clearly to the climate condition. A greater amount of annual rainfall produced a higher EO yield in the four bioregions and of better quality. Soils richer in organic matter and minerals produced higher EO yield but with less quality. The altitude had little effect on EO yield. Higher altitude favored obtaining higher EO quality. At lower latitude, further south, the populations obtained a higher EO yield. The evaluation of the environmental effect on the EO yield and quality could allow better natural conservation and more accurate selection of the best populations for breeding and spike lavender cultivation protocols.

Background Prairie–forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value. Our objective was to understand how historical and current fire occurrences and human development influenced the Palouse Prairie–forest ecotone. We used General Land Office survey field notes about the occurrence of bearing trees to locate historical (1870s to 1880s) prairie, pine savanna, and forest at the eastern edge of the bioregion. We combined LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation classes to contrast historical land cover with current land cover. We reconstructed historical fire occurrence (1650 to 1900) from fire-scarred trees. We used fire and lightning records from 1992 to 2015 to interpret the role of people and lightning. Results Historically, the ecotone was a matrix of prairie with extensive savanna and some forest. More than half of the ecotone area was prairie, which is now dominated by agriculture, with some residential development. The 16% of the landscape that was pine savanna is now forest or shrubs, agriculture, perennial vegetation under the Conservation Reserve Program, or developed; no savanna now exists. Forests covered 12% of the ecotone and these are still mostly forest. Fires were historically frequent, occurring on average every 5 to 8 years at most sites. Lightning was not frequent but could likely have been sufficient to ignite fires that could spread readily given the rolling terrain and long fire season. Conclusions Fire was far more frequent historically than currently. Conservation, restoration, and other ongoing land-use changes will likely result in more continuous vegetation and hence fuel for fires. Lightning and people may ignite fires that therefore spread readily in the future. Understanding the past and potential future of fire in the Palouse Prairie bioregion may help us live with fire while conserving ecological values here and in similar prairie–forest ecotones.

The Einasleigh Uplands bioregion of central north Queensland, Australia, harbours a unique suite of reptiles that have begun to receive significant attention in the last 20 years. This has resulted in a number of new reptile species being described, and recognition that others await description. We describe a new species of Lucasium Wermuth, 1965 from the western Einasleigh Uplands. Lucasium iris sp. nov. is genetically distinct and morphologically diagnosable from all congeners by its large size, long and narrow tail, nares in contact with rostral scale, homogeneous body scales, distinct vertebral stripe, and paired, enlarged, apical subdigital lamellae. It is known from low rocky hills in a localised area of the Gregory Range, has the most restricted known distribution of any Lucasium, and is the only Lucasium endemic to Queensland. The new species appears most closely related to L. steindachneri (Boulenger, 1885), based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, but has a colour-pattern more similar to L. immaculatum Storr, 1988. All three of these species occur in the Einasleigh Uplands, but only L. steindachneri is known to occur in sympatry with L. iris sp. nov. In addition to the description of the new species, we present records of Lucasium immaculatum from the Einasleigh Uplands, which represent a significant known range extension.

Population declines and range contractions among Australian frogs that commenced in the early 1980s continue in some species that were once widespread. The generality of this pattern has been difficult to discern, especially for those species that are encountered rarely because they have restricted periods of calling activity with poorly defined habitat preferences, and are not common. Several lines of evidence indicate that Litoria littlejohni is such a species. This frog was once known from mid-eastern New South Wales to eastern Victoria, and evidence from wildlife atlas databases and targeted searches indicate that it has declined in large portions of its former range, leaving several populations that are isolated, in some cases restricted in distribution, and of small size. We investigated the relationships among populations using mitochondrial ND4 nucleotide sequences and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the nuclear genome. We found that northern and southern populations form two highly divergent genetic groups whose distributions abut at the southern margin of the Sydney Basin Bioregion and these genetic groups also show divergence in morphology and male advertisement calls. Here we describe the populations to the south of the Sydney Basin Bioregion as a new species and provide information on its distribution and ecology. In light of the apparent isolation and small size of known populations of the new species and the consequent restriction of the range of L. littlejohni, we assessed the conservation status of both species.

Rodent assemblages have ecological importance in ecosystem functioning and protected area management. Our study examines the patterns of assemblages of rodents across four habitat types (i.e., Miombo woodland, Acacia woodland, grasslands and farmlands) in the savanna environment. Capture-mark-recapture (CMR) methods were applied for data collection across the Chembe Bird Sanctuary (CBS) landscape. The Non-metric Multi-Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) was used for exploratory data analysis, followed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukey&ndash, Kramer&rsquo, s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) post-hoc tests. The rodent assemblages in CBS significantly differed between the non-farmlands (i.e., Miombo woodland, Acacia woodland and grasslands) and farmlands. There were: (1) zero rodent diversity in farmlands, dominated completely by a pest species, M. natalensis, and (2) different rodent assemblages in three non-farmland habitat types. We suggest that rodent assemblages should be mediated by conservation planning and multi-stakeholder collaboration beyond the protected area boundaries to contribute to a working CBS landscape positively.

The paleobiogeography of Early−Middle Devonian (Pragian−Eifelian) brachiopods from West Gondwana was assessed to determine any potential controls (regional climatic differences or global eustasy) that may have driven bioregionalization. The Pragian−Eifelian interval of West Gondwana was examined because work by previous authors suggested that this was a period when regionally extensive areas of provincialism among marine invertebrates were present and most pronounced. Factors of particular interest in this study were the controls over brachiopod bioregionalization at high (60°−90°) southern latitudes, which the Malvinokaffric Realm is thought to have entirely occupied. A large presence-absence data matrix was compiled consisting of the occurrences of 206 genera from 17 localities across West Gondwana, and an array of multivariate methods (cluster analysis, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, and network analysis) was employed to assess regional bioregionalization trends. The results of our study suggest that regional climatic differences brought on by latitudinal effects were the determining driver for bioregionalism of brachiopods during the Pragian−Eifelian, and these trends were coincident with a global cooling period during the Early−Middle Devonian. Our study further suggests that of the three regional paleobiogeographic realms thought to be present in West Gondwana during the Early−Middle Devonian (Eastern Americas, Old World, and Malvinokaffric), only the Malvinokaffric Realm is valid as a single biogeographic area. Its area, however, is reduced; it is interpreted to have been a second-order biogeographic area and not a first-order area as suggested by previous authors. Given these factors, we suggest a new demonym for this area, the “Malvinoxhosan,” given the racially charged connotations of “Malvinokaffric.” We present a new biogeographic framework for West Gondwana that is free of preconceived biogeographic area and rank biases, with the understanding that a more globally expansive study should be undertaken to elucidate these areas and their rank within the correct hierarchy. Two first-order paleobiogeographic areas are recognized in West Gondwana and are named according to their latitudinal extent, namely, the high-latitude (60°S−90°S) and temperate-latitude (30°S−60°S) bioregions. The temperate-latitude bioregion consists of a single second-order paleobiogeographic area, the “Colombian−West African” bioregion. Two second-order bioregions are present in the high-latitude bioregion, namely, the Amazonian and Malvinoxhosan bioregions. Here, the Amazonian (∼50°S−70°S), compositionally, was an intermediate region between the Colombian−West African (∼30°S−50°S) and Malvinoxhosan (70°S−90°S) end members. Latitudinal effects may also have been responsible for dividing the Malvinoxhosan bioregion into two tentative third-order paleobiogeographic areas, namely, the Andeo−South African (∼70°S−80°S) and the Paraná (∼80°S−90°S) bioregions.

Habitat disturbance is one of the major causes of seagrass loss around the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean bioregion. Assessing the seagrass response to these disturbances is of utmost importance in planning effective conservation measures. Here we report about seagrass reproductive effort (RE) as an indicator to assess seagrass response to habitat disturbances. Quadrat sampling was used to collect seagrass samples at three locations (a disturbed and undisturbed site per location) of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The health of seagrass meadows was quantified based on density-biomass indices of the disturbed sites. A change ratio (D/U) was derived by contrasting the RE of disturbed (D) sites with the undisturbed (U) sites of all three locations. The relationship between RE and plant morphometrics were also quantified. Reproductive density of T. hemprichii was higher and significant at the three disturbed sites. The average reproductive density of T. hemprichii at the disturbed sites was 3.3-fold higher than the undisturbed sites. The reproductive density consisted around 52% of the total shoot density of T. hemprichii at the disturbed sites. In general, the increase in the plant RE was site-specific and was 4-fold higher at the three disturbed sites. Positive and significant correlations was observed between the change ratio of RE and the plant morphometrics, suggesting an active participation of seagrass morphometrics in the reproductive process. Increase in seagrass RE can contribute to the increase in population genetic diversity, meadow maintenance and various ecosystem functions under the influence of anthropogenic disturbance scenarios.

An inverse relationship between egg and clutch size has been found repeatedly across animal groups, including birds, reptiles and amphibians, and is considered to be a result of resource limitations and physical constraints on the reproducing female. However, few studies have contextualised this relationship with respect to various environmental selecting pressures and life history traits that have also likely influenced the selection of an optimal egg/clutch size combination, while even fewer have tested these interrelationships using robust natural history datasets. In this study, we aimed to test current hypothesises regarding these relationships on both egg and clutch sizes among the Australian Anurans, which to date have not received this kind of investigation. Specifically, we looked at the influence of environmental selecting pressures (egg laying location, environment persistence and bioregion) and life history traits (adult female body size, egg development type, parental care level, breeding period and temporal breeding pattern). As expected, a clear inverse relationship was found between egg and clutch size, while female body size was positively related to both. Generally speaking, smaller clutches of larger eggs tended to be produced by species that i) oviposit terrestrially, ii) showcase direct development and iii) possess high levels of parental care. Temporal breeding pattern was strongly related to clutch size only, with large clutches occurring in explosive breeding species, while breeding habitat was strongly related to egg size only, with large eggs sizes occurring in terrestrial species. Altogether, these findings indicate that numerous factors have likely influenced the evolution of an optimal clutch type in this group, highlighting the importance of incorporating such variables into animal studies on egg and clutch sizes.

The large branchiopod crustacean fauna (fairy shrimp, tadpole shrimp and clam shrimp) of the Neotropical Bioregion are incompletely known, with scattered records for many taxa, and many new taxa discovered and described regularly. As an aid to furthering our knowledge of the group in this region, we present an assortment of notes and records on various Neotropical taxa. We present our information in the form of a checklist, listing all reported species, with a review of their known distribution, with 56 new distributional records for 29 taxa. We also include a revised description of Spiralifrons mira based on new material from Brazil, and provide important comments on the Leptestheriidae, reducing Strakrabiidae, Straskrabia, and Brtekia to synonymy. The information presented here will assist in additional studies, surveys, and conservation, as well as help develop a biogeographical understanding of this vast region. Thus, we have compiled these records so that it will be available to other researchers. Future survey efforts will undoubtedly reveal additional records and taxa. Fil: Rogers, D. Christopher. University of Kansas; Estados Unidos Fil: Severo Neto, Francisco. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; Brasil Fil: Volcan, Matheus Vieira. Instituto Pró-Pampa. Laboratorio de Ictiología; Brasil Fil: De los Ríos, Patricio. Universidad Católica de Temuco; Chile Fil: Epele, Luis Beltran. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagóica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales - Sede Esquel. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica; Argentina Fil: Ferreira, Aloisio. MUNDI. Biología Integrada Ltda; Brasil Fil: Rabet, Nicolas. Sorbonne University; Francia. Université Pierre et Marie Curie; Francia. Universite de Caen Basse Normandie; Francia. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia

International audience

Current trends in urbanisation have an extremely negative impact on human settlements and the living environment. Social, community and economic disruption, together with ecosystem depletion and loss of prime farmland, interact with the effects of climate change and mutually reinforce a downwardly spiralling process. Drawing on the legacy of the bioregional movement—and its forefathers in the regionalist movement—this chapter provides the main key points for setting up a “concrete and transformative utopia” with the goal of managing these damaging trends. A goal which hinges on the idea of territory conceived as “commons” and on recreating a coevolutionary relationship between human settlements and ecosystem endowment. In this context, this chapter underlines the importance of fostering a process with a bottom-up approach so as to restore a sense of “place awareness” to inhabitants, a key element for nurturing conviviality within communities and sustainable use of local/regional heritage, and to facilitate the establishment of self-reliant economies. Such a project “movement” will rely on the “Urban Bioregion” concept and its “construction elements”: local knowledge and skills, high quality ecosystems and hydro-geologic basins, stable floodplains, polycentric urban patterns, enhancement of public spaces, self-reliant local economies, mixed local energy systems, multi-functional farmland and wooded areas and, last but not least, the enhancement of local participatory democratic institutions. This chapter challenges the idea that a world of megacities is inevitable and lays out some strategic design directives for reversing top-down development models and for building up a planet of cooperative urban bioregions based on local societies and communities that are empowered and fair.

In recent times, bioregionalism has been rediscovered in the environmental movement, the territorialist movement (in Italy), the natural resource management or landcare movement (in Australia), and a multiple of expressions through urban and regional sustainability. Although the link between bioregionalism and cities is not always made, new movements are now appearing that are re-establishing the inherent integration of cities and their bioregion, which are more positive about how the city can help recreate a better bioregion. One of these movements is biophilic urbanism. This chapter explains how bioregionalism and biophilic urbanism are related. By employing certain case studies, especially from Singapore, it is shown that cities can indeed begin their bioregional strategies from the biophilic design strategies. The analysis concludes that a strong need exists for bioregionalism to bring its insights and science right into the city and down to the detailed landscaping in and on buildings, and for biophilic urbanism to extend its science and insights out into the corridors and surroundings of the bioregion that supports every city. Such potential integration of bioregionalism and biophilic urbanism is needed in all cities.

The bioregional movement began in the United States in the 1970s and had matured into a robust social theory by the 1990’s. In 2003, the author’s book, LifePlace: Bioregional Theory and Practice, was published, which bridged both practical and academic realms, defining a bioregion as “a unique region definable by natural (rather than political) boundaries with a geographic, climatic, hydrological, and ecological character capable of supporting unique human and nonhuman living communities.” Numerous examples of bioregional organizations and actions have taken root within the United States in the past several decades. However, as information technology, global economics, and inequality have influenced modern society in the United States and elsewhere, a significant and growing cultural and political split has occurred between rural and urban constituents, placing considerable stress on the processes of bioregional planning and practice. In spite of this, bioregional approaches themselves remain the best, and perhaps the only, means of bridging the urban-rural divide.

Current trends on urbanization seem to radically call into question inherited categories of “urban” and “rural” as concepts taken for granted in spatial planning and design domains, as well as entailing – especially in “global north” countries – an eclipse of the “rural” in a growing urbanized world. The chapter provides an alternative vision aimed to reformulate in transitional, relational, and co-evolutionary terms the relationship between these two domains especially pointing out the strategic role of the “urban/rural interface” and of its multifaceted and multi-level nature in offering the possibilities to better manage and master settlements evolution and growth. Drawing on this approach, the urban/rural interface becomes the spatial category that, in the framework of the urban bioregion concept, allows either to reformulate and innovate concept and categories of urban and rural – especially paving the way for an proactive protection of the latter – or to redefine and best tailor, in integrate and cross-scalar modes, policies, planning, and design tools according to endogenous local development scenarios.

The Vega of Granada is a traditional peri-urban agricultural bioregion that includes important environmental and heritage values. As it belongs to the urban agglomeration of Granada, the agricultural land has been affected by the urban sprawl and other impacts of the contemporary metropolitan model. The strategic position of this fertile land and the growing interes in local and organic food products give an opportunity to the Vega of Granada to recover the basic role that it played before the new trends imposed by the global food system. Following to a bioregional approach, this chapter explains some of the participative processes that were activated to develop the alternative food system, mainly considering the use of short food supply chains to distribute and sell the agricultural products of the Vega of Granada. The success of some of those activities and the increase in the consumption of local products demonstrate the importance of participation as a key question in relocalising the food systems and increase the resilience of the peri-urban agricultural land.

While the focus in readings of Thomas Bewick’s illustrations centre on his masterful skill as a wood engraver and observer of animals and birds, this chapter looks at how his bird habitats—the context in which his ‘portraits’ are situated—are rendered in plates from the History of British Birds. The balance between a static focus on the species-in-question and the dynamic bioregion that supports species life is often compromised in the ‘field guide’ genre. There is an inherent contradiction in the idea that ‘knowing’ birds better means limiting the context in which we ‘know’ them. This is particularly apt considering Bewick’s contemporary popularity in the context of improvements in print technologies and distribution of print materials. The implications for habitat preservation are serious: in order for species to survive, appropriate habitats must also be maintained and protected.

Away from the major population centres, the biodiversity of Australia's shallow coastal marine waters is poorly known. The Tweed-Moreton Bioregion, covering northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland, is both a focus of marine conservation (with three marine parks), and research efforts to predict the effects of climate change through species range extensions and shifts in community composition. Here we provide the first comprehensive list of shallow-water (5 mm) from the Solitary Islands Marine Park, compiled from a range of sources, including field collections over a 30-year period to 2017. The Cypraeidae (50 spp.), Muricidae (47 spp.) and Conidae (32 spp.) were the most speciose families, accounting for 26% of the total inventory of 500 species from 77 families. A total of 143 species are recorded at their southern limit of distribution on Australia's east coast, most being rare, tropically affiliated taxa found at offshore island sites that receive more frequent contact with the southward-flowing East Australian Current. The inventory confirms the high biodiversity of the Solitary Islands region and the importance of ongoing conservation management.

Recognizing shapes and assigning a meaning to them depends on our ability to dynamically link these forms to something jealously preserved within ourselves, in our memories: genetic memories, cultural memories, personal memories.

This section presents Malang, Indonesia, as a practical example of the challenges and opportunities for resilient agriculture in an urbanising bioregion.

In the “urban bioregion”, intermediate territories get new identities through a physical and relational redesign of ecosystem services beginning with polyvalent ecological networks dealing with food and its short supply chains. Such networks may become the backbone of a “rural-urban public space” defined to flood risk prevention, soft mobility, protection and enhancement of historical buildings, proximity farming and agroforestry. Starting from a bioregional perspective, the paper reflects on the need to re-territorialise food systems and describes as case study an experience recently completed: the project for the Riverside agricultural park in the left side of Arno, involving three municipalities in the Florence plain through the support of Tuscany Region Government for the participatory processes, and aimed at laying the foundations for a “river contract” with the function of agricultural park which, in the foreseeable future, could be managed through a number of social contracts involving local communities.

The accelerating expansion of human populations and associated economic activity across the globe have made maintaining large, intact natural areas increasingly challenging. The difficulty of preserving large intact landscapes in the presence of growing human populations has led to a growing emphasis on landscape approaches to biodiversity conservation with a complementary strategy focused on improving conservation in human‐modified landscapes. This, in turn, is leading to intense debate about the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in human‐modified landscapes and approaches to better support biodiversity in those landscapes. Here, we compared butterfly abundance, alpha richness, and beta diversity in human‐modified landscapes (urban, sugarcane) and natural, forested areas to assess the conservation value of human‐modified landscapes within the Wet Tropics bioregion of Australia. We used fruit‐baited traps to sample butterflies and analyzed abundance and species richness in respective land uses over a one‐year period. We also evaluated turnover and spatial variance components of beta diversity to determine the extent of change in temporal and spatial variation in community composition. Forests supported the largest numbers of butterflies, but were lowest in each, alpha species richness, beta turnover, and the spatial beta diversity. Sugarcane supported higher species richness, demonstrating the potential for conservation at local scales in human‐modified landscapes. In contrast, beta diversity was highest in urban areas, likely driven by spatial and temporal variation in plant composition within the urban landscapes. Thus, while improving conservation on human‐modified landscapes may improve local alpha richness, conserving variation in natural vegetation is critical for maintaining high beta diversity.

Policy-driven shifts from net deforestation to forest expansion are being stimulated by increasing social preferences for forest ecosystem services. However, policy uncertainty can disrupt or reverse the positive effects of forest transitions. For instance, if the loss of remnant (primary) forest continues, the ecological benefits of net forest gains may be small. We investigated how peak periods of uncertainty in forest conservation policy affected forest transition outcomes in Queensland, Australia, as well as a globally-relevant biodiversity hotspot in the state, the Brigalow Belt South (BBS) bioregion. Political, socioeconomic, and biophysical factors associated with net forest cover change and remnant forest loss from 1991 to 2014 were identified through spatial longitudinal analysis. This informed a Bayesian structural causal impact assessment of command-and-control regulation and policy uncertainty on remnant and non-remnant forest cover. The results indicate that forest cover was negatively influenced by increasing temperatures, food prices, and policy uncertainty, and positively influenced by strengthening regulation. Regulation during 2007–2014 avoided 68,620 ± 19,214 km2 of deforestation (with 18,969 ± 10,340 km2 of this in remnant forests) throughout Queensland, but was ineffective on remnant forests in the BBS. For state-wide remnant forests, perverse effects from policy uncertainty (e.g. pre-emptive deforestation) were strong enough to negate regulatory impacts. This study reveals a cautionary tale for conservation policy: despite strict environmental regulations, forest transition can be delayed (or reversed) when political inconsistency or instability provoke unintended reactions from landholders Refereed/Peer-reviewed

A multi-disciplinary pelagic ecosystem study of the Great Australian Bight (GAB) examined the micronekton communities and bioregionalisation in this area that harbours significant predator populations. Micronekton community structure and biomass differed between the eastern and central regions of the GAB. Regional differences were mainly driven by relatively high abundance of krill (Nematoscelis megalops, Nyctiphanes australis and Euphausia similis) in east GAB and high abundance of Maurolicus australis and chaetognaths in central GAB. Central GAB was also characterised by relatively high abundance of gelatinous zooplankton and small-bodied cephalopods. Lanternfishes were used as a model pelagic group to investigate the bioregional setting of the GAB. The analyses indicated that the oceanic habitats of the GAB had bioregional affinities with the subtropical Indian Ocean. However, over the continental slope, the east GAB had bioregional affinities with the Subtropical Convergence and grouped with western and southern Tasmania and the southern Tasman Sea. Lanternfish assemblage groups were compared against existing regionalisations that are based on physicochemical variables and the Delphi Method. No single existing scheme suitably reflected lanternfish assemblage distributions, but parsimonious boundaries from existing schema were identified. This study demonstrates that the central GAB, where oil-and-gas exploration occurs alongside Marine Protected Area management, needs to be considered as a separate bioregion to the east GAB for the purposes of identifying conservation values and monitoring requirements.

AIM: Spatial modelling can provide new understanding of patterns in biodiversity and help inform policy, planning and management decisions. However, for many taxa, in many regions, issues with currently available biological data curtail the application of spatial biodiversity models. Here we develop techniques to model spatial patterns of diverse subterranean invertebrate fauna (troglofauna and stygofauna) in the Pilbara region, to better inform biodiversity planning and management for these groups. In this context, the available data are highly biased in their distribution, with specimens often identified only at coarse taxonomic resolution, and individual community surveys sampling a relatively small proportion of the total assemblage at a location. LOCATION: Pilbara bioregion, NW Australia. METHODS: To overcome the challenges presented by the subterranean fauna data sets, we developed a community‐level spatial biodiversity modelling framework, and applied this to model and project patterns in species richness and compositional turnover, for both troglofauna and stygofauna, using fine‐resolution (~30 m) environmental layers. RESULTS: While there was a large amount of inherent noise in the collated data, our spatial models detected potential environmental drivers of community diversity that align with existing knowledge. For troglofauna, species richness was associated with iron‐bearing geologies, while community compositional turnover was most strongly related to geographic distance. For stygofauna, groundwater depth was the primary predictor for richness and turnover, alongside other physicochemical groundwater attributes. We identified areas of high biodiversity significance by combining richness and turnover predictions. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: The spatial projections from our biodiversity models indicate the importance of the central Hamersley Range in harbouring unique and diverse subterranean assemblages. These models and projections provide an advanced platform for various biodiversity assessments, including identifying priorities for new surveys, and assessing the likely impacts of proposed development activities on the long‐term persistence of subterranean species in the Pilbara.

AIM: We demarcate marine benthic global bioregions based on fossil and recent occurrence data. Our main goal is to compare past and present biogeography and to extract major abiotic drivers of biogeographical patterns. We specifically test the hypothesis that global biogeography has changed markedly after the climatic fluctuations of the past 10 Myr. LOCATION: Worldwide. TIME PERIOD: Recent; late Miocene–Pleistocene interval. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Benthic taxa with a rich fossil record: Bivalvia, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Gastropoda, Echinodermata, Decapoda and reef corals. METHODS: We use occurrence data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and the Paleobiology Database to construct compositional networks and outline objective marine bioregions of benthic marine invertebrates using the “infomap” community detection algorithm. We assess the association of modern bioregions with a variety of environmental parameters by applying multivariate statistical analyses, such as principal components analysis, random forests and multiple logistic regressions. RESULTS: Recent first‐order bioregions for the coastal ocean are, in general, consistent across all taxa. Seawater temperature surpasses nutrients, primary production and salinity as a predictor of modern bioregion distributions. Despite substantial climatic variations, late Cenozoic biogeographical patterns recorded in fossils are very similar to modern ones. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Biogeographical boundaries within oceans are strongly controlled by temperature gradients, but open oceanic and continental barriers determine the global biogeographical structure. The joint structure of a landmass distribution, deep ocean basins and the latitudinal temperature gradient defines bioregionalization of the benthic marine habitat, which did not change substantially over the past 10 Myr.