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Usutu virus (USUV) is an emerging zoonotic arbovirus in Europe, where it primarily impacts Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula). For mosquito-borne viruses to persist in temperate areas, transovarial transmission in vectors or overwintering in either hosts or diapausing vectors must occur to facilitate autochthonous transmission. We undertook surveillance of hosts and vectors in 2021 to elucidate whether USUV had overwintered in the United Kingdom (UK) following its initial detection there in 2020. From 175 dead bird submissions, we detected 1 case of USUV infection, in a blackbird, from which a full USUV genome was derived. Using a molecular clock analysis, we demonstrate that the 2021 detection shared a most recent common ancestor with the 2020 Greater London, UK, USUV sequence. In addition, we identified USUV-specific neutralizing antibodies in 10 out of 86 serum samples taken from captive birds at the index site, demonstrating in situ cryptic infection and potential sustained transmission. However, from 4966 mosquitoes, we detected no USUV RNA suggesting that prevalence in the vector community was absent or low during sampling. Combined, these results suggest that USUV overwintered in the UK, thus providing empirical evidence for the continued northward expansion of this vector-borne viral disease. Currently, our detection indicates geographically restricted virus persistence. Further detections over time will be required to demonstrate long-term establishment. It remains unclear whether the UK, and by extension other high-latitude regions, can support endemic USUV infection.

Measuring progress toward international biodiversity targets requires robust information on the conservation status of species, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species provides. However, data and capacity are lacking for most hyperdiverse groups, such as invertebrates, plants, and fungi, particularly in megadiverse or high-endemism regions. Conservation policies and biodiversity strategies aimed at halting biodiversity loss by 2020 need to be adapted to tackle these information shortfalls after 2020. We devised an 8-point strategy to close existing data gaps by reviving explorative field research on the distribution, abundance, and ecology of species; linking taxonomic research more closely with conservation; improving global biodiversity databases by making the submission of spatially explicit data mandatory for scientific publications; developing a global spatial database on threats to biodiversity to facilitate IUCN Red List assessments; automating preassessments by integrating distribution data and spatial threat data; building capacity in taxonomy, ecology, and biodiversity monitoring in countries with high species richness or endemism; creating species monitoring programs for lesser-known taxa; and developing sufficient funding mechanisms to reduce reliance on voluntary efforts. Implementing these strategies in the post-2020 biodiversity framework will help to overcome the lack of capacity and data regarding the conservation status of biodiversity. This will require a collaborative effort among scientists, policy makers, and conservation practitioners.Una Estrategia para la Siguiente Década para Enfrentar la Deficiencia de Datos de la Biodiversidad Ignorada Resumen La medida del avance hacia los objetivos internacionales para la biodiversidad requiere información sólida sobre el estado de conservación de las especies, la cual proporciona la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN). Sin embargo, los grupos más hiperdiversos, como los invertebrados, las plantas y los hongos, carecen de datos y capacidad, particularmente en regiones megadiversas o de endemismo alto. Las políticas de conservación y las estrategias de biodiversidad dirigidas hacia el cese de la pérdida de biodiversidad para el 2020 necesitan ser adaptadas para solucionar estas insuficiencias de información para después del año 2020. Diseñamos una estrategia de ocho puntos para cerrar las brechas existentes en los datos mediante la reactivación de la investigación exploratoria en el campo sobre la distribución, abundancia y ecología de las especies; la vinculación más cercana entre la investigación taxonómica y la conservación; la mejora a las bases de datos mundiales sobre biodiversidad mediante la presentación obligatoria de datos espacialmente explícitos para las publicaciones científicas; el desarrollo de una base mundial de datos espaciales sobre las amenazas para la biodiversidad para facilitar las valoraciones de la Lista Roja de la UICN; la automatización de las preevaluaciones mediante la integración de datos de distribución y datos de amenazas espaciales; el desarrollo de la capacidad en la taxonomía, la ecología y el monitoreo de la biodiversidad en países con una gran riqueza de especies o endemismos; la creación de programas de monitoreo de especies para los taxones menos conocidos; el desarrollo de suficientes mecanismos de financiamiento para reducir la dependencia de los esfuerzos voluntarios. La implementación de estas estrategias en el marco de trabajo para la biodiversidad posterior al 2020 ayudará a superar la falta de capacidad y datos con respecto al estado de conservación de la biodiversidad. Lo anterior requerirá de un esfuerzo colaborativo entre científicos, formuladores de políticas y practicantes de la conservación.衡量全球生物多样性目标的进展需要关于物种保护状况的可靠信息, 这些信息一般由《世界自然保护联盟 (IUCN) 濒危物种红色名录》提供。然而, 对于大多数多样性高的类群, 如无脊椎动物、植物和真菌, 已有数据和相应能力都十分缺乏, 特别是在多样性或特有性很高的地区。因此, 旨在到 2020 年制止生物多样性丧失的保护政策和生物多样性战略需要做出相应调整, 以便在 2020 年后解决这些信息不足的问题。我们设计了八条战略来填补现有的数据空缺, 分别是: 重新加强对物种分布、丰度和生态的探索性野外研究; 将分类学研究与保护更紧密地结合; 强制要求在发表科学出版物时提交空间显式数据以提升全球生物多样性数据库; 建立生物多样性面临威胁的全球空间数据库以帮助《IUCN 红色名录》的评估; 通过整合分布数据和空间威胁数据来实现自动预评估; 在物种丰富度高或特有性高的国家增强分类学、生态学和生物多样性监测的能力建设; 为所知甚少的类群建立物种监测计划; 建立充分的筹资机制以减少对志愿工作的依赖。我们认为, 在 2020 年后生物多样性框架中实施这些战略, 将有助于克服生物多样性保护状况方面能力和数据匮乏的问题。这将需要科学家、政策制定者和保护实践者之间建立合作。翻译: 胡怡思; 审校:聂永刚.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Red List) details the extinction risk of the world's species and presents an important biodiversity indicator for conservation policy. Its continued utility relies on it containing up-to-date information on the extinction risk of species. This requires both regular reassessments and the timely assessment of newly described species. We provide an overview of the status of amphibian Red List assessments to highlight the difficulties of keeping assessments updated for species groups with high rates of species description. Since the publication of the IUCN's Global Amphibian Assessment in 2004, description rates of new species and assessment rates were initially similar; yet while the former has remained consistent, the latter has recently sharply declined. Currently 61.3% of amphibian species are either Not Evaluated or have out-of-date assessments. The situation is particularly problematic in countries with the richest amphibian diversity, which typically have the highest rates of amphibian species discovery and face the greatest threats. Efforts to keep the Red List up-to-date are primarily limited by funding, we estimate that an annual investment of US $170,478–$319,290 is needed to have an up-to-date Red List for amphibians. We propose suggestions to increase assessment rates by improving the availability of data relevant to the process: authors of species descriptions or taxonomic revisions should publish information relevant to Red List assessments. Taxonomic journals should suggest inclusion of such information in their author guidelines. We suggest that contributors with significant input into assessments should be rewarded with co-authorship of published assessments.

Although the number of studies discerning the impact of climate change on ecological systems continues to increase, there has been relatively little sharing of the lessons learnt when accumulating this evidence. At a recent workshop entitled ‘Using climate data in ecological research’ held at the UK Met Office, ecologists and climate scientists came together to discuss the robust analysis of climate data in ecology. The discussions identified three common pitfalls encountered by ecologists: 1) selection of inappropriate spatial resolutions for analysis; 2) improper use of publically available data or code; and 3) insufficient representation of the uncertainties behind the adopted approach. Here, we discuss how these pitfalls can be avoided, before suggesting ways that both ecology and climate science can move forward. Our main recommendation is that ecologists and climate scientists collaborate more closely, on grant proposals and scientific publications, and informally through online media and workshops. More sharing of data and code (e.g. via online repositories), lessons and guidance would help to reconcile differing approaches to the robust handling of data. We call on ecologists to think critically about which aspects of the climate are relevant to their study system, and to acknowledge and actively explore uncertainty in all types of climate data. And we call on climate scientists to make simple estimates of uncertainty available to the wider research community. Through steps such as these, we will improve our ability to robustly attribute observed ecological changes to climate or other factors, while providing the sort of influential, comprehensive analyses that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change so urgently require.

Aquatic ecosystems are indispensable for life on earth and yet despite their essential function and service roles, marine and freshwater biomes are facing unprecedented threats from both traditional and emerging anthropogenic stressors. The resultant species and ecosystem-level threat severity requires an urgent response from the conservation community. With their care facilities, veterinary and conservation breeding expertise, reintroduction and restoration, and public communication reach, stand-alone aquariums and zoos holding aquatic taxa have great collective potential to help address the current biodiversity crisis, which is now greater in freshwater than land habitats. However, uncertainty regarding the number of species kept in such facilities hinders assessment of their conservation value. Here we analyzed, standardized and shared data of zoological institution members of Species360, for fish and Anthozoa species (i.e. Actinopterygii, Elasmobranchii, Holocephali, Myxini, Sarcopterygii and Anthozoa). To assess the conservation potential of populations held in these institutions, we cross-referenced the Species360 records with the following conservation schemes: the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), the IUCN Red List of Threatened species, climate change vulnerability, Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) and The Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE). We found that aquariums hold four of the six fish species listed by the IUCN Red List as ‘Extinct in the Wild’, 31% of Anthozoa species listed by Foden et al. (2013) as vulnerable to climate change, 19 out of the 111 Anthozoa EDGE species, and none of the species prioritized by the AZE. However, it is very likely that significant additional species of high conservation value are held in aquariums that do not manage their records in standardized, sharable platforms such as Species360. Our study highlights both the great value of aquarium and zoo collections for addressing the aquatic biodiversity crisis, as well as the importance that they maintain comprehensive, standardised, globally-shared taxonomic data.

One-fifth of the world's reptiles are currently estimated as threatened with extinction, primarily due to the immediate threats of habitat loss and overexploitation. Climate change presents an emerging slow-acting threat. However, few IUCN Red List assessments for reptiles explicitly consider the potential role of climate change as a threat. Thus, climate change vulnerability assessments can complement existing Red List assessments and highlight further, emerging priorities for conservation action. Here we present the first trait-based global climate change vulnerability assessment for reptiles to estimate the climate change vulnerability of a random representative sample of 1498 species of reptiles. We collected species-specific traits relating to three dimensions of climate change, sensitivity, low adaptability, and exposure, which we combined to assess overall vulnerability. We found 80.5% of species highly sensitive to climate change, primarily due to habitat specialisation, while 48% had low adaptability and 58% had high exposure. Overall, 22% of species assessed were highly vulnerable to climate change. Hotspots of climate change vulnerability did not always overlap with hotspots of threatened species richness, with most of the vulnerable species found in northwestern South America, southwestern USA, Sri Lanka, the Himalayan Arc, Central Asia and southern India. Most families were found to be significantly more vulnerable to climate change than expected by chance. Our findings build on previous work on reptile extinction risk to provide an overview of the risk posed to reptiles by climate change. Despite significant data gaps for a number of traits, we recommend that these findings are integrated into reassessments of species' extinction risk, to monitor both immediate and slow-acting threats to reptiles.

The effects of climate change on biodiversity are increasingly well documented, and many methods have been developed to assess species' vulnerability to climatic changes, both ongoing and projected in the coming decades. To minimize global biodiversity losses, conservationists need to identify those species that are likely to be most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this Review, we summarize different currencies used for assessing species' climate change vulnerability. We describe three main approaches used to derive these currencies (correlative, mechanistic and trait-based), and their associated data requirements, spatial and temporal scales of application and modelling methods. We identify strengths and weaknesses of the approaches and highlight the sources of uncertainty inherent in each method that limit projection reliability. Finally, we provide guidance for conservation practitioners in selecting the most appropriate approach(es) for their planning needs and highlight priority areas for further assessments.

Mosquito-borne pathogens pose major threats to both wildlife and human health and, largely as a result of unintentional human-aided dispersal of their vector species, their cumulative threat is on the rise. Anthropogenic climate change is expected to be an increasingly significant driver of mosquito dispersal and associated disease spread. The potential health implications of changes in the spatio–temporal distribution of mosquitoes highlight the importance of ongoing surveillance and, where necessary, vector control and other health-management measures. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums initiative, Project MOSI, was established to help protect vulnerable wildlife species in zoological facilities from mosquito-transmitted pathogens by establishing a zoo-based network of fixed mosquito monitoring sites to assist wildlife health management and contribute data on mosquito spatio–temporal distribution changes. A pilot study for Project MOSI is described here, including project rationale and results that confirm the feasibility of conducting basic standardized year-round mosquito trapping and monitoring in a zoo environment.

Three brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) individuals and two sloth bear (Melursus ursinus inornatus) individuals were observed in captivity to produce behavioural profiles for each individual. Data collected through behavioural observations were used to produce activity budgets, and to identify space usage and certain aspects of social behavior. Behaviour monitoring allowed the researchers to evaluate the welfare of the animals by identifying the occurrence of stereotypic behaviours, which are sometimes associated with stress. Behavioural profiles were created using data obtained through behavioural observations (coding) and keeper questionnaires (rating). The behavioural observations indicated a number of stereotypic behaviours in sloth bears but not in brown bears. The uniformity of zone usage was calculated to investigate if the enclosure size and features were adequate for use, and a social aspect of otherwise solitary animals was also identified. The behavioural profiles generated through coding and rating were compared to determine the reliability between these two methods in Ursids. Profiles were not compared between individuals since this study is not a comparison between different personality types but rather an effort (one of the few ones existing in literature) to select a valid and reproducible methodology capable of assessing personality in bears.

Freshwater systems are already in a worse condition overall than any other broad ecosystem type and have long suffered from a lack of adequate conservation attention. Likewise, relatively little attention is given to the climate-change impact vulnerability and response requirements of these systems. However, it is clear that freshwater habitats and their rich biodiversity are acutely vulnerable to a wide range of direct and indirect climate-change impacts. In addition to the severe socio-economic implications, these impact and response issues present an urgent engagement challenge for the conservation community. Although species-level conservation options are limited in the context of the overall biodiversity threat, it is evident that even under the most optimistic of climate-change impact scenarios many more species will require ex situ management for their survival. This conservation challenge will be compounded by a growing number of species for which there is no realistic likelihood of eventual persistence in the natural state. These issues highlight an urgent need for realistic climate-change impact considerations to be factored into threat evaluations, conservation planning and public-engagement initiatives.

Partula gibba, commonly known as the Fat Guam Partula, is endemic to Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, and it is listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The effects of calcium concentration on its growth and reproductive success were studied. The snails were divided into six groups, fed ad libitum on a diet based on the one formulated by Frame and Clarke at the Nottingham University approximately 25 years ago or variants in which cuttlebone was substituted by various concentrations of calcium carbonate. Shell height, thickness and width, aperture/lip height and width where recorded every month for a whole year, and all were found to be significantly positively correlated with the percentage of added calcium carbonate in the diet (range 0–40% dry wt:wt). Morphometric growth parameters of snails fed 20% added calcium carbonate did not differ significantly from the diet with added cuttlebone (20%), with the exception of their reproductive success, which was lower with the c...

Accumulating impacts Anthropogenic climate change is now in full swing, our global average temperature already having increased by 1°C from preindustrial levels. Many studies have documented individual impacts of the changing climate that are particular to species or regions, but individual impacts are accumulating and being amplified more broadly. Scheffers et al. review the set of impacts that have been observed across genes, species, and ecosystems to reveal a world already undergoing substantial change. Understanding the causes, consequences, and potential mitigation of these changes will be essential as we move forward into a warming world. Science , this issue p. 10.1126/science.aaf7671

At time of writing Kenya holds c. 84% of the remaining in situ population of Critically Endangered Eastern black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis michaeli. The Kenyan 5 year Black Rhino Conservation and Management Strategy has given highest priority to the biological management of the subspecies in order to help achieve and maintain rapid metapopulation growth to increase rhinoceros numbers. Specific training and capacity building in monitoring of rhinoceros, from collection of field data to status reporting, have been implemented. Procedures to assess ecological carrying capacity for Eastern black rhinoceros habitat have been developed to help establish new viable populations and to optimize the management of existing sanctuaries, some of which face loss of suitable habitat owing to competition for resources between rhinoceros and other browsers. The management objective is to maintain rhinoceros populations below the ecological carrying capacity of a reserve in order to increase reproduction in‘donor'populations as well as the trans-location of animals to create new populations with the potential for rapid growth. The conservation value of establishing site-level support relationships is also discussed. Kenya, for the first time since the 1970s, achieved a growth rate of >5% over the period 2004 and 2005 (the national goal is to increase numbers by at least 5%).

Extinction of tree snails of the genus Partula on Moorea, following introduction of the predatory snail Euglandina rosea, has challenged conservation biology during years of successive captive breeding of small rescued populations. An experimental release of three Partula species into a predator-proof patch of native forest on Moorea was designed to test effectiveness of physical and chemical methods of predator exclusion and to evaluate behavior of animals bred for up to six generations in highly artificial environments. At the close of the experimental release, there had been multiple incursions of E. rosea, and too few Partula spp. remained to assess effects of captive breeding on ecological responses. However, results demonstrated the effectiveness of the exclosure under ideal maintenance and monitoring. Captive breeding methods were validated by reproduction and growth to sexual maturity in the wild as well as retention of genetic variability in the form of persistent color polymorphism in one species.

The development of ex situ conservation work for Orthoptera is demonstrated by examples of two captive-breeding programmes at the Zoological Society of London. The field cricket Gryllus campestris and wart-biter bush cricket Decticus verrucivorus are both species that have been bred in captivity and reintroduced to field sites in attempts to strengthen dwindling wild populations. Despite a similar approach to both programmes, we have encountered significant differences in the practical applications of the captive management process for the two species. By reviewing these breeding programmes, we examine some of the practical considerations associated with ex situ orthopteran programmes and compare some of the different elements that can influence programme success.

A fungal infection was identified as the cause of a high mortality rate of captive wartbiter cricket (Decticus verrucivorus) nymphs at the London Zoo (United Kingdom) in 1994. This species is threatened with extinction in the United Kingdom and the animals concerned were part of a captive breeding and reintroduction program. Following these findings, reintroductions were postponed and release sites were used only where there were no extant wartbiter crickets.

A population of zoo bred Partula taeniata was released into a patch of native Polynesian plants in the Palm House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK. The released snails were from a colony established from wild-caught snails in 1982, which had been in captive conditions for up to six generations. Monitoring of the snails was continuous and intensive for the first 2 weeks, and at decreasing frequency over the next 15 months. There was high survivorship early on in the release, but once the intensive monitoring ended survivorship became hard to determine due to difficulties in locating snails in the large and complex habitat. However, snails are known to have persisted for at least 15 months, and new individuals have been noted maturing into all developmental stages. The snails exhibited patterns of feeding and microhabitat choice similar to those observed in the wild, despite being reared in a highly artificial environment. The methods and results provide some guidelines for future release trials for this highly endangered group of snails.

Existing computer systems for analysing demographic and genetic data have been designed primarily for individually identifiable animals and are largely applicable to the higher vertebrates. The particular difficulties in recording data for invertebrates, fishes, amphibians and reptiles are not easily addressed. CERCI© has been developed, using captive populations of Partula spp snails as subjects, to analyse the quantity and complexity of data which arise from colony species.

Summary Oceanic islands frequently support endemic faunal radiations that are highly vulnerable to introduced predators [1]. This vulnerability is epitomized by the rapid extinction in the wild of all but five of 61 described Society Islands partulid tree snails [2], following the deliberate introduction of an alien biological control agent: the carnivorous snail Euglandina rosea [3]. Tahiti's tree snail populations have been almost completely extirpated and three of the island's eight endemic Partula species are officially extinct, a fourth persisting only in captivity [2]. We report a molecular phylogenetic estimate of Tahitian Partula mitochondrial lineage survival calibrated with a 1970 reference museum collection that pre-dates the predator's 1974 introduction to the island [4]. Although severe winnowing of lineage diversity has occurred, none of the five primary Tahitian Partula clades present in the museum samples is extinct. Targeted conservation measures, especially of montane refuge populations, may yet preserve a representative sub-sample of Tahiti's endemic tree snail genetic diversity in the wild.

The spectacular partulid tree snail fauna of the Society Islands has been almost completely extirpated in recent decades following the deliberate introduction of the alien carnivorous snail Euglandina rosea. The greatest loss has occurred on the island of Raiatea, French Polynesia, home to an estimated 34 species (including 33 single-island endemics), all of which have been deemed extirpated in the wild. However, we report here the February 2006 discovery of two surviving Raiatean partulid lineages on the upper slopes of Mount Tefatua, the highest peak on the island. They have been identified using morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses, the latter approach employing available museum and captive reference samples. One population, at 750 m elevation, consisted of Samoana attenuata. It has a multi-island distribution within the archipelago and surviving populations persist also on Tahiti and Moorea. A second population, present just below the summit at 950 m, consisted of a previously unstudied morphospecies and it has been formally described as Partula meyeri. It is unclear if a stable altitudinal refuge from E. rosea predation exists on Mount Tefatua but the unexpected discovery of these two surviving montane populations raises the possibility of preserving some fraction of Raiatea's endemic tree snail diversity in the wild.

Background The mass extirpation of the island of Moorea's endemic partulid tree snail fauna, following the deliberate introduction of the alien predator Euglandina rosea, represents one of the highest profile conservation crises of the past thirty years. All of the island's partulids were thought to be extirpated by 1987, with five species persisting in zoos, but intensive field surveys have recently detected a number of surviving wild populations. We report here a mitochondrial (mt) phylogenetic estimate of Moorean partulid wild and captive lineage survival calibrated with a reference museum collection that pre-dates the predator's introduction and that also includes a parallel dataset from the neighboring island of Tahiti. Results Although severe winnowing of Moorea's mt lineage diversity has occurred, seven of eight (six Partula; two Samoana) partulid tip clades remain extant. The extinct mt clade occurred predominantly in the P. suturalis species complex and it represented a major component of Moorea's endemic partulid treespace. Extant Moorean mt clades exhibited a complex spectrum of persistence on Moorea, in captivity, and (in the form of five phylogenetically distinct sister lineages) on Tahiti. Most notably, three Partula taxa, bearing two multi-island mt lineages, have survived decades of E. rosea predation on Moorea (P. taeniata) and in the valleys of Tahiti (P. hyalina and P. clara). Their differential persistence was correlated with intrinsic attributes, such as taxonomy and mt lineages, rather than with their respective within-island distribution patterns. Conclusion Conservation efforts directed toward Moorean and Tahitian partulids have typically operated within a single island frame of reference, but our discovery of robust genealogical ties among survivors on both islands implies that a multi-island perspective is required. Understanding what genetic and/or ecological factors have enabled Partula taeniata, P. hyalina and P. clara to differentially survive long-term direct exposure to the predator may provide important clues toward developing a viable long term conservation plan for Society Island partulid tree snails.