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Land use changes, such as the development of agriculture and plantation forestry, and altered fire regimes, are major drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, influencing the availability of suitable habitat for species. Reptiles are sensitive to both these processes as they are influenced by native vegetation extent and habitat structure. While much is known about the independent effects of fire and land use change on species distributions, few studies have investigated potential interactive effects; specifically, whether the influence of site-scale variables on reptiles depends on the properties of the surrounding landscape. We sampled reptiles at 107 sites in fire-prone heathy woodland, interspersed with plantation forestry and agriculture in south-west Victoria, Australia. We investigated the responses of seven reptile species to both site-scale variables (time since fire and several measures of habitat structure) and landscape-scale variables (extent of native vegetation and plantations and the presence of pasture within a 3.14 square km area) to 1) identify whether species’ responses to fire and habitat depended on landscape structure, and 2) examine the relative influence of time since fire, habitat structure and landscape structure on reptile abundance. We predicted that responses to site-scale variables would vary with a key landscape structure variable: the amount of native vegetation cover. Further, we predicted that site-scale variables would be stronger predictors of species abundance than landscape-scale variables. Generalised linear models, accounting for imperfect detection, were used to estimate species responses to site and landscape-scale predictors. For two species (Amphibolurus muricatus and Liopholis whitii) there was evidence that their responses to site-scale variables depended on landscape structure. However, contrary to our first prediction, native vegetation cover was not the only landscape structure variable that influenced species’ respon

This scoping review provides an overview of the relationship between physical activity, physical fitness, cognition, and academic outcomes in Latino school-aged children and identifies areas for future research. A primary search was conducted in PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and ERIC for original-research articles meeting the inclusion criteria; the search results were uploaded into PICO Portal and assessed by two independent reviewers. Of the 488 initial search results, 50 articles were eligible for full-text review, and 38 were included in this review. Most studies were cross-sectional, conducted in the United States or Chile, and included children 5-18 years old. Overall, the majority of articles reported positive associations between physical activity or physical fitness and cognitive outcomes (n = 11/12; 91.7%), and physical activity or physical fitness and academic outcomes (n = 22/28; 78.6%). In sum, this review provided consistent evidence for higher amounts of physical activity and greater physical fitness to be associated with various positive cognitive and academic outcomes in a school-aged Latino population. This scoping review also elucidated a substantial gap in the research regarding study design, with a discernible lack of interventional efforts. Future studies should test physical activity interventional strategies to optimize cognitive and academic outcomes in school-aged Latino populations.

Predation influences prey survival and drives evolution of anti-predator behaviour. Anti-predator strategies by prey are stimulated by direct encounters with predators, but also by exposure to indicators of risk such as moonlight illumination and vegetation cover. Many prey species will suffer increased risk on moonlit nights, but risk may be reduced by the presence of dense vegetation. Determining the role of vegetation in reducing perceived risk is important, especially given predictions of increased global wildfire, which consumes vegetation and increases predation. We used remote cameras in southeastern Australia to compare support for the predation risk and habitat-mediated predation risk hypotheses. We examined the influence of moonlight and understorey cover on seven 20-2500 g mammalian prey species and two introduced predators, red foxes and feral cats. Activity of all prey species reduced by 40-70% with increasing moonlight, while one species (bush rat) reduced activity in response to increasing moonlight more sharply in low compared to high understorey cover. Neither predator responded to moonlight. Our findings supported the predation risk hypothesis and provided limited support for the habitat-mediated predation risk hypothesis. For prey, perceived costs of increased predation risk on moonlit nights outweighed any benefits of a brighter foraging environment.

Context. A comprehensive understanding of movements and space use can underpin the effective management of threatened species. GPS dataloggers can collect large amounts of high-quality movement data, and recent advances in statistical approaches allow for robust estimates of home range size to be generated. Until recently, technological and practical constraints have generally restricted the collection of movement data via GPS dataloggers to larger species. However, reductions in the size and weight of GPS dataloggers now allow for this technology to be applied to smaller species. Aims. The aim of this study was to describe the home range and movement patterns of a nationally vulnerable, native Australian ground-dwelling mammal, the long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus), in south-west Victoria, mainland Australia. Methods. We attached GPS dataloggers to 40 long-nosed potoroos between 2020 and 2022 and estimated home range size using dynamic Brownian Bridge movement models. We evaluated the influence of physiological factors such as body mass and sex on home range size and described patterns of home range overlap between and within sexes. Key results. Mean home range sizes were estimated to be 13.73 ha (95% CI: 10.9–16.6) and 6.67 ha (95% CI: 5.49–7.85) for males and females respectively. Home range size scaled with body mass in males but not females, and ranges were largely overlapping – although there was some evidence of intrasexual spatial partitioning of core range areas in females. Conclusions. Ours is the first application of GPS dataloggers to this species, and our home range estimates are over twice as large as other reported estimates for mainland Australia. Long-nosed potoroos may range across larger areas than previously predicted on mainland Australia. Implications. This knowledge may be used to optimise the management of long-nosed potoroo populations before and after fire – a key threatening process for this species. Our study highlights the value

Tropical peat swamp forests contain diverse plant communities that support many endangered flora and fauna species. These forests are increasingly threatened by disturbances such as drainage, logging, and subsequent fire, yet little is known about tree species recovery from these threats. Tree species richness and diversity were measured in peat swamp forests of Central Borneo regenerating naturally after fires from 139 chronosequence plots. Our findings indicated that two to three decades after fire, similar levels of richness and diversity to relatively undisturbed reference forest are reached within sites. However, when averaged across landscapes our modelling shows that fires of average frequency of 50 years, or even 100 years, can substantially suppress tree species richness and diversity. Thus, even rare fires can reduce the species richness and diversity of tropical peat swamp forests. Two groups of tree species drove the difference in richness and diversity between disturbed and reference forests: ‘decreasers’, occupying recently burnt forest and declining with fire exclusion, and ‘increasers’, that were only present in less disturbed forests and absent or rare in recently burnt forests. The decreasers were more common than the increasers. We conclude that peat swamp forests can recover adequately from fires through natural regeneration, and it is possible that artificial planting may speed up this process. Where possible, excluding fire from tropical peat forests will help to maintain the diversity of these threatened ecosystems and promote their recovery.

Globally, species extinctions are driven by multiple interacting factors including altered fire regimes and introduced predators. In flammable ecosystems, there is great potential to use fire for animal conservation, however most fire‐based conservation strategies do not explicitly consider interacting factors. In this study, we sought to understand the interrelationships between the endangered heath mouse Pseudomys shortridgei, fire, resource availability and the introduced fox Vulpes vulpes in southeast Australia. We predicted that heath‐mouse relative abundance would respond indirectly to post‐fire age class (recently burnt; 0–3 years since fire, early; 4–9 years, mid; 10–33 years and late; 34–79 years) via the mediating effects of resources (shrub cover and plant‐group diversity) and fox relative abundance. We used structural equation modelling to determine the strength of hypothesized pathways between variables, and mediation analysis to detect indirect effects. Both the cover of shrubs (0–50 cm from the ground) and fox relative abundance were associated with post‐fire age class. Shrub cover was highest 0–9 years after fire, while fox relative abundance was highest in recently burnt vegetation (0–3 years after fire). Heath mice were positively correlated with shrub cover and plant‐group diversity, and negatively correlated with fox relative abundance. We did not detect a direct relationship between heath mice and post‐fire age class, but they were indirectly associated with age class via its influence on both shrub cover and fox relative abundance. Our findings suggest that heath mice will benefit from a fire regime promoting dense shrub regeneration in combination with predator control. Understanding the indirect effects of fire on animals may help to identify complementary management practices that can be applied concurrently to benefit vulnerable species. Analytical and management frameworks that include multiple drivers of species abundance and exp

Context Monitoring spatial and temporal change in relative abundance using statistically powerful designs is a critical aspect of wildlife management. Many indices of relative abundance are available, but information regarding their influence on statistical power is limited. Aims We compared the statistical power associated with occurrence-based and frequency-based indices derived from faecal pellet counts and camera trapping to detect changes in the activity of five mammalian herbivores. Methods We deployed camera traps and counted faecal pellets in native vegetation subjected to four management treatments in south-eastern Australia. We used simulation coupled with generalised linear mixed models to investigate the statistical power associated with a range of effect sizes for each combination of species, survey method and data type. Key results The index derived from camera frequency data provided the greatest statistical power to detect species’ responses and was the only index capable of detecting small effect sizes with high power. The occurrence index from camera trapping did not provide the same level of statistical power. Indices derived from faecal pellet frequency data also detected spatial and temporal changes in activity levels for some species, but large numbers of plots were required to detect medium to large effect sizes. High power to detect medium to large effects could be achieved using occurrence indices derived from pellet presence–absence data, but required larger sample sizes compared to the camera frequency index. Conclusions Both camera trapping and pellet counts can be applied to simultaneously monitor the activity of multiple mammalian herbivore species with differing activity patterns, behaviour, body size and densities, in open and closed habitat. However, using frequency indices derived from camera trapping may improve management outcomes by maximising the statistical power of monitoring programs to detect changes in abundance and habitat

Context: Habitat loss and fragmentation are key drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, yet the influence of landscape structure on species distributions is unknown. Globally, reptiles are thought to be especially sensitive to landscape modification due to their limited capacity for dispersal and reliance on native vegetation. New knowledge of how landscape structure influences species distributions is needed to inform conservation strategies. Aims: Our principal aim was to examine the influence of landscape structure on the distributions of 40 terrestrial reptile species in Victoria, southeast Australia. Methods: We obtained species occurrence records from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, and used MaxEnt to model the distributions of reptile species within Victoria using biophysical and landscape structure variables. A moving window analysis was applied to a land cover map to derive five landscape structure metrics; two metrics represented landscape cover and three represented landscape configuration. Key results: Climate variables were generally found to be the strongest drivers of species distributions, although 80% of reptile species were also influenced by landscape structure (permutation importance ≥5%). Of the five landscape structure variables, extent of native vegetation had the greatest influence (30 of 40 species), followed by habitat shape. For Lerista bougainvillii and Tiliqua rugosa, native vegetation cover had a greater influence on their distributions than climate variables. Most species responded positively to native vegetation extent, whereas responses to other landscape structure variables were varied. Conclusions: Although most studies of reptile distributions only use biophysical variables in modelling, our research shows that at the scale of our study area, reptile species distributions were also influenced by landscape structure; extent of native vegetation was an important predictor for most species. Integrating landscape structure in modell

Context: Interactions between multiple threats are driving biodiversity loss. In human-modified landscapes, the extent to which fire regimes threaten species may depend on the configuration of native vegetation in relation to the matrix of other land uses. Despite crucial implications for fire management, interactions between spatial pattern in fire history and the matrix are unstudied. Objectives: We used a multi-scale analysis to address two questions: do mammals respond to the landscape-context effect of the extent of older vegetation or growth-stage diversity? If so, are responses influenced by the presence of matrix? Methods: Camera traps were used to survey mammals in the fragmented heathy woodland of southeast Australia. We quantified the percent of older vegetation, growth-stage diversity and matrix presence using 16 concentric circles centred on sites, and examined species’ responses using generalised linear models. Results: We modelled eight species and found the responses of five species to fire history were influenced by matrix availability. Four species (three macropods and the yellow-footed antechinus, Antechinus flavipes) responded positively to growth-stage diversity when matrix was absent and vice versa, indicating that species acquire different resources from multiple growth stages in the absence of matrix. Moreover, these results suggest that using prescribed fire to create a mosaic of growth stages at scales of 80–710 ha may have positive conservation outcomes for these species. Conclusions: Our study highlights the importance of examining the consequences of interacting threats. Consideration of landscape context in fire management may lead to better conservation outcomes for mammals in human-modified landscapes.