The Piedmont Forest in northwest Argentina, like most Neotropical seasonal dry forests, is one of the world's most threatened ecosystems due to deforestation and climate change. To plan conservation strategies aimed at sustaining this forest type, the response to projected changes in habitat conditions must be anticipated. Our objectives were to determine the potential distribution and identify priority areas for conservation that remain stable for saplings and mature trees of three dominant species (Anadenanthera colubrina, Calycophyllum multiflorum, and Phyllostylon rhamnoides) in land use plan categories, protected areas, and forest types under current and two future climate scenarios in northwest Argentina. Calycophyllum multiflorum has the smallest current potential distribution of the three species, but expands to have the largest potential distribution under future climate scenarios. Deforestation reduced by 11–20 % and protected areas harbor < 10 % of the potential distribution of the three species in both age classes in current and future scenarios. In future scenarios, and compared to the current period, the overlap of the potential distribution will increase in the highest protection category, but also for areas categorized as low conservation value that can be transformed according to the land use plan. Half or more of the co-occurring potential distribution of each species, in each age class in current and future scenarios occurs in the Piedmont Forest. Three priority areas for conservation were identified totaling 5483 km2 of which 9 % are currently within protected areas. Thus, at the end of this century the Piedmont Forest is likely to maintain its structure and function if measures are taken to ensure that natural tree regeneration can occur. In the face of future climate change, management policies can satisfy long-term conservation planning necessary to ensure persistence of Piedmont Forest function by protecting priority areas identified in this study.
File: Alabar-et-al.-LandUrbPlann-2025.pdf
Oak woodlands are threatened across North America due to land use change, fire exclusion, and the spread of invasive species following European settlement. Effective conservation of woodlands—and associated biodiversity— is dependent on management (prescribed fire and tree thinning) emulating natural disturbance and historic cultural burning. We examined the effects of woodland management during the avian breeding season in the upper Midwest (WI, USA), collecting data at three trophic levels: vegetation, arthropods, and insectivorous birds. Compared to unmanaged sites, managed sites had lower basal area, understory density and snag abundance, and higher tree diameter, herbaceous plant cover, and soil moisture. Mean caterpillar biomass was higher in managed sites, as was mean aerial insect biomass. Avian species richness was higher in managed sites, and was negatively associated with canopy cover and positively associated with herbaceous plant cover. Detection corrected abundance estimates of the 21 most common insectivorous bird species indicated that ten species were more abundant in managed sites, four were more abundant in unmanaged sites, and seven were distributed equally. Six of 12 foliage-gleaning species, two of three aerial insectivores, and two of five ground foragers were more abundant in managed sites. For all but two species (American Redstart, Setophaga ruticilla; Eastern Wood- Pewee, Contopus virens), density of breeding territories was better explained by habitat characteristics than by arthropod resources. Our results indicate that managed woodlands support higher arthropod biomass and have the potential to benefit a wide range of bird species.
File: Persche_Mossman_PIdgeon_2025.pdf
Fences serve multiple purposes, including livestock management, agriculture, property delineation, and conservation. However, fences often act as ecological barriers, limiting wildlife movement and access to resources, particularly for species like bison (Bison bison) in North America. Despite the substantial impacts of fencing, large-scale datasets on fence densities are lacking. Our goal was to create potential fence density maps for the western and central U.S. and Canada using GIS modelling and freely accessible data. Specifically, we aimed to: (1) map potential fence density and identify high density of fence, (2) contrast the potential fence density map with the patterns of high human influences, and (3) identify areas with high bison habitat suitability and low density of potential fences. Using GIS modelling, we generated potential fence density maps by integrating data on land parcels, croplands, roads, and railroads. Subsequently, we identified regions with high and low potential fence density and compared them with patterns of human influence and bison habitat suitability. We found high total potential fence density in central regions of Canada and the U.S., mainly due to agriculture and transportation corridors. Interestingly, areas with high potential density of fence in the western U.S., often had low other human influence, suggesting that human influence maps may underestimate impacts if they miss fences. We also identified large areas with high bison habitat suitability and low fence density, which are promising for bison restoration. Our findings highlight the importance of assessing fences for wildlife conservation and supporting bison restoration in the Great Plains.
File: silveira_FenceDensity_BioCons_2025.pdf
Traditional approaches of forest classifications were based on tree species composition, but recently combine phenology
and climate to characterise functional (cyclic and seasonal greenness) rather than structural or compositional
components (phenoclusters). The objective was to compare the conservation value (capacity to support more native
biodiversity) and provision of ecosystem services (ES) in different phenocluster categories of Nothofagus antarctica
forests in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). We used available models (ES, potential biodiversity) and ground-truth data of
145 stands, comparing phenocluster values using uni- and multivariate analyses. Conservation value and capacity to
supply ES significantly varied among phenocluster categories: (i) cultural, regulating, and provisioning ES and potential
biodiversity at landscape level, (ii) soil carbon and nitrogen, (iii) dominant height, crown cover, basal area, total volume,
and domestic animal stock, and (iv) understory plant richness and cover at stand level. These differences are linked to
the forest capacity to support more native biodiversity and ES. Besides, multivariate analyses supporting the split of
this forest type into four phenocluster subtypes (coast, highland, ecotone with other types, and degraded or secondary
forests). Our findings suggest the needs of specific management and conservation proposals, based on phenoclusters
rather than forest types defined by tree canopy-cover composition.
File: Martinez-Pastur-et-al.-2025_Conservation-value_Nothofagus-antarctica_based-on-phenoclusters.pdf
In order to support rare species, we need to understand the threats to them. To identify the threats faced by non-breeding Spotted (Nordmann's) Greenshank Tringa guttifer we visited coastal sites throughout the Gulf of Thailand. The Inner Gulf of Thailand supports approximately 20–30% of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway global population of 1,500–2,000 Spotted Greenshanks. Identifying the specific threats they face in this area is therefore critical to develop measures to prevent further decline. We assessed the conservation situation at four ‘hotspots’ for Spotted Greenshank, areas supporting >1% of the global population. We identified three major threats: habitat loss, disturbance, and illegal netting. Each of these threats require place-based management interventions if long-term conservation of Spotted Greenshank, and other EAAF waterbirds, is to be accomplished.
File: WS-1313-Maleko.pdf
Aim: On-the-ground conservation efforts require managers to balance various and sometimes conflicting conservation goals. For instance, areas important for conserving threatened and endangered species may have little spatial agreement with high functional redundancy. Using prioritization tools can further complicate conservation prioritizations if conflicting diversity metrics identify different high-priority areas. We compared five community-level diversity metrics for birds across the conterminous US to identify how much agreement existed between each before and after using a prioritization framework. Location: Contiguous US. Methods: We examined spatial agreement among metrics before (a priori) and after (a posteriori) prioritization using integer linear programming. We compared a posteriori outputs for 10% and 30% conservation goals. We also assessed data layer correlation and agreement (i.e., overlap) a priori and a posteriori. Results: As expected, the a priori diversity metrics were poorly to moderately correlated (median = 0.31, range = 0.11–0.71), but all a posteriori solutions had areas of agreement. Accordingly, our a posteriori metrics identified different areas as high priority for conservation, none aligning well with the current protected areas (mean = 13%–15% agreement). However, the a posteriori approach allowed us to include a continuity constraint (identify adjacent important pixels) and easily find areas of high-priority agreement. Main Conclusions: Metric agreement depended on a priori or a posteriori evaluation, highlighting managers' challenges when deciding where and how to enact conservation. Given these challenges, a posteriori solutions best support multiple-objective, complex and large planning conservation problems. Importantly, all of our a posteriori maps agreed in areas, suggesting aggregates of several metrics could instill certainty in decision-making if prioritization solutions were obtained at different times. Overall, our results underscore the critical importance of generating maps and metrics useful for on-the-ground management, carefully selecting biodiversity metrics that best reflect conservation goals and employing prioritization software for generating conservation solutions.
File: Diversity-and-Distributions-2025-Carroll-Biodiversity-Metric-Selection-and-Their-Applications-for-Spatial.pdf
Habitat loss and fragmentation in tropical regions are major threats to the persistence of endangered Malay tapir (Tapirus indicus). The Malay tapir distribution is largely constrained to fragmented habitats inside protected areas. However, it is unclear how the spatial patterns of habitat fragmentation affect its relative abundance. Here, we investigated the effects of habitat fragmentation on Malay tapir relative abundance in Thailand. We first quantified the spatial patterns of habitat fragmentation within nine of Thailand’s protected areas. Second, we assessed the relationship of fragmentation metrics and relative abundance of Malay tapirs. Third, we identified the relative importance of the fragmentation metrics in explaining relative abundance. We found that tapir abundance remained unexpectedly high in the Southern forest complex despite the fact that tapir habitats were significantly more fragmented there than in the protected area in the western forest complex (p < 0.05). Additionally, we found a significantly negative relation with clumpiness index (R2 = 0.51, p < 0.05). This suggests that other factors may also be influencing their populations, so that the Southern protected areas provide preferred habitat with higher relative proportions of moist evergreen forest, large habitat patch size, precipitation, and elevation. It highlights the importance of interconnected habitat for tapirs, and the benefit of conservation efforts in small, less recognized protected areas.
File: Suwannaphong-s2.0-S2351989424003901-main.pdf
Remote sensing data are important for assessing ecological change, but their value is often restricted by their limited temporal coverage. Major historical events that affected the environment, such as those associated with colonial history, World War II, or the Green Revolution are not captured by modern remote sensing. In the present article, we highlight the potential of globally available black-and-white satellite photographs to expand ecological and conservation assessments back to the 1960s and to illuminate ecological concepts such as shifting baselines, time-lag responses, and legacy effects. This historical satellite photography can be used to monitor ecosystem extent and structure, species’ populations and habitats, and human pressures on the environment. Even though the data were declassified decades ago, their use in ecology and conservation remains limited. But recent advances in image processing and analysis can now unlock this research resource. We encourage the use of this opportunity to address important ecological and conservation questions.
File: biae002.pdf
As land use intensifies globally, it increasingly exerts pressure on protected areas. Despite open, nonforested landscapes comprising up to 40% of protected areas globally, assessments have predominately focused on forests, overlooking the major pressures on rangelands from livestock overgrazing and land conversion. Across the southern Caucasus, a biodiversity hotspot extending over 5 countries, we conducted a broadscale assessment of the extent to which protected areas mitigate land-use pressure on rangelands in them. Using satellite-based indicators of rangeland vegetation greenness from 1988 to 2019, we assessed the effectiveness of 52 protected areas. This period encompassed the collapse of the Soviet Union, economic crises, armed conflicts, and a major expansion of the protected area network.We applied matching statistics combined with fixed-effects panel regressions to quantify the effectiveness of protected areas in curbing degradation as indicated by green vegetation loss. Protected areas were, overall, largely ineffective. Green vegetation loss was higher inside than outside protected areas in most countries, except for Georgia and Turkey. Multiple-use protected areas (IUCN categories IV–VI) were even more ineffective in reducing vegetation loss than strictly protected areas (I & II), highlighting the need for better aligning conservation and development targets in these areas. Mapping >10,000 livestock corrals from satellite images showed that protected areas with a relatively high density of livestock corrals had markedly high green vegetation loss. Ineffectiveness appeared driven by livestock overgrazing. Our key finding was that protected areas did not curb rangeland degradation in the Caucasus. This situation is likely emblematic of many regions worldwide, which highlights the need to incorporate degradation and nonforest ecosystems into effectiveness assessments.
File: Conservation-Biology-2024-Ghoddousi-Effectiveness-of-protected-areas-in-the-Caucasus-Mountains-in-preventing.pdf
Species distribution models are vital to management decisions that require understanding habitat use patterns, particularly for species of conservation concern. However, the production of distribution maps for individual species is often hampered by data scarcity, and existing species maps are rarely spatially validated due to limited occurrence data. Furthermore, community-level maps based on stacked species distribution models lack important community assemblage information (e.g., competitive exclusion) relevant to conservation. Thus, multispecies, guild, or community models are often used in conservation practice instead. To address these limitations, we aimed to generate fine-scale, spatially continuous, nationwide maps for species represented in the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) between 1992and 2019. We developed ensemble models for each species at three spatial resolutions—0.5, 2.5, and 5 km—across the conterminous United States. We also compared species richness patterns from stacked single-species models with those of 19 functional guilds developed using the same data to assess the similarity between predictions. We successfully modeled 192 bird species at5-km resolution, 160 species at 2.5-km resolution, and 80 species at 0.5-kmresolution. However, the species we could model represent only 28%–56% of species found in the conterminous US BBSs across resolutions owing to data limitations. We found that stacked maps and guild maps generally had high correlations across resolutions (median = 84%), but spatial agreement varied regionally by resolution and was most pronounced between the East and West at the 5-km resolution. The spatial differences between our stacked maps and guild maps illustrate the importance of spatial validation in conservation planning. Overall, our species maps are useful for single-species conservation and can support fine-scale decision-making across the United States and support community-level conservation when used in tandem with guild maps.
File: Ecological-Applications-2023-Carroll-Mapping-multiscale-breeding-bird-species-distributions-across-the-United-States.pdf
