Academic Articles May 5

Source: Redirect harmful subsidies to benefit the planet, UN urges governments


The latest academic papers on conservation. If you have a paper that you would like to share, please get in contact with us. Click on the title to follow the link to each article. Please note that some of these articles are behind a paywall.

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A Nature-Positive World: The Global Goal for Nature

  • Source: NaturePositive.org
  • Author(s): Harvey Locke et al.
  • We argue for the adoption of a succinct Nature-Positive Global Goal for Nature. The goal would have three measurable temporal objectives: Zero Net Loss of Nature from 2020, Net Positive by 2030, and Full Recovery by 2050. It should be combined with development and climate goals…

Enabling transformative economic change in the post‐2020 biodiversity agenda

  • Source: Conservation Biology
  • Author(s): Esther Turnhout et al.
  • The COVID‐19 pandemic, its impact on the global economy, and current delays in the negotiation of the post‐2020 global biodiversity agenda of the Convention on Biological Diversity heighten the urgency to build back better for biodiversity, sustainability, and well‐being. The four priority areas discussed here…

Exploring expert perception of protected areas’ vulnerability to biological invasions

  • Source: Journal for Nature Conservation 
  • Author(s): Daniele Paganelli, Luís Reino, César Capinha, Joana Ribeiro
  • Invasive alien species are considered a major threat to biodiversity and seriously impact the economy and public health of recipient regions. Identifying the determinants of protected areas’ vulnerability to the establishment of invasive alien species (IAS) may improve management, prevention and early warning systems of biological invasions…

The ecological importance of habitat complexity to the Caribbean coral reef herbivore Diadema antillarum: three lines of evidence

  • Source: Scientific Reports
  • Author(s): M. Bodmer et al.
  • When Caribbean long-spined sea urchins, Diadema antillarum, are stable at high population densities, their grazing facilitates scleractinian coral dominance. Today, populations remain suppressed after a mass mortality in 1983–1984 caused a loss of their ecosystem functions, and led to widespread declines in ecosystem health…  

A framework for allocating conservation resources among multiple threats and actions

  • Source: Conservation Biology
  • Author(s): Joslin Moore et al.
  • Land managers decide how to allocate resources among multiple threats that can be addressed through multiple possible actions. Additionally, these actions vary in feasibility, effectiveness, and cost. We sought to provide a way to optimize resource allocation to address multiple threats when multiple management options are available, including mutually exclusive options…

The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islands

  • Source: Science
  • Author(s): Sandra Nogué et al.
  • Islands are among the last regions on Earth settled and transformed by human activities, and they provide replicated model systems for analysis of how people affect ecological functions. By analyzing 27 representative fossil pollen sequences encompassing the past 5000 years from islands we quantified the rates of vegetation compositional change before and after human arrival…

Plant diversity enhanced yield and mitigated drought impacts in intensively managed grassland communities

  • Source: Journal of Applied Ecology
  • Author(s): Guylain Grange, John Finn, Caroline Brophy
  • There is a global requirement to improve the environmental sustainability of intensively managed grassland monocultures that rely on high rates of nitrogen fertiliser, which is associated with negative environmental impacts. Multi‐species grass‐legume mixtures are a promising tool for…

Identifying variable changes in wetlands and their anthropogenic threats bordering the Yellow Sea for water bird conservation

  • Source: Global Ecology and Conservation
  • Author(s): Yanfeng Li et al.
  • As critical habitats for migratory birds in the East Asia-Australasia Flyway, coastal wetlands bordering the Yellow Sea have experienced prominent losses and threats triggered by human activities. In this study, the spatially and temporally variable changes in wetland extent and anthropogenic threats bordering the Yellow Sea from 1978 to 2018 were examined by utilizing Landsat observations…

Integrating Capabilities and Ecosystem Services Approaches to evaluate Indigenous connections with nature in a global biodiversity hotspot of Western Ghats, India

  • Source: Global Ecology and Conservation
  • Author(s): M. Balasubramanian, Kamaljit Sangha
  • To incorporate Indigenous and local communities connections with nature for policy decision making, we integrate Ecosystem Services (ES) and Capability Approaches to develop a cohesive framework for assisting policy makers to better comprehend nature’s values that are vital for Indigenous/tribal well-being…

Limited refugia and high velocity range-shifts predicted for bat communities in drought-risk areas of the Northern Hemisphere

  • Source: Global Ecology and Conservation
  • Author(s): Mattia Cappelli et al.
  • Species occupying semi-arid and dry regions around the globe face an uncertain future due to increases in the frequency and severity of droughts. In this study we modelled the potential effect of climate change on bat communities within two high-drought risk regions of the world and assessed…

Refining the coarse filter approach: Using habitat-based species models to identify rarity and vulnerabilities in the protection of U.S. biodiversity

  • Source: Global Ecology and Conservation
  • Author(s): Anne Davidson et al.
  • Preserving biodiversity and its many components is a priority of conservation science and how to efficiently allocate resources to preserve healthy populations of as many species, habitats, and ecosystems as possible. We used the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gap Analysis Project (GAP) species models released in 2018… to illustrate hotspots of biodiversity for the major taxonomic groups…

Estimating the loss and fragmentation of dark environments in mammal ranges from light pollution

  • Source: Biological Conservation
  • Author(s): Mark Ditmer, David Stoner, Neil Carter
  • A hallmark of the Anthropocene is the global expansion of pollution stemming from electric lighting. This evolutionarily novel phenomenon has left few spaces on Earth where natural light cycles remain unaltered. Assessing the exposure of species to light pollution is critical for developing conservation…

Scale of the issue: Mapping the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on pangolin trade across India

  • Source: Biological Conservation
  • Author(s): Vikram Aditya, Rajkamal Goswami, Aristo Mendis, Ramya Roopa
  • Recent studies have linked COVID-19 induced restrictions to an increase in wildlife crime, with severe yet unknown implications for severely threatened taxa like pangolins. We analyze publicly available online seizure reports involving pangolins across India before (2018–2019) and during the pandemic…

Brazilian protected areas that are larger, older, and closer to urban areas are more studied by scientists

  • Source: Biological Conservation
  • Author(s): Tatiel Gonçalves, Micael Parreira, João Nabout
  • The Brazilian System of Conservation Units is a federal law that plays a crucial role in the conservation of the Brazilian biodiversity, by legally regulating the protected areas (PAs)… In this study, we performed a systematic mapping to evaluate what factors affect the number of scientific papers developed in PAs…

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