David S. Wilcove

Context: Termites, like other pattern-generating organisms, often create vegetation heterogeneity. The vegetation and nutrient profiles of termite mounds shape local distributions of biodiversity. Yet, little is known about how termite mounds’ effects scale to shape landscape-level biodiversity distributions. Objectives: We investigated how termite mounds influence bird distributions at the species and community levels within and across three ecosystems in a human-modified African savanna landscape. In particular, we aimed to determine whether termite mounds’ effects on birds persist in agricultural areas and whether termite mounds influence the similarity of bird communities across ecosystems. Methods: We conducted point counts of birds in three ecosystems ( Acacia -dominated savanna, saline grassland, and agriculture) in and around Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. We classified birds’ use of mound or matrix (non-mound) vegetation to quantify the influence of termite mounds on bird diversity and abundance. Results: Several bird species show significant associations with either mound or matrix vegetation. At the community level, mounds show higher bird species richness and abundance than does the matrix in all ecosystems, including agriculture. Across ecosystems, bird communities on mounds are more similar to each other than are the matrix bird communities. In agriculture, more savanna matrix-associated species are lost than savanna mound-associated species. Conclusions: Termite mounds influence the distribution of bird communities at the species and community levels, within natural and human-modified ecosystems, and their effects scale to influence similarity between ecosystems. The fine-scale vegetation heterogeneity created by termite mounds has multi-scale consequences for bird communities, including in human-modified parts of this African savanna landscape.

Sea level rise (SLR) threatens terrestrial biodiversity, yet its spatiotemporal and species-specific impacts remain unclear. Integrating relative SLR projections across five shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) with area of habitat (AOH) maps for 34,120 terrestrial vertebrate species, we project that species exposed to SLR will increase from up to 13,680 in 2050 to 15,324 by 2100, including 57 to 63% of birds, 47 to 52% of mammals, 28 to 36% of reptiles, and 20 to 24% of amphibians. In Southeast Asia, inland inundation areas support high richness. Under SSP5-8.5, species facing >10% habitat inundation surge from 18 in 2050 to 109 by 2100, with reptiles and already threatened species overrepresented. Safeguarding SLR refugia—the noninundated habitats for exposed species—is critical, yet more than 96% lie outside protected areas, which means that early international action is required.

Riparian buffers – vegetation strips retained or established along waterways – are mandated in many countries for water and soil protection, yet their role in biodiversity conservation remains unclear. Our global meta-analysis compares forested riparian buffers with converted riparian zones in human-modified landscapes across forest biomes. We find that forested riparian buffers support higher animal biodiversity than converted riparian zones at both local and landscape scales, particularly in agricultural areas. This pattern is consistent across most freshwater and riparian taxa, in both tropical and temperate regions. Forested riparian buffers also harbor, on average, 32% more reference species (i.e., species found in continuous riparian forests) than do converted riparian zones. Optimum forested buffer width estimates for species conservation are roughly an order of magnitude wider for birds and mammals (200-380 m on each river side), than for amphibians (20-50 m) and invertebrates (6-50 m). Our findings support forested riparian buffers as an important global strategy for conserving biodiversity in forest biomes.

The global marine aquarium hobby is a multibillion‐dollar industry, largely driven by demand from the United States. Much of this trade occurs online. We web scraped 4 major US‐based e‐commerce platforms selling marine aquarium fish to determine the retail price and source (wild capture, aquaculture, or both) of 13 families of ray‐finned marine fish ( Actinopterygii ). We supplemented this with ecological and economic trait data from FishBase and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Across all platforms and 13 popular fish taxonomic families, we found 734 unique species for sale, 89.2% (655 species) of which were sourced exclusively from the wild. A total of 45 species were of conservation concern (20 threatened species and 25 additional species with decreasing population trends), 38 of which were sourced solely from the wild. Retail price was significantly correlated with source, body length, minimum occupied depth, and schooling behavior. A further 100 species for sale were not listed as being in the aquarium trade in FishBase or by the IUCN, indicating incomplete information on this fishery in 2 important databases. For 58 species (encompassing 71 variants) with both wild‐caught and captive‐bred individuals for sale, aquaculture fish were a mean 28.1% (95% confidence interval 15.3) cheaper than their wild‐caught counterparts.

The decline of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway has attracted global attention. Conservation efforts thus far have targeted habitat loss and degradation in the Yellow Sea region, with little attention having been given to direct mortality by humans. Here we studied the impacts of direct mortality of shorebirds along China’s coast during migration from hunting, fishery bycatch and, at aquaculture sites, bird deterrence measures. We estimated that approximately 47,870 shorebirds were killed at 19 stopover sites per year, mainly from hunting and deterrence. Mortalities for 11 shorebird species account for 1% to 10% of their known total flyway populations. Conservative annual direct mortality rates for four species exceeded sustainable levels, with nine other species approaching unsustainable levels. Direct mortality due to humans is clearly a major overlooked threat to migratory shorebird populations along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Reducing it is essential to conserving these declining species.

Migrating landbirds adjust their flight and stopover behaviors to efficiently cross inhospitable geographies, such as the Gulf of Mexico and the Sahara Desert. In addition to these natural barriers, birds may increasingly encounter anthropogenic barriers created by large‐scale changes in land use. One such barrier could be the Corn Belt in the Midwest United States, where 76.4% of precolonial vegetation (forest and grassland combined) has been replaced by agricultural and urban areas, primarily corn fields. We used 5 years of data from 47 weather radar stations in the United States to compare the population‐level flight patterns of migrating landbirds crossing the Corn Belt and the forested landscapes south and north of it in spring and autumn. We also examined the impacts of the Corn Belt relative to the Gulf of Mexico on the stopover behavior of migrating birds by comparing changes in the proportion of migrants that stop to rest (stopover‐to‐passage ratio [SPR]) relative to distance from both barriers. Birds showed increased meridional airspeeds and stronger selection for tailwinds when crossing the Corn Belt compared with forested landscapes. For birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico, the highest proportion of migrants stopped to rest after crossing the Gulf, and SPR decreased sharply as distance from the shoreline increased. We did not find this pattern after migrants crossed the Corn Belt, although the SPR increased in the Corn Belt as birds approached the down‐route forest boundary in both seasons. This weaker pattern for stopover propensity after crossing the Corn Belt is likely due to its narrower width, the availability of small forest patches throughout the Corn Belt, and the subset of species affected, compared with the gulf. We recommend restoring stepping stones of forest in the Corn Belt and protecting woodlands along the Gulf Coast to help landbirds successfully negotiate both barriers.

Urbanization is expected to influence food transitions, resulting in a shift from wild foods to more domesticated foods. Concomitantly, food insecurity and urban demand for natural resources, including wildlife, are expected to increase overall, even when the per capita consumption is expected to decrease. These issues bring challenges to ecosystems and human well‐being. We examined how the degree of urbanization and socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and connections to rural areas, influences the consumption of and preferences for meat from wildlife (mammals, birds and turtles), fish and domesticated animals. We administered 1367 questionnaires to randomly selected households across 10 urban areas in Amazonas state, Brazil. We found that degree of urbanization was associated with a food transition from consuming wildlife and fish to consuming domesticated animals. Taste preference for meat from wildlife and fish decreased with the degree of urbanization. Rural connections were associated with increased consumption of and preference for wild meat (meat from wildlife) and fish. Poverty was associated with increased consumption of fish and processed meat and decreased consumption of beef and pork, with important implications for how food transitions affect households experiencing poverty. These results highlight the spatial, social and economic heterogeneity of consumption and preference. Policy and social interventions, such as campaigns to reduce consumption of vulnerable species or targeted enforcement against poaching, will need to consider this heterogeneity to be effective and avoid unintended consequences, such as worsening food insecurity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Protected areas are essential to biodiversity conservation. Creating new parks can protect larger populations and more species, yet strengthening existing parks, particularly those vulnerable to harmful human activities, is a critical but underappreciated step for safeguarding at-risk species. Here, we model the area of habitat that terrestrial mammals, amphibians, and birds have within park networks and their vulnerability to current downgrading, downsizing, or degazettement events and future land-use change. We find that roughly 70% of species analyzed have scant representation in parks, or occur within parks that are affected by shifts in formal legal protections or are vulnerable to increased human pressures. Our results also show that expanding and strengthening park networks across just 1% of the world’s land area could preserve irreplaceable habitats of 1191 species that are particularly vulnerable to extinction.