Global Ecology and Conservation

Effective conservation depends on demographic metrics that reliably reflect species status, particularly population abundance. For elusive species occurring at low densities, however, such metrics remain difficult to obtain. Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models are the standardized approach for estimating density in marked populations, but their data requirements, especially the need for multiple spatial recaptures across individuals, often limit applicability in small or data-poor populations. This constraint has resulted in knowledge gaps for some of the most vulnerable species, undermining evidence-based conservation planning and management. Using camera-trap data and SCR-derived density estimates from data-rich populations, we evaluated alternative, less data-demanding metrics and tested the hypothesis: Space to Event (STE), Mean Local Abundance (MLA), and Relative Abundance Index (RAI) exhibit predictable relationships with SCR-derived density; if supported, these metrics can reliably estimate density in populations where SCR models cannot be implemented. We applied this framework to the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), an elusive small felid with highly fragmented populations across Europe, for which density estimates are largely lacking despite growing conservation concern. Across 21 study areas spanning most of the species' range, our results indicate that European wildcats generally occur at lower densities than previously reported. SCR-derived estimates (n=10) averaged 10.32 {+/-} 11.56 inds/100km2, while STE enabled density estimation in five additional data-poor areas (mean 5.52 {+/-} 5.33 inds/100km2). STE showed a strong linear relationship with SCR-derived density (R2=0.98), supporting its use as a viable alternative when SCR is infeasible, although it tended to underestimate compared to SCR, especially at higher densities. In contrast, MLA and RAI showed weaker and non-linear relationships with SCR-derived density (R2=0.65), indicating substantially lower explanatory power and suggesting their estimates are more strongly influenced by confounding processes. By explicitly calibrating alternative metrics across a wide density gradient throughout most of the species' distribution, this study provides a transferable methodological framework for estimating density in low-density wildlife populations and the first continent-wide, standardized density assessment of a carnivore species. From a management perspective, our findings identify populations that may be most vulnerable, particularly those with the lowest densities, and highlight the need to prioritize absolute abundance monitoring.

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) program is a large-scale interagency biodiversity monitoring framework designed to assess the status and trends of northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina), barred owls (Strix varia), marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus), and broader forest biodiversity across federally administered lands in the Pacific Northwest. In 2025, we deployed autonomous recording units at 2,095 sampling stations within 532 5-km2 hexagons randomly selected across approximately 24 million acres of federal forest lands in Washington, Oregon, and California. These deployments generated 1.37 million hours of acoustic recordings that we processed using the convolutional neural network PNW-Cnet v5 for automated species identification and subsequent human validation of focal species detections. Northern spotted owls were detected in 28% of sampled hexagons range-wide, including 16% in Washington, 25% in Oregon, and 60% in California. Occupancy patterns remained consistent compared to previous years, with higher occupancy concentrated in southern portions of the geographic range and continued low occupancy across much of the Washington Cascades and Oregon Coast Range. Barred owls were detected in 86% of sampled hexagons and remained broadly distributed throughout most of the NWFP area. Marbled murrelets were detected in 50% of reviewed hexagons within NWFP marbled murrelet management zones, with highest occupancy occurring in coastal forests of Oregon and Washington. The 2025 field season occurred under substantial operational constraints that reduced sampling effort by approximately half relative to 2023 and 2024 because of staffing limitations affecting participating federal agencies. Despite these reductions, the NWFP-PAM framework continued to provide broad-scale, spatially representative ecological information across the NWFP area. Results highlight the growing importance of passive acoustic monitoring and machine learning approaches for long-term biodiversity monitoring under changing environmental and operational conditions.

Large herbivores play a vital role in shaping grassland ecosystems, yet many species face increasing threats from habitat loss, fragmentation, and human disturbance. In northern India, riverine grasslands of the Gangetic floodplains serve as essential habitats for such species, including the swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii), a habitat specialist that has experienced severe population declines, especially outside protected areas. We evaluated the structural vegetation composition of grasslands and swamp deer habitat use along the Ganges river, covering both protected regions (Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve and Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary) and surrounding non-protected grasslands. Combining field-based vegetation surveys with NDVI-based remote sensing enabled the classification of grasslands into four ecologically significant types structured by Saccharum, Phragmites, and Typha species. Disturbance was prevalent across the landscape, with approximately 77% of grassland plots exhibiting signs of human impact. Pure Saccharum grasslands exhibited the highest disturbance levels, followed by mixed patches, while Phragmites-Typha patches showed the lowest disturbance. Conversely, Phragmites-Typha patches experienced the lowest levels of disturbance. Data from surveys and two radio-collared swamp deer indicated a consistent preference for mixed vegetation types, particularly Saccharum-dominated and Phragmites-Typha mixes, while avoiding heavily disturbed pure Saccharum patches. Seasonal changes in habitat use reflected context-dependent selection influenced by vegetation structure, hydrology, and disturbance regimes. Our results underscore the importance of conserving diverse grassland mosaics and reducing human pressures, especially in unprotected areas to promote the long-term survival of swamp deer and other grassland herbivores within the Gangetic floodplains.

Romania represents one of the few European Union member states in which all four Old World vulture species historically maintained breeding populations: the Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus), Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) and Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus). Until the 2026 reintroduction efforts initiated by Foundation Conservation Carpathia and Rewilding Romania, Romania remained the last EU country whose former vulture guild had not been targeted for active recovery. Despite this exceptional significance in a European conservation context, no comprehensive synthesis of the historical and contemporary distribution of these species in Romania has been undertaken. We conducted a comprehensive review to gather all available vulture occurrence data and present a fully georeferenced database of 1,170 occurrence records spanning 1818-2025. We systematically searched museum collections, historical ornithological literature, modern field surveys and citizen-science platforms. The database documents substantial breeding populations across the Carpathian arc and Dobrogea until the early twentieth century, followed by near-total breeding collapse between the 1920s and 1960s driven by persecution, secondary poisoning and agrarian transformation. In total, 149 confirmed or probable breeding records have been documented for the four species combined, with the most recent confirmed breeding records dating to 1929 (Gyps fulvus), 1929 (Gypaetus barbatus), 1942 (Aegypius monachus) and 1966 (Neophron percnopterus). Non-breeding occurrences increase markedly after 2010, consistent with dispersal from expanding Balkan source populations. The F[a]g[a]ra {square} and Retezat Mountains emerge as the historically most important breeding strongholds for all four species. Our dataset constitutes the most detailed historical baseline currently available for vulture conservation in Romania and is intended to identify key historical sites with high potential for future reintroduction and recovery. Our results show that Romania historically supported the full guild of European obligate scavengers, and that its collapse occurred within barely four decades (1920s-1960s). The dataset highlights the value of reconstructing historical baselines in regions where functional extinction preceded the onset of modern monitoring, and provides an empirical foundation for reassembling a keystone scavenger guild at a continental scale.

ContextThe decline, extirpation and extinction of Australias mammal fauna is without peer. In recent decades long term monitoring has revealed tragic patterns in iconic locations such as Kakadu National Park. AimsPast studies have described universal patterns across multiple national parks in the Northern Territory, linking the declines to fire management; however, much of the data in Nitmiluk National Park do not cover the period that encompasses this decline. We examine this data separately to look for patterns with respect to fire history. MethodsWe examined standardised mammal survey data collected in Nitmiluk from 2005 to 2018, to look for correlates with year of survey, time since last burnt, and the frequency of early season and late season burns. Key resultsDespite subtle difference in methods over the years, we found there were some annual changes in the mammals, but little discernible pattern of change correlated to fire regime (which itself indicated an improvement in seasonality, and the extent of burning overall over this period). Instead, there was a distinct reduction in the survey effort. ConclusionsOur study provides further support for the pitfalls of ecological monitoring losing focus, being decoupled from management actions, and allowing ill-conceived changes in design. We recommend that future monitoring at Nitmiluk should focus on key management questions (i.e., fire), best methods for target taxa (i.e. camera traps), more regular and flexible sampling linked to a conceptual model, and integration and co-design with the local land managers, rangers and Traditional Owners. Short SummaryRe-examination of the mammal data collected in monitoring sites at Nitmiluk National Park between 2005 to 2018 indicated little pattern with fire regime over time, and instead indicated that a reduction in effort, had reduced the ability to find pattern With sparse and declining mammal population in northern Australia, future monitoring needs to be focused on key management questions.

Semi-aquatic mammals lie at the intersection of several key conservation issues such as wetland deterioration or species invasions, and monitoring their distribution in space and time is essential to inform conservation strategies. However, gathering information about their presence is challenging due to their elusive lifestyle and generally low abundance. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), a near-threatened and strictly protected species in Europe, is currently recolonizing part of its historical range. Its high conservation interest, combined with a dynamic more commonly associated with range-expanding or invasive species, makes it a particularly compelling case study. Otter monitoring has traditionally relied on scat surveys, but recent environmental DNA (eDNA) and camera-trapping initiatives have emerged offering promising complementary tools. Yet, these approaches have rarely been formally compared, either to one another or across regions. Here, we compared the efficiency of spraint surveys, camera traps, and eDNA for detecting otters, and assessed how their performance varied among four catchments in southern France where the species is known to be present. All three methods provided otter detections with varying efficiency. Scat surveys were the most effective method, with an average detection probability of 0.71 and no strong variability between catchments. Although camera-traps had the lowest detection rate, they provided detections at two of the four sites where no spraint was found, highlighting the complementarity of these two approaches. Detection rates varied greatly between individual cameras rather than between catchments, underscoring sensitivity to camera-placement. eDNA showed important variability between catchments, with detection probabilities differing by roughly sixfold across regions. All in all, our results highlight differences in efficiency between methods and across environmental conditions, and show the value of combining approaches for future monitoring programs.

Nepal's rangelands provide multiple benefits, including support for pastoral livelihoods and alpine biodiversity, regulation of water and soil nutrients, and sequestering carbon. Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are altering these rangelands, leading to vegetation and biodiversity change. However, national-scale assessments of rangeland change are limited in Nepal. This study quantified rangeland changes at multiple spatial scales and assessed the climatic and non-climatic drivers of rangeland change. About 80.7% of Nepal's high-altitude rangeland (> 2,000m) outside protected areas showed no significant change. Among areas exhibiting significant annual maximum NDVI trends, 383,281 ha (18.6%) showed positive and 14,702 ha (0.7%) showed negative trends, corresponding the ratio of increase in vegetation greenness and decline in vegetation greenness to 26:1. Climate predicted positive trends covered 627,184 ha (30.5%), whereas residual trends caused by non-climatic drivers covered 94,656 ha (4.6%). Climate induced negative trends covered 47,609 ha (2.3%) while residual trends were observed in 6,260 ha (0.3%). Negative trend pixels were concentrated mainly within the 3,000 to 5,000 m elevation band, with Karnali Province recording the highest proportional climate predicted decline in vegetation greenness (3.4%). At the municipality scale, rangeland change showed no significant relationship with grazing pressure derived from gridded livestock data, suggesting that grazing pressure alone did not explain the non-climatic vegetation signal. These spatially explicit, nationally consistent results identify where rangeland change is occurring and help distinguish climatic and non-climatic drivers of rangeland vegetation change, providing evidence to support targeted rangeland management under Nepal's federal governance structure.

The choice of appropriate methods to detect species is crucial for biodiversity monitoring. Camera trapping is currently one of the most widely used methods for characterizing mammal communities, although it requires substantial investment in equipment and personnel. In contrast, questionnaires administered to local populations provide a faster and more cost-effective alternative for assessing community composition, but may be influenced by respondent-related biases that compromise data reliability. This study evaluates the concordance between these approaches for characterizing the carnivore community in the Sierra de Segura (Jaen, southern Spain), using Cohens kappa coefficient, while also examining the individual and social factors shaping Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK). We deployed 24 camera-trap stations (144 trap nights) across a 25 km2 area to record carnivore presence. In parallel, we conducted two types of surveys with local residents (n = 103): (i) free-listing and (ii) image-based species recognition, while recording individual and social characteristics of respondents. Free-listing surveys tended to underreport species, whereas image-based surveys showed higher agreement with camera-trap data, although occasionally overestimating species presence. Higher concordance was associated with social factors indicative of closer and prolonged contact with the environment, such as permanent residence and ownership of agricultural land. Mammal communities differed between methods; however, agreement improved when respondents had higher LEK, while species-specific behavioral traits could also influence perception. Our findings demonstrate that image-based questionnaires can provide results comparable to camera trapping when respondents have strong connections to their natural surroundings. These results highlight the importance of both survey design and respondent selection in improving the accuracy of biodiversity monitoring, offering a transferable framework for integrating LEK into conservation protocols across diverse ecosystems. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=126 SRC="FIGDIR/small/720805v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (35K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d55c34org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1985c66org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1da576aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a10ccb_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

ContextFire is a key driver of wildlife pattern in northern Australia, and in recent decades there has been concerted efforts to return burning practices from unmanaged wildfire to approaches more in tune with traditional approaches to fire management undertaken by First Nations people. AimsWe examined fire pattern (early and late dry season) and distance from coast in relation to mammal pattern on a Cobourg peninsula, as there was some evidence in variable patterns in fire history and mammal persistence in this landscape. MethodsIn this study we examined data collected from Garig Gunak Barlu (Cobourg) National Park, Northern Territory, between 2004 and 2017. We investigated the relationship between all native mammal abundance and species richness, and abundance for eight species, with the three environmental variables (distance from coast, preceding early dry and late dry season burning frequency), using an information theoretic model selection and averaging framework. Key resultsThere is a distinctive change in the fire and mammal pattern with respect to distance from the coast; that is, early and late dry season burning increasing moving inland from the coast, and a concomitant decrease or persistence in some key species on this fire gradient. ConclusionsOur results suggest that fire management in northern Australia still needs targeted research linked to active management to more effectively prevent declines of mammal populations. ImplicationsThe location and shape of Garig Gunak Barlu (Cobourg) National Park provide an excellent opportunity to undertake some natural experiments in strategic burning to investigate improved approaches to conservation in fire-prone landscapes.

Sky islands are high-elevation ecosystems surrounded by lowland habitats that create isolated environments with distinct climatic conditions. These factors have driven the evolution of many endemic species, separated from their larger, contiguous populations. An Individual-Based Model (IBM) was used to simulate population dynamics by modeling the behaviors and interactions of Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis (Mount Graham Red Squirrel) a subspecies of the American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) that is endemic to the Pinaleno Mountains in southeastern Arizona. This approach can help predict future population trends based on historical species data leading to better conservation decisions. Using species-specific ecological preferences--including temperature, precipitation, and vegetation indices (NDVI)--an IBM was developed to simulate population dynamics and spatial distribution projections through 2100. Climate change projections, based on the best- and worst-case scenarios outlined in the 2014 National Climate Assessment, were incorporated to assess potential future population trends under changing environmental conditions. The population faces a 45-62% probability of extinction by 2100, with a significant risk of extinction within the next 50 years. A translocation experiment was conducted to evaluate the viability of relocating individuals to the Chiricahua Mountains, another sky island with a larger habitable area. However, the risk of extinction remains even higher (87-89%) due to environmental disturbances affecting both the Chiricahua and Pinaleno regions. This highlights the challenges of conservation efforts in the face of climate change and emphasizes the need for targeted management strategies to preserve this critically endangered subspecies.

Wildlife feeding during the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) hunting season is legal in many states within the United States, but hunting turkeys with the aid of bait is unlawful in most states. The most common policy to prevent wildlife feeding from acting as bait is to restrict hunting within a defined radius. However, the effect of wildlife feeders on turkey harvest risk and the effectiveness of distance restrictions on mitigating that influence have not been investigated. During 2024-2025, we used GPS transmitters to track 30 adult male turkeys during the spring hunting season on private land with active feeders in Florida, USA, where hunting turkeys within a 91 m radius of a feeder was unlawful. We used Cox proportional hazard models to link risk of hunter harvest with unique feeders visited daily, number of feeders within a home range, and average morning distance and roosting distance to feeders at multiple temporal scales. Hunters harvested 53% of the tagged turkeys. Risk of hunter harvest increased with the number of unique feeders visited the previous day and after the first three days of hunting season with the number of active feeders within a home range. As distance from the most recent roost site and average morning distance to a feeder decreased, risk of hunter harvest increased. We estimated that risk of hunter harvest would be reduced by over 50% if distance restrictions were increased from 100 m to 200 m, by nearly 75% with an increase from 100 m to 300 m, and by nearly 90% with an increase from 100 m to 500 m. To completely eliminate the influence of wildlife feeders on risk of hunter harvest would require a restriction distance well beyond a 500m radius, which is impractical given that this radius would result in an area twice the average private landowner property size in the region. Thus, if wildlife feeding during the turkey hunting season is to be allowed, it will act as bait, in which case, the acceptable level of its influence as bait can be achieved with the appropriate hunting radius restriction.

The small mammals in the tropical savannas of northern Australia, have undergone a degree of change in recent decades, best documented in the Northern Territory. Data is limited from northern Queensland and though the same trends are assumed, the topographic and climatic features differ substantially. In this study we examined data systematically collected from 725 sites between 1998-2012 in three bioregions representing a climatic gradient: from semi-arid to monsoon tropical savannas. We investigated via information-theoretic models and model averaging, the relationship between five mammal groupings and three landscape variables (fractional cover green, elevation and vegetation diversity) to elucidate any consistent or different patterns in the mammal fauna. Key patterns included relationships with increasing elevation (critical weight range species richness positively associated with elevation, rodent species richness negatively associated), increasing rodent and dasyurid species richness with vegetation diversity, and lower macropod and dasyurids abundance with increasing fractional cover green. These relationships underscore a need to consider mammal conservation in Queensland with more nuance than in the more topographically inert Northern Territory. Management strategies need to be more attuned to taxonomic and regional differences, to prevent perverse outcomes.

The Natura 2000 network for protected areas is one of Europes main tool to address the loss of Biodiversity. Voluntary commitments of all 27 Member States aim for an extension to 30% of the European land and sea area by 2030. Despite the substantial efforts towards improving declining species and habitats across the continent and the limited success in measured improvements of biodiversity trends in the protected areas, the potential issue of fragmentation and configuration of the documented Natura 2000 sites has not been analysed in depth. This study presents an analysis of the full Natura 2000 data set of terrestrial and marine protected areas in Europe, to which extent documented sites are split up into smaller fragments, how their spatial configuration and shape might mitigate or invite edge effects, and which edge effects might be expected based on the surrounding land cover and land use matrix. Our results show a substantial fragmentation of the network, with four times more individual patches than recorded sites, and 75% of these patches being smaller than 1 km2. Across four size categories between smaller than 1 km2 and larger than 100 km2, about a quarter of patches show a spatial configuration that is likely to cause substantial edge effects due to a suboptimal ratio between area and perimeter. At the same time, many of the smallest patches are surrounded by a large share of sealed surfaces and agricultural areas within a 500m radius. Considering fragmentation and edge effects in future reporting, monitoring and planning of additional designations and restoration activities could close an important gap in understanding causes for continuing declines of Europes biodiversity and highlight pathways to mitigate them.

O_LIFear of humans can drive persistent changes in wildlife behavioural and life-history traits, with cascading effects on entire ecosystems. Human multimodal cues and pet cues may influence impact of such fear, yet no study has tested how wildlife fear responses change when human acoustic cues and pet visual and acoustic cues are added to human visual cues. Filling this gap is important for managing human and pet outdoor activities while conserving wildlife. C_LIO_LIHere, with dogs representing the pet, we tested the effects of human and dog cues on fear responses of wild sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis) in approximately 800 km2 area, northern Japan, using alert distance (AD) and flight initiation distance (FID). First, we measured AD/FID with an approaching surveyor alone and with additional cues. Then, we fitted linear mixed-effects models while controlling for key covariates. C_LIO_LIFrom analyses with 266 observations, AD was estimated at 80.0 m with the human visual cue alone, and dog barking increased AD by 18.4m. FID was estimated at 57.1 m with the human visual cue alone, and human voice and the dog decoy increased FID by 11.3m and by 8.5 m, respectively. C_LIO_LIThese results demonstrate that human multimodal cues and pet cues can increase prey fear responses. Our findings also suggest that dog walking may expose wildlife to simultaneous human and pet cues more consistently than predator co-occurrence typically does in nature. The increase in FID with human acoustic cues, in contrast to previous studies, suggests that animals may shift cue weighting depending on predator species, potentially using human voices to help identify the threat as human. C_LIO_LIPrevious studies show that multimodal predator cues increase prey fear responses, and our findings extend this flamework to fear responses towards humans. Our findings can inform more tolerant management of human recreation and pet walking in sensitive areas. Reducing human and pet cues through signage, guidance, and zoning may prevent flight and associated energy expenditure, whereas mitigating vigilance may require behavioural guidance and spacing between pet-walking visitors. Overall, shaping how humans and pets behave may be more practical than blanket restriction. C_LI

Connectivity is critical to sustaining endangered carnivores in speciose yet fragmented landscapes such as in the global south. Corridors to mitigate fragmentation are designed based on charismatic species or habitat-based approaches, but their multispecies effectiveness for maintaining functional connectivity remains poorly tested. We combined landscape genetic analyses across five sympatric carnivores - Panthera tigris, Panthera pardus, Prionailurus viverrinus, Felis chaus, and Melursus ursinus, to evaluate how landscape features shape functional connectivity in a globally important felid landscape. We then assessed the efficiency of existing tiger corridors and single-species surrogates for maintaining multispecies functional connectivity. Species exhibited contrasting responses to landscape variables, producing distinct resistance surfaces and connectivity corridors. Spatial similarity of connectivity between species pairs was highly variable (r = 0.14-0.93), but no single species effectively captured connectivity patterns of the broader carnivore community (maximum mean overlap of <0.7 across species). Moreover, genetically optimized corridors were at least 70% more efficient in capturing connectivity compared to existing tiger corridors, demonstrating mismatches between structural and functional connectivity. Our results highlight limitations of surrogate-based corridor planning and demonstrate that integrating multispecies functional connectivity can substantially improve conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes.

Passive acoustic monitoring poses an immense potential to assess avian diversity in many habitats, including agricultural landscapes. At the same time, automated recorders generate large datasets which present a challenge for processing and effectively assessing biodiversity. Methods such as manual listening by experts, automated detection algorithms like BirdNET and calculating acoustic indices all present different trade-offs in assessment of biodiversity through passive acoustic monitoring. In the present study we recorded soundscapes in a low-intensity agricultural landscape in western Turkiye in all four seasons. Two expert ornithologists listened to a subset of these recordings identifying bird species from the recordings. We also ran the same sample of recordings on BirdNET to compare BirdNET detections with expert detections and calculated acoustic indices for each recording. The results showed that BirdNET detected more species than experts, although some may not be reliable detections. Two acoustic indices (bioacoustic index and acoustic complexity index) were correlated positively with number of species detected by experts and one (normalized difference soundscape index) with number of species detected by BirdNET but the correlations were modest. The results show that acoustic indices may have limited value in detecting biodiversity and automated detection algorithms may do a better job, although these may need to be trained with local data to improve detection and classification.

Preventing extirpations requires timely detection of rapid declines and immediate conservation response. Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) are globally listed as Least Concern, but their genetically isolated population in Cyprus is Critically Endangered. We document a severe ongoing decline of the Cypriot R. aegyptiacus population observed during standardized counts at major roost sites. April 2024 counts at four principal roosts recorded 4633 bats. Surveys in December 2025 documented 554 individuals across the same sites. April 2026 counts revealed a 90.1% decline since April 2024. Additionally, we found numerous dead bats at three roosts, and residents across the island reported dead bats, suggesting an acute mortality event beginning in early 2025. The cause remains unknown. Given the magnitude and pace of decline, this population potentially faces imminent extirpation. We recommend immediate action to protect roosting and foraging habitat, along with coordinated diagnostics, expedited research permits, standardized monitoring, and technical collaboration to identify and mitigate underlying causes of high mortality.

A core aim of ex situ conservation is to represent wild genetic diversity in managed living collections. For the climate-threatened tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) flora of northeast Australia, an ex situ metacollection of plants and seeds has been established by the Tropical Mountain Plant Science (TroMPS) project. In this study we used reduced-representation sequencing (DArTseq) of wild, herbarium, and ex situ material alongside provenance information for ten species, to pursue two central aims: to characterise landscape-scale genetic structure across species' ranges, and to evaluate how well the assembled metacollections represent that wild diversity. Analyses revealed consistent patterns of genetic differentiation among mountain top populations across multiple species, reflecting the isolating influence of lowland gaps between upland habitats, with the degree of differentiation varying among species. These results provide the first genetic baseline for Australian TMCF flora and reinforce the importance of treating individual mountain top populations as distinct units for conservation management. Additionally, the project provided valuable insights into the logistical challenges of coordinated multi-institutional collecting, informing strategies for metacollection design more broadly. Evaluation of the metacollection revealed both strengths and gaps in representation across species, providing an evidence base to refine the current holdings and guide future targeted collecting to strengthen their long-term conservation value.

BackgroundWintering migratory birds must balance energetic requirements, resource availability, and disturbance in increasingly human-modified landscapes. However, individual-level variability in daily movement and winter space use remains poorly understood in South Asian populations of the common crane. We investigated how seasonal dynamics, landscape composition, and individual differences structure winter movement ecology in a semi-arid agro-wetland system in western India. MethodsWe analysed high-resolution GPS telemetry data from multiple tagged cranes tracked across three consecutive winters. Daily movement distances were modelled using mixed-effects approaches to partition variance within and among individuals and among winters. Daily movement trajectories were evaluated using non-linear temporal terms. Landscape predictors, including cropland proportion, built-up area, and habitat heterogeneity, were incorporated to assess environmental drivers. Winter range distributions were estimated using autocorrelation-informed kernel density estimation within a continuous-time movement modelling framework. ResultsMost variation in daily movement occurred within individuals rather than among them, indicating strong behavioural flexibility. Interannual differences explained substantial variance, suggesting sensitivity to changing environmental conditions. Daily movement distance followed a non-linear seasonal pattern consistent with shifts in the profitability of agricultural resources over winter. Cropland proportion and landscape evenness were negatively associated with movement distance, whereas a high proportion of built-up areas increased daily movement distance, reflecting a trade-off between resource concentration and anthropogenic disturbance. Winter range distribution size varied markedly both within individuals across years and among individuals within seasons. ConclusionWinter movement and space use in common cranes are predominantly context-dependent and environmentally driven. Seasonal dynamics, agricultural landscapes, and human disturbance jointly structure movement patterns, with limited but consistent individual differences. Multi-year, individual-based telemetry provides a comprehensive understanding of winter spatial strategies in dynamic semi-arid agro-wetland systems.

Designing effective spatial management for chondrichthyans (sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras) requires incorporating critical areas, sites essential for population maintenance, such as reproductive and feeding areas. Yet most area-based measures have been developed without consideration of chondrichthyan habitat use. The Important Shark and Ray Area (ISRA) initiative has been pivotal in designating priority areas through a rigorous, consultative process. To complement this, our study offers researchers a testable definition for generating robust evidence to strengthen future critical area delineations and related management decisions. We define critical areas using three criteria: 1) relative frequency of use, (2) extended within-year occupancy and (3) repeated use across years. This framework enables objective comparison among candidate sites and is generalisable across different critical area types. The definition builds upon established early-life-stage habitat concepts and applies these to broader life-history functions. The utility of this framework is then demonstrated through a systematic review of contemporary peer-reviewed literature of critical chondrichthyan areas in the European Atlantic. The review highlighted 62 critical areas with Strong evidence and 41 areas of Moderate strength evidence, which informed the European Atlantic ISRA selection process. Research effort was concentrated in inshore areas, particularly around the British Isles and Portugal, with biases towards large, threatened and commercially valuable species, whilst chimaeras were notably underrepresented. Early-life stage areas were most frequently identified, whereas resting areas were rarely documented. Evidence patterns and biases are examined in the context of evolving critical area concepts to advance their development and improve the quality and breadth of future research. By outlining a testable definition, identifying key knowledge gaps, and proposing research and reporting guidelines, this work enhances the consistency, comparability, and spatial coverage of future chondrichthyan habitat research to support its application to conservation planning.