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1. More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805048115  

   Lindsey, Peter A. ; Miller, Jennifer R. B. ; Petracca, Lisanne S. ; Coad, Lauren ; Dickman, Amy J. ; Fitzgerald, Kathleen H. ; Flyman, Michael V. ; Funston, Paul J. ; Henschel, Philipp ; Kasiki, Samuel ; et al ( October 2018 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Protected areas (PAs) play an important role in conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, yet their effectiveness is undermined by funding shortfalls. Using lions (Panthera leo) as a proxy for PA health, we assessed available funding relative to budget requirements for PAs in Africa’s savannahs. We compiled a dataset of 2015 funding for 282 state-owned PAs with lions. We applied three methods to estimate the minimum funding required for effective conservation of lions, and calculated deficits. We estimated minimum required funding as $978/km²per year based on the cost of effectively managing lions in nine reserves by the African Parks Network; $1,271/km²based on modeled costs of managing lions at ≥50% carrying capacity across diverse conditions in 115 PAs; and $2,030/km²based on Packer et al.’s [Packer et al. (2013)Ecol Lett16:635–641] cost of managing lions in 22 unfenced PAs. PAs with lions require a total of $1.2 to $2.4 billion annually, or ∼$1,000 to 2,000/km², yet received only $381 million annually, or a median of $200/km². Ninety-six percent of range countries had funding deficits in at least one PA, with 88 to 94% of PAs with lions funded insufficiently. In funding-deficit PAs, available funding satisfied just 10 to 20% of PA requirements onmore »average, and deficits total $0.9 to $2.1 billion. African governments and the international community need to increase the funding available for management by three to six times if PAs are to effectively conserve lions and other species and provide vital ecological and economic benefits to neighboring communities.

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2. Long-Term Monitoring Reveals Differential Responses of Mussel and Host Fish Communities in a Biodiversity Hotspot

   https://doi.org/10.3390/d13030122  

   Sanchez Gonzalez, Irene ; Hopper, Garrett W. ; Bucholz, Jamie ; Atkinson, Carla L. ( March 2021 , Diversity)

   Biodiversity hotspots can serve as protected areas that aid in species conservation. Long-term monitoring of multiple taxonomic groups within biodiversity hotspots can offer insight into factors influencing their dynamics. Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) and fish are highly diverse and imperiled groups of organisms with contrasting life histories that should influence their response to ecological factors associated with local and global change. Here we use historical and contemporary fish and mussel survey data to assess fish and mussel community changes over a 33 year period (1986–2019) and relationships between mussel abundance and their host fish abundance in Bogue Chitto Creek, a tributary of the Alabama River and a biodiversity hotspot. Mussel abundance declined by ~80% and community composition shifted, with eight species previously recorded not found in 2019, and a single individual of the endangered Pleurobema decisum. Fish abundances increased and life history strategies in the community appeared stable and there was no apparent relationship between mussel declines and abundance of host fish. Temporal variation in the proportion of life history traits composing mussel assemblages was also indicative of the disturbances specifically affecting the mussel community. However, changes and declines in mussel assemblages in Bogue Chitto Creek cannot be firmly attributed tomore »any specific factor or events because of gaps in historical environmental and biological data. We believe that mobility differences contributed to differential responses of fish and mussel communities to stressors including habitat degradation, recent droughts and invasive species. Overall, our work indicates that monitoring biodiversity hotspots using hydrological measurements, standardized survey methods and monitoring invasive species abundance would better identify the effects of multiple and interactive stressors that impact disparate taxonomic groups in freshwater ecosystems.« less
3. Areas of global importance for conserving terrestrial biodiversity, carbon and water

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01528-7  

   Jung, Martin ; Arnell, Andy ; de Lamo, Xavier ; García-Rangel, Shaenandhoa ; Lewis, Matthew ; Mark, Jennifer ; Merow, Cory ; Miles, Lera ; Ondo, Ian ; Pironon, Samuel ; et al ( January 2021 , Nature Ecology & Evolution)

   To meet the ambitious objectives of biodiversity and climate conventions, the international community requires clarity on how these objectives can be operationalized spatially and how multiple targets can be pursued concurrently. To support goal setting and the implementation of international strategies and action plans, spatial guidance is needed to identify which land areas have the potential to generate the greatest synergies between conserving biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Here we present results from a joint optimization that minimizes the number of threatened species, maximizes carbon retention and water quality regulation, and ranks terrestrial conservation priorities globally. We found that selecting the top-ranked 30% and 50% of terrestrial land area would conserve respectively 60.7% and 85.3% of the estimated total carbon stock and 66% and 89.8% of all clean water, in addition to meeting conservation targets for 57.9% and 79% of all species considered. Our data and prioritization further suggest that adequately conserving all species considered (vertebrates and plants) would require giving conservation attention to ~70% of the terrestrial land surface. If priority was given to biodiversity only, managing 30% of optimally located land area for conservation may be sufficient to meet conservation targets for 81.3% of the terrestrial plantmore »and vertebrate species considered. Our results provide a global assessment of where land could be optimally managed for conservation. We discuss how such a spatial prioritization framework can support the implementation of the biodiversity and climate conventions.« less
4. Relationships between a common Caribbean corallivorous snail and protected area status, coral cover, and predator abundance

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73568-1  

   Shaver, Elizabeth C. ; Renzi, Julianna J. ; Bucher, Maite G. ; Silliman, Brian R. ( October 2020 , Scientific Reports)

   As coral populations decline across the Caribbean, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the forces that inhibit coral survivorship and recovery. Predation by corallivores, such as the short coral snailCoralliophila abbreviata, are one such threat to coral health and recovery worldwide, but current understanding of the factors controlling corallivore populations, and therefore predation pressure on corals, remains limited. To examine the extent to which bottom-up forces (i.e., coral prey), top-down forces (i.e., predators), and marine protection relate toC. abbreviatadistributions, we surveyedC. abbreviataabundance, percent coral cover, and the abundance of potential snail predators across six protected and six unprotected reefs in the Florida Keys. We found thatC. abbreviataabundance was lower in protected areas where predator assemblages were also more diverse, and that across all sites snail abundance generally increased with coral cover.C. abbreviataabundance had strong, negative relationships with two gastropod predators—the Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) and the grunt black margate (Anisotremus surinamensis), which may be exerting top-down pressure onC. abbreviatapopulations. Further, we found the size ofC. abbreviatawas also related to reef protection status, with largerC. abbreviataon average in protected areas, suggesting that gape-limited predators such asP. argusandA. surinamensismay alter size distributions by targeting small snails. Combined, these resultsmore »provide preliminary evidence that marine protection in the Florida Keys may preserve critical trophic interactions that indirectly promote coral success via control of local populations of the common corallivorous snailC. abbreviata.

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5. Benefits of protected areas for nonbreeding waterbirds adjusting their distributions under climate warming

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13648  

   Gaget, Elie ; Pavón‐Jordán, Diego ; Johnston, Alison ; Lehikoinen, Aleksi ; Hochachka, Wesley M. ; Sandercock, Brett K. ; Soultan, Alaaeldin ; Azafzaf, Hichem ; Bendjedda, Nadjiba ; Bino, Taulant ; et al ( January 2021 , Conservation Biology)

   Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so-called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm-dwelling species, but also mitigated by lowering extirpation rates of cold-dwelling species. An evaluation of the relative importance of colonization-extirpation processes is important to inform conservation strategies that aim for both climate debt reduction and species conservation. We assessed the colonization-extirpation dynamics involved in community changes in response to climate inside and outside PAs. To do so, we used 25 years of occurrence data of nonbreeding waterbirds in the western Palearctic (97 species, 7071 sites, 39 countries, 1993–2017). We used a community temperature index (CTI) framework based on species thermal affinities to investigate species turnover induced by temperature increase. We determined whether thermal community adjustment was associated with colonization by warm-dwelling species or extirpation of cold-dwelling species by modeling change in standard deviation of the CTI (CTISD). Using linear mixed-effects models, we investigated whether communities in PAs had lower climatic debt and different patterns of community change than communities outside PAs. Formore »CTI and CTISD combined, communities inside PAs had more species, higher colonization, lower extirpation, and lower climatic debt (16%) than communities outside PAs. Thus, our results suggest that PAs facilitate 2 independent processes that shape community dynamics and maintain biodiversity. The community adjustment was, however, not sufficiently fast to keep pace with the large temperature increases in the central and northeastern western Palearctic. Our results underline the potential of combining CTI and CTISD metrics to improve understanding of the colonization-extirpation patterns driven by climate warming.« less