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1. Designing agricultural landscapes for arthropod-based ecosystem services in North America

   https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aecr.2021.01.003  

   Haan, Nathan L.; Iuliano, Benjamin G.; Gratton, Claudio; Landis, Douglas A. (March 2021, Advances in ecological research)

   null (Ed.)

   Agricultural landscapes in North America have developed through complex interactions of biophysical, socioeconomic and technological forces. While they can be highly productive, these landscapes are increasingly simplified, causing biodiversity loss. As a result, ecosystem services associated with biodiversity are being dismantled. Agricultural landscape structure arises from collective decisions of farmers over long time periods, which are usually not intentionally coordinated beyond the farm scale. Regaining ecosystem services will require active efforts to intentionally redesign landscapes, in part based on ecological evidence about relationships between landscape structure and ecosystem services. Here we focus on services provided by arthropods and how to foster them at landscape scales. We first provide a brief history of how agricultural landscape structure in temperate North America developed and review the landscape-scale ecological drivers underpinning arthropod-based ecosystem services. We then propose ecological and social principles for designing agricultural landscapes, based on the ecological evidence we reviewed and on previous efforts in agricultural landscape design. Finally, we look ahead to discern prospects for putting agricultural landscape design into practice, including ecological, technological and policy opportunities. To reap benefits from arthropod-based services, future agricultural landscapes will need to increase in structural heterogeneity and diversity across multiple dimensions including crop, farmer and consumer diversity. A number of knowledge gaps persist, including how to design landscapes at spatial scales that are relevant to service providers, identifying areas of overlap or conflict between design for ecosystem services and for biodiversity conservation more broadly and navigating the social and political processes needed to implement landscape design. 

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2. The ecological and evolutionary consequences of systemic racism in urban environments

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay4497  

   Schell, Christopher J.; Dyson, Karen; Fuentes, Tracy L.; Des Roches, Simone; Harris, Nyeema C.; Miller, Danica Sterud; Woelfle-Erskine, Cleo A.; Lambert, Max R. (August 2020, Science)

   Urban areas are dynamic ecological systems defined by interdependent biological, physical, and social components. The emergent structure and heterogeneity of urban landscapes drives biotic outcomes in these areas, and such spatial patterns are often attributed to the unequal stratification of wealth and power in human societies. Despite these patterns, few studies have effectively considered structural inequalities as drivers of ecological and evolutionary outcomes and have instead focused on indicator variables such as neighborhood wealth. In this analysis, we explicitly integrate ecology, evolution, and social processes to emphasize the relationships that bind social inequities—specifically racism—and biological change in urbanized landscapes. We draw on existing research to link racist practices, including residential segregation, to the heterogeneous patterns of flora and fauna observed by urban ecologists. In the future, urban ecology and evolution researchers must consider how systems of racial oppression affect the environmental factors that drive biological change in cities. Conceptual integration of the social and ecological sciences has amassed considerable scholarship in urban ecology over the past few decades, providing a solid foundation for incorporating environmental justice scholarship into urban ecological and evolutionary research. Such an undertaking is necessary to deconstruct urbanization’s biophysical patterns and processes, inform equitable and anti-racist initiatives promoting justice in urban conservation, and strengthen community resilience to global environmental change. 

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3. Multiscale analysis of canopy arthropod diversity in a volcanically fragmented landscape

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2653  

   Tielens, Elske K.; Neel, Maile N.; Leopold, Devin R.; Giardina, Christian P.; Gruner, Daniel S. (April 2019, Ecosphere)

   Abstract Habitat fragmentation resulting in habitat loss and increased isolation is a dominant driver of global species declines. Habitat isolation and connectivity vary across scales, and understanding how connectivity affects biodiversity can be challenging because the relevant scale depends on the taxa involved. A multiscale analysis can provide insight in biodiversity patterns across spatial scale when information on dispersal ability is not available, in particular for community‐level studies focusing on multiple taxa. In this study, we examine the relationship between arthropod diversity, patch area, and connectivity using a multiscale approach. We make use of a natural experiment on Hawai‘i Island, where historic volcanic activity has transformed contiguous native forests to lava matrix and discrete forest patches. This landscape of patches has persisted for 150 yr, and we selected 10,000 ha consisting of 863 patches to analyze landscape connectivity using a graph theory approach. We collected arthropod samples fromMetrosideros polymorpha tree canopies in 34 forest patches during multiple years. We analyzed the relationship of arthropod diversity with area, as well as with connectivity across increasing scales, or dispersal threshold distances. In contrast to well‐established ecological theory as well as prior work on birds and fungi in this system, we did not find support for a canonical species–area relationship. Next, we calculated connectivity across spatial scales and found lower Shannon diversity with higher connectivity at small scales, but no effect at increased dispersal threshold distances. We examined the landscape structure and found all habitat patches connected into three subnetworks at a 350 m threshold distance. All patches were connected at 700 m threshold distance, indicating structural dispersal limitation only at small scales. Our findings suggest that canopy arthropods are not dispersal limited at scales shown to impact both soil fungi and birds in this system. Instead, Hawaiian canopy arthropods may perceive the landscape as a connected area where discrete forest patches and the early‐successional matrix contribute resources that vary spatially with regard to habitat quality. We argue for the utility of multiscale approaches, and the importance of examining maintenance of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes that persist for hundreds of years. 

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4. Urbanization as a facilitator of gene flow in a human health pest

   https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14783  

   Miles, Lindsay S.; Johnson, J. Chadwick; Dyer, Rodney J.; Verrelli, Brian C. (July 2018, Molecular Ecology)

   Abstract Urban fragmentation can reduce gene flow that isolates populations, reduces genetic diversity and increases population differentiation, all of which have negative conservation implications. Alternatively, gene flow may actually be increased among urban areas consistent with an urban facilitation model. In fact, urban adapter pests are able to thrive in the urban environment and may be experiencing human‐mediated transport. Here, we used social network theory with a population genetic approach to investigate the impact of urbanization on genetic connectivity in the Western black widow spider, as an urban pest model of human health concern. We collected genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism variation from mitochondrial and nuclear double‐digest RAD (ddRAD) sequence data sets from 210 individuals sampled from 11 urban and 10 nonurban locales across its distribution of the Western United States. From urban and nonurban contrasts of population, phylogenetic, and network analyses, urban locales have higher within‐population genetic diversity, lower between‐population genetic differentiation and higher estimates of genetic connectivity. Social network analyses show that urban locales not only have more connections, but can act as hubs that drive connectivity among nonurban locales, which show signatures of historical isolation. These results are consistent with an urban facilitation model of gene flow and demonstrate the importance of sampling multiple cities and markers to identify the role that urbanization has had on larger spatial scales. As the urban landscape continues to grow, this approach will help determine what factors influence the spread and adaptation of pests, like the venomous black widow spider, in building policies for human and biodiversity health. 

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5. Management Foundations for Navigating Ecological Transformation by Resisting, Accepting, or Directing Social–Ecological Change

   https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab083  

   Magness, Dawn R; Hoang, Linh; Belote, R Travis; Brennan, Jean; Carr, Wylie; Stuart Chapin, F; Clifford, Katherine; Morrison, Wendy; Morton, John M; Sofaer, Helen R (November 2021, BioScience)

   Abstract Despite striking global change, management to ensure healthy landscapes and sustained natural resources has tended to set objectives on the basis of the historical range of variability in stationary ecosystems. Many social–ecological systems are moving into novel conditions that can result in ecological transformation. We present four foundations to enable a transition to future-oriented conservation and management that increases capacity to manage change. The foundations are to identify plausible social–ecological trajectories, to apply upstream and deliberate engagement and decision-making with stakeholders, to formulate management pathways to desired futures, and to consider a portfolio approach to manage risk and account for multiple preferences across space and time. We use the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a case study to illustrate how the four foundations address common land management challenges for navigating transformation and deciding when, where, and how to resist, accept, or direct social–ecological change. 

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