Publications

Hordern E; White T; Berthinussen A; Smith RK; Sutherland WJ; Christie AP (2024). Prioritising future evidence needs for marine and freshwater mammal conservation action. Preprint.

Marine and freshwater mammals are increasingly threatened due to human activity. To improve conservation practice, decisions should be informed by the available evidence on the effectiveness of conservation actions
. Using a systematically collated database of studies that test the effectiveness of actions to conserve marine and freshwater mammals, we investigated the gaps and biases in the available scientific evidence base.

Oliver Speight, William Morgan, Thomas B. White, Katie Sainsbury, Amos Bouskila, Guy Rotem, Rebecca K Smith, William Sutherland, Maggie Watson, Alec Philip Christie (2024). Exploring the evidence base for reptile conservation actions: gaps, biases and research priorities. Preprint.

With over 21% of reptile species threatened with extinction, we urgently need to ensure conservation actions to protect and restore populations are informed by relevant, reliable evidence. Here we examine the geographic and taxonomic distribution of 707 studies synthesised in Conservation Evidence’s Reptile Conservation synopsis testing the effects of actions to conserve reptiles.

Delavaux, C.S., Crowther, T.W., Zohner, C.M. et al. (2023). Native diversity buffers against severity of non-native tree invasions. Nature.

Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species1,2. Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies3,4. Here, leveraging global tree databases5,6,7, we explore how the phylogenetic and functional diversity of native tree communities, human pressure and the environment influence the establishment of non-native tree species and the subsequent invasion severity. We find that anthropogenic factors are key to predicting whether a location is invaded, but that invasion severity is underpinned by native diversity, with higher diversity predicting lower invasion severity. Temperature and precipitation emerge as strong predictors of invasion strategy, with non-native species invading successfully when they are similar to the native community in cold or dry extremes.

Mo, L., Zohner, C.M., Reich, P.B. et al. (2023). Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential. Nature .

Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2,3,4,5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced6 and satellite-derived approaches2,7,8 to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates.

Pereira HM; Martins IS; Rosa IMD; Kim H; Leadley P; Popp A; van Vuuren DP; Hurtt G; Quoss L; Arneth A +47 (2024). Global trends and scenarios for terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services from 1900 to 2050. Science.

Based on an extensive model intercomparison, we assessed trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services from historical reconstructions and future scenarios of land-use and climate change. During the 20th century, biodiversity declined globally by 2 to 11%, as estimated by a range of indicators. Provisioning ecosystem services increased several fold, and regulating services decreased moderately. Going forward, policies toward sustainability have the potential to slow biodiversity loss resulting from land-use change and the demand for provisioning services while reducing or reversing declines in regulating services. However, negative impacts on biodiversity due to climate change appear poised to increase, particularly in the higher-emissions scenarios. Our assessment identifies remaining modeling uncertainties but also robustly shows that renewed policy efforts are needed to meet the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Reed, M.S., Merkle, B.G., Cook, E.J., Hafferty, C., Hejnowicz, A.P., Holliman, R., Marder, I.D., Pool, U., Raymond, C.M., Wallen, K.E. and Whyte, D. (2024). Reimagining the language of engagement in a post-stakeholder world. Sustainability Science.

Language matters in shaping perceptions and guiding behaviour. The term stakeholder is widely used, yet little attention is paid to the possibility that its use may inadvertently perpetuate colonial narratives and reinforce systemic inequities. In this article, we critically examine the limitations of the stakeholder concept and its ambiguity, normativity, and exclusionary implications. We emphasise the importance of using language that gives a voice to marginalised groups, promotes inclusion and equity, and fosters meaningful and reflexive participation in decision-making processes.

Malhi, Yadvinder, Daily, Gretchen C.. (2024). Bringing nature into decision-making. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B .

How exactly bringing nature into decision-making can be achieved across sectors and at scale remains a major challenge. However, there has been substantial progress in developing successful demonstrations of integrating nature into decision-making in a variety of sectors and regions, and an increasing number of approaches to the challenge of scale.

In this thematic issue, we examine some of the challenges and most promising solutions for bringing nature into decision-making at scale, highlighting successful demonstrations and cases in a variety of sectors.

O’Brien, Michael J., Hector, A., Ong, R., Philipson, C.D. (2024). Tree growth and survival are more sensitive to high rainfall than drought in a seasonal forest in Malaysia. Communications Earth & Environment .

Global change research has largely focused on the effects of drought on forest dynamics while the importance of excessive rainfall that can cause waterlogged soils has largely been assessed in riparian zones or seasonally flooded sites. However, increased rainfall may also cause decreased growth and survival of tree species in lowland aseasonal tropical forests due to increased risk from potentially more extensive and frequent waterlogged soils. We used a Bayesian modelling approach on a tree dynamics dataset from 2004 to 2017 to test the concomitant effects of rainfall excess and deficit and dry period length on tree growth and survival across a network of experimentally planted trees in a primary aseasonal forest in Malaysia.

Zhang-Zheng H; Adu-Bredu S; Duah-Gyamfi A; Moore S; Addo-Danso SD; Amissah L; Valentini R; Djagbletey G; Anim-Adjei K; Quansah J (2024). Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia.. Nature communications.

Tropical forests cover large areas of equatorial Africa and play a substantial role in the global carbon cycle. However, there has been a lack of biometric measurements to understand the forests’ gross and net primary productivity (GPP, NPP) and their allocation. Here we present a detailed field assessment of the carbon budget of multiple forest sites in Africa, by monitoring 14 one-hectare plots along an aridity gradient in Ghana, West Africa. When compared with an equivalent aridity gradient in Amazonia, the studied West African forests generally had higher productivity and lower carbon use efficiency (CUE).

Haelewaters D; Quandt CA; Bartrop L; Cazabonne J; Crockatt ME; Cunha SP; De Lange R; Dominici L; Douglas B; Drechsler‐Santos ER (2024). The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation. Conservation Letters.

Fungal conservation is gaining momentum globally, but many challenges remain. To advance further, more data are needed on fungal diversity across space and time. Fundamental information regarding population sizes, trends, and geographic ranges is also critical to accurately assess the extinction risk of individual species. However, obtaining these data is particularly difficult for fungi due to their immense diversity, complex and problematic taxonomy, and cryptic nature. This paper explores how citizen science (CS) projects can be leveraged to advance fungal conservation efforts.

Dahlsjö, Cecilia AL, Atkins, T, Malhi, Y. (2024). Large invertebrate decomposers contribute to faster leaf litter decomposition in Fraxinus excelsior-dominated habitats: Implications of ash dieback. Heliyon .

Leaf litter decomposition is a major component of nutrient cycling which depends on the quality and quantity of the leaf material. Ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior, decay time ∼ 0.4 years) are declining throughout Europe due to a fungal pathogen (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus), which is likely to alter biochemical cycling across the continent. The ecological impact of losing species with fast decomposing leaves is not well quantified. In this study we examine how decomposition of three leaf species with varying decomposition rates including ash, sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus, decay time ∼ 1.4 years), and beech (Fagus sylvatica, decay time ∼ 6.8 years) differ in habitats with and without ash as the dominant overstorey species

Cary E; Wartmann F (2024). Rewilding in the British policy landscape. A qualitative analysis of policy documents related to rewilding. Scottish Geographical Journal.

UK parliamentary research recognises rewilding as an opportunity to fulfil national habitat restoration commitments. Nevertheless, there is a current lack of analysis concerning the policy landscape in Britain. To address this gap, we employ qualitative document analysis to assess how rewilding features in national policy documents in Britain.