Frontiers in Ecology and The Environment

Biodiversity loss is a global crisis, human-driven species extinction rates are higher than ever before, and these rates are expected to worsen. This calls for new socioeconomic business models that could inspire societal transformations benefitting biodiversity conservation and restoration. The emblems of sport organizations are often articulated around the central figure of a wildlife species. Such species occupy an important part of the cultural space and can therefore serve as important flagship species for conservation through sport, particularly those most threatened with extinction. At the intersection of two hitherto unrelated realms (ie sport and conservation), there are potentially important synergies that are unique to the sport sector among three groups of stakeholders: professional team-sport organizations, fan communities, and biodiversity conservationists.

Disturbances from insect pests threaten ecologically and economically important goods and services supplied by forests, including wood production and carbon sequestration. We highlight the factors that influence these services’ resistance, a term quantifying the initial response to disturbance. Insects inflict damage through a range of mechanisms, prompting distinct plant physiological responses that scale to influence ecosystem processes and, with time, goods and services. The degree and timing of tree mortality and defoliation affect the amount of residual vegetation available to support compensatory wood production and influence carbon sequestration by changing rates of detritus‐fueled decomposition. Compounding, or sequential, insect attacks may prime a forest for additional disturbance, further eroding wood production and carbon sequestration. Forest management practices that promote biological and structural diversity, and augment or retain limiting biological and nutrient resources, may buffer against the effects of insect pests on wood production and carbon sequestration.

In a changing climate, resource management depends on anticipating changes and considering uncertainties. To facilitate effective decision making on public lands, we regionally summarized the magnitude and uncertainty of projected change in management‐relevant climate variables for 332 national park units across the contiguous US. Temperature, frequency of extreme precipitation events, and drought exposure are all projected to increase within seven regions delineated in the US National Climate Assessment. In particular, the anticipated collective impacts of droughts and flooding events will lead to unique management challenges, including combinations of management actions that may seem inconsistent. Furthermore, uncertainty in the magnitude of change varied by region and climate variable considered, pointing to specific opportunities for prioritization, transferability, and innovation of climate adaptation regionally and at the park‐unit scale.

Finding ways to improve the sustainability of modern agriculture by recovering nature in agricultural landscapes is critical for conserving biodiversity and enhancing human well‐being. Rewilding principles could be applied to any type of landscape, which raises the possibility of employing rewilding approaches in agricultural areas while maintaining some degree of food production therein. Moving beyond the simple dichotomy of land sparing versus land sharing, here we propose a multi‐scale approach that integrates rewilding principles into agricultural landscapes by combining the creation of wilder ecosystems in separate set‐aside recovered areas with the implementation of farming approaches that are more sustainable, such as precision farming, ecologically intensified farming, and extensive farming, in adjacent areas. Adoption of such approaches would allow for more biodiversity elements to persist within the agricultural matrix. We explain how this approach could support the three critical components of rewilded land—dispersal, trophic complexity, and stochastic disturbances—and create agroecological landscapes that are biodiverse, resilient, and functionally connected at multiple scales.

Invasive plants often benefit from a change in eco‐evolutionary context, escaping the herbivores, pathogens, and competing plants from their native range. Introduced into naïve native communities, invasive plants can spread rapidly, threatening native plant diversity and ecosystem functioning. Increasingly, studies have shown that native species sometimes adapt in response to the selection pressures imposed by an invasive plant. While researchers have periodically suggested using adapted native species in the management of invasive plants, the idea generally has not found its way to the field. Here, we (1) compare the concept to the more established practices of assisted migration, classic biological control, and microbiome engineering; (2) discuss some of the hurdles to practical implementation; and (3) outline directions for further research that would help expose the role of native adaptations in shaping the trajectory of plant invasions.

Ecological integrity—the degree to which an ecosystem supports ecological structure, composition, diversity, function, and connectivity typical of natural conditions—has been a guiding principle in ecosystem monitoring around the world. However, in terrestrial ecosystems, integrity‐based monitoring often excludes animal communities, even though they are critical drivers of integrity. Methodological advances in monitoring and data science have made it easier to document animal communities. We highlight examples of these advances and how they remove barriers to adopting animal‐specific integrity metrics. We then illustrate how describing animal communities in terms of functional ecology, which has also undergone substantial development over the past several decades, can provide a generalizable approach to incorporating animal communities into integrity‐based monitoring across taxa and ecosystems. Incorporating animal communities into ecological integrity monitoring is a vital step toward understanding how human‐driven change, restoration, and conservation shape terrestrial ecosystems worldwide.

To meet Kunming‐Montreal Target 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we argue that more comprehensive measures are needed to manage invasive alien species (IAS), which is especially true for China, given that it is undergoing an unprecedented wave of invasions due to its rapid development. Here, we consider the status of IAS in China, evaluate China's ongoing countermeasures against IAS, and provide recommendations for improving management. In total, 802 IAS have been identified in China. Facing the growing threats of IAS, China has made progress in IAS management, but more stringent and thorough measures are still required. In addition to improving legislation and governance, China should strengthen transdisciplinary and proactive research, implement more comprehensive prevention and control actions against IAS, and enhance international cooperation and translational education. By creating a model for IAS management that other countries can follow, China's efforts can contribute substantially to the CBD's Kunming‐Montreal 2030 Global Targets.

Scholars have long recognized the social dimensions of environmental problems. Environmental scientists have responded by increasingly focusing on the interactions between nature and social dynamics. This helps reveal problematic interactions that cause environmental challenges, many of which impact human well‐being. Research teams that include environmental and social scientists engaging with diverse stakeholders can use many available tools to ask how changing a factor pivotal to problematic interactions influences environmental and social outcomes. When the research also includes identifying actions targeting those interactions and identifying those who can implement the actions, the research is most likely to lead to positive outcomes in the long term. This is especially true when researchers link changes to improving a given ecosystem service. Changes can not only involve adapting natural resource policies but also involve altering attitudes and beliefs. We describe a stepwise process that eases the path toward such actionable environmental science by researchers.

Conventionally, juvenile salmonids are thought to migrate unidirectionally from freshwater systems to marine systems and therefore only inhabit natal drainages. Although scattered evidence suggests juveniles can move bidirectionally between freshwater rivers and the ocean, including into non‐natal drainages, such movements have never been documented with high replication. Here, we detected hundreds of movements of juvenile salmonids between drainages that involved 0–22% of cohort emigrants in Washington State and California. Individuals moved up to nine times and between drainages up to 70 km apart. These findings reveal a life‐history type of salmonids whose remarkably complex migrations have gone unnoticed. Implicitly, juveniles may use any coastal freshwater habitat accessible from the sea and may not descend from spawning populations of drainages they inhabit. Consequently, typical conservation focused on natal drainages may overlook freshwater habitat elsewhere. A concept of coastal areas as meta‐nurseries formed by multiple watersheds connected by the sea may accurately describe anadromous species’ habitat options and better inform management.

There is a movement across settler–colonial institutions of education and research to engage with Indigenous Peoples and Knowledges. Many settler and Indigenous governments are pursuing pathways to move forward together to address global problems such as climate change. However, given the pervasive history of exploitation and displacement of Indigenous communities, this development has caused some concern among Indigenous leaders and scholars. At the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in Montreal, Canada, the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section of the ESA hosted a 2‐day workshop. This gathering of 21 Indigenous environmental scientists included scholars from across the career and professional spectrum. By consensus, workshop participants identified three emergent themes—Engage, Heal, and Reconcile—that provide a pathway toward reconciliation between Indigenous and settler–colonial ways of knowing. This path allows for an ever‐greater sharing of institutional resources and power toward a co‐equal interfacing of Indigenous Knowledges and settler science.

Climate change is likely to affect infectious diseases that are facilitated by biological invasions, with repercussions for wildlife conservation and zoonotic risks. Current invasion management and policy are underprepared for the future risks associated with such invasion‐related wildlife diseases. By considering evidence from bioclimatology, invasion biology, and disease research, we illustrate how climate change is anticipated to affect disease agents (parasites and pathogens), hosts, and vectors across the different stages of invasions. We highlight the opportunity to integrate these disciplines to identify the effects of climate change on invasion‐related wildlife diseases. In addition, shifting to a proactive stance in implementing management and policy, such as by incorporating climate‐change effects either into preventative and mitigation measures for biosecurity or with rapid response protocols to limit disease spread and impacts, could help to combat future ecological, economic, and human health risks stemming from invasion‐related wildlife diseases.

The ecological and developmental history of the Chicago, Illinois, region has affected the current distribution of forests therein. These same factors, along with systemic and long‐lasting racial segregation, have shaped the distribution of the urban populations that benefit from the ecosystem services provided by urban forests. This study demonstrates that forest patch history is related to forest attributes like tree species composition, tree density, canopy height, and structural heterogeneity—all of which are important predictors of a forest's ability to provide ecosystem services. However, this effect of forest history was only seen in forest cores, as forest edges were similar regardless of patch history. We also found that forests in minoritized communities tended to be less able to support high levels of ecosystem services. This research indicates that, when improving green equity, it is important to consider the variable capacity of forests to provide ecosystem services.

The extent of built marine infrastructure—from energy infrastructure and ports to artificial reefs and aquaculture—is increasing globally. The rise in built structure coverage is concurrent with losses and degradation of many natural habitats. Although historically associated with net negative impacts on natural systems, built infrastructure—with proper design and innovation—could offer a largely unrealized opportunity to reduce those impacts and support natural habitats. We present nine recommendations that could catalyze momentum toward using built structures to both serve their original function and benefit natural habitats (relative to the status quo, for example). These recommendations integrate functional, economic, and social considerations with marine spatial planning and holistic ecosystem management. As the footprint of the Anthropocene expands into ocean spaces, adopting these nine recommendations at global scales can help to ensure that ecological harm is minimized and that, where feasible, ecological benefits from marine built structures are accrued.

Rewilding is emerging as a promising restoration strategy to tackle the challenges posed by global change and maintain natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. However, rewilding has also been criticized for the absence of a consistent definition and insufficient knowledge about its possible outcomes. Here, we explored the effects of rewilding on filling functional gaps created by the extirpation of native species. We contrasted rewilding with three other mechanisms for change in community composition—species extirpation, species introduction, and unassisted colonization—in terms of their impacts on changes in avian and mammalian diversity in the UK. We found that (i) while rewilding increases functional diversity most on average, introduced/naturalized birds contribute more functional uniqueness to native functional space than other groups of birds; and (ii) changes in functional diversity associated with “rewilded” organisms were species‐dependent and idiosyncratic. Our results suggest that although rewilding can expand or infill native functional trait space to some extent, such effects require careful assessment.

Efforts to restore habitat for wildlife often target single species, with limited consideration of the potential benefits provided to sympatric species. On the basis of range‐wide data from the Fourth National Giant Panda Survey and infrared camera trapping, we used species distribution models to project the outcomes of five habitat restoration scenarios—designed to benefit giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)—for giant pandas as well as for sympatric birds and mammals. Scenario outcomes, particularly those involving the conversion of plantation forests and shrublands into suitable forests, demonstrated a significant enhancement in giant panda habitat suitability, but with contrasting effects for sympatric species. Moreover, while restoration of giant panda habitat may enhance species richness and functional diversity, especially when shrublands are converted into forests, such action could also reduce phylogenetic diversity. Our findings suggest that single‐species habitat restoration may have negative outcomes for sympatric species, highlighting the need to consider trade‐offs between focal and non‐focal taxa.

In many forests globally, resilience‐focused restoration is necessary to prevent fire‐driven regime shifts. However, restoration planning is challenged by limited resources for monitoring biodiversity responses to management intervention and to natural disturbances. Bioregional‐scale passive acoustic monitoring, when combined with automated species identification tools and management‐relevant habitat data, can be a tractable method to simultaneously monitor suites of complementary indicator species and rapidly generate species‐specific information for resource managers. We demonstrate these methods by mapping the occurrence of ten avian indicator species while examining the impact of fire history on patterns of occurrence across 25,000 km² of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Monitoring complementary indicator species with rapidly developing bioacoustics technology and relating their occurrence to policy‐ready habitat metrics have the potential to transform restoration planning by providing managers with high‐resolution, ecosystem‐scale information that facilitates adaptive management in an era of rapid environmental change.