Thomas A WorthingtonUniversity of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Zoology
Thomas A Worthington
PhD Environmental Sciences
About
97
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
March 2017 - present
April 2015 - April 2016
November 2011 - April 2015
Education
October 2006 - April 2010
September 2003 - September 2004
October 2000 - July 2003
Publications
Publications (97)
Conservation efforts for threatened or endangered species are challenging because the multi-scale factors that relate to their decline or inhibit their recovery are often unknown. To further exacerbate matters, the perceptions associated with the mechanisms of species decline are often viewed myopically rather than across the entire species range....
Rapid losses of mangroves over the past 50 years have had negative consequences on the environment, the climate, and humanity, through diminished benefits such as carbon storage, coastal protection and fish production. Restoration of mangrove forests is possible, and has already been undertaken in many settings, but such efforts have been piecemeal...
Mangrove forests are found on sheltered coastlines in tropical, subtropical, and some warm temperate regions. These forests support unique biodiversity and provide a range of benefits to coastal communities, but as a result of large-scale conversion for aquaculture, agriculture, and urbanization, mangroves are considered increasingly threatened eco...
Globally, carbon-rich mangrove forests are deforested and degraded due to land-use and land-cover change (LULCC). The impact of mangrove deforestation on carbon emissions has been reported on a global scale; however, uncertainty remains at subnational scales due to geographical variability and field data limitations. We present an assessment of blu...
Better land stewardship is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement's temperature goal, particularly in the tropics, where greenhouse gas emissions from the destruction of ecosystems are largest, and where the potential for additional land carbon storage is greatest. As countries enhance their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Ag...
Resource The Mangrove Restoration Tracker Tool: Meeting local practitioner needs and tracking progress toward global targets Graphical abstract Highlights d We developed the MRTT to capture data on mangrove restoration projects d The MRTT will improve data coverage and consistency between projects d The MRTT aims to stimulate data-sharing, enabling...
Blue carbon projects in Mexico, or the conservation and restoration of tidal wetlands such as mangroves, can reduce carbon emissions while providing additional ecosystem services for local communities. However, at the national scale, the "additionality" (or added project benefits) of mangrove projects is difficult to demonstrate due to recent slowi...
Tidal wetlands are dynamic coastal ecosystems that can change in extent in response to a broad range of change drivers. We use high spatial resolution satellite imagery to estimate the relative influence of 18 classes of change drivers on observed tidal wetland gains and losses from 1999 to 2019, differentiating direct drivers as those observable a...
In recognition of the importance of inland waters, numerous datasets mapping their extents, types, or changes have been created using sources ranging from historical wetland maps to real-time satellite remote sensing. However, differences in definitions and methods have led to spatial and typological inconsistencies among individual data sources, c...
Mangroves’ ability to store carbon (C) has long been recognized, but little is known about whether planted mangroves can store C as efficiently as naturally established (i.e., intact) stands and in which time frame. Through Bayesian logistic models compiled from 40 years of data and built from 684 planted mangrove stands worldwide, we found that bi...
Aim
Tidal marsh ecosystems are heavily impacted by human activities, highlighting a pressing need to address gaps in our knowledge of their distribution. To better understand the global distribution and changes in tidal marsh extent, and identify opportunities for their conservation and restoration, it is critical to develop a spatial knowledge bas...
Mangroves are a critical coastal habitat that provides a suite of ecosystem services and supports livelihoods. We undertake the first global analysis to estimate density and abundance of 37 commercially important fish and invertebrates that are known to extensively use mangroves. Geomorphic mangrove type, sea surface salinity and temperature, and l...
Tidal marshes are threatened coastal ecosystems known for their capacity to store large amounts of carbon in their water-logged soils. Accurate quantification and mapping of global tidal marshes soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is of considerable value to conservation efforts. Here, we used training data from 3,710 unique locations, landscape-level...
Substantial global restoration commitments are occurring alongside a rapid expansion in land‐hungry tropical commodities, including to supply increasing demand for wood products. Future commercial tree plantations may deliver high timber yields, shrinking the footprint of production forestry, but there is an as‐yet unquantified risk that plantation...
Global forecasts of ecosystem responses to increasing climatic and anthropogenic pressures are needed to inform adaptation planning. However, data of appropriate spatio-temporal resolution are not typically available to parameterise complex processes at the global scale. Forecast uncertainty associated with ‘data-process’ scale incongruities must b...
This guide is designed as a starting point to help researchers and practitioners working in mangrove conservation and restoration who want to engage with and include LEK in their projects. This applies
to, but is not limited to, members of the Global Mangrove Alliance, their collaborators, and the broader conservation community
Highlights
•Mangrove deforestation in Mexico is decreasing, although degradation is perversive and spreading.
•Blue carbon projects addressing degradation could protect the carbon stored, and improve the well-being of coastal communities
•Challenges to address degradation in Mexico include a lack of a national definition
•Knowledge sharing and...
Coastal ecosystems have the potential to contribute to disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. While previous studies have estimated the value of current coastal ecosystems for reducing coastal risk, there have been relatively few studies that look at changes in ecosystem service provision, in the past and under climate change. We...
Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organ...
Improving the effectiveness of conservation practice requires better use of evidence.
Since 2004, researchers from the Conservation Evidence group (University of Cambridge) have engaged with over 1100 named practitioners, policymakers, funders and other academics from across the world to identify needs and develop a range of principles, tools and r...
This dataset presents global soil organic carbon stocks in mangrove forests at 30 m resolution, predicted for 2020. We used spatiotemporal ensemble machine learning to produce predictions of soil organic carbon content and bulk density (BD) to 1 m soil depth, which were then aggregated to calculate soil organic carbon stocks. This was done by using...
Mangrove forests support unique biodiversity and provide a suite of ecosystem services (ES) that benefit people. Decades of continual mangrove loss and degradation have necessitated global efforts to protect and restore this important ecosystem. Generating and evaluating asset maps of biodiversity and ES is an important precursor to identifying loc...
This study is the first ever to gather local mangrove scientists, forest managers and policy-makers world-wide to identify the future scientific curiosity-driven and managerial need-driven questions to which science, management, and/or governance needs an answer.
Coastal ecosystems have the potential to contribute to disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. While previous studies have estimated the value of current coastal ecosystems for reducing coastal risk, there have been relatively few studies that look at changes in ecosystem service provision, in the past and under climate change. We...
Aim Tidal marsh ecosystems are heavily impacted by human activities, highlighting a pressing need to address gaps in our knowledge of their distribution. To better understand the global distribution and changes in tidal marsh extent, and identify opportunities for their conservation and restoration, it is critical to develop a spatial knowledge bas...
There are severe problems with the decision-making processes currently widely used, leading to ineffective use of evidence, faulty decisions, wasting of resources and the erosion of public and political support. In this book an international team of experts provide solutions.
The transformation suggested includes rethinking how evidence is assessed...
There are severe problems with the decision-making processes currently widely used, leading to ineffective use of evidence, faulty decisions, wasting of resources and the erosion of public and political support. In this book an international team of experts provide solutions.
The transformation suggested includes rethinking how evidence is assessed...
Estimating the distribution, extent and change of coastal ecosystems is essential for monitoring global change. However, spatial models developed to estimate the distribution of land cover types require accurate and up-to-date reference data to support model development, model training and data validations. Owing to the labor-intensive tasks requir...
The need for conservation action to be cost‐effective is widely accepted, resulting in increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing the financial and economic costs of conservation is equally important for assessing cost‐effectiveness, yet their measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sect...
Mangrove forests store high amounts of carbon, protect communities from storms, and support fisheries. Mangroves exist in complex social-ecological systems, hence identifying socioeconomic conditions associated with decreasing losses and increasing gains remains challenging albeit important. The impact of national governance and conservation polici...
Anthropogenic activities have severely degraded the ecological integrity of global freshwater systems. Migratory freshwater fishes are especially threatened by the cumulative effects of multiple stressors and fragmentation, particularly those that impede access to critical habitats. To stimulate the conservation and protection of these species, we...
Mangroves are a globally important ecosystem that provides a wide range of ecosystem system services, such as carbon capture and storage, coastal protection and fisheries enhancement. Mangroves have significantly reduced in global extent over the last 50 years, primarily as a result of deforestation caused by the expansion of agriculture and aquacu...
The biodiversity of marine and coastal habitats is experiencing unprecedented change. While there are well-known drivers of these changes, such as overexploitation, climate change and pollution, there are also relatively unknown emerging issues that are poorly understood or recognized that have potentially positive or negative impacts on marine and...
Tidal wetlands are expected to respond dynamically to global environmental change, but the extent to which wetland losses have been offset by gains remains poorly understood. We developed a global analysis of satellite data to simultaneously monitor change in three highly interconnected intertidal ecosystem types—tidal flats, tidal marshes, and man...
Mangroves are often cleared for aquaculture, agriculture, and coastal development despite the range of benefits for people and nature that they provide. In response to these losses, there are multiple global, and regional efforts aimed at accelerating mangrove forest restoration, resulting in many restoration projects being implemented and managed...
Many types of guidance documents inform conservation by providing practical recommendations for the management of species and habitats. To ensure effective decisions are made, such guidance should be based upon relevant and up-to-date evidence. We reviewed conservation guidance for mitigation and management of species and habitats in the United Kin...
There is an urgent need to halt and reverse loss of mangroves and seagrass to protect and increase the ecosystem services they provide to coastal communities, such as enhancing coastal resilience and contributing to climate stability.1,2 Ambitious targets for their recovery can inspire public and private investment in conservation,3 but the expecte...
Marine ecosystems have been used, impacted by, and managed by human populations for millennia. As ecosystem degradation has been a common outcome of these activities, marine management increasingly considers ecosystem restoration. Currently, there is no coherent data recording format or framework for marine restoration projects. As a result, data a...
Mangroves are known for large carbon stocks and high sequestration rates in biomass and soils, making these intertidal wetlands a cost-effective strategy for some nations to compensate for a portion of their carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. However, few countries have the national-level inventories required to support the inclusion of mangroves in...
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) prohibits commercial trans-national trade in pangolin specimens. However, African pangolins are continually trafficked to Asia for traditional medicine, with Nigeria considered a key hub. Using reported Nigeria-linked pangolin seizure data and interviews wit...
The need for conservation action to be cost-effective is widely accepted and this has prompted an increased interest and effort to assess effectiveness. Assessing financial costs of conservation is equally important, yet its measurement and assessment are repeatedly identified as lacking. The healthcare sector however, has made substantial progress...
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers immense potential to return hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded tropical landscapes to functioning ecosystems. Well-designed restoration can tackle multiple Sustainable Development Goals, driving synergistic benefits for biodiversity, ecosystem services, agricultural and timber production, and...
A global review of mangrove forests - extent, condition, protection, ecosystem services, restoration, global mapping, policy, economics, community engagement
Anthropogenic and natural disturbances can cause degradation of ecosystems, reducing their capacity to sustain biodiversity and provide ecosystem services. Understanding the extent of ecosystem degradation is critical for estimating risks to ecosystems, yet there are few existing methods to map degradation at the ecosystem scale and none using free...
Over the last 20 years, innovations have led to the development of exciting new technologies and novel applications of established technologies, collectively increasing the scale, scope, and quality of research possible in tidal marsh systems. Thus, ecological research on marshes is being revolutionized, in the same way as ecological research more...
The extent to which prey traits combine to influence the abundance of predators is still poorly understood, particularly for mixed predators in sympatry and in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we characterise prey use and distribution in iconic bird (grey wagtails and Eurasian dippers) and fish species (brown trout and Atlantic salmon) to assess...
Coastal salt marshes are distributed widely across the globe and are considered essential habitat for many fish and crustacean species. Yet, the literature on fishery support by salt marshes has largely been based on a few geographically distinct model systems, and as a result, inadequately captures the hierarchical nature of salt marsh pattern, pr...
Myanmar is highly biodiverse, with more than 16,000 plant, 314 mammal, 1131 bird, 293 reptile, and 139 amphibian species. Supporting this biodiversity is a variety of natural ecosystems—mostly undescribed—including tropical and subtropical forests, savannas, seasonally inundated wetlands, extensive shoreline and tidal systems, and alpine ecosystems...
Mangroves are critical nursery habitats for fish and invertebrates, providing livelihoods for many coastal communities. Despite their importance, there is currently no estimate of the number of fishers engaged in mangrove associated fisheries, nor of the fishing intensity associated with mangroves at a global scale. We address these gaps by develop...
Accurately evaluating ecosystem status is vital for effective conservation. The Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the global standard for assessing the risk of ecosystem collapse. Such tools are particularly needed for large, dynamic ecosystem complexes, such as the Indian Sundarbans...
Mangrove forests provide many ecosystem services but are among the world's most threatened ecosystems. Mangroves vary substantially according to their geomorphic and sedimentary setting; while several conceptual frameworks describe these settings, their spatial distribution has not been quantified. Here, we present a new global mangrove biophysical...
As climate change continues to threaten human and natural systems, the search for cost-effective and practical mitigation solutions is gaining momentum. Reforestation has recently been identified as a promising nature-based climate solution. Yet there are context-dependent biophysical, financial, land-use and operational constraints to reforestatio...
Myanmar is highly biodiverse, with more than 16,000 plant, 314 mammal, 1131 bird, 293 reptile, and 139 amphibian species. Supporting this biodiversity is a variety of natural ecosystems-mostly undescribed-including tropical and subtropical forests, savannas, seasonally inundated wetlands, extensive shoreline and tidal systems, and alpine ecosystems...
Aligning nature protection with human well-being for the UN Sustainable Development Goals implies that conservation monitoring should indicate the sustainability of ecosystem services (ES). Here we test the value of the ES cascade framework using national, multi-decadal data for an iconic freshwater fish, the Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. For the fi...
Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field has changed over the past two decades, we analyzed 3245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims...
Globally, carbon-rich mangrove forests are deforested and degraded due to land-use and land-cover change (LULCC). The impact of mangrove deforestation on carbon emissions has been reported on a global scale; however, uncertainty remains at subnational scales due to geographical variability and field data limitations. We present an assessment of blu...
Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on delivering robust answers to reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field might have changed during the past two decades, we analyzed 3,245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has be...
Rapid losses of mangroves over the past 50 years have had negative consequences on the environment, climate, and humanity, through diminished benefits such as carbon storage, coastal protection and fish production. Restoration of mangrove forests is possible, and has already been undertaken in many settings, but such efforts have been piecemeal, an...
The need to monitor and protect biodiversity has never been greater, yet resources are often constrained economically. The ecosystem service paradigm could promote nature conservation while sustaining economic activity and other societal benefits, but most efforts to assess biodiversity-ecosystem service (B-ES) links have focused on diversity measu...
A recent paper claiming evidence of global insect declines achieved huge media attention, including claims of “insectaggedon” and a “collapse of nature.” Here, we argue that while many insects are declining in many places around the world, the study has important limitations that should be highlighted. We emphasise the robust evidence of large and...
The development of a hydrologic foundation, essential for advancing our understanding of flow‐ecology relationships, was developed using the high‐resolution physics‐based distributed rainfall‐runoff model Vflo in a semi‐arid region. We compared the accuracy and bias associated with flow metrics that were generated using Vflo, gauge data, and draina...
Unique genetic lineages of Micropterus species are increasingly recognized; however, little effort has been devoted to identifying their ecological relationships despite recognition of their conservation value by management agencies. Our study objectives were to determine young-of-year, first-summer survival, and examine overall channel-unit habita...
Sclerochronology provides an important and widely used tool to examine annual environmental patterns in marine systems, but few similar tools have been developed to establish ecological indicators in freshwaters on a seasonal scale. Previous work using marine mussels as ecological indicators have practiced shell ashing, acetate peels, and thin sect...