Virgilio Hermoso

Universidad de Sevilla | US · Plant Biology and Ecology

The EU has made significant conservation efforts in the last two decades, guided by the Birds and Habitats Directives, currently under evaluation. Despite these efforts a large proportion of priority species are still in unfavourable condition and continue declining. For this reason, a thoughtful review of the implementation of conservation efforts...

Securing access to energy for a growing population under the international commitment of reduction of greenhouse emissions requires increasing the contribution of renewable sources to the global share. Hydropower energy, which accounts for > 80% of green energy, is experiencing a boom fostered by international investment mainly in developing countr...

The IUCN Red List is the most extensive source of conservation status assessments for species worldwide, but important gaps in coverage remain. Here we demonstrate the use of a spatial prioritization approach to efficiently prioritize species assessments to achieve increased and up-to-date coverage efficiently. We focus on freshwater fishes, which...

1. Recent advances in freshwater conservation planning allow addressing some of the specific needs of these systems. These include spatial connectivity or propagation of threats along stream networks, essential to ensure the maintenance of ecosystem processes and the biodiversity they sustain. However, these peculiarities make conservation recommen...

The last report on the State of the Nature in the European Union (EU), a periodic monitoring exercise at continental scale, shows that biodiversity continues to decline, despite the efforts done in the last decades. Urgent action is, therefore, needed to reverse this trend. Effective conservation must rely on careful planning and strategic investme...

There is an urgent need to explicitly recognize freshwater ecosystems in international conservation and restoration agreements. After decades of “Land and Sea” perspective in global policy we continue to witness freshwater biodiversity and services declining at alarming rates. As we enter the UN decade on ecosystem restoration, the major conservati...

Freshwater systems are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide, and fish species inhabiting them are increasingly endangered by different pressures. One of the most important tools in the European Union (EU) to halt this decline is the Natura 2000 network (N2000). The Habitat Directive (HD) includes freshwater habitats and 39 native fish spe...

Degradation, fragmentation, and loss of tropical forests has exponentially increased in the last decades leading to unprecedented rates of species extinctions and loss of ecosystems functions and services. Forest restoration is key to recover ecosystems health and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, restoring forests at the lands...

The implementation of climate-smart policies to enhance carbon sequestration and reduce emissions is being encouraged worldwide to fight climate change. Afforestation practices and rewilding initiatives are climate-smart examples suggested to tackle these issues. In contrast, fire-smart approaches, by stimulating traditional farmland activities or...

Biodiversity keeps declining in the European Union despite the large conservation effort done over the last decades. The Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to address this situation by expanding the network of protected areas (PAs) and enhancing their effectiveness. However, many PAs still lack management plans, which in the case of the Natura 200...

Global freshwater biodiversity is declining dramatically, and meeting the challenges of this crisis requires bold goals and the mobilisation of substantial resources. While the reasons are varied, investments in both research and conservation of freshwater biodiversity lag far behind those in the terrestrial and marine realms. Inspired by a global...

The cover image is based on the Viewpoint A global agenda for advancing freshwater biodiversity research by Alain Maasri et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13931. Image Credit: Solvin Zankl. image

The European Union (EU) has committed to an ambitious biodiversity recovery plan in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Green Deal. These policies aim to halt biodiversity loss and move towards sustainable development, focusing on restoring degraded habitats, extending the network of protected areas (PAs), and improving the effectiveness of...

Freshwater systems are among the most endangered biomes globally. Drivers and pressures include an increased demand for food, energy and water, expansion of urban areas that leads to changes in hydrology and water chemistry, as well as climate change which acts as overarching threat interacting with multiple aspects of the ecosystem. According to t...

Landscape dynamics pose substantial challenges to biodiversity conservation and could compromise the future effectiveness of protected areas (PAs). Multiple interacting drivers of landscape dynamics, including land-cover change, wildfire, and climate change, are usually studied separately. This limits our ability to respond effectively to conservat...

Wetlands are critically important for biodiversity and human wellbeing, but face a range of challenges. This is especially true in the Mediterranean region, where wetlands support endemic and threatened species and remain integral to human societies, but have been severely degraded in recent decades. Here, in order to raise awareness of future chal...

Se presenta una lista actualizada de las especies exóticas que se encuentran en etapa de establecimiento o de propagación de la invasión en aguas continentales de la península ibérica. La lista está basada en la evaluación sistemática de los datos en colaboración con un amplio equipo de expertos de España y Portugal. Esta lista de actualización es...

An updated list is presented of the alien species in the establishment or spread invasion stage in in-land waters at the Iberian Peninsula. The list is based on a systematic assessment of information in collaboration with a wide expert team from Spain and Portugal. This updated list is an important tool supporting the implementation of the IAS Regu...

An updated list is presented of the alien species in the transport or introduction invasion stage in inland waters of the Iberian Peninsula. The list is based on a systematic assessment of information in collaboration with a wide expert team from Spain and Portugal. This list is an important tool to support the implementation of the IAS Regulation,...

1. Systematic conservation planning in freshwater ecosystems faces multiple challenges because of the dynamic nature of rivers and their multiple dimensions of connectivity. In intermittent hydrological systems connectivity is functional when water is available, allowing the exchange of aquatic individuals between isolated freshwater ecosystems. In...

Given the multiple stressors affecting freshwater ecosystems and the limited resources devoted to their management, effective conservation of freshwater biodiversity requires regional prioritization. Patagonian wetlands are essential for regional biodiversity and the economy, but they are still far from reaching global conservation targets and many...

Climate regulation strategies based on forest restoration could pose an increase in fire risk, especially under drier and warmer conditions over large regions of Europe, impacting climate, the environment and human health. Climate-smarter options, such as wetlands restoration or recovery of grassland, that provide similar benefits for climate but a...

Freshwater biodiversity is declining dramatically, and the current biodiversity crisis requires defining bold goals and mobilizing substantial resources to meet the challenges. While the reasons are varied, both research and conservation of freshwater biodiversity lag far behind efforts in the terrestrial and marine realms. We identify fifteen pres...

Biodiversity offsetting is a popular conservation tool to reduce the impact of human activities. This is especially relevant in freshwater ecosystems, under the increasing threat posed by the development of infrastructure to store freshwater or produce energy that break longitudinal connectivity and modify the structure and functioning of these sys...

Freshwater biodiversity is declining dramatically, and the current biodiversity crisis requires defining bold goals and mobilizing substantial resources to meet the challenges. While the reasons are varied, both research and conservation of freshwater biodiversity lag far behind efforts in the terrestrial and marine realms. We identify fifteen pres...

Plans are currently being drafted for the next decade of action on biodiversity— both the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union (EU). Freshwater biodiversity is disproportionately threatened and underprioritized relative to the marine and terrestrial b...

Fire has been a source of global biodiversity for millions of years. However, interactions with anthropogenic drivers such as climate change, land use, and invasive species are changing the nature of fire activity and its impacts. We review how such changes are threatening species with extinction and transforming terrestrial ecosystems. Conservatio...

1. Connectivity plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as it sustains ecological processes, such as migrations, important for the maintenance of populations. Connectivity is especially relevant for species that rely on different realms during their life cycle or use different realms daily or seasonally (multi‐realm species). However, effort...

Like most ocean regions today, the European and contiguous seas experience cumulative impacts from local human activities and global pressures. They are largely in poor environmental condition with deteriorating trends. Despite several success stories, European policies for marine conservation fall short of being effective. Acknowledging the challe...

1. Around the globe, instream infrastructures such as dams, weirs, and culverts associated with roads are wide‐spread and continue to be constructed. There is limited documentation of smaller infrastructure because of mixed regulation and laws related to instream construction, as well as difficulty in documentation because of their size and frequen...

Barriers associated to human infrastructure are a widespread impact in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, disrupting connectivity along river networks and key processes. Restoration of connectivity has risen in the last decade, with thousands of dams, weirs and culverts removed. Spatial optimisation methods can help inform decision on what barriers t...

Versión hisponible de manera gratuita en este enlace: https://www.biophilia-fbbva.es/publicaciones/protocolo-para-el-diseno-de-reservas-naturales-fluviales-planificacion-sistematica-y-participacion-publica-2/

Species distribution models analyse how species use different types of habitats. Their spatial predictions are often used to prioritize areas for conservation. Individuals may, however , prefer settling in habitat types of low quality compared to other available habitats. This ecological trap phenomenon is usually studied in a small number of habit...

Planning for management actions that address threats to biodiversity is important for securing its long term persistence. However, systematic conservation planning (SCP) has traditionally overlooked this aspect and just focused on identifying priority areas without any recommendation on actions needed. This paper develops a mixed integer mathematic...

The drafting of a new Global Biodiversity Framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biodiversity Strategy for the European Union (EU) render 2020 a critical crossroad for biodiversity conservation. Freshwater biodiversity is disproportionately threatened and poorly studied relative to marine and terrestrial biota, despite provi...

The EU’s Green Infrastructure Strategy aims at developing a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas to support the maintenance of ecosystem services (ESS) and connect protected areas (PAs), promoting in this way multifunctional landscapes. This network of GI aims to address the decline in ESS across the EU and also contribut...

The Natura 2000 network aims to promote the long-term persistence of both biodiversity and traditional uses. European landscapes have undergone large transformations in the past decades, mainly associated with the abandonment of less productive lands, mostly in mountains, and concentration of intensive agriculture in the most productive areas. Thes...

In the last decades the EU has made substantial efforts implementing conservation strategies to halt biodiversity loss. However, little improvement has been reported. Given the proximity of the 2020 landmark set by the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Convention for Biological Diversity, alternatives to reduce this conservation gap and prospect fut...

The European Union (EU) committed to halt the loss of biodiversity in its 2020 Biodiversity Strategy. However, all reports show conservation efforts are falling short of their objectives and the status of biodiversity in the EU continues to decline. Here, we propose four key avenues for the next Strategy, currently under discussion, to make EU cons...

The design of conservation management plans is a crucial task for ensuring the preservation of ecosystems. A conservation plan is typically embodied by two types of decisions: in which areas of a given territory it will be implemented, and how actions against threats will be deployed across these areas. These decisions are usually guided by the res...

Systematic conservation planning has contributed to the spatial design of reserve networks in river ecosystems by recognizing the importance of maintaining longitudinal connectivity. In the complex and dynamic landscapes of river-floodplain systems, however, it is still challenging to account for the longitudinal and, especially, lateral connection...

Assessment of freshwater ecosystems is crucial for measuring their ecological status and providing primary information for their conservation. This editorial introduces a special section of Inland Waters regarding the study of ecological monitoring and biodiversity conservation of inland waters. Papers in this special section of Inland Waters are b...

It's renewable but not sustainable. We argue that the unchecked development promoting new small hydropower plants should be replaced by a new paradigm that builds on three points: (1) Small hydropower plants must be subject to the same environmental regulations as large hydropower plants because both are associated with ecological threats and high...

• Freshwater ecosystems generally lack adequate protection. In this regard, defining clear and objective conservation criteria through public participation is extremely important, as it can greatly enhance the feasibility of the conservation plans by building credibility, salience, and legitimacy. • This article presents an exercise of systematic f...

Seed banks are key for resilience, secondary succession and restoration in ecosystems, especially in stressful environments. Even though salt marshes are an excellent cosystem for studying seed bank dynamics along environmental stress gradients, few studies have analyzed these aspects on the entire intertidal gradient in the plant community as a ho...

We led a curriculum vitae (CV) clinic aimed at student participants attending the 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2017) in Cartagena, Colombia. The CV Clinic was a pilot program consisting of resources to assist with developing an effective CV and involving preconference and at‐conference reviews of student attendees' CVs...

In a recent comment, Muller (Nature 566, 315-317) argues in favour of hydropower projects because its capacity of reducing greenhouse gasses emissions (GHG) through the shrinkage of wetlands’ extent, while contributing to production of ‘green energy’. We argue Muller´s arguments that advocate for accelerating the decline of natural wetlands through...

The river Nile flows across 11 African countries, supporting millions of human livelihoods, and holding globally important biodiversity and endemism yet remains underprotected. No basin-wide spatial conservation planning has been attempted to date, and the importance of coordinated conservation planning for the Nile’s biodiversity remains unknown....

• In many wetlands the timing and duration of inundation determine ecological characteristics and the provision of ecosystem services; however, wetland conservation decisions often rely on static maps of wetland boundaries that do not capture their dynamic hydrological variability and connectivity. • The Amazon River basin contains some of the worl...

• Freshwater ecosystems are under a constant risk of being irreversibly damaged by human pressures that threaten their biodiversity, the sustainability of ecosystem services (ESs), and human well‐being. Despite the implementation of various environmental regulations, the challenges of safeguarding freshwater assets have so far not been tackled succ...

The world´s largest network of protected areas—Natura 2000 (N2000)—has been implemented to protect Europe´s biodiversity. N2000 is built upon two cornerstones, the Birds Directive, which lists 691 bird species (plus one additional bird genus with no further classification) and the Habitats Directive, which lists next to a variety of species, 233 ha...

Description of how Marxan variables were set; species penalty factor (SPF) and boundary length modifier (BLM). (DOCX)

EUNIS habitat classes occurring in Germany with corresponding numerical codes. Habitat classes marked with an asterisk were not used to describe Natura 2000 habitats (see explanation in text). (DOCX)

Natura 2000 habitat types and corresponding EUNIS habitat classes and plant species. Additionally, the maximum number (n°) of PUs in which a habitat type occurs, the number of PUs covered by N2000 in each scenario (Sc. 90, Sc. 75, Sc. 50, and Sc. 25), and the number of PUs which have to be protected to reach the 17% Aichi target, are given. PU = pl...

Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) is a network designed and planned to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services and to protect biodiversity. Existing GBI designs lacked a systematic method to allocate restoration zones. This study proposes a novel approach for systematically selecting cost-effective areas for restoration on the basis of biodive...

Freshwater biodiversity is declining, despite national and international efforts to manage and protect freshwater ecosystems. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as an approach that could more efficiently and adaptively balance ecological and societal needs. However, this raises the question of how social and ecological objectives ca...

There is a growing demand for holistic landscape planning to enhance sustainable use of ecosystem services (ESS) and maintenance of the biodiversity that supports them. In this context, the EU is developing policy to regulate the maintenance of ESS and enhance connectivity among protected areas (PAs). This is known as the network of Green Infrastru...