The publication summarizes the results of monitoring the brown bear population within the territory of the Uzhanskyi National Nature Park from 2001 to 2025. Studies have shown that the population of the largest predatory mammal consists of 11–12 individuals. It analyses population dynamics, distribution patterns, and behavioural traits of the species in the Park, as well as the effectiveness of various research methods — winter tracking, camera traps, SMART monitoring, and genetic sampling. The key role of the Novostuzhytsia department as a core habitat area is established. Factors contributing to conflict between humans and predators were discussed, and important measures for species conservation were outlined, including environmental education and combating poaching. Emphasis is placed on the importance of cross-border cooperation for the conservation of this predatory mammal population.
Temporary ponds have significant biodiversity and societal value, yet they have historically been neglected and undervalued in water and nature‐related policies. In Italy, temporary ponds have received less attention in biodiversity research and conservation efforts compared to other freshwater ecosystems. Consequently, the scarcity of information regarding their ecology, biodiversity and spatial distribution complicates the development of effective management and conservation strategies for these habitats. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 103 articles, published between 1980 and 2023, to compile an initial inventory of individual temporary ponds studied in central and southern Italy, identifying potential regional gaps. We analysed key topics covered, research trends and their temporal evolution, as well as identifying the most prolific authors and collaboration networks between institutions, including the topics they shared. The results revealed that studies on temporary ponds in central and southern Italy began in 1980, with most research concentrated in Latium, Sardinia and Sicily. From these studies, we extrapolated and mapped the geographic coordinates from 630 individual temporary ponds. Research topics primarily focused on plants, vegetation and macroinvertebrates, while studies on biodiversity conservation and the Natura 2000 network have emerged more recently. The findings of this study identified gaps that should be addressed and evidenced lack of inventories in many regions that should be implemented as these are crucial for pond conservation efforts at local, national and Mediterranean scales.
Biodiversity loss significantly impacts the stability and functioning of ecosystems, driven by factors such as climate change, human activities, and other influences. Predicting species distributions and conducting conservation gap analyses are essential for identifying key conservation areas, evaluating conservation effectiveness, and highlighting under‐protected areas, thereby providing valuable insights to mitigate biodiversity loss. The Gaoligong Mountains, located within the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas (a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site), serve as an intersection for the biota of the eastern Himalayas, the Indochina Peninsula, and the Hengduan Mountains. The region is a vitally important biological exchange corridor and a long‐standing hotspot for plant geography research. Using the distribution data for 361 rare and endangered plants and eight environmental variables, this study employed the InVEST and random forest (RF) models to determine the current and future potential distribution of these species in the southern Gaoligong Mountains, considering various climate change scenarios combined with currently suitable habitats. The study also evaluated existing protected areas and used a transition matrix to quantify changes in potential habitats. The results show that the current potential suitable habitat in the southern Gaoligong Mountains spans 2987.38 km2, with only 23.14% of this area falling within protected zones, leaving a 76.86% protection gap. Additionally, areas with highly suitable habitats are predicted to decline under future climate change scenarios, emphasizing the inadequacy of existing protected areas in comprehensively safeguarding rare and endangered wild plant species. Habitat loss, primarily driven by the expansion of agricultural activities, further exacerbates this issue. To address these conservation gaps, this study recommends prioritizing the integrity of vertical zones when optimizing protected areas, thus ensuring continuous protection for rare and endangered plant species.
Warming is a key factor influencing the function of the structure and function of phytoplankton communities. However, the impacts of temperature on phytoplankton resource use efficiency (RUE) in mountain rivers remain poorly understood. Here, the spatiotemporal patterns of phytoplankton community structure (biomass, community composition, and diversity), function (RUE), and the main environmental factors in a high-latitude mountainous stream were investigated to assess how temperature affects the phytoplankton RUE. The results showed that phytoplankton species richness, biomass, and RUE all increased with rising temperature, with species richness significantly higher. There was a shift in the phytoplankton community from dominated by Cyanophyta at lower temperatures to dominated by Cryptophyta at higher temperatures. Phytoplankton RUE was significantly positively correlated to species richness, but no significant relationship was observed between RUE and Pielou’s evenness. Furthermore, redundancy analysis and Mantel tests revealed that water temperature, nutrient (TP, and NH4+-N) and physicochemical variable (flow velocity, and dissolved oxygen) explained 40.40% of the overall variation in phytoplankton RUE. Phytoplankton RUE exhibited stronger responses to environmental variables than phytoplankton biomass or diversity. The results highlighted that temperature directly affected phytoplankton community composition and enhanced RUE by altering environmental conditions and biodiversity. Temperature plays a crucial role in shaping the structure and function of phytoplankton communities in rivers. Our results contribute to the deep understanding of the mechanisms by which temperature influences RUE providing a basis for the sustainable management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems and watersheds.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
The African baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is a priority Pan-African tree species. Insect pests that are associated with and damage domesticated baobab are largely unknown in the production areas of baobab. To identify and document insect pests associated with domesticated African baobab for the first time, mature and young domesticated baobab plants were, respectively, surveyed on the research fields and nursery of the Ho Technical University in Ho, Ghana. The survey targeted all insects found on baobab with the goal of documenting pests that infest baobab plants. Collected insect samples were photographed and searched using Google Lens and the iNaturalist insect identification application for their identification and taxonomic classification. The entomological specimens collected were classified into 7 orders, 11 families, and 16 insect species. The most frequent orders were Hemiptera (37.5%) and Coleoptera (31.25%). The incidence of the remaining orders (Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Araneae, and Dictyoptera) was very low with 6.25% abundance each. Regarding absolute counts, the Coleopteran order had a significantly (p≤0.05) higher number of insects (51.48 ± 7.42955) than the other orders; Araneae (4.70 ± 7.42955), Hemiptera (1.10 ± 7.42955), Dictyoptera (0.45 ± 7.42955), Orthoptera (0.40 ± 7.42955), Hymenoptera (0.30 ± 7.42955), and Lepidoptera (0.05 ± 7.42955). No significant difference was observed among these remaining orders. The cocoa weevil (Araecerus fasciculatus) was the most dominant insect pest. Some beneficial insects were also found on the baobab plants. Monitoring and management interventions, particularly integrated pest management (IPM), that target the identified insect pests can be implemented to ensure the sustainable cultivation of baobab. Further research is required to identify and classify insect pests that may not have been captured and identified in this study.
Forestry, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Cassandra Upton, Gerhard Prinsloo, Paul Anton Steenkamp
et al.
IntroductionSea cucumbers are ecologically and economically significant marine invertebrates, yet the metabolic diversity and bioactive potential of noncommercialized, endemic species remains poorly understood.MethodsThis study presents the first intra-species metabolomic analysis of Pseudocnella sykion, a species endemic to the Eastern coast of Southern Africa, using untargeted 1HNMR metabolomics and full-scan UPLC-QTOF-HR-MS.ResultsThe analysis revealed a diverse array of metabolites associated with protein synthesis, tissue growth, osmoregulation, and energy utilization, with distinct tissue-specific patterns across the body wall, gonad, and gut/mesentery. The gut/mesentery tissue showed higher levels of amino acids and energy-related compounds. UPLCQTOF-HR-MS tentatively identified several metabolites, including triterpene glycosides and rosmarinic acid, a phenolic compound typically associated with plants. Online resources, including the Dictionary of Marine Natural Products, contained no previously recorded compounds for P. sykion.DiscussionThese findings underscore the untapped potential of P. sykion as a source of novel metabolites and demonstrate the utility of untargeted metabolomics in generating baseline profiles for underexplored marine species. The results offer a foundation for future research into bioactivity, environmental monitoring, and cultivation strategies. While this study provides critical baseline data, challenges in metabolite identification and extraction underscore the need for further targeted analyses. Overall, this research enhances our understanding of the metabolic dynamics of sea cucumbers and advocates for continued exploration of lesser-known species to support conservation, bioprospecting, and sustainable aquaculture. It represents a pioneering effort in metabolomic profiling of Southern African sea cucumber species and lays the groundwork for future investigations into their metabolic pathways and potential bioactivities.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Jennifer E. Helm, Elizabeth G. Simpson, Lorelle I. Berkeley
et al.
Abstract Understanding how vegetation management affects animals' habitat selection patterns is critical for comprehensive conservation planning. As part of a decade‐long study (2011–2019) of 486 adult female sage‐grouse in central Montana, we investigated how a conservation‐based grazing program (CGP) affected greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) habitat selection at two temporal scales: (a) the seasonal scale (four biologically relevant seasons) and (b) the annual scale. We used resource selection functions to assess sage‐grouse selection for pastures enrolled in a CGP as well as plant functional type and topography. We found that sage‐grouse strongly selected shrub cover, flatter slopes, and less tree cover. They selected CGP‐enrolled pastures (Pre‐, During‐, and Post‐grazing system implementation) over Non‐CGP pastures during all seasons except the summer–fall. During the summer–fall, they selected pastures where CGP implementation was complete. Future research is needed to determine whether selection for CGP‐enrolled pastures was due to unmeasured, underlying differences between CGP and non‐CGP pastures or CGP enrollment patterns rather than effects of different grazing systems, as well as whether these habitat selection differences are linked to demographic rates or population dynamics.
Ecology, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Finding solutions against the global biodiversity crisis is a key question in conservation biology. The ecosystem approach in biodiversity conservation is aimed at maintaining the connections and interactions between elements. The need for such an approach is dictated by the objectives of biodiversity management and natural resource conservation. Maintaining the integrity of communities and ecosystems helps protect species diversity and preserve ecosystem functions. To achieve economic and conservation goals, it is necessary to determine which ecosystems are vulnerable and which are sustainable. Such assessments are rapidly developed in world science, and the principles are considered in the methodology of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems. The methodology is recognized as an international standard in assessing the ecosystem collapse risk due to decline in distribution, restricted geographic distribution with continuing declines or threats, abiotic degradation, disruption to biotic processes the cumulative impact of factors. The use of the IUCN ecosystem vulnerability criteria provides comparable assessments of the state of terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems. Assessment according to the IUCN criteria is a multidisciplinary scientific task, for the solution of which a variety of materials and analytical tools are used, including remote sensing data and mathematical modeling. The objective of the review is to reveal the principles of the methodology for assessing the vulnerability of ecosystems. The fundamental terms and concepts of the approach are considered, possible methodological solutions for assessment according to each criteria are discussed using forests as an example. Inclusion of this methodology in the practice of nature conservation in Russia will allow creating a national Red List of ecosystems. It will be the basis for determining regional and national priorities in the field of biodiversity protection and management decisions in nature management based on fundamental research.
Often referred to as the "farmers of the forest," hornbills consume a variety of fruits and play a crucial role in seed dispersal across extensive areas, thereby enhancing plant diversity and facilitating forest regeneration. While hornbills are essential to the ecosystem, they face significant threats from habitat loss, deforestation, poaching, and the illegal pet trade. There are approximately sixty-two hornbill species globally, with nine residing in India. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), among the nine Indian species, five are classified as Vulnerable, two as Near Threatened, and two as Least Concern. The Western Ghats and Northeastern Himalayas are biodiversity hotspots that provide critical habitat for hornbills, including several endemic and near-endemic species. Despite their ecological importance, these regions face persistent conservation challenges that threaten the survival of hornbill populations. Although initiatives such as community engagement, habitat restoration, and legal protection are in place, these regions still face considerable challenges in hornbill conservation. This review seeks to consolidate existing research on hornbill distribution, habitat preferences, and ecological needs in India. It also aims to identify the key threats facing these species and propose actionable recommendations for future research and conservation strategies to ensure their long-term survival.
Bird-window collisions cause the death of billions of birds worldwide, yet few studies exist on this problem in Tropical America. This study, based on the collaborative work of hundreds of volunteers from 2013 to 2024, documents in detail the bird species that collide with windows in Costa Rica in order to establish fundamental baseline information for future research and to recommend conservation actions. A total of 1,506 bird collision reports were documented from the country’s seven provinces. A total of 296 species from 47 families and 17 orders were counted. The most frequently reported species was Catharus ustulatus (Swainson’s thrush) (n = 142), and the three most frequently reported families were Turdidae, Trochilidae, and Parulidae. Eighty percent of the recorded species were resident (250, n = 1006), compared to latitudinal migrants (59, n = 466). Resident species were present in greater numbers in the non-urban areas of Monteverde, Sarapiquí, San Gerardo de Dota, and San Vito de Coto Brus than in the urban area of San José. Bird-window collisions affect a high number of bird species in Costa Rica, including endemic and endangered species. We recommend using proven effective methods to prevent collisions and the development of legislation and building regulations to protect wild birds.
Community mobilisation is essential to prevent further biodiversity loss and protect the natural environment. This includes engaging in public- and private-sphere behaviours, and community support of relevant government policies. This purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the factors associated with public- and private-sphere nature conservation behaviour and policy support. We utilised data from a survey of 4,048 Australians, representative for age, gender, and geographic location, which measured engagement in nature conservation behaviours and support for diverse conservation policies. Hierarchical Multiple Regressions were conducted to assess relationships between behaviour and policy support with the key independent variables of awareness (of biodiversity issues), connection (to nature), and concern (about biodiversity issues), and socio-demographic covariates. Overall, community support for nature conservation policies was high, not just for incentive measures but for regulations and penalties. Regression models explained 22.9% of the variance in public-sphere behaviour, 30.2% of the variance in private-sphere behaviour, and 43.5% of the variance in policy support. Concern made one of the strongest contributions for all outcomes, and was substantially stronger for policy support compared to behaviour. Awareness and connection also made independent contributions to all outcomes. Socio-demographic variables explained a smaller proportion of unique variance for policy support (1.0%) compared to behaviour (public-sphere: 9.6%, private-sphere: 6.3%). Notably, for public-sphere behaviour, younger age explained almost as much variance as concern. Implications for practitioners and policymakers seeking to engage the general population in conservation support are discussed.
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the natural recreational resources of Piryatinsky NNP, which are attractive for the development of ecotourism. To achieve this goal, the paper uses general scientific methods of scientific knowledge (analysis and synthesis from information sources), as well as the cartographic method. Recommendations for attracting more ecotourists have been formulated and an ecotourism bicycle route has been developed. To determine the period of maximum recreational activity, a phenological calendar of visits to the park’s protected area was created. The results of this study highlight that spring and summer provide the best conditions for a wide range of activities: animal and plant observation, walking along ecological trails, hiking, and representation of the entire natural complex of the Uday River floodplain. Species diversity in autumn and winter is much lower, so visitors are offered a range of activities including zoo ecotourism, landscape ecotourism, and aqua ecotourism. It is also worth noting that not all natural locations are easily accessible, as 40.1% of the land is covered by wet-lands. The development of ecotourism within Piryatinsky NNP is promising, given the significant species biodiversity and the fact that the NNP is part of the Emerald Network of Europe, including the world’s smallest flower plant, the wolfia. When studying a protected area to organise ecotourism, it is necessary to take into account the availability of tourist infrastructure – equipped recreational areas for tourists, rental offices, etc. Based on the above material, it can be noted that a favorable basis for the development of ecotourism in Piryatinsky NNP is the following: location (proximity to Chernihiv and Kyiv regions; the administrative center of Piryatin city community in Lubny district; landscaped and «undeveloped» areas), biodiversity (attractive objects; river valley terraces), bioclimatic and environmental favourability. The park also has ecotourism routes and an educational eco-trail. Thus, the considered NNP as one of the ecotourism sites in Poltava region is an interesting place for environmental research. The practical significance of the study will allow involving stakeholders (local residents, business organizations) in active actions to develop ecotourism. The information presented in this paper will allow for certain decisions to be made when developing a park management strategy, as well as in the geographical distribution of guide training.
Research on taxonomically diverse groups of insects are an important component of studying biodiversity in Protected Areas of various ranks. Based on the results of original studies (2017–2020), this paper presents for the first time data on the Chrysomelidae family and its species composition in the Shaitan-Tau State Nature Reserve, Russia. The study area is located in the south of the forest-steppe zone of the low mountains of the Southern Urals in the Orenburg Region, Russia. Currently, this Chrysomelidae fauna is one of the most studied ones in Protected Areas of the Southern Urals. In the study area, 180 Chrysomelidae species have been registered, which is 51% of the Chrysomelidae family in the Orenburg Region. In addition, 86 recorded species were found for the first time in the Shaitan-Tau State Nature Reserve, including eight species recorded for the first time in the Orenburg Region. A new species of the genus Altica was discovered in the study area. In terms of the level of species richness, the Chrysomelidae family of the Shaitan-Tau Nature Reserve is comparable with or noticeably richer than other local faunas of the Protected Areas of the Southern Urals. At the same time, this Chrysomelidae fauna has fewer species than of other state nature reserves and national parks in the forest-steppe zone of the Volga Upland. Features of the zoogeographical structure of the Chrysomelidae family in the Shaitan-Tau State Nature Reserve include quite a high number of West-Palaearctic species (23 species; 12.8%), many of which are located there on the eastern limit of their natural ranges, and a low proportion of Central Palaearctic species (3.9%). At the same time, two Siberian species were discovered (Labidostomis sibirica and Gonioctena flavicornis), which are located on relict island sites of their ranges in the Urals. These findings noticably distinguish the studied fauna from the Chrysomelidae of the steppe Protected Areas in the south of the Orenburg Region, where a considerable proportion are representatives of the Kazakh-Turanian genesis. The studied Chrysomelidae fauna is characterised by a set of rich groups of steppe, meadow-steppe, nemoral and, to a lesser extent, boreal forms (a large part of which are located on the lomits of their ranges in the study area), as well as a pronounced spatial mosaic of biotopic complexes (e.g. forest, steppe, floodplains). In general, the data presented in this study objectively characterise the Chrysomelidae fauna of the Shaitan-Tau State Nature Reserve as a reference for the Ural oak forest-steppe ecosystem, which emphasises its important role for the conservation of natural complexes, as well as the knowledge of the current state and historical stages of the formation of biota of the western macroslope of the South Urals.
Understanding how humans conceptualize and categorize natural objects offers critical insights into perception and cognition. With the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), a key question arises: can these models develop human-like object representations from linguistic and multimodal data? In this study, we combined behavioral and neuroimaging analyses to explore the relationship between object concept representations in LLMs and human cognition. We collected 4.7 million triplet judgments from LLMs and Multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) to derive low-dimensional embeddings that capture the similarity structure of 1,854 natural objects. The resulting 66-dimensional embeddings were stable, predictive, and exhibited semantic clustering similar to human mental representations. Remarkably, the dimensions underlying these embeddings were interpretable, suggesting that LLMs and MLLMs develop human-like conceptual representations of objects. Further analysis showed strong alignment between model embeddings and neural activity patterns in brain regions such as EBA, PPA, RSC, and FFA. This provides compelling evidence that the object representations in LLMs, while not identical to human ones, share fundamental similarities that reflect key aspects of human conceptual knowledge. Our findings advance the understanding of machine intelligence and inform the development of more human-like artificial cognitive systems.
Identifying the potential distribution of soil-biodiversity with its density and richness relationships, including constituent species, is a pre-requisite for the assessment, conservation and protection of soil biodiversity and the soil functions it drives. Although the role of earthworms in improving soil quality has long been established, to quantitatively and spatially assess how this soil-animal group’s distribution changes along environmental gradients and geographic space and the identification of the drivers of such change has not been fully investigated. This comprehensive study aimed at modelling and mapping earthworm spatial distribution and diversity patterns to determine their conservation needs and provide baseline reference data for Germany. The study compared multiple modelling algorithms to map earthworm community parameters and 12 species-specific distribution probabilities, calculate their geographic range sizes and determine responses to environmental predictor variables. Three general patterns of spatial distribution ranges were identified by the model predictions (large-range, mid-range, and restricted-range species) with the corresponding environmental contributions to the predictions. Modelled species responses to environmental predictors confirm observed environmental drivers of earthworm distribution in Germany. The range classes based both on distributional level and geographic space provide the necessary information for identifying conservation and decision-making priorities, especially for restricted-distribution species as well as those with clearly defined habitat preferences.
M. J. Ferreira da Silva, T. Minhós, Susana Sampaio‐Dias
Guinea‐Bissau, an important regional biodiversity hotspot in West Africa, faces the challenge of raising awareness among the general public about the significance of natural resources for rural communities' survival and the need for biodiversity conservation. This knowledge gap hinders conservation efforts as initiatives are deemed irrelevant or unnecessary. A climate of political vulnerability, financial uncertainty and threats to media freedom are further obstacles to conservation biology. Researchers lack established communication platforms for academic dissemination. In this paper, we introduce the initiative News for Nature/PRIMACTION (2020–2022), which aimed to establish a communication channel between researchers and media agents. The project had two primary objectives: firstly, to raise awareness among the Guinea‐Bissau society about the importance of national biodiversity and conservation challenges; and secondly, to enhance the capacity of specific communicators and opinion makers. The project had several important outputs, including: i) a bi‐monthly newspaper section focused on “biodiversity conservation in Guinea‐Bissau”, ii) three radio‐theatre episodes performed by a well‐known group and broadcasted nationally, iii) one song composed and sung by famous musicians, with an introduction by Jane Goodall, and iv) a website providing technical resources for journalists covering biodiversity and conservation news. Collaborators mentioned the lack of logistical conditions for traveling in the country as a major impediment in reporting conservation‐related news. We emphasize the significance of establishing direct contact and articulation between researchers and local media to promote conservation research in West African countries. In countries where science communication and environmental education outreach are not well‐established, it is crucial to bridge the challenges faced by the communities in different regions of the same country. This is especially urgent in cases where such challenges are significant.