Global projections indicate that between 20% and 90% of current coastal wetland areas may be lost due to sea-level rise (SLR), depending on the severity of the scenario. Warming, acidification and other global change stressors such as eutrophication also show negative impacts on coastal wetlands. Such a scenario poses a dramatic threat to biodiversity, particularly in deltas and estuaries, which are vital for the conservation of coastal species and ecosystem functions. This paper summarizes the main impacts of climate change on coastal wetland biodiversity, with focus on vegetation, birds and fish. Management options to cope with climate change impacts are also summarized. Many coastal wetlands are already undergoing degradation or disappearing due to the combined impacts of climate change and other global drivers, including SLR, subsidence, sediment deficits, coastal erosion, and salt stress. Coastal squeeze, the restriction of natural habitat migration due to human infrastructure and natural constraints, also threatens these ecosystems. Enhancing the resilience of coastal wetlands involves improving hydrological connectivity, increasing sediment inputs, boosting wetland plant productivity, and allowing space for natural coastal processes. However, these efforts are highly dependent on active conservation, management and restoration policies. The future of coastal wetland biodiversity will vary significantly based on the climate scenarios that unfold, and the policies implemented. Highlights Coastal wetland biodiversity has severely declined due to habitat loss and other aspects of global change. Remaining wetlands are endangered by climate change impacts such as sea level rise.Salt marshes are the most endangered coastal wetlands in Europe, along with their associated flora and fauna. The Mediterranean coast may lose up to 90% of those habitats by the end of the 21st century due to sea level rise.Boosting coastal wetland resilience is critical to avoid biodiversity loss. To do this requires increasing the pace and scale of coastal wetland restoration, and enhancing the ecogeomorphic dynamics through the increase of hydrological connectivity and the supply of sediments to the coasts.
Summary Biodiversity monitoring is essential to inform the state of wildlife populations, and the impacts of environmental change, conservation intervention, and sustainable development policies and actions. We review the current state of bird monitoring across Africa using public questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We received 87 questionnaire responses from 46 (of 54) countries and, additionally, 24 in-depth interviews were carried out. Multiple data collection methods were reported with total counts of individuals being most frequent, but all-species surveys, essential for quantifying ecosystem health, were restricted to bird atlases and Common Bird Monitoring (CBM) projects in Kenya, Uganda, and Botswana. Data collection relied largely on volunteers, but their motivation, recruitment, training, and retention is a continuing challenge. The most sustainable programmes were driven by clear policy objectives (e.g. waterbird monitoring under the Ramsar Convention or the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species), monitoring of individual groups (e.g. raptors, vultures, bustards), specific threatened species, and where clear national priorities had been set within government agencies. Use of monitoring data by governments in country biodiversity reports or National Biodiversity Species Action Plans (NBSAPs) varied widely and, for many countries, simply did not exist. A lack of skilled analysts and a comprehensive approach to data curation and ownership were identified as major limitations. A more strategic approach to funding and monitoring is needed, whereby smaller funders collaborate to reduce costs associated with applying for small amounts of money, and bird (and biodiversity) monitoring is explicitly integrated with sustainable development goals to exploit broader funding streams.
1. Species monitoring programmes regularly encounter missing data, which complicates tasks such as estimating population size or detecting temporal trends. Selecting an imputation method suited to the properties of the data is therefore an important practical challenge, particularly for species exhibiting overdispersion and zero-inflation. 2. We compare seventeen imputation methods, comprising thirteen Poisson-based statistical models (accounting for overdispersion and zero-inflation, with fixed, random and multivariate structures) and four contrast-based approaches (LORI, MICE, missForest, correspondence analysis). Using four complete monitoring datasets of waterbird species surveyed across France and Italy over 21 years, illustrating a variety of abundance distributions, we introduced missing observations under a realistic Missing At Random mechanism, at rates from 5% to 70%. We evaluated all methods on computational burden, prediction accuracy for positive and null counts, quantification of uncertainty, and accuracy of population-size estimates. 3. No single method dominates across all criteria. Statistical models and contrast-based approaches yield similar point predictions, but only statistical models provide a genuine measure of uncertainty. Models that jointly account for overdispersion and zero-inflation perform best at predicting zero counts and achieving reliable prediction intervals, and the most suitable method ultimately depends on the abundance distribution of the target species. 4. These results provide practical guidance for ecologists selecting an imputation strategy for incomplete count data, highlighting the trade-offs between predictive accuracy, computational cost, and the ability to propagate uncertainty through subsequent ecological analyses such as population-trend estimation.
La définition d’états de référence joue un rôle clé en restauration écologique, en servant de point de repère pour évaluer la dynamique de restauration des écosystèmes. Toutefois, le choix de cette référence n'est jamais totalement objectif et dépend de nombreux facteurs contextuels, tels que l’histoire et la géographie du site, son intégrité écologique initiale, ou les intérêts des parties prenantes. Pour éclairer les choix effectués lors de la définition des états de référence en restauration écologique, nous avons analysé 32 projets de restauration mis en œuvre et suivis dans une diversité d’écosystèmes terrestres et aquatiques entre 1999 et 2023 par des chercheurs du réseau « Restauration écologique INRAE » (REI, https://restauration-ecologique.hub.inrae.fr). Nos résultats mettent en évidence des tendances commune dans les critères mobilisés pour la sélection des références, tout en révélant des degrés d’accord variable entre projets, avec des différences notables entre les projets aquatiques et terrestres en termes d'implication des parties prenantes, des métriques choisies et des mesures d'évaluation. Cette étude constitue une première étape avant une enquête au sein de la communauté scientifique internationale. L’objectif est ainsi d’explorer plus en profondeur les défis liés à la définition des états de référence, en particulier dans le contexte d’accélération des changements globaux (notamment climatiques) et celui de la mise en œuvre du nouveau règlement sur la restauration de la nature dans les États membres de l’Union européenne.
Objectives We aimed to provide a long-term, comprehensive description of Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus diet composition and diversity on coastal Mediterranean islands, near a major urban area, at breeding and non-breeding seasons. Methods We identified prey species from 87 remain samples of F. peregrinus preys year-round collected on 6 islands near Marseille, France (1995-2024). Prey relative abundance, biomass, and diversity indices were calculated. Seasonal, spatial, and temporal variations in diversity indices and prey taxa abundances were assessed using Kruskal–Wallis tests and generalized linear models. Results We identified 4,483 prey individuals across 180 species (i.e., species richness), with birds <200 g dominating the diet. Shannon diversity index indicated high diversity, while inverse Simpson index and Pielou’s evenness suggested moderate dominance by a few species. The most consumed taxa were small insectivorous passerines (19% abundance, 4% biomass), followed by Phasianidae (15%, 15%) (mainly Common Quail Coturnix coturnix), Apodidae (14%, 6%), Columbidae (11%, 25%), Turdidae (10%, 8%), and Sturnidae (8%, 6%) (Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris). During the breeding season, species richness and Shannon diversity were higher, while inverse Simpson and evenness were lower; Apodidae, Phasianidae and Columbidae were more consumed, and Turdidae and Sturnidae more abundant in the non-breeding season. Urban vicinity islands showed higher richness and Shannon index but lower evenness than remote and uninhabited islands, with Phasianidae and Columbidae more abundant and Apodidae and small insectivorous passerines less abundant. Temporal trends indicated declines in Common Quail remains over 30 years. Conclusion Our 30-year study provides insights into Peregrine Falcon feeding ecology and highlights the high dietary diversity and trophic flexibility of Peregrine Falcons on Mediterranean coastal islands. Temporal, seasonal, and small-scale variations in the contribution of prey species to the diet may reflect factors related to prey ecology, including long-term trends in prey populations and their localized availability at or near nesting sites, stopover areas, and along a coastal flyway.
