Abstract Social science is critical to conservation success, yet has not become mainstream. To better understand its current state and drivers and barriers to its application, we analyzed 700 peer‐reviewed articles with co‐authors from the 4 largest (“dominant”) international environmental non‐governmental organizations (ENGOs) 1998–2023 and interviewed pairs of scientists and conservation managers at 4 geographically dispersed projects at The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Co‐authored conservation social science papers have increased from 1.7% to 10.6% of the annual scientific publications emerging from dominant ENGOs. By social science discipline, total papers include 29.4% Political Science, 23.9% Economics, 19.8% Sociology, 11.5% Human Geography, 8.3% Anthropology, 4.7% Psychology, and 2.5% Demography. Most were global/regional/national and only 13% local‐scale, with the percentage of global‐scale increasing and local‐scale decreasing over time. Of papers that identified a specific location, more than half were in the United States and Canada, a trend that remained stable over time. Interviews highlight that successful integration of social science into conservation was enabled by project contexts that emphasized human dimensions, supportive leadership, funder requirements, and organizational commitments to equity. However, implementation was constrained by resource and capacity limitations, methodological and communication challenges, cultural dynamics, and organizational barriers that limited the early and sustained incorporation of social science into conservation planning and practice. Our results indicate that achieving durable and equitable conservation outcomes will depend on overcoming persistent institutional barriers and embedding social science as a core pillar of conservation science and practice.
Abstract Forests in the eastern United States face ecological and economic challenges due to shifting disturbance regimes and the complexities of managing multiple, sometimes conflicting, objectives. Emulating natural disturbances through forest management may help restore ecosystems while providing habitat for wildlife, including the imperiled northern long‐eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis ). We tracked 69 female northern long‐eared bats to 197 roosts over 6 years (2012–2017) in two managed hardwood forests in south‐central Indiana, USA. We used generalized linear mixed models to identify key site‐ and stand‐level features associated with roost selection and LiDAR data to examine how commercial thinning alters forest structure over time. Northern long‐eared bats selected roosts in forested areas near trails and unimproved roads, at higher elevations, with lower canopy density, and closer to recently harvested regeneration openings than expected. Commercial thinning created favorable canopy density conditions for 11 years post‐harvest. These findings suggest that targeted forest management, including timber harvest, can create short‐term roosting opportunities for northern long‐eared bats. To support bat conservation in central hardwood forests, we recommend maintaining large tracts of mature (>80 years) open forest interspersed with young regenerating patches. Where these conditions do not naturally occur, our results indicate they can be created through timber harvest.
Abstract Climate refugia are areas that remain suitable for species despite adverse climatic conditions. They enable species and ecosystems to persist, act as stepping‐stones for tracking climatic niches, and provide long‐term havens for biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the continued provision of ecosystem services. In this study, we apply a climate refugia identification framework in central Chile, part of a biodiversity hotspot characterized by high endemism rates and low coverage of public and private protection. Our results showed that 92.3% of identified climate refugia fall outside the current protected area network, and that, based on existing public and private protection alone, no ecosystem in the study area meets the internationally adopted 30% protection target. However, our approach demonstrates that incorporating climate refugia conservation opportunities (covering only 4.28% of the study area) substantially improves ecosystem representation, enabling six ecosystems to surpass the 30% threshold (representing 33% of the total number of ecosystems within the area). These results demonstrate that climate refugia can strategically enhance conservation outcomes by increasing ecosystem representation without the need for large expansions of protected land. In the context of the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, our findings highlight climate refugia as a cost‐effective and spatially explicit approach to advancing Target 3 in Chile.
Abstract Globally, islands have been invaded by invasive mammals with devastating impacts on biodiversity. In response, eradication programs have increased in number, scale, and success. However, the conservation benefits for small and cryptic invertebrates are rarely quantified. Monitoring invertebrate communities can provide insights into the ecosystem‐level response to eradications. House mice ( Mus musculus ) have invaded islands globally and are a major predator of invertebrates. Mice were declared eradicated from sub‐Antarctic Antipodes in 2018. House mice and ship rats ( Rattus rattus ) were declared eradicated from Macquarie in 2014. We analyzed pre‐ and post‐eradication macro‐invertebrate surveys on both islands to assess changes in invertebrate richness, diversity, and abundance. Overall abundance and richness of invertebrates increased post‐eradication on both islands, but not diversity. On Antipodes Island, where mice were the sole invasive mammal, abundance of invertebrate taxa preyed upon by mice increased significantly. On Macquarie Island, except for flies, the abundance of invertebrate taxa preyed upon by mice did not increase. The legacy impacts of invasive rabbits ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ) and ship rats persist in the island's ecosystem. Rodent eradications on islands benefit invertebrate communities. Restoration may take longer when a complex of invasive mammals has been eradicated.
Abstract In the past two decades, species distribution models have emerged as vital tools for devising biodiversity conservation planning, yet modeling rare, data‐deficient species remains a significant challenge. To address this “rare species modelling paradox,” we propose a novel approach: when two obligate mutualistic partners share a fundamental ecological niche, the distribution data of a well‐documented mutualistic partner can serve as a reliable proxy to model the distribution of its rare counterpart. We tested this hypothesis using the obligatory mutualism between a fly ( Philoliche longirostris ) and its forage plant ( Roscoea purpurea ). We first tested the niche overlap between the fly and the plant using Schoener's D and Hellinger's I as proxy measures. Subsequently, using the occurrence data of R. purpurea , we performed ensemble SDM and built a proxy distribution model for the fly and tested the proxy model's accuracy through ground truthing of fly occurrence at 40 sites predicted by the proxy model. Finally, we developed the final distribution models of P. longirostris by incorporating the points generated through ground‐truthing together with the currently known distribution points, and performed a Pearson correlation analysis between the probabilities of occurrence of the two models. Our analysis confirmed a significant niche overlap between the two species (Schoener's D = 0.552; Hellinger's I = 0.737). The ground truthing confirmed the presence of P. longirostris at 37 locations (92.5% accuracy), demonstrating high predictive performance of the proxy model. A final model showed a strong correlation ( r = 0.836) and high spatial overlap with the initial proxy model. This study suggests that mutualistic proxies can effectively circumvent the data limitation problem for rare species. Our framework offers a biologically grounded method for enhancing conservation planning of rare/data‐deficient species involved in tight ecological interactions, with broad applications for other ecological interactions.
