Abstract Despite growing acknowledgement and advocacy for the importance of evidence‐based conservation (EBC), there remain several challenges for conservation organisations to achieve this in reality. Misaligned incentives between academic research and conservation practice can limit the relevance, applicability and accessibility of research. A further challenge is the low number of practitioner‐led research agendas that are published with which academics can engage and enable academic practitioner co‐designed research. 149 employees from the Woodland Trust were consulted in a series of facilitated workshops and surveys to produce a practitioner‐led research agenda. First, an online survey and consultation meetings took place to gather research and evidence questions. Second, subject matter experts collated and synthesised these questions. Third, workshops were run to refine and score research questions using the criteria of overall priority, urgency and an identifiable pathway to apply research output in conservation practice. This resulted in a research agenda comprising 173 research questions across 14 topic areas. Key lessons learned during this process were: (1) staff time allocated to the prioritisation process enabled multiple additional benefits such as team building, knowledge sharing and cross‐team working; (2) allocate time to increase practitioner knowledge of the scientific process and how to identify research, evidence and training needs; (3) establish clear measures of success to monitor progress against research priorities; (4) include external academic and practitioner peer review during the process. Synthesis and applications. Practitioners need to identify and communicate their research priorities using robust and transparent processes to target effort and foster collaboration between multiple stakeholders. In turn, academics and researchers can maximise engagement with practitioners early in research projects to enable greater practitioner co‐design to increase real‐world impact and utility for informing EBC.
Abstract Fidelity to breeding or other sites is a phenomenon that evolved across numerous taxa, yet the scales at which site fidelity operates often are not explicitly evaluated. Moreover, site fidelity that is inflexible can become maladaptive with contemporary habitat change. The cues that animals use when making settlement decisions can vary depending on the ecological context under which fidelity evolved, and the spatiotemporal scales of decision‐making. How such decision rules interact with site fidelity in human‐altered environments, however, remains unclear. We examined breeding site fidelity in a suite of migratory songbirds (Brewer's sparrow ( Spizella breweri ), sagebrush sparrow ( Artemisiospiza nevadensis ) and sage thrasher ( Oreoscoptes montanus )) within the North American sagebrush ( Artemisia spp.) steppe. We investigated whether site fidelity at three functional spatial scales (landscape, territory and nest‐site) varied with breeding‐site conditions in the previous year including habitat structure, previous nest success, and a contemporary cue of habitat change that can increase the risk of nest predation (surface disturbance associated with natural gas extraction). Birds largely did not respond to cues in the previous year to inform subsequent site fidelity, with some exceptions. Brewer's sparrows demonstrated higher territory fidelity to disturbed sites, and sagebrush sparrows increased nest‐site fidelity based on environmental (lower shrub height) and experiential (previous nest success) cues in the previous year. Synthesis and applications . Our findings highlight a failure of sagebrush songbirds to reduce interannual site fidelity at any spatial scale in response to habitat changes associated with natural gas extraction, which may compound the negative effects of energy development on reproductive success. Reducing initial energy infrastructure footprints and prioritizing habitat restoration following surface disturbance would therefore likely be the most effective management approaches to facilitate nest survival and help forestall further population declines. More generally, taxa that have evolved an ‘always‐stay’ site fidelity strategy may be particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation. More explicit incorporation of spatial scales into future assessments of site fidelity would broaden understanding of settlement choices in a changing world.
Abstract Livestock grazing is a major land‐use globally with a wide range of documented effects on biodiversity. Arthropods are a dominant component of biodiversity in grazed landscapes, but their responses to grazing vary among taxa and ecosystem type. Here, we review and synthesise the global literature on terrestrial arthropod responses to livestock grazing, with the aim to identify trends and knowledge gaps in the literature and recommend research priorities to increase knowledge of how grazing activity by managed livestock influences community‐level processes and ecosystem function. We found the majority of studies focused on ground‐active arthropods in grassland biomes of the northern hemisphere. Studies using a taxonomic approach typically reported more negative responses than positive, while studies taking a functional approach often reported more positive than negative responses. Very few studies (7%) directly measured grazing effects on a community‐level interaction involving insects (e.g. pollination, parasitism, seed dispersal), limiting our broader understanding of how livestock grazing impacts ecological function and processes. Synthesis and Applications : Our review has highlighted that non‐significant or neutral responses of arthropods to grazing are common in the published literature, and that taxonomic and functional approaches may reveal different directional responses. To improve understanding of effects on a broader range of arthropods and community‐level processes, we recommend more researchers use sampling methods other than pitfall trapping, and focus on methods that target key functional groups and are appropriate to the ecosystem type. While building a rigorous evidence base on arthropod biodiversity in livestock systems is a priority, management approaches should take a precautionary approach, prioritising heterogeneity and monitoring effects on ecological interactions and functional roles.
Abstract Applied ecology leverages ecological theory to manage relationships between organisms and their environments, in the service of wildlife management, invasive species management, human–wildlife conflict mitigation and conservation. We identify an underexploited opportunity to increase this field's efficacy: systematic engagement with animal cognition research. Cognition describes the mental capacities through which animals acquire, process, store and act on information from their environment. It is a powerful proximate driver of how organisms interact with their environments, and the source of the behavioural flexibility that determines whether an animal perceives, learns from, circumvents or habituates to a management intervention. We argue that cognition matters to applied ecology in two distinct ways. As a mechanism of animal behaviour , it explains why interventions succeed or fail and can be harnessed to inform design. As a driver of human perception , beliefs about animal minds shape moral concern, public attitudes and willingness to support conservation. Using elephants ( Elephas maximus and Loxodonta africana ) as an integrative case study, we show how cognitive capacities can entrench conflict when ignored, resolve conflict when applied, and reshape public support when communicated. Critically, the same message can move distant publics and the communities living alongside wildlife in opposing directions. Two limitations stand out. The cognitive profiles of most managed species are unknown, risking a two‐tier system in which only well‐studied taxa benefit; and cognition‐informed practice must complement, never override, the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of communities that share landscapes with wildlife. Synthesis and applications . Animal cognition should be a routine input to applied ecology rather than a peripheral concern. We recommend that practitioners (i) audit interventions for implicit cognitive assumptions, particularly where deterrence relies on aversive conditioning that invites habituation; (ii) work with zoos, aquaria and sanctuaries to generate cognitive data on the threatened taxa in their care; (iii) profile individual‐ and group‐level behavioural variation when designing conflict‐mitigation tools; and (iv) treat cognition as one message frame among several, to be audience‐segmented, co‐designed with local communities and evaluated against behavioural rather than attitudinal endpoints.
Abstract Partial mowing or differentiated lawn management (i.e. reduced mowing frequency in dedicated sectors within a green infrastructure with lawn cover) could be a simple, cost‐effective strategy to better support soil biodiversity and associated ecological functions in cities. However, data remain scarce and generally focused on above‐ground biodiversity indicators such as plants and pollinators. In 2021–2022, we conducted an observational study across 10 public sites in the Rosemont‐La Petite‐Patrie borough (Montreal, Canada) where differentiated lawn management was either recently implemented or had been practiced for several years. We sought to determine the effects of reduced lawn mowing frequency on multiple indicators of soil biodiversity (nematodes, springtails, ants, spiders, ground beetles) and soil functionality (C, N, K, Mg, P and Ca concentrations, SOM, compaction, hydraulic conductivity, glucose mineralization). At seven of these sites, we also investigated short‐ (<2 years), mid‐ (2–5 years) and long‐term (6–11 years) effects of mowing reduction. Depending on taxa, abundance and richness responded differently with time, but effects of reduced mowing frequency on soil biodiversity were consistently neutral or positive, never negative. Soil community composition was most strongly explained by site identity (up to 51%), but mowing frequency and time since mowing reduction also accounted for community variation (up to 9%). Reduced mowing resulted in a rapid increase of soil multidiversity (calculated across all taxa) after 2 years and influenced soil functionality through increased glucose mineralization and reduced soil compaction. Effects were long‐lasting, with multirichness still double that of communities in conventionally mowed lawns 6–11 years following mowing reduction. Synthesis and applications . Switching from conventional intensive management to differentiated lawn management is an effective method to increase urban soil biodiversity by at least 30% and influence soil functionality. Given the remarkable variation of soil communities across similar sites in a single city borough, adopting differentiated lawn management in green infrastructures that are dispersed across a given city could maximize partial mowing benefits on urban soil biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the journal's blog .
