Abstract Soil microbial communities play important roles in regulating ecosystems, but understanding the factors that shape their composition is challenging, in part because of their high diversity. Plants can influence soil communities through environmental effects and the introduction of organic material through litter and root exudates. This suggests that plant diversity may promote soil microbial diversity, but these patterns may depend on how diversity is measured. Here, we used two multi‐year datasets to examine relationships between plant and microbial (bacterial and archaeal, excluding fungi) communities in managed grasslands. At a management‐relevant scale, we examined both alpha and beta diversity components and described plant diversity through taxonomic, trait, and phylogenetic dimensions. We found consistent relationships between plant and microbial beta diversity, but not alpha diversity. These patterns occurred for taxonomic, trait, and phylogenetic plant diversity, indicating that plant communities sharing many species, or comprising plants with similar trait distributions or evolutionary histories, supported soil communities that also exhibited wide taxonomic overlap. That these patterns occurred over large areas suggests that management strategies focused on landscape‐scale plant diversity have the potential to promote microbe‐driven soil functional diversity in grassland ecosystems. Further studies that focus on finer spatial scales and incorporate fungal diversity may further clarify these relationships and their underlying mechanisms.

Soil extracellular enzymes are produced and excreted by soil microbial organisms. They catalyze many of the biochemical reactions that support crucial ecosystem functions like decomposition, organic matter mineralization, nutrient cycling, and C sequestration. Microbial communities that produce these enzymes are shaped in part by plant diversity and composition, but the relationships between plant communities and enzyme activities are not well resolved. Diverse plant communities may provide a diversity of soil organic matter inputs that support high microbial diversity and function. This would predict positive relationships between enzyme activities and plant diversity, particularly plant functional trait diversity that more closely reflects the diversity of soil inputs. Alternatively, dominant plant functional groups may shape microbial communities and activities, such as legumes that add N-rich resources to soil. These impacts might be seen in microbes by the relative acquisition of different resources, such as the activity ratio of C-acquiring beta-glucosidase and N-acquiring N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase. We use soil enzyme and plant community data from four separate grassland studies-two experiments and two observational community studies-to ask how plant diversity and functional composition affect enzyme activities. There were relationships between enzyme activities and plants for the observational community studies, but not the experimental studies, so plant-soil enzyme relationships may take time to emerge. At one community site, activities for four hydrolytic enzymes declined with plant Shannon diversity, and beta-glucosidase activity increased with greater functional trait diversity. The ratio of C-acquiring beta-glucosidase and N-acquiring N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase activities increased with plant diversity and cover of nitrogen-fixers, or declined with graminoid cover, suggesting that microbes reduced their relative allocation of resources to N acquisition when plant inputs made N more accessible. If lower activities of enzymes targeting C-rich compounds are indicators of higher potential for C sequestration, then grassland plant communities with high taxonomic diversity may promote C storage. This could provide strong justification for management and restoration strategies that sustain high plant biodiversity. However, the inconsistent results, with enzyme activity unrelated to plants in both experimental studies, imply that other environmental factors correlated with plant composition may be stronger determinants of soil enzymes in some grassland settings.

Abstract Restoration ecology seeks to restore entire ecosystems, including species interactions. Management practices, such as prescribed fire or megaherbivore reintroduction, strongly affect plant and animal biodiversity. It is less clear how management practices shape species interactions such as seed removal and how animals use native and non‐native food resources in restored habitats, which might influence restoration success. We tested the hypothesis that land management practices influence seed removal of native and invasive plants. We deployed foraging depots across a chronosequence of 17 restored tallgrass prairie plantings. Plantings varied in burn history and the presence of reintroduced bison ( Bison bison ). Foraging depots, deployed for 1 week in July and October 2024, allowed invertebrates only or invertebrates and rodents. At a subset of eight plantings, we paired seed removal data with rodent live‐trapping data to test whether seed removal was related to species‐specific rodent activity and biodiversity. Land management had strong effects on seed removal. Four times as many seeds were removed in unburned plantings compared to burned plantings (odds ratio), and 2.5 times as many seeds were removed in plantings with bison compared to plantings without bison. These patterns were only observed in depots accessible to rodents. At the subset of plantings where rodent live‐trapping data were collected, higher rodent biodiversity (Inverse Simpson's index) was associated with decreased seed removal of both native and invasive seeds. Plantings where the most common rodent species (deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus ) were absent had native seeds removed twice as often as invasive seeds. Conversely, in plantings with the highest P. maniculatus activity, invasive seeds were six times more likely to be removed than native seeds. Practical implication . Land managers can indirectly shape food webs in restored tallgrass prairies, using tools such as grazing or prescribed fire. Where rodents are important agents of seed removal, creating open habitats through grazing and fire may reduce overall seed removal, especially in the fall. Conversely, less frequent burning may be used to promote populations of rodent species such as P. maniculatus that consume problematic invasive species at the cost of overall rodent community biodiversity.

Invasive mammal eradications are commonplace in island conservation. However, post-eradication monitoring beyond the confirmation of target species removal is rarer. Seabirds are ecosystem engineers on islands and are negatively affected by invasive mammals. Following an invasive mammal eradication, the recovery of seabird populations can be necessary for wider ecosystem recovery. Seabirds fertilize islands with isotopically heavy nitrogen, which means that nitrogen stable isotope analysis (δ15N) could provide a useful means for assessing corresponding change in ecosystem function. We quantified decadal changes in δ15N on eight temperate New Zealand islands subject in pairs to distinct mammal invasion and seabird restoration histories: invaded, never-invaded, invader-eradicated, and undergoing active seabird restoration. First, we investigated long-term changes in δ15N values on individual islands. Second, we used a space-for-time analysis to determine whether δ15N levels on islands from which invaders had been removed eventually recovered to values typical of never-invaded islands. On each island, soil, plants (Coprosma repens, Coprosma robusta, and Myrsine australis), and spiders (Porrhothelidae) were sampled in 2006/2007 and 2022, allowing δ15N change on individual islands over 16 years to be assessed. Combined, the samples from invader-eradicated islands provided a 7- to32-year post-eradication dataset. Change in δ15N was only detected on one island across the study period, following the unexpected recolonization of seabirds to an invaded island. Invader-eradicated islands generally had higher δ15N values than invaded islands; however, they were still lower than never-invaded islands, and there was no trend in δ15N with time since eradication. This, and the measurable increase in δ15N following seabird recolonization on one island, may suggest that δ15N change occurs rapidly following invader eradication but then slows, with δ15N values staying relatively constant in the time period studied here. Isotope and seabird population studies need to be coupled to ascertain whether plateauing in δ15N reflects a slowing of seabird population growth and subsequent basal nutrient input or whether the baseline nutrients are entering the ecosystem but then not propagating up the food web.

In animal communication networks, keystone information producers generate large volumes of reliable information, which eavesdroppers can use to improve fitness. To better understand how these interactions can shape animal behaviour, we investigated potential eavesdropping between long-billed curlews, Numenius americanus, and black-tailed prairie dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus, a social, colonial keystone species known for their vigilance behaviours and distinct alarm calls for different predator types. We used playback and a simulated predator in paired experiments to test whether prairie dog alarm calls cause curlews to exhibit defensive behaviours sooner, namely when nonincubating males alarm-call and mob and when incubating females adopt cryptic posture on the nest. The median distance of the simulated predator from the nest when the incubating curlew adopted cryptic posture was significantly farther away with prairie dog alarm calls than without alarm calls. However, nonincubating curlews did not show a difference in their alarm-calling or mobbing behaviour in response to prairie dog alarm calls. We infer that incubating curlews eavesdrop on prairie dog alarm calls to improve nest defence, and we suggest that black-tailed prairie dogs are keystone information producers, which has not been widely recognized as one of their keystone effects. Reduced predation risk via eavesdropping could explain why animals associate with prairie dog towns despite high levels of predator activity. These findings emphasize the need to better incorporate keystone information producers into conservation efforts because they provide unique ecological benefits that cannot be replicated otherwise. (c) 2025 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Keystone species are critical to maintaining ecological relationships and ecosystem functioning around the world. Prairie dogs ( Cynomys sp.) are a genus of colonial keystone species endemic to North American grasslands that modify bird community composition via ecological disturbance, but this topic has not been reviewed despite many studies on grassland bird associations with prairie dogs. We conducted a systematic literature review ( n = 111 studies) where we assessed three hypotheses and found consistent support for each: (1) prairie dogs increase abundance of early‐successional grassland birds through grazing, (2) prairie dog towns modify bird community composition compared to nearby grassland because they increase heterogeneity within grasslands at large spatial scales, and (3) prairie dogs increase raptor abundance by serving as a prey base. Significant gaps in our understanding of the effects of prairie dogs on birds remain. Most research was conducted on black‐tailed prairie dogs during the bird breeding season and focused on how prairie dogs modify the occurrence and abundance of birds. Research is needed on the effects of other prairie dog species, effects on birds during the non‐breeding or migratory seasons, and effects on demography, particularly for songbirds. Continued work on this topic can increase our understanding of how keystone species affect bird communities and inform conservation of grassland birds globally. Due to rapid declines of grassland birds in North America, we suggest conserving prairie dog towns as vital sources of early successional grassland and habitat heterogeneity.

As biodiversity has decreased dramatically in recent decades, the importance of conservation efforts and, specifically, ecological restoration, in preserving natural ecosystems has grown in importance. To achieve necessary biodiversity outcomes, it is crucial that the public support policies and engage in behaviors that contribute to restoration. Individuals also play a crucial role in the actual process of restoration. This research tests the impact of messaging that emphasizes the effect of human intervention in ecological restoration relative to nature-centric messaging. We conducted a survey with a sample of students, staff, and faculty at a Midwestern university. Respondents were randomly assigned to read a narrative accompanied by a detailed scientific illustration that emphasized responsibility for successful restoration to human volunteers or bison as the primary agents of ecosystem repair. Our results show that centering people in restoration messaging led to respondents being more likely to engage in pro-restoration behaviors than centering nature in messaging. People-centric messaging resulted in similar pro-restoration attitudes and policy preferences when compared to nature-centric messaging. These findings have implications for how restoration managers, science communicators, and others can most effectively message in promoting restoration to the public.

Nearly a third of seabird species are at risk of extinction, rendering them among the most threatened bird taxa globally. The decline in seabird populations has major ramifications for their associated ecosystems. An expansive literature covers seabird impacts on their breeding islands, and growing research expands understanding of the circular seabird economy — cross-ecosystem connections of seabirds from oceans to islands, and back to nearshore marine ecosystems, mainly driven by nutrient transfer. Amid the twin biodiversity and climate crises, maintaining and restoring the circular seabird economy is one way to achieve large-scale, cross-ecosystem impacts with simple and time-tested conservation methods. This Review summarizes researchers’ understanding of the circular seabird economy and outlines goals for future research. Historically, research has focused on terrestrial impacts, with emerging research explicitly studying the cross-ecosystem impacts of seabirds. We identify substantial knowledge gaps, with research needed to understand how the circular seabird economy changes with space, time, across biomes and with island size. Emerging analytic and monitoring tools will help to propel this research forward. Many coastal communities, especially Indigenous people, rely on seabirds for their livelihoods and cultural connections, and so taking a people-centred approach incorporating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives is critical moving forward. Seabirds are top predators and nutrient cyclers in marine island ecosystems, but are threatened by risk of extinction. This Review explores the circular seabird economy around islands and discusses how healthy seabird populations can support more resilient island ecosystems.

Tallgrass prairie is among the most threatened ecosystems but is often fragmented and surrounded by human-modified landscapes. Small mammals are integral components of tallgrass prairies. However, little is known about how landscape composition, configuration, and management impact small mammals in tallgrass prairies.We conducted a systematic literature review to identify species-specific and community associations with three broad topics: landscape composition, landscape configuration, and management practices.We identified 61 studies that assessed our variables of interest. We categorised the location, species assessed, variables monitored, and results by species and for the community.The majority of studies (64%) were conducted in two states, Illinois and Kansas. Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), and white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) showed specific associations with landscape variables, with deer mice preferring bare ground and recently burned plots, and prairie voles preferring thatch and negatively associated with prescribed fire. White-footed mice were frequently associated with wooded areas.Small mammal biodiversity was positively associated with patchy habitats containing greater diversity in vegetative composition and management regime. Management and land composition were both relatively well studied for several species; habitat configuration was understudied.We identified significant gaps in our understanding of small mammal landscape ecology in tallgrass prairies. With tallgrass prairie restoration a growing trend in this region, a greater understanding of drivers of small mammal populations will be crucial to successful restoration efforts. Future research should focus on understudied areas and species, and examine how habitat heterogeneity impacts small mammal biodiversity. A systematic review of the literature regarding small mammal habitat associations in tallgrass prairie identified both trends and gaps in our understanding. While well-studied species such as deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) have well-documented associations with cover type and management conditions, there are many understudied or cryptic species that are less well understood. Furthermore, much of the current literature on this topic originates from the same few research locations, with several states underrepresented or unrepresented in the literature at all.image

Many of the world’s ecosystems are under unprecedented stress as human pressures have escalated to be a dominant driver of ecosystem composition and condition. Direct impacts such as agriculture, extraction, and development are impacting vast swathes of land and ocean, while the effects of human-caused climate change are felt even in the most remote parts of marine and terrestrial wildernesses. These impacts are resulting in changes ranging from ecosystem collapse or replacement to novel mixes of species due to temperature-driven range shifts. While reducing human pressures is paramount for the future viability of vulnerable ecosystems, much attention is now also focused on whether degraded areas can be restored. Indeed, the UN has declared 2021–2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to “prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean”.

Disturbances are drivers of ecosystem function and play important roles in shaping ecological communities. Prescribed fire and grazing disturbances are common management tools in restored and remnant grasslands. The effects of these management actions on plant communities and on vegetation-dwelling invertebrates are generally well studied. However, less is known about their effects on ground-dwelling invertebrates, which can contribute to important ecosystem processes like herbivory, predation, and decomposition. We examined bison grazing and prescribed fire effects on abundance, diversity, and community composition of ground-dwelling invertebrate groups in restored tallgrass prairies using pitfall trap samples. Surprisingly, invertebrate Shannon diversity decreased when bison were present and was unaffected by fire or the fire–bison interaction. Bison, and to a lesser extent fire, also shifted community composition, increasing abundance of ground, rove, and dung beetles, as well as orthopterans and spiders. Prescribed fire generally increased beetles but caused declines in several ecologically diverse invertebrate groups, including harvestmen and true bugs, although these reduced abundances did not lead to differences in overall diversity. Bison presence may amplify the abundances of dominant groups, such as ground and dung beetles and orthopterans, that outcompete other invertebrates and reduce diversity. Prescribed fire and grazing by bison change ground-dwelling invertebrate community composition, but bison presence did not reduce the abundance of most taxonomic groups. Fire may have short-term negative impacts on some invertebrate groups that promote desirable invertebrate-driven ecosystem processes, but these effects are likely short-lived, and the resulting environmental mosaic under bison and fire management could support biodiversity over the long-term.

Ecosystem restoration can increase the health and resilience of nature and humanity. As a result, the international community is championing habitat restoration as a primary solution to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises. Yet most ecosystem restoration efforts to date have underperformed, failed, or been burdened by high costs that prevent upscaling. To become a primary, scalable conservation strategy, restoration efficiency and success must increase dramatically. Here, we outline how integrating ten foundational ecological theories that have not previously received much attention - from hierarchical facilitation to macroecology - into ecosystem restoration planning and management can markedly enhance restoration success. We propose a simple, systematic approach to determining which theories best align with restoration goals and are most likely to bolster their success. Armed with a century of advances in ecological theory, restoration practitioners will be better positioned to more cost -efficiently and effectively rebuild the world's ecosystems and support the resilience of our natural resources.

Abstract Ecological restoration is a crucial tool for mitigating climate change and addressing the global biodiversity crisis. The extensive knowledge of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) will play a key role in accelerating the advancement of restoration efforts but has historically been excluded. BIPOC traditions and practices of protecting and restoring ecological communities include intricate socio‐ecological systems whose holistic practices preserve cultural knowledge while simultaneously addressing environmental issues. If we are to have a seat at the table for everyone and meet the lofty goals of the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to contribute to reversing the biodiversity and climate crises, the field of restoration ecology can no longer afford to exclude BIPOC communities and their irreplaceable social, cultural, and ecological knowledge. Solution: We offer opportunities to engage BIPOC communities and their contributions to restoration, and to introduce a restoration community to connect and center BIPOC through the Black Earth Restoration Collective. This is a call to action to those with power and access in restoration ecology to make vital shifts needed to accomplish a more equitable and just approach to restoration.

Grazing from megaherbivores such as bison (Bison bison) and periodic fire are 2 important disturbance regimes in grassland ecosystems. In restored tallgrass prairies where these processes were previously removed, prescribed fire application and bison reintroduction are tools used by managers to recreate habitat heterogeneity formed by these disturbances. Tallgrass prairie bird communities may be indirectly affected by these disturbances, as bison and prescribed fire alter the structure of critical breeding habitat for grassland birds. The objectives of this research were to determine the effects of bison and prescribed fire on grassland breeding birds in 2 tallgrass prairie preserves in the Midwest region of the United States. We surveyed bird communities, vegetation structure, and bison activity at an Illinois preserve (n = 20 sites) and an Indiana preserve (n = 27 sites) in 2020 and 2021 and compiled a history of restoration activities (e.g., prescribed fire, planting year) at these sites. Grazing and fire disturbances affected grassland bird diversity and abundances, whereas we found little to no evidence that restoration planting age and spatiotemporal factors affected grassland bird populations. Disturbance effects often corresponded to species-specific responses to changes in vegetation structure. Grassland-obligate bird diversity was lower in recently burned and ungrazed management units, in comparison to unburned-ungrazed and unburned-grazed sites. Henslow's sparrow (Centronyx henslowii), a species known to be sensitive to recent prescribed fire, exhibited increased abundance with time since fire, an increase that was further amplified with bison presence. These results highlight the importance of applying varying levels of grazing and fire disturbance to provide variable vegetation structure to accommodate the habitat preferences of a diversity of grassland bird species. Moreover, our results indicate that bison may play a role in mediating the differing effects of variable prescribed fire frequencies on grassland bird species of concern.

Earth Connection, a term coined by one of Ecological Solutions and Evidence's Senior Editors, Carolyn Kurle (Aguilera, 2020), to describe a goal of her conservation research and teaching at the University of California San Diego, refers to the deeper relationship people can develop with our planet when we have regular access to natural surroundings. The concept is similar to ideas put forth by those decrying “nature-deficit disorder” (NDD) as a problem that could be solved by providing people greater access to wild places in order to promote our well-being and to activate within us a more conscious desire to preserve the environment. Research clearly demonstrates that exposure to nature is related to a suite of both hedonic (experience of pleasure or feeling good) and eudemonic (experience of meaning and purpose or functioning well) well-being metrics and other benefits for people, including lower stress, better mood, improved working memory, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders, and increased positive feelings of belonging, self-esteem, satisfaction with life and gratitude (e.g. Capaldi et al., 2017; Fagerholm et al., 2020; Richardson & Hamlin, 2021; Sandifer et al., 2015; Schertz & Berman, 2019; Weir, 2020). In addition, data also indicate that people who regularly experience activities that nourish their need for Earth Connection have increased motivation to engage in positive conservation behaviours (Richardson & Hamlin, 2021). Thus, the preservation, growth and development of natural spaces, and people's access to them, are important considerations when accounting for the services intact ecosystems provide to people. However, what if we consider the idea that the very concept of encouraging Earth Connection to combat the negative outcomes postulated by the existence of NDD and promote greater appreciation and protection of the Earth's natural spaces sets us as humans apart from that with which we are already fully integrated (see Dalrymple, 2022; Fletcher, 2017)? By promoting the very idea that people exist in their everyday lives as mostly or wholly separated from “natural” ecosystems, and that reaching the full potential for happiness, contentment, ease and optimal functioning requires continual reconnection with “nature,” are not we promoting a false dichotomy that people are not of nature to begin with? Could we step back and consider that people are an integral part of the natural and wholly untamed components of the Earth? The elevation to our best selves can certainly involve spending more time consciously exploring what is traditionally considered “nature” (e.g. national parks, urban greenspaces, beaches, forests, mountains, etc.), but might it also involve similar connections forged among the bipeds—specifically, other humans—with which we share an evolutionary history? Can the benefits inherent to establishing a personal Earth Connection also be achieved simply by considering ourselves and our fellow people as “natural resources” who are also beautiful, unique and wild and who should be revered, explored, protected and shepherded as carefully as conservation biologists strive to protect those undeveloped “natural” spaces we deem ecologically important? Suppose we stop viewing people and nature as separate entities, but instead experience ourselves and those around us as wholly integrated aspects of Earth's vast treasures. This is not a new idea. Indigenous cultures from around the world have long recognized that people are inherently intertwined with nature. For example, Paula Gunn Allen, a Native American from the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico, USA writes, “It is not a matter of being ‘close to nature’ … The Earth is, in a very real sense, the same as our self (or selves) … That knowledge, though perfect, does not have associated with it the exalted romance of the sentimental ‘nature lovers’, nor does it have, at base, any self-conscious ‘appreciation’ of the land … It is a matter of fact, one known equably from infancy, remembered and honoured at levels of awareness that go beyond consciousness, and that extend long roots into primary levels of mind, language, perception, and all the basic aspects of being (Allen, 1979; Booth, 2003).” Consideration of people as integral components of nature does not in any way diminish the research demonstrating positive benefits to humanity from exposure to areas traditionally considered “natural”. Nor does it diminish the prioritization of ecosystem conservation so people have continued access to and inspiration from nature's recreational, spiritual and cultural aspects. Nor does it negate the scientific and practical reality that preservation of intact ecosystems is vital to safe-guard and enhance their optimal functioning so they will continue to provide invaluable services to humanity, such as carbon sequestration, pollination, clean air and water, shoreline protection, decomposition, food, fuel and building materials. Rather, it is an invitation to reframe the dichotomous assumption that is inherent to the very idea that people are suffering from NDD because they are entirely separate from that earthy wildness with which they need to connect. As outlined in the study of Fletcher (2017), creating an artificial separation between nature and humanity places the onus of Earth's preservation on each individual's responsibility to increase their personal connection to the “natural” aspects of the planet, thus pulling attention away from the “overarching political economy of ecological degradation that…should be a main focus of attention.” Instead of directing much of our environmental education toward the concept of creating Earth Connection that reinforces the idea of humanity's inherent separation from non-human life on the planet, it may be of equal or more benefit to instead focus attention and resources on the underlying causes of environmental degradation that arise from our willingness to separate people from each other and from “nature” in our pursuit of the “cultural, economic, and political systems that contribute to alienation—poverty, racial segregation, cultural alienation, environmental racisms, and rampant overconsumption” (Dickinson, 2013). Hand in hand with these concepts of separating people from the “natural world” are those related to “fortress conservation,” whereby conservationists sequester land deemed necessary habitat for wildlife refugia (Counsell, 2022; Germond-Duret, 2022; Haysom, 2022; Rudd et al., 2021). This can result in separating the land and wildlife from the people and cultures with current and ancestral connections to those wild spaces. Often the policies directed at conserving and maintaining optimal functionality in ecosystems disproportionately disregards and impairs the poorest people who are most dependent upon the services provided by the ecosystems targeted for environmental intervention projects (Fry et al., 2017). So, not only do fortress conservation practices serve to further separate people and nature, but they can also result in expropriation, environmental colonialism and the preservation of the wealth generated by resource extraction and other exploitative practices that damage the environment to those with power. The costs of wild conservation are transferred to those whose lands are deemed relatively pristine so must be taken away and protected from the very people who rely on those lands and species for their livelihoods, spiritual connection and habitation (Fletcher, 2017; Rudd et al., 2021). Reimagining the ways in which we teach, practice, research and publish environmental conservation to move beyond our history of separating humans from that which we deem “natural” will require a deep exploration of how conservation science is conducted, what it means to be part of “nature”, and how best to study, preserve, enjoy and experience the considerable benefits available to people from wild spaces (e.g. Chaigneau et al., 2019; Fleishman & Brown, 2019; Fry et al., 2017; Houlden et al., 2021). Rather than relying only upon visits to and connection with the ever-dwindling “natural” areas on our gorgeous planet for renewal, inspiration and all the other positive benefits we receive from immersion in wild lands, imagine turning toward other people and viewing them and ourselves as fully integrated components of Earth's wildlife and wilderness. In doing so, we may discover that all people hold within their depths wonders equivalent to ancient Sequoia trees, majestic volcanic mountain ranges, crystal blue alpine lakes, virgin tropical forests, fierce African lions, gentle koala bears and mysterious octopuses. We may discover ample inspiration for protecting the Earth and its gifts to humanity by recognizing the beauty inherent to the conservation of and true connection with our fellow humans. When we refuse to accept that people and nature are inherently separate, but rather inextricably intertwined with a shared and ancient history, then we can live from a place of wholeness with the Earth—and experience the truth that we are already integral facets of that which makes up the ethos of Earth Connection. If you are a practitioner, an academic or otherwise part of a group who already imagines and realizes these concepts, then Ecological Solutions and Evidence is your journalistic home. We welcome your Practice Insights, Perspective, Research and Review submissions on these topics as you help us broaden everyone's inclusion in the vast expanse that is “nature.”

Invasive species pose the highest overall threat to seabirds, affecting the most species and the greatest impact based on the timing, scope, and severity. Invasive mammals have been proven the most harmful on seabird breeding islands, and important advances have been made towards solutions to prevent, control, or eradicate these impacts to seabirds. Biosecurity aims to prevent new invasive species from arriving, and as the most cost-effective strategy considered is a cornerstone for island restoration. Great strides have been made in eradicating invasive mammals from islands, with more than 1500 efforts on nearly 1000 islands worldwide and clearly documented benefits for seabirds. Considerable synergy exists for implementing seabird solutions on islands to achieve conservation goals for other biotas and benefits for human communities. For many seabird species, implementing tractable invasive species solutions will be a critical component of boosting resilience to projected climate change impacts.