Freshwater ecosystems are highly vulnerable to biological invasions, with increasing numbers of non-native fish species invoking severe ecological impacts. Life-history strategies reflect how fishes adapt to specific environments and play a critical role throughout the invasion process, leading to their application to understand large-scale patterns and drivers of freshwater fish invasions. Here, we compiled ecological traits for 14,679 freshwater fish species across 3,118 river basins worldwide to classify life-history strategies of native and non-native fishes and attempt to explain large-scale distributional patterns in diverse environments. We find that both native and non-native fishes are similarly shaped by environmental conditions (particularly temperature regimes) and exhibit consistent latitudinal gradients, with periodic strategists increasing and equilibrium and opportunistic strategists decreasing toward higher latitudes. Non-native fishes contain disproportionately more periodic and equilibrium strategists and fewer opportunistic strategists compared to native ones. Notably, the similarity of life-history strategies between native and non-native fishes is also primarily shaped by temperature regimes, increasing in colder or more seasonal environments but decreasing in warmer or more thermally stable ones. Overall, our results suggest that environmental filtering dominates in colder, more seasonal, high-latitude environments but weakens in warm, stable, low-latitude regions, where limiting similarity gains importance. This study provides new insights into how shifting environmental regimes shape global patterns in freshwater fish invasions and helps inform broad-scale conservation planning and management efforts.

Amidst the ongoing global biodiversity crisis, understanding the factors driving public perceptions and attitudes towards biodiversity conservation is paramount for decision making as these factors can provide key insights for the design of effective policies, foster community engagement, and ensure success in biodiversity conservation initiatives. Here, we present the results of a systematic review of 356 studies, published between January 2000 and February 2025, to analyze the socio-economic, cultural, and political drivers influencing public opinion, awareness, and attitudes towards biodiversity conservation in Africa. Despite growing attention on the topic, as indicated by the rapid and steady increase in the number of papers published over time, we found clear geographical gaps at the continental scale where research is being reported. The thematic assessment of the literature further shows an important shift in conservation practice conducted in Africa from illegal activities and human-wildlife conflicts to more integrative human-focused approaches. Environmental education, cultural and traditional practices, economic gains, good governance, and indigenous knowledge systems are all significant drivers of public opinion in contributing to biodiversity conservation. Evidence accumulated over the last quarter of a century demonstrates that successful conservation in Africa must increasingly embrace locally grounded, culturally sensitive approaches that blend ecological necessities with social realities. This review fills a critical knowledge gap by offering an integrated analysis of public participation in biodiversity conservation with policy implications for inclusive and sustainable environmental governance on the continent.

Small-scale fisheries are vital for global livelihoods and food security yet remain highly vulnerable to environmental changes due to marginalization and reliance on natural resources. In contexts where formal governance is weak, small-scale fishers often develop self-governance arrangements (e.g. fishing cooperatives or patron-client relationships) that significantly influence their fishing behavior and resilience to environmental stressors, including climate change. However, evidence on how these social structures impact fishers’ adaptive capacity and responses to climate change impacts remains limited. Using data from 445 surveys across six communities in Nayarit, we examine the role of three self-governance arrangements (fishing cooperatives, patron-client relationships, and independent fishers) in shaping fishers’ responses and adaptive capacity to climate change. Our findings reveal widespread reliance on coping strategies, such as borrowing money and increasing fishing effort, with patrons playing a key role in providing access to economic and material assets. However, patron-client relationships exhibit low social organizational capacity, potentially undermining community cohesion. A multinomial logistic mixed model shows that both patron-client relationships and fishing cooperatives are associated with unsustainable fishing practices as adaptation strategies, suggesting risks of maladaptation. These results highlight the importance of self-governance structures in shaping fishers’ adaptive capacity, showing how different arrangements provide access to distinct economic, social, and institutional assets that influence responses to climate change. As climate impacts intensify, understanding these social structures is crucial to fostering sustainable, climate-resilient practices and safeguarding the livelihoods of coastal communities.

ABSTRACT Aim Species in mountain ecosystems often experience upslope distribution shifts in response to climate change. However, elevational range dynamics exhibit substantial complexity around this general trend, with varying magnitude and direction of shifts observed among studies. We tested whether factors other than temperature, such as habitat size and land use, are also responsible for observed elevational shifts in a cold adapted species. Location Hokkaido, Japan Methods We resurveyed 61 historical (1963-2007) occurrence sites covering a wide elevational range (60–2,210 m) within the distribution range of the northern pika ( Ochotona hyperborea ). We assessed the existence of elevational shifts using quantile regression and the relative importance of temperature, habitat size, and land use on the shift using occupancy analysis. Results We detected presence of the northern pika at 41 sites, suggesting extirpations at 20 sites (32.8%) across a wide elevational range of 60–1,550 m. The concentration of extirpation sites at low to mid elevations resulted in a significant upslope shift of the distribution centroid, although the shift was nonsignificant at lower and upper portions of the range. The occupancy analysis revealed a negative effect of long-term mean of summer maximum temperature and a stronger positive effect of habitat size. Conclusions This highlights the susceptibility of the northern pika to heat stress and the importance of larger habitats and thus habitat heterogeneity for persistence of local populations. Given the possibility that the observed shift represents a precursor of elevational contraction, continuous monitoring of the local populations is highly needed to evaluate their long-term viability.

Insular river ecosystems are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances, yet the combined effects of human pressures on fish biodiversity remains poorly understood. Based on spring and autumn 2024 field surveys, we examined taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional β‑diversity of fish assemblages in the Nandu River, China’s longest insular river. We quantified the contributions of abiotic and biotic factors, including geo‑climatic, local environmental, spatial, and biological invasion factors to community patterns. Results showed a clear longitudinal homogenization trend from upstream to downstream, dominated by species turnover, consistent with community reshaping associated with anthropogenic stressors. Tributaries exhibited taxonomic and phylogenetic homogenization but functional differentiation, revealing adaptive patterns in relation to local stressors. Local environmental factors were the primary contributors to total β‑diversity and its turnover component, with water pollution indicators (COD, total phosphorus) showing the strongest associations. For the nestedness component, biological invasions were the dominant contributors to taxonomic and phylogenetic β‑diversity, whereas functional β‑diversity was primarily associated with local environmental factors. Overall, environmental filtering (mainly contributed by water pollution) outweighed dispersal limitation in structuring fish communities, while biological invasions predominantly affected nestedness patterns. Our findings highlight the contributions of water environmental degradation and biological invasions. Additionally, the multidimensional β-diversity framework provides support for local watershed management and offers a transferable ecological assessment method for biodiversity conservation in human-disturbed island river systems globally.

Aquatic food security is closely interconnected with multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs). Although assessing aquatic food security relies on understanding global trends in per capita production and consumption, there has been no comprehensive index to evaluate these trends in a country or regional context. Here, we develop a novel framework based on a comprehensive scoring system to assess changes in contemporary per capita aquatic food production and consumption trends (tendency, magnitude, and stability) across 177 countries in two time periods (1961-1990 and 1991-2019). Globally, 58.2 % of countries scored positive in production trends, and 57.6 % in consumption trends from 1961 to 1990. However, between 1991 and 2019, 57.1 % of the countries achieved negative production trend scores, while 68.4 % of countries maintained positive consumption trend scores, accompanied by greater stability in the trends. This significantly widened the positive gap between consumption and production trend scores, highlighting a growing mismatch between global consumption and production patterns. Meanwhile, aquaculture exhibited significantly higher trend scores than capture fisheries, accompanied by rapid global trade growth. Our findings indicate that the synergy between aquaculture and trade plays a crucial role in sustaining growth and enhancing the stability of aquatic food consumption worldwide.

Climate and land-use change are two interconnected drivers of the ongoing global redistribution of biodiversity. While species' range shifts are contextual to their functional traits, such dependencies remain poorly understood. Here, we project the redistribution of 101 Chinese freshwater fish species under future climate and land-use change using species distribution models, quantify the extent of projected range shifts for each species, and assess the relationships between projected shifts and functional exposure. Here, we refer to functional exposure as the assessment of the strength of association between traits and projected shifts across fish species. Most Chinese freshwater fish are projected to experience altitudinal and latitudinal shifts resulting in broad diversity turnovers across regions; this overarching pattern intensifies under more extreme scenarios and longer time horizons. Importantly, higher range contractions and smaller expansions are associated to species with small body size, large eggs, and narrow elevational range, while those with high fecundity and parental care experienced less expansions and contractions. We argue that better understanding the links between exposure to projected changes in climate and land-use and species’ functional traits has important implications for biodiversity conservation and management.

Climate change is impacting the ocean and the services it provides, but the rate of change is not spatially uniform. Some areas, known as marine climate refugia, are less impacted by climate change and, if conserved, can provide a promising climate adaptation strategy. In this review, we synthesize the processes that create refugia conditions and the scientific approaches used to identify them, which fall into three main categories: low climatic exposure, ecological resilience, and habitat suitability. These approaches are applied across levels of biological organization and multiple temporal and spatial scales, reflecting the dynamic nature of the ocean. We show that integrating these approaches into conservation and management can support climate-smart strategies to enhance ocean resilience and biodiversity under intensifying climate threats.

Climate change is accelerating at unprecedented rates, with disproportionate impacts on marine ecosystems. We examined the distributional responses of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), a keystone species, to the recent climatic changes in the North Pacific from 1998 to 2022. We applied a multi-model ensemble approach to examine the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of suitable habitats throughout their seasonal migratory grounds and relate them to recent declines of Japanese chum salmon stocks. Our modelling identified temporal shifts in the locations of feeding and overwintering grounds, driven by increasing ocean temperatures, deteriorating forage conditions, and strengthening wind and marine heatwave intensity. During their feeding migration, the suitable chum habitat in the Bering Sea was reduced but increased in the Arctic. Overwintering habitat patterns further captured an overall decline in the trailing edges of their distribution, accompanied by habitat shifts towards the central North Pacific. Periods of marine heatwaves further coincided with sizable habitat losses. Such habitat displacements potentially affect the Japanese chum salmon stocks, shown by substantial habitat reductions in the Okhotsk and central Bering seas. These findings highlight the exacerbating exposure and vulnerability of the chum salmon populations to recent climatic and productivity changes throughout their marine life history, with concomitant repercussions on their production dynamics and provision of ecosystem services. Thus, requiring climate-adaptive measures such as the readjustment of fishing seasons and quotas according to the changing salmon stocks and habitat conditions, and the improvement of current hatcheries practices to manage and conserve salmon resources.

Mariculture is one of the fastest growing global markets. Although it has potential to improve livelihoods and facilitate economic growth, it can negatively impact marine biodiversity. Here we estimate local cumulative environmental impacts from current and future (2050) mariculture production on marine biodiversity (20,013 marine fauna), while accounting for species range shifts under climate change. With strategic planning, the 1.82-fold increase in finfish and 2.36-fold increase in bivalve production needed to meet expected global mariculture demand in 2050 could be achieved with up to a 30.5% decrease in cumulative impact to global marine biodiversity. This is because all future mariculture farms are strategically placed in sea areas with the lowest cumulative impact. Our results reveal where and how much mariculture impacts could change in the coming decades and identify pathways for countries to minimize risks under expansion of mariculture and climate change through strategic planning.

1. Climate warming, nutrient loading, and pesticide pollution are major anthropogenic stressors affecting community dynamics and trophic interactions in aquatic ecosystems. However, the complex interplay among these stressors remains poorly understood as most studies focus on a single stressor and overlook the effects of temporal variations. 2. To address this knowledge gap, we first conducted a long-term outdoor experiment to examine the effects of climate warming, nutrient loading, and a neonicotinoid pesticide (imidacloprid) on the responses of the common predator-prey pair cyclopoid copepods and rotifers. Additionally, a follow-up laboratory experiment was conducted to assess the dose-dependent impact of imidacloprid on the predation rate of cyclopoid copepods on rotifers, and to explore mechanistic alterations in biotic interactions resulting from predator responses to varying neonicotinoid concentrations. 3. The neonicotinoid pesticide was the most influential stressor, significantly reducing cyclopoid copepod populations thereby positively affecting rotifer abundances due to a release from predation. Nutrient loading boosted copepod abundances but weakened their top-down control on rotifer prey, disrupting predator-prey dynamics. Warming had negligible effects on copepod abundances, but ultimately increased rotifer abundances. 4. Warming predominantly influenced rotifer abundances during the establishment phase, whereas the effects of the pesticide became more pronounced during subsequent growth and reproduction phases. Conversely, the neonicotinoid pesticide consistently emerged as the primary stressor impacting cyclopoid copepods throughout the experiment. 5. Our study underscores the importance of considering temporal dynamics when assessing the combined effects of multiple stressors for understanding responses among interacting organisms and highlights the significance of organism life history stages in their distinct reactions to specific compounded threats over time.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are driving an accumulation of heat in the oceans, resulting in a warming trend that disrupts marine ecosystems and economies reliant on marine resources. These changes already have profound implications for human systems, prompting various adaptive responses. However, how communities are responding, as well as the factors driving these responses, remain largely unexplored. Therefore, the aim of this study is to empirically test how adaptation and transformation responses are shaped by climate change impacts and the social characteristics of the different communities, exploring the relative importance of each of these adaptation co-founding factors.To do this, we look at small-scale fisheries (SSF) as social-ecological systems (SES), and assess how these communities adapt to climate change based on the severity of impacts and their adaptive capacities. We develop three in-depth case studies to explore which responses allow equitable and sustainable fishing livelihoods under climate change in Nayarit (Mexico), Galicia (Spain), and Shikoku (Japan). These regions greatly differ in the intensity of impacts and in their social and governance settings. Across these regions, we test an adaptation pathway framework to understand how social resilience varies, applying a set of adaptive capacity indicators to analyze responses to climate change. For this, we categorized these responses along a continuum, from "remaining" (non-active adaptation) to "coping" (e.g., reducing fishing expenses or altering fishing locations), "adapting" (e.g., targeting new species or using new technologies), and "transforming" (e.g., adopting alternative livelihoods, migrating, or leaving fisheries) as climate impacts intensify (Figure 1).Figure 1: Adaptation responses of small-scale fisheries along a gradient of increasing climate change impact intensity, progressing from "remaining" (no active adaptation) to "coping," "adapting," and finally "transforming." Adapted from Fedele et al. (2019) and Ojea et al. (2020).We found that fishers generally progress along the adaptation pathway as impact increases. However, this pattern varies by region due to the interaction of environmental, economic, and social factors. First, although warming and species redistribution are global trends, the precise effects and available response options differ locally. Second, fishers’ access to essential assets for adaptation (such as technology or financial resources) strongly influences their ability to adopt new strategies, including targeting different species. Third, adaptive capacities and responses are intricately linked to the SSF organization and management structures. In some cases, these systems exacerbate existing power imbalances, potentially creating "social-ecological traps" where fishers are restricted from adopting sustainable adaptation practices. The established management structures may even hinder resilience and contribute to unsustainable practices, placing additional stress on fishing communities and marine ecosystems.These findings underscore the need for adaptation strategies that integrate social determinants and therefore become more just, particularly by fostering equitable access to adaptive resources and strengthening social capacity. Such adaptations may challenge existing governance structures and fisheries regulatory regimes. However, transformational efforts are needed as effective adaptation planning for SSF can help ensure their sustainability and the well-being of coastal communities, the production of sustainable seafood and to support resilience in an uncertain climate future.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304718.].

Species distribution models (SDMs) are important tools for assessing biodiversity change. These models require high-quality occurrence data, which are not always available. Therefore, it is increasingly important to determine how data choice affects predictions of species' ranges. Opportunistic occurrence records and expert maps are both widely used sources of species data for SDMs. However, it is unclear how SDMs based on these data differ in performance, particularly for the marine realm. We built SDMs for 233 marine fish species from 2 families with these 2 occurrence data types and compared their performances and potential distribution predictions. Opportunistic occurrences were sourced from field surveys in the South China Sea and online repositories and expert maps from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List database. We used generalized linear models to explore drivers of differences in prediction between the 2 model types. When projecting to distinct regions with no occurrence data, models calibrated using opportunistic occurrences performed better than those using expert maps, indicating better transferability to new environments. Differences in marine predictor values between the 2 data types accounted for the dissimilarity in model predictions, likely because expert maps included large areas with unsuitable environmental conditions. Dissimilarity levels among fish families differed, suggesting a taxonomic bias in biodiversity data between data sources. Our findings highlight the sensitivity of species distribution predictions to the choice of distributional data. Although expert maps have an important role in biodiversity modeling, we suggest researchers assess the accuracy of these maps and reduce commission errors based on knowledge of target species.

Species distributions are frequently modeled using predictors that exceed the spatial scale experienced by the focal species. Incorporating fine-scale environmental conditions is therefore expected to lead to more realistic model predictions. However, the importance of the existing local heterogeneity on species distribution remains poorly assessed although species can effectively utilize multiple microhabitats for behavioral adaptation to withstand climate change impacts. Here, we developed a fine-resolution species distribution model based on ambient air conditions for the northern pika ( Ochotona hyperborea ), a small lagomorph found in rocky landforms, in Hokkaido, Japan, to first understand the improvement in the model performance from the conventional coarse-resolution model. We then assessed how model predictions alter by incorporating the rock-interstice microclimates that are found in their habitats for the baseline (1981–2010) and future periods (2041–2100). The fine-resolution model performed better and overall predicted lower habitat suitability across the study area than the coarse-resolution model. Incorporation of rock-interstice microclimate increased the habitat suitability markedly relative to predictions based on ambient thermal conditions, which resulted in predicting more suitable areas in lower (hotter) elevations and more areas remaining suitable into the future. This result suggests that the northern pika may withstand the negative impacts from rising ambient temperatures by effectively utilizing rock interstices via behavioral adaptation. Our findings highlight the importance of analyzing species distribution at fine scales and considering local environmental heterogeneity, which helps species mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, for conservation under climate change. Species use a wide variety of microhabitats and experience thermal conditions existing locally. In the northern pika ( Ochotona hyperborea ), the fine-resolution species distribution model performed better than the coarse-resolution model. Complex topographical features that locally buffer ambient thermal conditions were predicted to increase habitat suitability and enable species persistence in the future. Local environmental heterogeneity that helps species mitigate climate change impact will be important for conservation.

Climate is rapidly changing in northern regions, including Central Yakutia, a densely populated area in Siberia. Here, permafrost-thaw lakes in topographical depressions, named “alaas”, are widely distributed. Alaases and the residual lakes within became the traditional home to the indigenous Sakha people, providing critical ecosystem services like fresh water supply, meadows for cattle breeding, or fishing and hunting grounds. Alaas formation is closely related to the Late Glacial and Early Holocene warming, as it was caused by the degradation of permafrost. This makes alaases, and permafrost-thaw lakes in general, highly sensitive to both climatic changes and land use impacts. Global warming is predicted to cause permafrost loss, potentially resulting in new alaas formations and irreversibly changing water quality and biodiversity within the existing alaas lakes. The exact consequences of anthropogenic climate change and land use on these unique landforms are still poorly understood, which may also be a result of lacking data availability. Here, we present a comprehensive new dataset of limnological characteristics of 66 lakes across Central Yakutia Lowland and the Oymyakon Highlands, with a focus on 51 alaas lakes in Central Yakutia. During field work in summer of 2021, we measured lake physical properties (lake depth, pH, specific conductivity) and afterwards we analyzed lake water hydrochemistry including ions, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), isotopic composition (δ18O H20, δD H20), and aquatic and terrestrial plant composition via surface sediment environmental DNA metabarcoding. The majority of alaas lakes are classified as magnesium-bicarbonate types. Isotope concentrations indicate that lakes in the Central Yakutian Lowlands are controlled mainly by evaporation, underlining their sensitivity to future warming. Aquatic vegetation is dominated by submerged macrophytes, whereas terrestrial vegetation mainly consists of graminoids and forbs. Settlements are mostly situated in connected alaas systems, where flowing water results in lower DOC concentration. This “snapshot” of limnological characteristics can be helpful to assess the most critical factors which may be impacted by land use or respond to future warming.

Species distribution models (SDMs) are commonly used to estimate species' geographic distributions to inform biodiversity assessments and conservation planning. However, despite their growing popularity, range predictions of SDMs are affected by biases in opportunistic occurrence records and the lack of information on range limits. Integration of expert range maps in SDMs could help, but this strategy is still rarely used, especially for marine species. We built SDMs for 196 marine fish species with global distributions of Epinephelidae and Syngnathidae, 4 modeling algorithms, and opportunistic occurrence data. We then developed 2 types of SDM ensembles (i.e., combined predictions of multiple individual SDMs): with and without integration of expert range maps. We quantified the level of dissimilarity in range estimates between the 2 ensembles and explored the effects of taxonomic identity, geographic attributes, and conservation status on dissimilarity in model predictions. Although both types of ensembles had good predictive performance, ensembles informed by expert range maps avoided overpredictions of ranges past geographical barriers. Moreover, the dissimilarity between predictions of the 2 ensembles depended on multiple factors, including the number and extent of opportunistic occurrences, distance of occurrences to the expert range polygons, and fish family. Based on our findings, we recommend that researchers combine complementary information provided by expert range maps and opportunistic occurrences when predicting marine species distributions with SDMs.

The Arctic marine ecosystems, extending from microbial communities to the system response to environmental and human pressures, were investigated in the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II) project, a nationally coordinated Arctic project in Japan. New findings and hypotheses emerged: a) bottom sediments on a continental shelf contained a significant amount of the bloom-causing viable diatom, and more primary production may be occurring over a water column than previously thought, b) particle flux containing biogenic opal increased over the 2010s, c) large copepod Calanus glacialis/marshallae exhibited flexibility on grazing in the Pacific Arctic Ocean, suggesting their high adaptation to environmental changes, d) a novel environmental DNA (eDNA) technique succeeded in the identification of polar cod distribution, e) there was an increase in species richness over the last 20 years due to the poleward shift of habitat ranges of marine predatory species, f) Arctic marine ecosystems may have a larger sensitivity to external forcings around the Pacific and Atlantic gateways. This article reviews and highlights these findings in the context of specific science questions and delivers Japan's contribution to the integrated assessment of Arctic marine ecosystems.