Biodiversity is declining at a record rate. Unfortunately, attitudes favoring nonadvocacy remain prevalent in conservation science. Despite our detailed knowledge of biodiversity losses, we, the conservation science community as a whole, are failing to reverse species declines, transforming us into mere accountants of extinction. Conservation scientists frequently miss the opportunity to utilize scientific knowledge for helping reverse species’ declines by not comprehensively or effectively engaging policymakers with conservation‐related recommendations. The lack of translation of conservation science into policies therefore represents a detrimental blind spot of conservation biologists. Perhaps older generations had an excuse to practice conservation science without advocating for specific conservation policies, but the urgency of ongoing drastic biodiversity losses make unengaged approaches unacceptable for modern conservation biologists and tantamount to an implicit acceptance of anthropogenic mass extinction.

Undocumented species represent one of the largest hurdles for conservation efforts due to the uncertainty they introduce into conservation planning. Until the distribution of earth's biodiversity is better understood, substantial conjecture will continue to be required for protecting species from anthropogenic extinction. Therefore, we developed a novel approach for identifying regions with promising biodiscovery prospects, linked to integrative conservation priorities, which we illustrate using amphibians. Our approach builds on previous estimates of biodiscovery priorities by simultaneously (1) considering linkages between spatio-environmental variables and biodiversity, (2) accounting for the negative relationship between past sampling intensity and future biodiscovery potential, (3) incorporating a priori knowledge about global species distribution patterns, (4) addressing spatial autocorrelation in community composition, and (5) weighting theoretical undocumented species by their predicted levels of conservation need. Using boosted regression trees and 50km^2 map pixels spread across the global range of amphibians, we identified several regions likely to contain many undocumented amphibian species and conservation needs, including the Southeast Asian Archipelago, humid portions of sub-Saharan Africa, and undersampled portions of the Amazon, Andes Mountains, and Central America. We also ranked top-scoring ecoregions by their mean and maximum biodiscovery potential and found that the top-20 ranked ecoregions were most concentrated in the Southeast Asian Archipelago and tropical Africa for undocumented species richness, and in tropical Africa and tropical South America for integrative undocumented amphibian conservation needs. However, high-scoring pixels tended to be widely distributed across different ecoregions for both biodiscovery scoring approaches.

In species that provide parental care, parents will sometimes cannibalize their own young (i.e., filial cannibalism). Here, we quantified the frequency of whole-clutch filial cannibalism in a species of giant salamander (eastern hellbender; Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) that has experienced precipitous population declines with unknown causes. We used underwater artificial nesting shelters deployed across a gradient of upstream forest cover to assess the fates of 182 nests at 10 sites over 8 years. We found strong evidence that nest failure rates increased at sites with low riparian forest cover in the upstream catchment. At several sites, reproductive failure was 100%, mainly due to cannibalism by the caring male. The high incidence of filial cannibalism at degraded sites was not explained by evolutionary hypotheses for filial cannibalism based on poor adult body condition or low reproductive value of small clutches. Instead, larger clutches at degraded sites were most vulnerable to cannibalism. We hypothesize that high frequencies of filial cannibalism of large clutches in areas with low forest cover could be related to changes in water chemistry or siltation that influence parental physiology or that reduce the viability of eggs. Importantly, our results identify chronic nest failure as a possible mechanism contributing to population declines and observed geriatric age structure in this imperiled species.

Headwater streams of the Pacific Northwest of North America are home to 52 amphibian species, spanning a diversity of taxa and life histories. Headwater stream-associated amphibians occur both within coldwater-stream channels and throughout adjacent riparian habitat, reflective of the important role of old-growth forests in providing cool, moist microclimates for these sensitive species. Forests of the Pacific Northwest have undergone substantial change over the last century, due to a legacy of resource extraction and ever-evolving forest management practices, as well as climate change. These and other stressors have challenged the adaptive capacity of headwater stream-associated amphibians, as more than half of these species are considered to be of conservation concern at the state, provincial, or federal level in the U.S. and Canada. Here, we overview the primary threats to the persistence of this unique and imperiled taxonomic group and emphasize the urgent need for more research and conservation action to mitigate future decline.

Altered weather patterns associated with climate change are likely to adversely affect amphibian recruitment, especially for species dependent on ephemeral, geographically isolated wetlands for breeding. Future changes in temperature and rainfall patterns could affect hydroregimes (periodicity, depth, duration, and timing of water in wetlands) or adult breeding effort. We used 24 years of continuous amphibian trapping, weather, and hydroregime data to identify breeding-to-metamorphosis periods (BMPs) and environmental factors affecting annual recruitment by three hylid species at eight isolated ephemeral limesink ponds in Florida longleaf-wiregrass sandhills. We used standardized climate metrics (Bioclim variables) to predict future precipitation, temperature and hydroregime variables, then used them to predict future recruitment in 2050 and 2070 under two emissions scenarios. We hypothesized that Hyla gratiosa would be more sensitive to short-term pond drying than H. femoralis or H. squirella due to its lower abundance and more specific habitat requirements. Hyla gratiosa recruitment was not explained by adult breeding effort and was more dependent on higher water levels during BMPs than for H. femoralis or H. squirella, independent of rainfall. In contrast, H. femoralis and H. squirella recruitment depended heavily on rainfall independent of pond depth and was positively associated with adult breeding effort. Models predicted moderate decreases in H. gratiosa and H. squirella recruitment by 2050 but projections were highly uncertain for all three species by 2070. Our findings highlight the importance of maintaining wetlands with diverse hydroregimes to accommodate species with different BMPs and hydroregime requirements. Proactive monitoring and conservation measures such as headstarting and creating artificial ponds may be necessary for these and other amphibian species that may suffer reduced recruitment under future climate change.

Temporal partitioning of life history traits among syntopic reptiles can facilitate co-occurrence, but may be influenced by environmental factors and evolutionary history. We used 24 years of continuous capture data in the Florida sandhills to evaluate the timing and duration of hatching, maturation and/or surface activity for ten reptile species, spanning multiple clutch strategies, taxonomic relationships, and habits. We hypothesised: i) species would differ in seasonal timing of hatching and maturation; ii) hatching and maturation periods would be more seasonally-synchronised in fossorial than terrestrial or semi-aquatic reptiles; iii) monthly and annual temperature anomalies would be positively related to hatching, maturation, and surface activity anomalies, and iv) groupings of reptiles by clutch strategy, taxonomic relationship, and habit, would explain more variation in the timing and duration of hatching and maturation than species alone. Seasonal timing of response variables varied widely among species. Hatching peaked for > 1 species during most calendar months. Maturation and surface activity periods ranged from aseasonal to highly-seasonal among species. Hatching began 1.5 months earlier and was more prolonged for terrestrial than fossorial species overall. Hatching peaked in early to mid-summer for terrestrial and fossorial species, and winter for the semi-aquatic Kinosternon subrubrum. Terrestrial and fossorial species did not differ in average timing, duration, or overlap of maturation periods; semi-aquatic Liodytes pygaea matured more consistently across all seasons than other species. Monthly temperature anomalies were negatively correlated with monthly maturation for Plestiodon egregius. Annual temperature and precipitation anomalies were related to annual hatching, maturation, and surface activity trends for several species. Taxonomic relationship, habit, and species explained some variation in hatching and maturation timing and duration. Our results illustrate the influence of environment and evolutionary relationships on the timing of important life history traits. Keywords: Age class, Drift fence, Community, Interspecific, Life history

Human activities are driving many species to the brink of extinction, and the current distribution of protected areas only weakly alleviates pressure on threatened species. This discrepancy reflects the presence of protected areas on lands available instead of the ecological, evolutionary, or conservation values of species present. Habitat loss consequently continues to impact threatened species, as illustrated by geographic patterns of biodiversity loss for amphibians. Given the need to better align the boundaries of protected areas with at-risk biodiversity, we assessed the importance of various factors for identifying global and biome-level conservation priority areas, specifically for amphibians. We identified, mapped, and ranked areas of critical conservation importance for all amphibian species on earth using a new integrative tool that scores the urgency of conserving each species and location based on a combination of species characteristics and ecoregion-level human impacts. Our integrative approach is novel in that it accounts for likely threats to Data Deficient species, considers the irreplaceability of unique species that are phylogenetically isolated, and addresses the localized conservation implications of species endemicity and projected future human impacts to an ecoregion. For comparison, we also mapped and ranked amphibian biodiversity using species richness and an Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) score proxy. Our integrative approach predicted key regions for amphibian conservation that were not apparent when using a simple species richness or EDGE score proxy-based approach. Furthermore, by scaling conservation priority scores relative to biome, we identified several temperate and xeric regions of crucial yet overlooked conservation importance for amphibians. Until global amphibian diversity is thoroughly catalogued, we recommend using our integrative scoring approach to set geographic priorities for amphibian habitat protection, while acknowledging that this approach may be complemented by others (e.g., EDGE scores). Our study provides an avenue for avoiding common pitfalls of more simplistic species richness-based approaches for conservation planning, and can be used to improve the future design of protected areas.

Artificial shelters show considerable promise as tools for studying imperiled hellbender salamanders. Their full utility has not yet been fully reached in practice, however, because during initial trials shelters often became blocked by sediment or dislodged during high stream discharge events. To determine whether these challenges could be overcome, we deployed 438 artificial shelters of two different designs across 10 stream reaches and three rivers in the upper Tennessee River Drainage in 2013-2018. We recorded shelter entrance availability during surveys, and recorded which shelters became dislodged following high discharge events. We evaluated two hypotheses: (a) shelter availability was driven by shelter placement and maintenance frequency and (b) shelter stability was driven by shelter design and shelter placement. Shelters were available 78.6% of the time on average (range = 0-100%), and 88.6% (388 of 438) of shelters were stable across all high discharge events. Shelter availability was maximized by clearing sediment from shelter entrances at least once every 40 days (more often in impaired reaches with high siltation) and after large storm events, situating the shelter within 1 m of >= 5 boulders, and orienting shelters such that their entrances do not face directly downstream. Shelter stability with our initial shelter design was 77.5% (169 of 218), but approached 100% (219 of 220) for heavier (similar to 40 kg vs. similar to 25 kg) shelters with recessed lids, and in reaches with abundant large boulders. Our findings demonstrate that with an improved design and careful placement, artificial shelters can serve as valuable tools for monitoring hellbenders in reaches with modest siltation.

Recently, artificial shelters have been proposed as a novel tool to monitor Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) and other cryptobranchid salamanders. Factors that influence artificial shelter use by Hellbenders have not been identified, but are important for maximizing the utility of these shelters as monitoring tools. To identify these factors, in 2013-2018 we deployed 4.38 artificial shelters across 10 stream reaches inhabited by Hellbenders, within three rivers in the upper Tennessee River Basin. We hypothesized that occupancy and nesting would depend on shelter placement, and would be greatest in reaches with relatively high densities of adult/subadult Hellbenders (i.e., >1.5 individuals per 100 m(2)). We placed shelters in locutions representing a range of instream conditions, but avoided microhabitats that were not suitable for Hellbenders. We monitored shelter occupancy by Hellbenders every 2-8 wk, and surveyed shelters for nests every 2-5 d during their breeding season. We quantified densities of adult/subadult Hellbenders and 10 habitat variables across multiple spatial scales. Hellbenders occupied 46% of artificial shelters, and nested in 17% of artificial shelters that were in place for at least one breeding season. Hellbenders were most likely to occupy and nest in shelters placed in portions of those reaches that were >= 50 cm deep with high densities of adult/subadult individuals. Among the variables we considered, population density was the most important factor influencing shelter occupancy by Hellbenders. Shelter nesting was most influenced by water depth, but also by population density and time since shelter installation. Both occupancy and nesting in shelters increased for 2-3 yr following shelter deployment. Our results provide evidence that artificial shelters constitute efficient tools in some streams for monitoring the occurrence and reproduction of Hellbenders.

—Secretive species are difficult to study and often of conservation concern, as exemplified by the Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). Traditional methods for sampling Hellbenders involves moving rocks, which damages essential habitat. Use and installation of artificial shelters has made studying Hellbenders less dangerous for the animal and less disruptive to stream habitat; however, researchers using shelters generally capture occupying animals to identify them. We tested the ability of a submersible portable Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) antenna to accurately detect PIT-tagged Hellbenders in shelters. We tested the effects of the presence and depth of cover rocks on top of shelters, PIT tag location within the shelter, and tag orientation on detection efficiency of Hellbenders. For the 32 shelters occupied by a tagged individual with cover rocks in place, the scanner accurately detected 31% of the animals versus 88% when cover rocks were removed. The detection efficiency of the scanner dropped below 50% once cover rock depth exceeded 11 cm. Tags placed near the interface of the entrance tunnel and chamber, or along the chamber walls, had higher detection efficiencies than those in other locations within the shelter. Vertically oriented tags were 18% more likely to be detected than horizontally oriented tags. Our study demonstrates that while this technology has certain limitations, it shows potential as a research tool for studying Hellbenders and other taxa without the need to frequently handle individuals.

Occupancy modeling may be the most effective tool for studying the occurrence of secretive fossorial squamates. Our objective was to use occupancy models to test whether Florida Crowned Snakes (Tantilla relicta) are a suitable model species for other, more-secretive fossorial squamates. Tantilla relicta are easier to study than other fossorial squamates and likely respond to habitat management (e.g., fire frequency) similarly to these harder-to-study species of concern. We sampled T. relicta using 24 groups of drift fences in longleaf pine-wiregrass sandh ills, Ocala National Forest, Florida, USA to assess how habitat characteristics and weather influenced their occupancy, detection, colonization, and extinction rates. We predicted that temperature, rainfall, substrate composition, and prescribed burn history would influence T. relicta occupancy, detection, and movement in variable directions. The best-supported multiseason occupancy model included 1) initial occupancy influenced by time since last burn, 2) extinction and colonization as random processes, and 3) detection influenced by percent leaf litter and rainfall. Tantilla relicta were most likely to occupy recently burned sites and were most easily detected during dry periods and at sites with low leaf litter cover. Our results are consistent with research suggesting that short-return prescribed fires benefit many reptile species in central Florida's xeric longleaf pine-wiregrass forests. Further, our results provide modest evidence that T. relicta are suitable model organisms for studying fossorial squamate assemblages.