ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6498-0437
Current Organisation
University of Cambridge
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In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Behavioural Ecology | Evolutionary Impacts of Climate Change | Environmental management | Environmental Science and Management | Conservation and Biodiversity | Environmental management | Evolutionary Biology | Human impacts of climate change and human adaptation | Conservation and biodiversity |
Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Forest and Woodlands Environments | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Forest and Woodlands Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity |
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2014
DOI: 10.1890/14.WB.012
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-04-2010
Abstract: Widespread concerns about global bio ersity loss have led to a growing demand for indices of bio ersity status. Today, climate change is among the most serious threats to global bio ersity. Although many studies have revealed phenological responses to climate change, no long-term community-level indices have been developed. We derived a 250-year index of first flowering dates for 405 plant species in the UK for assessing the impact of climate change on plant communities. The estimated community-level index in the most recent 25 years was 2.2–12.7 days earlier than any other consecutive 25-year period since 1760. The index was closely correlated with February–April mean Central England Temperature, with flowering 5.0 days earlier for every 1°C increase in temperature. The index was relatively sensitive to the number of species, not records per species, included in the model. Our results demonstrate how multi-species, multiple-site phenological events can be integrated to obtain indices showing trends for each species and across species. This index should play an important role in monitoring the impact of climate change on bio ersity. Furthermore, this approach can be extended to incorporate data from other taxa and countries for evaluating cross-taxa and cross-country phenological responses to climate change.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 27-09-2019
DOI: 10.1101/784900
Abstract: While climate change continues to present a major threat to global bio ersity and ecosystems, most research on climate change impacts do not have the resolution to detect changes in species abundance and are often limited to temperate ecosystems. This limits our understanding of global responses in species abundance—a determinant of ecosystem function and services—to climate change including in the highly-bio erse tropics. We address this knowledge gap by quantifying abundance responses to climate change in waterbirds, an indicator taxon of wetland bio ersity, at 6,822 sites between −55° and 64°. Using 1,303,651 count records since 1990 of 390 species, we show that with temperature increase, the abundance of species and populations decreased at lower latitudes, particularly in the tropics, but increased at higher latitudes. These contrasting responses to temperature increase according to latitude indicate potential global-scale poleward shifts of species abundance under climate change, providing empirical support for predictions by earlier studies. The negative responses to temperature increase in tropical species and populations are of conservation concern, as they are often also threatened by other anthropogenic factors. Our results suggest that existing biases in studies towards temperate regions could underestimate the impact of climate change on waterbirds and other species.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 26-05-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.05.24.445520
Abstract: The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified. Here we show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global bio ersity conservation. By screening 419,680 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages, we identified 1,234 non-English-language studies providing evidence on the effectiveness of bio ersity conservation interventions, compared to 4,412 English-language studies identified with the same criteria. Relevant non-English-language studies are being published at an increasing rate, and can expand the geographical (by 12-25%) and taxonomic (by 5-32%) coverage of English-language evidence, especially in bio erse regions, albeit often based on less robust study designs. Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally. We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13577
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-06-2014
DOI: 10.1111/JAV.00431
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 29-06-2009
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-10-2014
Abstract: Many of the world's languages face serious risk of extinction. Efforts to prevent this cultural loss are severely constrained by a poor understanding of the geographical patterns and drivers of extinction risk. We quantify the global distribution of language extinction risk—represented by small range and speaker population sizes and rapid declines in the number of speakers—and identify the underlying environmental and socioeconomic drivers. We show that both small range and speaker population sizes are associated with rapid declines in speaker numbers, causing 25% of existing languages to be threatened based on criteria used for species. Language range and population sizes are small in tropical and arctic regions, particularly in areas with high rainfall, high topographic heterogeneity and/or rapidly growing human populations. By contrast, recent speaker declines have mainly occurred at high latitudes and are strongly linked to high economic growth. Threatened languages are numerous in the tropics, the Himalayas and northwestern North America. These results indicate that small-population languages remaining in economically developed regions are seriously threatened by continued speaker declines. However, risks of future language losses are especially high in the tropics and in the Himalayas, as these regions harbour many small-population languages and are undergoing rapid economic growth.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-05-2009
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-08-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-08-2015
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12370
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 18-09-2009
Abstract: Any near-term gains in reducing extreme poverty will be maintained only if environmental sustainability is also achieved.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2015
DOI: 10.1038/526317A
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 15-06-2015
DOI: 10.1111/BIJ.12576
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-11-2015
Abstract: Despite increasing concerns about the vulnerability of species' populations to climate change, there has been little overall synthesis of how in idual population responses to variation in climate differ between taxa, with trophic level or geographically. To address this, we extracted data from 132 long-term (greater than or equal to 20 years) studies of population responses to temperature and precipitation covering 236 animal and plant species across terrestrial and freshwater habitats. Our results identify likely geographical differences in the effects of climate change on populations and communities in line with macroecological theory. Temperature tended to have a greater overall impact on populations than precipitation, although the effects of increased precipitation varied strongly with latitude, being most positive at low latitudes. Population responses to increased temperature were generally positive, but did not vary significantly with latitude. Studies reporting significant climatic trends through time tended to show more negative effects of temperature and more positive effects of precipitation upon populations than other studies, indicating climate change has already impacted many populations. Most studies of climate change impacts on bio ersity have focused on temperature and are from middle to high northern latitudes. Our results suggest their findings may be less applicable to low latitudes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2023
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 25-04-2019
Abstract: Illegal wildlife trade is gaining prominence as a threat to bio ersity, but addressing it remains challenging. To help inform proactive policy responses in the face of uncertainty, in 2018 we conducted a horizon scan of significant emerging issues. We built upon existing iterative horizon scanning methods, using an open and global participatory approach to evaluate and rank issues from a erse range of sources. Prioritised issues related to three themes: developments in biological, information and financial technologies changing trends in demand and information and socio-economic and geopolitical shifts and influences. The issues covered areas ranging from changing demographic and economic factors to innovations in technology and communications that affect IWT markets globally the top three issues related to China, illustrating its vital role in tackling emerging threats. This analysis can support national governments, international bodies, researchers and non-governmental organisations as they develop strategies for addressing the illegal wildlife trade.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 03-11-2020
Abstract: A wide range of ecosystems have been reported to show abrupt and drastic shifts in their states. Such shifts in ecosystem states, typically known as regime shifts, are hardly predictable and not readily reversible once they have taken place, and can have considerable impacts on human societies that are dependent on those ecosystems. Nevertheless, earlier studies have rarely quantified the consequences of ecosystem shifts for human societies, instead focusing largely on identifying the occurrence of shifts, understanding drivers and mechanisms, and developing early warning signals for forecasting. We address this knowledge gap by searching for scientific evidence on the quantitative impacts of ecosystem shifts on human societies. Based on a set of pre-defined search criteria we identified a total of 92 papers that discussed particular ecosystem shifts and associated impacts. The number of papers reporting ecosystem shifts and associated impacts has considerably increased over the past 20 years, indicating a recent rise in the interest in the issue among scientific communities. The 92 papers reported state shifts in a wide range of ecosystems, with marine ecosystem shifts reported most frequently (in 22 papers), followed by shifts in wetland (18 papers) and forest (10 papers) ecosystems. Climate change was by far the most frequently reported driver of ecosystem shifts (reported in 32 papers), followed by land use change (12 papers) and nutrient inputs (nine papers). Only 17 (18%) out of the 92 papers described the quantitative consequences of ecosystem shifts for human societies. Estimated economic consequences ranged from 5 million US dollars per year relating to eutrophication of Swedish coastal waters, to costs of 200 billion US dollars linked to macro-algal green tides along the Qingdao coast. We found that our knowledge of quantitative impacts of ecosystem shifts on human societies is still severely limited, especially in terms of risks to human health and survival and, at a broad spatial scale, where multiple ecosystem shifts could interact to exacerbate the extent or severity of their impacts.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-12-2012
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2010
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2014
DOI: 10.1038/512023A
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-02-2013
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-04-2013
Abstract: Global bio ersity conservation is seriously challenged by gaps and heterogeneity in the geographical coverage of existing information. Nevertheless, the key barriers to the collection and compilation of bio ersity information at a global scale have yet to be identified. We show that wealth, language, geographical location and security each play an important role in explaining spatial variations in data availability in four different types of bio ersity databases. The number of records per square kilometre is high in countries with high per capita gross domestic product (GDP), high proportion of English speakers and high security levels, and those located close to the country hosting the database but these are not necessarily countries with high bio ersity. These factors are considered to affect data availability by impeding either the activities of scientific research or active international communications. Our results demonstrate that efforts to solve environmental problems at a global scale will gain significantly by focusing scientific education, communication, research and collaboration in low-GDP countries with fewer English speakers and located far from Western countries that host the global databases countries that have experienced conflict may also benefit. Findings of this study may be broadly applicable to other fields that require the compilation of scientific knowledge at a global level.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2014.09.004
Abstract: Making decisions informed by the best-available science is an objective for many organisations managing the environment or natural resources. Yet, available science is still not widely used in environmental policy and practice. We describe a '4S' hierarchy for organising relevant science to inform decisions. This hierarchy has already revolutionised clinical practice. It is beginning to emerge for environmental management, although all four levels need substantial development before environmental decision-makers can reliably and efficiently find the evidence they need. We expose common bypass routes that currently lead to poor or biased representation of scientific knowledge. We argue that the least developed level of the hierarchy is that closest to decision-makers, placing synthesised scientific knowledge into environmental decision support systems.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1086/671165
Abstract: Many animal populations are in decline as a result of human activity. Conservation practitioners are attempting to prevent further declines and loss of bio ersity as well as to facilitate recovery of endangered species, and they often rely on interdisciplinary approaches to generate conservation solutions. Two recent interfaces in conservation science involve animal behavior (i.e., conservation behavior) and physiology (i.e., conservation physiology). To date, these interfaces have been considered separate entities, but from both pragmatic and biological perspectives, there is merit in better integrating behavior and physiology to address applied conservation problems and to inform resource management. Although there are some institutional, conceptual, methodological, and communication-oriented challenges to integrating behavior and physiology to inform conservation actions, most of these barriers can be overcome. Through outlining several successful ex les that integrate these disciplines, we conclude that physiology and behavior can together generate meaningful data to support animal conservation and management actions. Tangentially, applied conservation and management problems can, in turn, also help advance and reinvigorate the fundamental disciplines of animal physiology and behavior by providing advanced natural experiments that challenge traditional frameworks.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 11-08-2020
Abstract: Conservationists have long sought to reduce consumer demand for overexploited wildlife products. More recently, health practitioners and others have begun calling for reductions in the wildlife trade to reduce the risk of pandemics. Despite this broadening interest, most wildlife-focused demand reduction c aigns have lacked rigorous evaluations and thus their impacts remain unknown. There is thus an urgent need to review the evidence from beyond conservation science to inform future demand-reduction efforts. We searched for systematic reviews of interventions that aimed to reduce consumer demand for harmful products (e.g., cigarettes and illicit drugs). In total, 41 systematic reviews were assessed, and their data extracted. Mass-media c aigns and incentive programs were, on average, ineffective. While advertising bans, social marketing and location bans were promising, there was insufficient robust evidence to draw firm conclusions. In contrast, the evidence for the effectiveness of risk warnings and appeals to norms was stronger, with some caveats.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-06-2006
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13195
Abstract: Effective conservation management interventions must combat threats and deliver benefits at costs that can be achieved within limited budgets. Considerable effort has focused on measuring the potential benefits of conservation interventions, but explicit quantification of the financial costs of implementation is rare. Even when costs have been quantified, haphazard and inconsistent reporting means published values are difficult to interpret. This reporting deficiency hinders progress toward a collective understanding of the financial costs of management interventions across projects and thus limits the ability to identify efficient solutions to conservation problems or attract adequate funding. We devised a standardized approach to describing financial costs reported for conservation interventions. The standards call for researchers and practitioners to describe the objective and outcome, context and methods, and scale of costed interventions, and to state which categories of costs are included and the currency and date for reported costs. These standards aim to provide enough contextual information that readers and future users can interpret the cost data appropriately. We suggest these standards be adopted by major conservation organizations, conservation science institutions, and journals so that cost reporting is comparable among studies. This would support shared learning and enhance the ability to identify and perform cost-effective conservation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-09-2021
Abstract: There is an increasing recognition that, although the climate change and bio ersity crises are fundamentally connected, they have been primarily addressed independently and a more integrated global approach is essential to tackle these two global challenges. Nature‐based Solutions (NbS) are hailed as a pathway for promoting synergies between the climate change and bio ersity agendas. There are, however, uncertainties and difficulties associated with the implementation of NbS, while the evidence regarding their benefits for bio ersity remains limited. We identify five key research areas where incomplete or poor information hinders the development of integrated bio ersity and climate solutions. These relate to refining our understanding of how climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches benefit bio ersity conservation enhancing our ability to track and predict ecosystems on the move and/or facing collapse improving our capacity to predict the impacts of climate change on the effectiveness of NbS developing solutions that match the temporal, spatial and functional scale of the challenges and developing a comprehensive and practical framework for assessing, and mitigating against, the risks posed by the implementation of NbS. Policy implications . The Conference of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) present a clear policy window for developing coherent policy frameworks that align targets across the nexus of bio ersity and climate change. This window should (a) address the substantial and chronic underfunding of global bio ersity conservation, (b) remove financial incentives that negatively impact bio ersity and/or climate change, (c) develop higher levels of integration between the bio ersity and climate change agendas, (d) agree on a monitoring framework that enables the standardised quantification and comparison of bio ersity gains associated with NbS across ecosystems and over time and (e) rethink environmental legislation to better support bio ersity conservation in times of rapid climatic change.
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 18-02-2015
DOI: 10.3354/ESR00655
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-10-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-10-2011
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13555
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12303
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-03-2022
Abstract: In Christie et al. (2019), we used simulations to quantitatively compare the bias of commonly used study designs in ecology and conservation. Based on these simulations, we proposed ‘accuracy weights’ as a potential way to account for study design validity in meta‐analytic weighting methods. Pescott and Stewart (2022) raised concerns that these weights may not be generalisable and still lead to biased meta‐estimates. Here we respond to their concerns and demonstrate why developing alternative weighting methods is key to the future of evidence synthesis. We acknowledge that our simple simulation unfairly penalised randomised controlled trial (RCT) relative to before‐after control‐impact (BACI) designs as we considered that the parallel trends assumption held for BACI designs. We point to an empirical follow‐up study in which we more fairly quantify differences in biases between different study designs. However, we stand by our main findings that before‐after (BA), control‐impact (CI) and after designs are quantifiably more biased than BACI and RCT designs. We also emphasise that our ‘accuracy weighting’ method was preliminary and welcome future research to incorporate more dimensions of study quality. We further show that over a decade of advances in quality effect modelling, which Pescott and Stewart (2022) omit, highlights the importance of research such as ours in better understanding how to quantitatively integrate data on study quality directly into meta‐analyses. We further argue that the traditional methods advocated for by Pescott and Stewart (2022 e.g. manual risk‐of‐bias assessments and inverse‐variance weighting) are subjective, wasteful and potentially biased themselves. They also lack scalability for use in large syntheses that keep up‐to‐date with the rapidly growing scientific literature. Synthesis and applications . We suggest, contrary to Pescott and Stewart's narrative, that moving towards alternative weighting methods is key to future‐proofing evidence synthesis through greater automation, flexibility and updating to respond to decision‐makers' needs—particularly in crisis disciplines in conservation science where problematic biases and variability exist in study designs, contexts and metrics used. While we must be cautious to avoid misinforming decision‐makers, this should not stop us investigating alternative weighting methods that integrate study quality data directly into meta‐analyses. To reliably and pragmatically inform decision‐makers with science, we need efficient, scalable, readily automated and feasible methods to appraise and weight studies to produce large‐scale living syntheses of the future.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 07-10-2021
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.3001296
Abstract: The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified. Here, we show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global bio ersity conservation. By screening 419,679 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages, we identified 1,234 non-English-language studies providing evidence on the effectiveness of bio ersity conservation interventions, compared to 4,412 English-language studies identified with the same criteria. Relevant non-English-language studies are being published at an increasing rate in 6 out of the 12 languages where there were a sufficient number of relevant studies. Incorporating non-English-language studies can expand the geographical coverage (i.e., the number of 2° × 2° grid cells with relevant studies) of English-language evidence by 12% to 25%, especially in bio erse regions, and taxonomic coverage (i.e., the number of species covered by the relevant studies) by 5% to 32%, although they do tend to be based on less robust study designs. Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally. We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges. Please see the Supporting information files for Alternative Language Abstracts.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12559
Abstract: Shifts in species' distribution and abundance in response to climate change have been well documented, but the underpinning processes are still poorly understood. We present the results of a systematic literature review and meta-analysis investigating the frequency and importance of different mechanisms by which climate has impacted natural populations. Most studies were from temperate latitudes of North America and Europe almost half investigated bird populations. We found significantly greater support for indirect, biotic mechanisms than direct, abiotic mechanisms as mediators of the impact of climate on populations. In addition, biotic effects tended to have greater support than abiotic factors in studies of species from higher trophic levels. For primary consumers, the impact of climate was equally mediated by biotic and abiotic mechanisms, whereas for higher level consumers the mechanisms were most frequently biotic, such as predation or food availability. Biotic mechanisms were more frequently supported in studies that reported a directional trend in climate than in studies with no such climatic change, although s le sizes for this comparison were small. We call for more mechanistic studies of climate change impacts on populations, particularly in tropical systems.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2001
DOI: 10.1038/35065528
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Date: 06-12-2022
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0321.04
Abstract: Applying evidence builds on the conclusions of the assessment of the evidence. The aim of the chapter is to describe a range of ways of summarising and visualising different types of evidence so that it can be used in various decision-making processes. Evidence can also be presented as part of evidence capture sheets, argument maps, mind maps, theories of change, Bayesian networks or evidence restatements.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 09-10-2019
DOI: 10.1101/797639
Abstract: Conservation efforts to tackle the current bio ersity crisis need to be as efficient and effective as possible. To inform decision-makers of the most effective conservation actions, it is important to identify biases and gaps in the conservation literature to prioritize future evidence generation. We assessed the state of this global literature base using the Conservation Evidence database, a comprehensive collection of quantitative tests of conservation actions (interventions) from the published literature. For hibians and birds, we investigated the nature of Conservation Evidence spatially and taxonomically, as well as by biome, effectiveness metrics, and study design. Studies were heavily concentrated in Western Europe and North America for birds and particularly hibians. Studies that used the most robust study designs - Before-After Control-Impact and Randomized Controlled Trials - were also the most geographically restricted. Furthermore, there was no relationship between the number of studies in each 1×1 degree grid cell and the number of species, threatened species or data-deficient species. Taxonomic biases and gaps were apparent for hibians and birds - some orders were absent from the evidence base and others were poorly represented relative to the proportion of threatened species they contained. Temperate forest and grassland biomes were highly represented, which reinforced observed geographic biases. Various metrics were used to evaluate the effectiveness of a given conservation action, potentially making studies less directly comparable and evidence synthesis more difficult. We also found that the least robust study designs were the most commonly used studies using robust designs were scarce. Future research should prioritize testing conservation actions on threatened species outside of Western Europe and North America. Standardizing metrics and improving the robustness of study designs used to test conservation actions would also improve the quality of the evidence base for synthesis and decision-making.
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Date: 06-12-2022
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0321.02
Abstract: Finding and assessing evidence is core to making effective decisions. The three key elements of assessing any evidence are the rigour of the information, the trust in the reliability and objectivity of the source, and the relevance to the question under consideration. Evidence may originate from a range of sources including experiments, case studies, online information, expert knowledge (including local knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing), or citizen science. This chapter considers how these different types of evidence can be assessed.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-08-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-12-2016
DOI: 10.1111/FAF.12134
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2014.07.005
Abstract: Advanced warning of potential new opportunities and threats related to bio ersity allows decision-makers to act strategically to maximize benefits or minimize costs. Strategic foresight explores possible futures, their consequences for decisions, and the actions that promote more desirable futures. Foresight tools, such as horizon scanning and scenario planning, are increasingly used by governments and business for long-term strategic planning and capacity building. These tools are now being applied in ecology, although generally not as part of a comprehensive foresight strategy. We highlight several ways foresight could play a more significant role in environmental decisions by: monitoring existing problems, highlighting emerging threats, identifying promising new opportunities, testing the resilience of policies, and defining a research agenda.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 13-02-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.13.946954
Abstract: Evidence-based conservation relies on robust and relevant evidence. Practitioners often prefer locally relevant studies whose results are more likely to be transferable to the context of planned conservation interventions. To quantify the availability of relevant evidence for hibian and bird conservation we reviewed Conservation Evidence, a database of quantitative tests of conservation interventions. Studies were geographically clustered and found at extremely low densities - fewer than one study was present within a 2,000 km radius of a given location. The availability of relevant evidence was extremely low when we restricted studies to those studying biomes or taxonomic orders containing high percentages of threatened species, compared to the most frequently studied biomes and taxonomic orders. Further constraining the evidence by study design showed that only 17-20% of hibian and bird studies used robust designs. Our results highlight the paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of conservation interventions, and the disparity in evidence for local contexts that are frequently studied and those where conservation needs are greatest. Addressing the serious global shortfall in context-specific evidence requires a step change in the frequency of testing conservation interventions, greater use of robust study designs and standardized metrics, and methodological advances to analyze patchy evidence bases.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-12-2008
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-06-2020
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13523
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 22-03-2014
Abstract: To generate realistic projections of species’ responses to climate change, we need to understand the factors that limit their ability to respond. Although climatic niche conservatism, the maintenance of a species’s climatic niche over time, is a critical assumption in niche-based species distribution models, little is known about how universal it is and how it operates. In particular, few studies have tested the role of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes in explaining the reported wide variance in the extent of range shifts among species. Using historical records of the phenology and spatial distribution of British plants under a warming climate, we revealed that: (i) perennial species, as well as those with weaker or lagged phenological responses to temperature, experienced a greater increase in temperature during flowering (i.e. failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes) (ii) species that failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes showed greater northward range shifts and (iii) there was a complementary relationship between the levels of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes and range shifts. These results indicate that even species with high climatic niche conservatism might not show range shifts as instead they track warming temperatures during flowering by advancing their phenology.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-09-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2022
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.627
Abstract: Conservationists have long sought to reduce consumer demand for products from overexploited wildlife species. Health practitioners have also begun calling for reductions in the wildlife trade to reduce pandemic risk. Most wildlife‐focused demand reduction c aigns have lacked rigorous evaluations and thus their impacts remain unknown. There is thus an urgent need to review the evidence from beyond conservation science to inform future demand‐reduction efforts. We searched for systematic reviews of interventions that aimed to reduce consumer demand for products that are harmful (e.g., cigarettes and illicit drugs). In total, 41 systematic reviews were assessed, and their data extracted. Mass‐media c aigns and incentive programs were, on average, ineffective. While advertising bans, social marketing, and location bans were promising, there was insufficient robust evidence to draw firm conclusions. In contrast, the evidence for the effectiveness of norm appeals and risk warnings was stronger, with some caveats.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-06-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-04-2014
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.12507
Abstract: Changes in animal body size have been widely reported as a correlate of contemporary climate change. Body size affects metabolism and fitness, so changing size has implications for resilience, yet the climatic factors that drive size variation remain poorly understood. We test the role of mean and extreme temperature, rainfall, and remotely sensed primary productivity (NDVI) as drivers of body size in a sedentary, semi-arid Australian passerine, Ptilotula (Lichenostomus)penicillatus, over 23 years. To distinguish effects due to differential growth from changes in population composition, we analysed first-year birds and adults separately and considered climatic variation at three temporal scales (current, previous, and preceding 5 years). The strongest effects related to temperature: in both age classes, larger size was associated with warmer mean temperatures in the previous year, contrary to Bergmann's Rule. Moreover, adults were larger in warmer breeding seasons, while first years was larger after heat waves these effects are more likely to be mediated through size-dependent mortality, highlighting the role of body size in determining vulnerability to extinction. In addition to temperature, larger adult size was associated with lower primary productivity, which may reflect a trade-off between vegetative growth and nectar production, on which adults rely. Finally, lower rainfall was associated with decreasing size in first year and adults, most likely related to decreased food availability. Overall,body size increased over 23 years, strongly in first-year birds (2.7%) compared with adults (1%), with size outcomes a balance between competing drivers. As rainfall declined over time and productivity remained fairly stable, the temporal increase in body size appears largely driven by rising mean temperature and temperature extremes. Body size responses to environmental change are thus complex and dynamic, driven by effects on growth as well as mortality.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 23-04-2019
DOI: 10.1101/612101
Abstract: Ecologists use a wide range of study designs to estimate the impact of interventions or threats but there are no quantitative comparisons of their accuracy. For ex le, while it is accepted that simpler designs, such as After (s ling sites post-impact without a control), Before-After (BA) and Control-Impact (CI), are less robust than Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) and Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) designs, it is not known how much less accurate they are. We simulate a step-change response of a population to an environmental impact using empirically-derived estimates of the major parameters. We use five ecological study designs to estimate the effect of this impact and evaluate each one by determining the percentage of simulations in which they accurately estimate the direction and magnitude of the environmental impact. We also simulate different numbers of replicates and assess several accuracy thresholds. We demonstrate that BACI designs could be 1.1-1.5 times more accurate than RCTs, 2.9-4.1 times more accurate than BA, 3.8-5.6 times more accurate than CI, and 6.8-10.8 times more accurate than After designs, when estimating to within ±30% of the true effect (depending on the s le size). We also found that increasing s le size substantially increases the accuracy of BACI designs but only increases the precision of simpler designs around a biased estimate only by using more robust designs can accuracy increase. Modestly increasing replication of both control and impact sites also increased the accuracy of BACI designs more than substantially increasing replicates in just one of these groups. We argue that investment into using more robust designs in ecology, where possible, is extremely worthwhile given the inaccuracy of simpler designs, even when using large s le sizes. Based on our results we propose a weighting system that quantitatively ranks the accuracy of studies based on their study design and the number of replicates used. We hope these ‘accuracy weights’ enable researchers to better account for study design in evidence synthesis when assessing the reliability of a range of studies using a variety of designs.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2019
DOI: 10.1111/ANS.14997
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2011
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Date: 06-12-2022
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0321.12
Abstract: Delivering a revolution in evidence use requires a cultural change across society. For a wide range of groups (practitioners, knowledge brokers, organisations, organisational leaders, policy makers, funders, researchers, journal publishers, the wider conservation community, educators, writers, and journalists), options are described to facilitate a change in practice, and a series of downloadable checklists are provided.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-06-2023
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.12985
Abstract: Conservation guidance—an authoritative source of information and recommendations explicitly supporting decision‐making and action regarding nature conservation—represents an important tool to communicate evidence‐based advice to conservation actors. Given the rapidly increasing pressure that climate change poses to bio ersity, producing accessible, well‐informed guidance on how to best manage the impacts and risks of changing climatic conditions is particularly urgent. Guidance documents should ideally be produced with multistage input from stakeholders who are likely to use and implement such advice however, this step can be complicated and costly, and remains largely unformalized. Moreover, there is currently little direct evidence synthesized for actions that specifically target climate change and guidance remains largely absent. Here, we introduce a process for co‐developing guidance for species conservation in the face of climate change, using seabirds in the North‐East Atlantic as a case study. Specifically, we collated evidence on climate change vulnerability and possible conservation actions using literature synthesis, stakeholder surveys, and ecological modeling. This evidence base was then discussed, refined, and expanded using structured stakeholder workshops. We summarize the knowledge gained through stakeholder engagement and provide recommendations for future international efforts to co‐produce conservation guidance for managing wildlife, in the context of a rapidly changing climate.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Start Date: 06-2014
End Date: 06-2017
Amount: $539,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 08-2023
End Date: 08-2026
Amount: $395,021.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 02-2012
End Date: 07-2015
Amount: $314,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity