The importance of migratory drop-off for island colonization in birds.

Seasonal migration is an underappreciated driver of animal diversification. Changes in migratory behaviour may favour the establishment of sedentary founder populations and promote speciation if there is sufficient reproductive isolation between sedentary and migratory populations. From a systematic literature review, we here quantify the role of migratory drop-off-the loss of migratory behaviour-in promoting speciation in birds on islands. We identify at least 157 independent colonization events likely initiated by migratory species that led to speciation, including 44 cases among recently extinct species. By comparing, for all islands, the proportion of island endemic species that derived from migratory drop-off with the proportion of migratory species among potential colonizers, we showed that seasonal migration has a larger effect on island endemic richness than direct dispersal. We also found that the role of migration in island colonization increases with the geographic isolation of islands. Furthermore, the success of speciation events depends in part on species biogeographic and ecological factors, here positively associated with greater range size and larger flock sizes. These results highlight the importance of shifts in migratory behaviour in the speciation process and calls for greater consideration of migratory drop-off in the biogeographic distribution of birds.

The efficacy of biodiversity and ecosystem assessment approaches for informing a regenerative approach to built development.

The built environment, even at its "greenest," inevitably entails changing ecosystem structure and function. Multiple sustainable development tools and approaches are available to reduce environmental harm from built development. However, the reality that society exists within fully integrated socioecological systems, wholly interdependent on supporting ecosystems, is not yet adequately represented in regulation or supporting tools. Regenerative development seeks to address this interdependence in part by improving the health of supporting socioecological systems through the development process. We demonstrate the relevance of a series of approaches-Local Nature-Related Planning Policy (LNRPP), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), the Environmental Benefits from Nature Tool (EBN Tool), Nature Assessment Tool for Urban and Rural Environments (NATURE Tool), and Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services+ (RAWES+)-for their ability to meet their stated aims and objectives and how these relate to wider regenerative themes. A comparative analysis of the five approaches is done by applying them to a practical case study site, resulting in policy- and practice-relevant learning and recommendations. The research reveals current gaps in methodology, which can lead to adverse outcomes for sustainability. This is particularly clear for the spatial and temporal scales across which each approach operates. In addition, this research discusses the inherent limitations of taking a reductionist approach to examining complex systems. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:248-262. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Methodological innovations within the RAWES framework for use in development scenarios.

Built development changes the nature of land and its ecosystems, with diverse ramifications for human well-being and the resilience of the socioecological system. Robust and replicable approaches are required to assess ecosystem services generated by sites both predevelopment and for evaluation of postdevelopment options, to assess change and to support a paradigm shift from a "do less harm" to a "regenerative" approach. The Rapid Assessment of Wetland Ecosystem Services (RAWES) approach provides an internationally recognized methodology for systemic assessment of the ecosystem services generated by a site, taking account of all ecosystem services and service categories across multiple spatial scales. The RAWES assessments of constituent ecosystem services can be combined into Ecosystem Service Index scores. This article outlines innovations in RAWES methods to assess changes in ecosystem services likely to result from differing development scenarios in the context of a case study site in eastern England. These adaptations of the RAWES approach include revised methods for the analysis of ecosystem service beneficiaries across multiple spatial scales, the establishment of a common baseline against which to compare likely ecosystem service outcomes under a range of development scenarios, and a standardized method for accounting for supporting services through their contributions to other more directly exploited services. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:189-200. © 2023 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Undiscovered bird extinctions obscure the true magnitude of human-driven extinction waves.

Birds are among the best-studied animal groups, but their prehistoric diversity is poorly known due to low fossilization potential. Hence, while many human-driven bird extinctions (i.e., extinctions caused directly by human activities such as hunting, as well as indirectly through human-associated impacts such as land use change, fire, and the introduction of invasive species) have been recorded, the true number is likely much larger. Here, by combining recorded extinctions with model estimates based on the completeness of the fossil record, we suggest that at least ~1300-1500 bird species (~12% of the total) have gone extinct since the Late Pleistocene, with 55% of these extinctions undiscovered (not yet discovered or left no trace). We estimate that the Pacific accounts for 61% of total bird extinctions. Bird extinction rate varied through time with an intense episode ~1300 CE, which likely represents the largest human-driven vertebrate extinction wave ever, and a rate 80 (60-95) times the background extinction rate. Thus, humans have already driven more than one in nine bird species to extinction, with likely severe, and potentially irreversible, ecological and evolutionary consequences.

Humanity's diverse predatory niche and its ecological consequences.

Although humans have long been predators with enduring nutritive and cultural relationships with their prey, seldom have conservation ecologists considered the divergent predatory behavior of contemporary, industrialized humans. Recognizing that the number, strength and diversity of predator-prey relationships can profoundly influence biodiversity, here we analyze humanity's modern day predatory interactions with vertebrates and estimate their ecological consequences. Analysing IUCN 'use and trade' data for ~47,000 species, we show that fishers, hunters and other animal collectors prey on more than a third (~15,000 species) of Earth's vertebrates. Assessed over equivalent ranges, humans exploit up to 300 times more species than comparable non-human predators. Exploitation for the pet trade, medicine, and other uses now affects almost as many species as those targeted for food consumption, and almost 40% of exploited species are threatened by human use. Trait space analyses show that birds and mammals threatened by exploitation occupy a disproportionally large and unique region of ecological trait space, now at risk of loss. These patterns suggest far more species are subject to human-imposed ecological (e.g., landscapes of fear) and evolutionary (e.g., harvest selection) processes than previously considered. Moreover, continued overexploitation will likely bear profound consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Invertebrate biodiversity continues to decline in cropland.

Modern agriculture has drastically changed global landscapes and introduced pressures on wildlife populations. Policy and management of agricultural systems has changed over the last 30 years, a period characterized not only by intensive agricultural practices but also by an increasing push towards sustainability. It is crucial that we understand the long-term consequences of agriculture on beneficial invertebrates and assess if policy and management approaches recently introduced are supporting their recovery. In this study, we use large citizen science datasets to derive trends in invertebrate occupancy in Great Britain between 1990 and 2019. We compare these trends between regions of no- (0%), low- (greater than 0-50%) and high-cropland (greater than 50%) cover, which includes arable and horticultural crops. Although we detect general declines, invertebrate groups are declining most strongly in high-cropland cover regions. This suggests that even in the light of improved policy and management over the last 30 years, the way we are managing cropland is failing to conserve and restore invertebrate communities. New policy-based drivers and incentives are required to support the resilience and sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. Post-Brexit changes in UK agricultural policy and reforms under the Environment Act offer opportunities to improve agricultural landscapes for the benefit of biodiversity and society.

Anthropogenic disruptions to longstanding patterns of trophic-size structure in vertebrates.

Diet and body mass are inextricably linked in vertebrates: while herbivores and carnivores have converged on much larger sizes, invertivores and omnivores are, on average, much smaller, leading to a roughly U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild. Although this U-shaped trophic-size structure is well documented in extant terrestrial mammals, whether this pattern manifests across diverse vertebrate clades and biomes is unknown. Moreover, emergence of the U-shape over geological time and future persistence are unknown. Here we compiled a comprehensive dataset of diet and body size spanning several vertebrate classes and show that the U-shaped pattern is taxonomically and biogeographically universal in modern vertebrate groups, except for marine mammals and seabirds. We further found that, for terrestrial mammals, this U-shape emerged by the Palaeocene and has thus persisted for at least 66 million years. Yet disruption of this fundamental trophic-size structure in mammals appears likely in the next century, based on projected extinctions. Actions to prevent declines in the largest animals will sustain the functioning of Earth's wild ecosystems and biomass energy distributions that have persisted through deep time.

Protease-activated receptor-2 ligands reveal orthosteric and allosteric mechanisms of receptor inhibition.

Protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR2) has been implicated in multiple pathophysiologies but drug discovery is challenging due to low small molecule tractability and a complex activation mechanism. Here we report the pharmacological profiling of a potent new agonist, suggested by molecular modelling to bind in the putative orthosteric site, and two novel PAR2 antagonists with distinctly different mechanisms of inhibition. We identify coupling between different PAR2 binding sites. One antagonist is a competitive inhibitor that binds to the orthosteric site, while a second antagonist is a negative allosteric modulator that binds at a remote site. The allosteric modulator shows probe dependence, more effectively inhibiting peptide than protease activation of PAR2 signalling. Importantly, both antagonists are active in vivo, inhibiting PAR2 agonist-induced acute paw inflammation in rats and preventing activation of mast cells and neutrophils. These results highlight two distinct mechanisms of inhibition that potentially could be targeted for future development of drugs that modulate PAR2.

Cryo-EM in drug discovery.

The impact of structural biology on drug discovery is well documented, and the workhorse technique for the past 30 years or so has been X-ray crystallography. With the advent of several technological improvements, including direct electron detectors, automation, better microscope vacuums and lenses, phase plates and improvements in computing power enabled by GPUs, it is now possible to record and analyse images of protein structures containing high-resolution information. This review, from a pharmaceutical perspective, highlights some of the most relevant and interesting protein structures for the pharmaceutical industry and shows examples of how ligand-binding sites, membrane proteins, both big and small, pseudo symmetry and complexes are being addressed by this technique.