Sustainable-use protected areas catalyze enhanced livelihoods in rural Amazonia.

Finding new pathways for reconciling socioeconomic well-being and nature sustainability is critically important for contemporary societies, especially in tropical developing countries where sustaining local livelihoods often clashes with biodiversity conservation. Many projects aimed at reconciling the goals of biodiversity conservation and social aspirations within protected areas (PAs) have failed on one or both counts. Here, we investigate the social consequences of living either inside or outside sustainable-use PAs in the Brazilian Amazon, using data from more than 100 local communities along a 2,000-km section of a major Amazonian river. The PAs in this region are now widely viewed as conservation triumphs, having implemented community comanagement of fisheries and recovery of overexploited wildlife populations. We document clear differences in social welfare in communities inside and outside PAs. Specifically, communities inside PAs enjoy better access to health care, education, electricity, basic sanitation, and communication infrastructure. Moreover, living within a PA was the strongest predictor of household wealth, followed by cash-transfer programs and the number of people per household. These collective cobenefits clearly influence life satisfaction, with only 5% of all adult residents inside PAs aspiring to move to urban centers, compared with 58% of adults in unprotected areas. Our results clearly demonstrate that large-scale "win-win" conservation solutions are possible in tropical countries with limited financial and human resources and reinforce the need to genuinely empower local people in integrated conservation-development programs.

Association of reproductive traits with captive- versus wild-sourced birds in trade.

The wildlife trade is a billion-dollar global business, involving millions of people, thousands of species, and hundreds of millions of individual organisms. Unravelling whether trade targets reproductively distinct species and whether this preference varies between captive- and wild-sourced species is a crucial question. We used a comprehensive list of all bird species traded, trade listings and records kept in compliance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and a suite of avian reproductive parameters to examine whether wildlife trade is associated with particular facets of life history and to examine the association between life-history traits and captive- and wild-sourced traded volumes over time. Across all trade, CITES listing, and CITES trade, large birds were more likely to be traded and listed, but their longevity and age at maturity were not associated with CITES listing or trade. We found species across almost the full range of trait values in both captive and wild trade between 2000 and 2020. Captive trade volumes clearly associated with relatively longer lived and early-maturing species; these associations remained stable and largely unchanged over time. Trait-volume associations in wild-sourced trade were more uncertain. Only body mass had a clear association, and it varied from negative to positive over time. Although reproductive traits were important in captive-sourced trade, species-level variation dominated trade, with even congeneric species varying greatly in volume despite similar traits. The collection and incorporation of trait data into sustainability assessments of captive breeding facilities are crucial to ensure accurate quotas and guard against laundering.

Asociación entre los rasgos reproductivos de aves en cautiverio versus las de origen silvestre comercializadas Resumen El mercado de fauna es un negocio mundial de miles de millones de dólares que involucra a millares de personas, miles de especies y cientos de millones de organismos individuales. Por ello es necesario resolver la cuestión de si el mercado se enfoca en especies con distinciones reproductivas y si esta preferencia varía entre las especies de origen silvestre y en cautiverio. Usamos una lista completa de todas las especies de aves comercializadas, listados y registros comerciales conforme a la Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas (CITES) y un conjunto de parámetros de reproducción de aves para analizar si el mercado de fauna está asociado con facetas particulares de la historia de vida. También analizamos la asociación entre los rasgos de la historia de vida y el volumen comercializado de origen silvestre y de cautiverio a lo largo del tiempo. En todos los mercados, listas de CITES y mercados CITES, las aves de mayor tamaño tuvieron mayor probabilidad de ser comercializadas y estar enlistadas, pero su longevidad y edad a la madurez no se asoció con el mercado o la lista e CITES. Detectamos especies en casi toda la gama de rasgos tanto en el comercio de cautiverio como el silvestre entre 2000 y 2020. El volumen comercial de cautiverio mostró una asociación clara con las especies relativamente más longevas y de madurez temprana; esta relación fue estable y casi no cambió con el tiempo. La asociación del volumen en las especies de origen silvestre fue más incierta; sólo la masa corporal tuvo una relación clara y ésta varió entre positiva y negativa con el tiempo. Aunque los rasgos reproductivos fueron importantes para el mercado con origen en cautiverio, la variación a nivel de especies dominó el mercado, incluso mostrando una enorme variación del volumen entre las especies congéneres a pesar de tener rasgos similares. La recolección e incorporación de datos sobre los rasgos dentro de los análisis de sustentabilidad de las instalaciones para la cría en cautiverio es crucial para asegurar las cuotas adecuadas y prevenir blanqueo de capitales.

Replacing low-intensity cattle pasture with oil palm conserves dung beetle functional diversity when paired with forest protection.

Meeting rising demand for oil palm whilst minimizing the loss of tropical biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions is a core conservation challenge. One potential solution is focusing the expansion of high-yielding crops on presently low-yielding farmlands alongside protecting nearby tropical forests that can enhance provision of ecosystem functions. A key question is how this solution would impact invertebrate functional diversity. We focus on oil palm in the Colombian Llanos, where plantations are replacing improved cattle pastures and forest fragments, and on dung beetles, which play key functional roles in nutrient cycling and secondary seed dispersal. We show that functional richness and functional diversity of dung beetles is greater in oil palm than in cattle pasture, and that functional metrics did not differ between oil palm and remnant forest. The abundance-size class profile of dung beetles in oil palm was more similar to forest than to pasture, which had lower abundances of the smallest and largest dung beetles. The abundance of tunneling and rolling dung beetles did not differ between oil palm and forest, while higher forest cover increased the abundance of diurnal and generalist-feeding beetles in oil palm landscapes. This suggests that prioritizing agricultural development on low-yielding cattle pasture will have positive effects on functional diversity and highlights the need for forest protection to maintain ecosystem functioning within agricultural landscapes.

Thermal tolerance and the importance of microhabitats for Andean frogs in the context of land use and climate change.

Global warming is having impacts across the Tree of Life. Understanding species' physiological sensitivity to temperature change and how they relate to local temperature variation in their habitats is crucial to determining vulnerability to global warming. We ask how species' vulnerability varies across habitats and elevations, and how climatically buffered microhabitats can contribute to reduce their vulnerability. We measured thermal sensitivity (critical thermal maximum-CTmax ) of 14 species of Pristimantis frogs inhabiting young and old secondary, and primary forests in the Colombian Andes. Exposure to temperature stress was measured by recording temperature in the understorey and across five microhabitats. We determined frogs' current vulnerability across habitats, elevations and microhabitats accounting for phylogeny and then ask how vulnerability varies under four warming scenarios: +1.5, +2, +3 and +5°C. We found that CTmax was constant across species regardless of habitat and elevation. However, species in young secondary forests are expected to become more vulnerable because of increased exposure to higher temperatures. Microhabitat variation could enable species to persist within their thermal temperature range as long as regional temperatures do not surpass +2°C. The effectiveness of microhabitat buffering decreases with a 2-3°C increase, and is almost null under a 5°C temperature increase. Microhabitats will provide thermal protection to Andean frog communities from climate change by enabling tracking of suitable climates through short distance movement. Conservation strategies, such as managing landscapes by preserving primary forests and allowing regrowth and reconnection of secondary forest would offer thermally buffered microhabitats and aid in the survival of this group.

Para determinar la vulnerabilidad de las especies al calentamiento global es indispensable considerar la tolerancia fisiológica de las especies al cambio de temperatura y las condiciones ambientales a las que están expuestas. En este estudio exploramos la vulnerabilidad de especies a través de diferentes hábitats y altitudes y examinamos si ciertos microhábitats contribuyen a reducir la vulnerabilidad al calentamiento global. Medimos la tolerancia térmica (CTmax ) de catorce especies de ranas Pristimantis en bosques secundarios jóvenes y viejos, y bosques primarios en los Andes tropicales. Registramos la temperatura a la que estas especies están expuestas en el sotobosque así como dentro de cinco microhábitats. Usando CTmax y las temperaturas a las que están expuestas, determinamos la vulnerabilidad de las especies en diferentes hábitats, elevaciones y microhábitats. También preguntamos cómo cambiará esta vulnerabilidad si la temperatura incrementa: 1.5°C, 2°C, 3°C y 5°C. CTmax fue constante en todos los hábitats y elevaciones. Las especies de bosques secundarios jóvenes son más vulnerables pues están expuestas a temperaturas más altas. Al utilizar microhábitats, las especies estarán protegidas si el aumento de temperatura no supera los + 2°C. Todos los microhábitats seguirán proporcionando refugio térmico si la temperatura aumenta 1.5°C, pero esta protección térmica disminuirá si la temperatura aumenta 2-3°C y será casi nula con un aumento de temperatura de 5°C. Los microhábitats proporcionarán protección térmica a la comunidad de ranas de los Andes contra el cambio climático. Estrategias de conservación, como la regeneración natural y la reconexión de bosques secundarios y la preservación de bosques primarios, ayudaría a la supervivencia de las ranas al tener microhábitats que ofrecen refugio térmico.

Land-sparing agriculture sustains higher levels of avian functional diversity than land sharing.

The ecological impacts of meeting rising demands for food production can potentially be mitigated by two competing land-use strategies: off-setting natural habitats through intensification of existing farmland (land sparing), or elevating biodiversity within the agricultural matrix via the integration of "wildlife-friendly" habitat features (land sharing). However, a key unanswered question is whether sparing or sharing farming would best conserve functional diversity, which can promote ecosystem stability and resilience to future land-use change. Focusing on bird communities in tropical cloud forests of the Colombian Andes, we test the performance of each strategy in conserving functional diversity. We show that multiple components of avian functional diversity in farmland are positively related to the proximity and extent of natural forest. Using landscape and community simulations, we also show that land-sparing agriculture conserves greater functional diversity and predicts higher abundance of species supplying key ecological functions than land sharing, with sharing becoming progressively inferior with increasing isolation from remnant forest. These results suggest low-intensity agriculture is likely to conserve little functional diversity unless large blocks of adjacent natural habitat are protected, consistent with land sparing. To ensure the retention of functionally diverse ecosystems, we urgently need to implement mechanisms for increasing farmland productivity whilst protecting spared land.

The impact of secondary forest regeneration on ground-dwelling ant communities in the Tropical Andes.

Natural regeneration of abandoned farmland provides an important opportunity to contribute to global reforestation targets, including the Bonn Challenge. Of particular importance are the montane tropics, where a long history of farming, frequently on marginal soils, has rendered many ecosystems highly degraded and hotspots of extinction risk. Ants play crucial roles in ecosystem functioning, and a key question is how time since abandonment and elevation (and inherent temperature gradients therein) affect patterns of ant recovery within secondary forest systems. Focusing on the Colombian Andes across a 1300 m altitudinal gradient and secondary forest (2-30 years) recovering on abandoned cattle pastures, we find that over time ant community composition and species richness recovered towards that of primary forest. However, these relationships are strongly dependent on elevation with the more open and warmer pasturelands supporting more ants than either primary or secondary forest at a particular elevation. The loss of species richness and change in species composition with elevation is less severe in pasture than forests, suggesting that conditions within pasture and its remaining scattered trees, hedgerows and forest fragments, are more favourable for some species, which are likely in or near thermal debt. Promoting and protecting natural regenerating forests over the long term in the montane tropics will likely offer significant potential for returning ant communities towards primary forest levels.

Geographic comparison of plant genera used in frugivory among the pitheciids Cacajao, Callicebus, Chiropotes, and Pithecia.

Pitheciids are known for their frugivorous diets, but there has been no broad-scale comparison of fruit genera used by these primates that range across five geographic regions in South America. We compiled 31 fruit lists from data collected from 18 species (three Cacajao, six Callicebus, five Chiropotes, and four Pithecia) at 26 study sites in six countries. Together, these lists contained 455 plant genera from 96 families. We predicted that 1) closely related Chiropotes and Cacajao would demonstrate the greatest similarity in fruit lists; 2) pitheciids living in closer geographic proximity would have greater similarities in fruit lists; and 3) fruit genus richness would be lower in lists from forest fragments than continuous forests. Fruit genus richness was greatest for the composite Chiropotes list, even though Pithecia had the greatest overall sampling effort. We also found that the Callicebus composite fruit list had lower similarity scores in comparison with the composite food lists of the other three genera (both within and between geographic areas). Chiropotes and Pithecia showed strongest similarities in fruit lists, followed by sister taxa Chiropotes and Cacajao. Overall, pitheciids in closer proximity had more similarities in their fruit list, and this pattern was evident in the fruit lists for both Callicebus and Chiropotes. There was no difference in the number of fruit genera used by pitheciids in habitat fragments and continuous forest. Our findings demonstrate that pitheciids use a variety of fruit genera, but phylogenetic and geographic patterns in fruit use are not consistent across all pitheciid genera. This study represents the most extensive examination of pitheciid fruit consumption to date, but future research is needed to investigate the extent to which the trends in fruit genus richness noted here are attributable to habitat differences among study sites, differences in feeding ecology, or a combination of both.

Minimizing the biodiversity impact of Neotropical oil palm development.

Oil palm agriculture is rapidly expanding in the Neotropics, at the expense of a range of natural and seminatural habitats. A key question is how this expansion should be managed to reduce negative impacts on biodiversity. Focusing on the Llanos of Colombia, a mixed grassland-forest system identified as a priority zone for future oil palm development, we survey communities of ants, dung beetles, birds and herpetofauna occurring in oil palm plantations and the other principal form of agriculture in the region--improved cattle pasture--together with those of surrounding natural forests. We show that oil palm plantations have similar or higher species richness across all four taxonomic groups than improved pasture. For dung beetles, species richness in oil palm was equal to that of forest, whereas the other three taxa had highest species richness in forests. Hierarchical modelling of species occupancy probabilities indicated that oil palm plantations supported a higher proportion of species characteristic of forests than did cattle pastures. Across the bird community, occupancy probabilities within oil palm were positively influenced by increasing forest cover in a surrounding 250 m radius, whereas surrounding forest cover did not strongly influence the occurrence of other taxonomic groups in oil palm. Overall, our results suggest that the conversion of existing improved pastures to oil palm has limited negative impacts on biodiversity. As such, existing cattle pastures of the Colombian Llanos could offer a key opportunity to meet governmental targets for oil palm development without incurring significant biodiversity costs. Our results also highlight the value of preserving remnant forests within these agricultural landscapes, protecting high biodiversity and exporting avian 'spill-over' effects into oil palm plantations.

Effect of scale on trait predictors of species responses to agriculture.

Species persistence in human-altered landscapes can depend on factors operating at multiple spatial scales. To understand anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity, it is useful to examine relationships between species traits and their responses to land-use change. A key knowledge gap concerns whether these relationships vary depending on the scale of response under consideration. We examined how local- and large-scale habitat variables influence the occupancy dynamics of a bird community in cloud forest zones in the Colombian Chocó-Andes. Using data collected across a continuum of forest and agriculture, we examined which traits best predict species responses to local variation in farmland and which traits best predict species responses to isolation from contiguous forest. Global range size was a strong predictor of species responses to agriculture at both scales; widespread species were less likely to decline as local habitat cover decreased and as distance from forest increased. Habitat specialization was a strong predictor of species responses only at the local scale. Open-habitat species were particularly likely to increase as pasture increased, but they were relatively insensitive to variation in distance to forest. Foraging plasticity and flocking behavior were strong predictors of species responses to distance from forest, but not their responses to local habitat. Species with lower plasticity in foraging behaviors and obligate flock-following species were more likely to decline as distance from contiguous forest increased. For species exhibiting these latter traits, persistence in tropical landscapes may depend on the protection of larger contiguous blocks of forest, rather than the integration of smaller-scale woodland areas within farmland. Species listed as threatened or near threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List were also more likely to decline in response to both local habitat quality and isolation from forest relative to least-concern species, underlining the importance of contiguous forests for threatened taxa.

Optimizing carbon storage and biodiversity protection in tropical agricultural landscapes.

With the rapidly expanding ecological footprint of agriculture, the design of farmed landscapes will play an increasingly important role for both carbon storage and biodiversity protection. Carbon and biodiversity can be enhanced by integrating natural habitats into agricultural lands, but a key question is whether benefits are maximized by including many small features throughout the landscape ('land-sharing' agriculture) or a few large contiguous blocks alongside intensive farmland ('land-sparing' agriculture). In this study, we are the first to integrate carbon storage alongside multi-taxa biodiversity assessments to compare land-sparing and land-sharing frameworks. We do so by sampling carbon stocks and biodiversity (birds and dung beetles) in landscapes containing agriculture and forest within the Colombian Chocó-Andes, a zone of high global conservation priority. We show that woodland fragments embedded within a matrix of cattle pasture hold less carbon per unit area than contiguous primary or advanced secondary forests (>15 years). Farmland sites also support less diverse bird and dung beetle communities than contiguous forests, even when farmland retains high levels of woodland habitat cover. Landscape simulations based on these data suggest that land-sparing strategies would be more beneficial for both carbon storage and biodiversity than land-sharing strategies across a range of production levels. Biodiversity benefits of land-sparing are predicted to be similar whether spared lands protect primary or advanced secondary forests, owing to the close similarity of bird and dung beetle communities between the two forest classes. Land-sparing schemes that encourage the protection and regeneration of natural forest blocks thus provide a synergy between carbon and biodiversity conservation, and represent a promising strategy for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on tropical ecosystems. However, further studies examining a wider range of ecosystem services will be necessary to fully understand the links between land-allocation strategies and long-term ecosystem service provision.

Biparental incubation behaviour under temperature extremes in sandbank nesting black skimmers.

Birds nesting on riverine beaches are exposed to large temperature fluctuations, while changing water levels pose flooding risks. We used miniature temperature loggers (iButtons®) placed in nests and on the beach surface combined with time-lapse photography to study incubation behaviour in the black skimmer (Rynchops niger) on the Manu River, Peru. Since the species exhibits sexual size dimorphism, we could identify partner switches in images and the contribution to incubation effort by each pair member. Results of the study documented that nest temperature was less affected by ambient temperature and fluctuated less than the surroundings. Despite shorter incubation bouts at midday, black skimmers maintained a close to constant presence at the nest by more frequent nest exchanges. In fact, while female black skimmers generally incubated more and for longer than males, pairs shared incubation most consistently during the hottest part of the day. Incubation probability decreased around dusk, a peak foraging time for the species and a time when beach temperature overlapped with nest temperature. A biparental incubation strategy across the diel cycle appears to allow black skimmers breeding at the Manu River to incubate in challenging thermal conditions, but further studies are needed to determine proximity to thermal limits.

Harnessing eDNA metabarcoding to investigate fish community composition and its seasonal changes in the Oslo fjord.

In the face of global ecosystem changes driven by anthropogenic activities, effective biomonitoring strategies are crucial for mitigating impacts on vulnerable aquatic habitats. Time series analysis underscores a great significance in understanding the dynamic nature of marine ecosystems, especially amidst climate change disrupting established seasonal patterns. Focusing on Norway's Oslo fjord, our research utilises eDNA-based monitoring for temporal analysis of aquatic biodiversity during a one year period, with bi-monthly sampling along a transect. To increase the robustness of the study, a taxonomic assignment comparing BLAST+ and SINTAX approaches was done. Utilising MiFish and Elas02 primer sets, our study detected 63 unique fish species, including several commercially important species. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in read abundance during specific migratory cycles, highlighting the efficacy of eDNA metabarcoding for fish composition characterization. Seasonal dynamics for certain species exhibit clear patterns, emphasising the method's utility in unravelling ecological complexities. eDNA metabarcoding emerges as a cost-effective tool with considerable potential for fish community monitoring for conservation purposes in dynamic marine environments like the Oslo fjord, contributing valuable insights for informed management strategies.

Seasonal flooding decreases fruit-feeding butterfly species dominance and increases spatial turnover in floodplain forests of central Amazonia.

The seasonal flood pulse in Amazonia can be considered a primary driver of community structure in floodplain environments. Although this natural periodic disturbance is part of the landscape dynamics, the seasonal inundation presents a considerable challenge to organisms that inhabit floodplain forests. The present study investigated the effect of seasonal flooding on fruit-feeding butterfly assemblages in different forest types and strata in central Amazonia. We sampled fruit-feeding butterflies in the canopy and the understory using baited traps in adjacent upland (unflooded forests-terra firme), white and blackwater floodplain forests (várzea and igapó, respectively) during the low- and high-water seasons. Butterfly abundance decreased in the high-water season, especially of dominant species in várzea, but the number of species was similar between seasons in the three forest types. Species composition differed between strata in all forest types. However, the flood pulse only affected butterfly assemblages in várzea forest. The ß-diversity components also differed only in várzea. Species replacement (turnover) dominated the spatial ß-diversity in igapó and terra firme in both seasons and várzea in the high-water season. Nonetheless, nestedness was relatively higher in várzea forests during the low-water season, mainly due to the effect of dominant species. These results emphasize the importance of seasonal flooding to structure butterfly assemblages in floodplain forests and reveal the idiosyncrasy of butterfly community responses to flooding in different forest types. Our results also suggest that any major and rapid changes to the hydrological regime could severely affect floodplain communities adapted to this natural seasonal hydrological cycle, threatening the existence of these unique environments.

High sensitivity of tropical forest birds to deforestation at lower altitudes.

Habitat conversion is a major driver of tropical biodiversity loss, but its effects are poorly understood in montane environments. While community-level responses to habitat loss display strong elevational dependencies, it is unclear whether these arise via elevational turnover in community composition and interspecific differences in sensitivity or elevational variation in environmental conditions and proximity to thermal thresholds. Here we assess the relative importance of inter- and intraspecific variation across the elevational gradient by quantifying how 243 forest-dependent bird species vary in sensitivity to landscape-scale forest loss across a 3000-m elevational gradient in the Colombian Andes. We find that species that live at lower elevations are strongly affected by loss of forest in the nearby landscape, while those at higher elevations appear relatively unperturbed, an effect that is independent of phylogeny. Conversely, we find limited evidence of intraspecific elevational gradients in sensitivity, with populations displaying similar sensitivities to forest loss, regardless of where they exist in a species' elevational range. Gradients in biodiversity response to habitat loss thus appear to arise via interspecific gradients in sensitivity rather than proximity to climatically limiting conditions.

Bait attractiveness changes community metrics in dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae).

Species relative abundance (SRA) is an essential attribute of biotic communities, which can provide an accurate description of community structure. However, the sampling method used may have a direct influence on SRA quantification, since the use of attractants (e.g., baits, light, and pheromones) can introduce additional sources of variation in trap performance. We tested how sampling aided by baits affect community data and therefore alter derived metrics. We tested our hypothesis on dung beetles using data from flight interception traps (FITs) as a baseline to evaluate baited pitfall trap performance. Our objective was to assess the effect of bait attractiveness on estimates of SRA and assemblage metrics when sampled by pitfall traps baited with human feces.Dung beetles were sampled at three terra firme primary forest sites in the Brazilian Amazon. To achieve our objective, we (i) identified species with variable levels of attraction to pitfall baited with human feces; (ii) assessed differences in SRA; and (iii) assessed the effect of bait on the most commonly used diversity metrics derived from relative abundance (Shannon and Simpson indices). We identified species less and highly attracted to the baits used, because most attracted species showed greater relative abundances within baited pitfall traps samples compared with our baseline. Assemblages sampled by baited pitfall traps tend to show lower diversity and higher dominance than those sampled by unbaited FITs. Our findings suggest that for ecological questions focused on species relative abundance, baited pitfall traps may lead to inaccurate conclusions regarding assemblage structure. Although tested on dung beetles, we suggest that the same effect could be observed for other insect taxa that are also sampled with baited traps. We highlight a need for further studies on other groups to elucidate any potential effects of using baits.

Terrestrial activity in pitheciins (Cacajao, Chiropotes, and Pithecia).

Neotropical monkeys of the genera Cacajao, Chiropotes, and Pithecia (Pitheciidae) are considered to be highly arboreal, spending most of their time feeding and traveling in the upper canopy. Until now, the use of terrestrial substrates has not been analyzed in detail in this group. Here, we review the frequency of terrestrial use among pitheciin taxa to determine the ecological and social conditions that might lead to such behavior. We collated published and unpublished data from 14 taxa in the three genera. Data were gleaned from 53 published studies (including five on multiple pitheciin genera) and personal communications of unpublished data distributed across 31 localities. Terrestrial activity was reported in 61% of Pithecia field studies (11 of 18), in 34% of Chiropotes studies (10 of 29), and 36% of Cacajao studies (4 of 11). Within Pithecia, terrestrial behavior was more frequently reported in smaller species (e.g. P. pithecia) that are vertical clingers and leapers and make extensive use of the understory than in in the larger bodied canopy dwellers of the western Amazon (e.g. P. irrorata). Terrestrial behavior in Pithecia also occurred more frequently and lasted longer than in Cacajao or Chiropotes. An apparent association was found between flooded habitats and terrestrial activity and there is evidence of the development of a "local pattern" of terrestrial use in some populations. Seasonal fruit availability also may stimulate terrestrial behavior. Individuals also descended to the ground when visiting mineral licks, escaping predators, and responding to accidents such as a dropped infant. Overall, the results of this review emphasize that terrestrial use is rare among the pitheciins in general and is usually associated with the exploitation of specific resources or habitat types.

Mixed protection of threatened species traded under CITES.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulates international legal trade to prevent the detrimental harvest of wildlife. We assess the volumes of threatened and non-threatened bird, mammal, amphibian, and reptile species in the CITES-managed trade and how this trade responded to category changes of species in the IUCN Red List between 2000 and 2018. In this period, over a thousand wild-sourced vertebrate species were commercially traded. Species of least conservation concern had the highest yearly trade volumes (excluding birds), whereas species in most Red List categories showed an overall decrease in trade reoccurrence and volume through time, with most species unlikely to reoccur in recent trade. Charismatic species with populations split-listed between Appendices I and II were traded in substantially lower yearly volumes when sourced from the more-threatened Appendix I populations. Species trade volumes did not systematically respond to changes in the Red List category, with 31.0% of species disappearing from trade before changing category and the majority of species revealing no difference in trade volumes from pre- to post-change. Just 2.7% (12/432) of species volumes declined and 2.1% (9/432) of volumes increased after a category change. Our findings highlight that non-threatened species dominate trade but reveal small numbers of highly threatened species in trade and a disconnect between species trade volumes and changing extinction risk. We highlight potential drawbacks in the current regulation of trade in listed species and urgently call for open and accessible assessments-non-detriment findings-robustly evidencing the sustainable use of threatened and non-threatened species alike.

Mapping the "catscape" formed by a population of pet cats with outdoor access.

The domestic cat (Felis catus) is among the most popular companion animals and most abundant carnivores globally. It is also a pet with an immense ecological footprint because even non-feral and food-subsidized cats can be prolific predators. Whereas knowledge about the spatial behavior of individual domestic cats is growing, we still know little about how a local population of free-ranging pet cats occupies the landscape. Using a citizen science approach, we GPS-tagged 92 pet cats with outdoor access living in a residential area in southern Norway. The resulting position data allowed us to construct both individual home range kernels and a population-level utilization distribution. Our results reveal a dense predatory blanket that outdoor cats drape over and beyond the urban landscape. It is this population-level intensity surface-the "catscape"-that potential prey have to navigate. There were few gaps in the catscape within our residential study area and therefore few terrestrial refuges from potential cat predation. However, cats spent on average 79% of their outdoor time within 50 m to their owner's home, which suggests that the primary impact is local and most acute for wildlife in the vicinity to homes with cats. We discuss the catscape as a conceptual and quantitative tool for better understanding and mitigating the environmental impact of domestic cats.

Biogeographic multi-species occupancy models for large-scale survey data.

Ecologists often seek to infer patterns of species occurrence or community structure from survey data. Hierarchical models, including multi-species occupancy models (MSOMs), can improve inference by pooling information across multiple species via random effects. Originally developed for local-scale survey data, MSOMs are increasingly applied to larger spatial scales that transcend major abiotic gradients and dispersal barriers. At biogeographic scales, the benefits of partial pooling in MSOMs trade off against the difficulty of incorporating sufficiently complex spatial effects to account for biogeographic variation in occupancy across multiple species simultaneously. We show how this challenge can be overcome by incorporating preexisting range information into MSOMs, yielding a "biogeographic multi-species occupancy model" (bMSOM). We illustrate the bMSOM using two published datasets: Parulid warblers in the United States Breeding Bird Survey and entire avian communities in forests and pastures of Colombia's West Andes. Compared with traditional MSOMs, the bMSOM provides dramatically better predictive performance at lower computational cost. The bMSOM avoids severe spatial biases in predictions of the traditional MSOM and provides principled species-specific inference even for never-observed species. Incorporating preexisting range data enables principled partial pooling of information across species in large-scale MSOMs. Our biogeographic framework for multi-species modeling should be broadly applicable in hierarchical models that predict species occurrences, whether or not false absences are modeled in an occupancy framework.

Impacts of wildlife trade on terrestrial biodiversity.

The wildlife trade is worth billions of dollars annually and affects most major taxonomic groups. Despite this, a global understanding of the trade's impacts on species populations is lacking. We performed a quantitative meta-analysis of the wildlife trade that synthesized 506 species-level effect sizes from 31 studies, estimating trade-driven declines in mammals (452 effect sizes), birds (36) and reptiles (18). Overall, species declined in abundance by 62% (95% confidence interval (CI), 20 to 82%) where trade occurs. Reductions involving national or international trade were greatest, driving declines of 76% (95% CI, 36 to 91%) and 66% (95% CI, 12 to 87%), respectively. The impacts of trade were pervasive, requiring over 102 hours of travel time from settlements for trade to have no mean effect. Current protective measures fail species, with significant declines even where the harvesting for trade occurs in protected areas. Population declines tracked species threat status, indicating heightened extirpation and extinction risk in traded species. Critically, for such a severe global threat to wildlife, our analysis unearthed a limited number of studies using treatment versus control comparisons, and no studies on amphibians, invertebrates, cacti or orchids. Improved management, tackling both unsustainable demand and trade reporting, must be a conservation priority to prevent rampant trade-induced declines.