Predicting the potential distribution change of the endangered Francois' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) across its entire range in China under climate change.

The Francois' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) is a rare primate species indicated as endangered and distributed in karst areas in northern Vietnam and southwestern China. However, research limited to specific nature reserves or sites has hampered holistic conservation management. A comprehensive map of the potential distribution for the Francois' langur is essential to advance conservation efforts and ensure coordinated management across regions. Here, we used 82 occurrence records of Francois' langur surveyed in Guangxi, Guizhou, and Chongqing from 2017 to 2020, along with 12 environmental variables, to build the potential habitat model under current and future climate (2030, 2050, 2070, and 2090s) using maximum entropy models (MaxEnt). Our results indicated that (1) precipitation- and temperature-associated bioclimatic variables contributed the most to the distribution of Francois' langur. Vegetation, water sources, and anthropogenic variables also affected its distribution; (2) a total of 144,207.44 km2 of potential suitable habitat across the entire range in China was estimated by the current model. Moderate- and high-suitability habitats accounted for only 23.76% (34,265.96 km2) of the predicted suitable habitat and were mainly distributed in southwest Guangxi, east of Chongqing, and the border between Guizhou and Chongqing; (3) the suitable habitats of Francois' langur will contract considerably under future climate change, and the habitat centroid will move in the southeast direction with a shifting distance of approximately 2.84 km/year from current to 2100. The habitat prediction of Francois' langur and the main drivers proposed in this study could provide essential insights for the future conservation of this endangered species. The existing distribution areas should be monitored and protected, but conservation beyond existing habitats should also be a focus of effort, especially in future expansion areas. This would ensure effective and timely protection under climate change and anthropogenic pressures.

Hydromorphological degradation modifies long-term macroinvertebrate responses to water quality and climate changes in lowland rivers.

Due to decades of persistent anthropogenic pressures, lowland rivers represent one of the most severely impaired habitats in Europe. Despite improved water quality, novel stressors, particularly climate change, are emerging with most lowland rivers suffering from past hydromorphological degradation. We aim to elucidate how such degradation alters the biological response in multiple-stressor environments, as this has rarely been considered in studies documenting long-term development of anthropogenically impacted rivers. Here, benthic macroinvertebrates, water quality and hydroclimatic variables were monitored over a period of two decades in nine of the largest Czech rivers. Detailed data on hydromorphological degradation allowed us to track distinct patterns in rivers with high and low levels of degradation. Temporal changes in environmental variables showed similar patterns in both site groups, characterised by reduced organic and nutrient pollution but increased hydroclimatic and salinity stress. 150 % increase in total abundance, especially in abundance and richness of sediment-dwelling and non-native taxa was found in both site groups. While the increase in abundance was due to improved water quality and rising water temperature, the longer duration of minimal flows had a negative effect on species richness, hampering species gain particularly at highly degraded sites. Our results provide novel evidence that degree of hydromorphological degradation modifies long-term macroinvertebrate responses to anthropogenic pressures. Less degraded sites displayed several favourable changes, such as 27 % increase in total and 23 % increase in potamal indicator richness, and stabilisation of the assemblages with few functional changes. In contrast, highly degraded sites experienced 9 % reduction in evenness, 235 % increase in proportion of non-native taxa and functional reorganisation, changes congruent with continuous deterioration. While overall water quality at studied sites has improved, consequences of climate change and high degree of hydromorphological degradation limit biotic recovery in multiple-stressor lowland rivers.

Improving the performance of macroinvertebrate based multi-metric indices by incorporating functional traits and an index performance-driven approach.

Human-driven multiple pressures impact freshwater ecosystems worldwide, reducing biodiversity, and impacting ecosystem functioning and services provided to human societies. Multi-metric indices (MMIs) are suitable tools for tracking the effects of anthropogenic pressures on freshwater ecosystems because they incorporate various biological metrics responding to multiple pressures at different levels of biological organization. However, the performance and applicability of MMIs depend on their metrics' selection and their calibration against natural environmental gradients. In this study, we aimed to unravel i) how incorporating functional trait-based metrics affects the performance of MMIs, ii) how disentangling the natural environmental gradients from anthropogenic pressures effects affects the performance of MMIs, and iii) how the performance of MMIs developed using a metric performance-driven approach compares with MMIs developed using an index performance-driven approach. We carried out a field survey measuring abiotic and biotic variables at 53 sites in the Karun River basin (Iran) in 2018. For functional trait-based metrics, we used 15 macroinvertebrate traits and calculated community-weighted mean trait values and functional diversity indices. We used random forest modeling to account for the effect of natural environmental gradients on each metric. Based on our results, incorporating functional traits increased the MMI performance significantly and facilitated ecological interpretation of MMIs. Both taxonomic and functional components of macroinvertebrate assemblages co-varied strongly with natural environmental gradients, and accounting for these covariations improved the performance of MMIs. Finally, we found that index performance-driven MMIs performed better in terms of precision, bias, sensitivity, and responsiveness than metric performance-driven MMIs.

Shifts in dominance of benthic communities along a gradient of water temperature and turbidity in tropical coastal ecosystems.

Tropical coastal benthic communities will change in species composition and relative dominance due to global (e.g., increasing water temperature) and local (e.g., increasing terrestrial influence due to land-based activity) stressors. This study aimed to gain insight into possible trajectories of coastal benthic assemblages in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, by studying coral reefs at varying distances from human activities and marine lakes with high turbidity in three temperature categories (<31 °C, 31-32 °C, and >32 °C). The benthic community diversity and relative coverage of major benthic groups were quantified via replicate photo transects. The composition of benthic assemblages varied significantly among the reef and marine lake habitats. The marine lakes <31 °C contained hard coral, crustose coralline algae (CCA), and turf algae with coverages similar to those found in the coral reefs (17.4-18.8% hard coral, 3.5-26.3% CCA, and 15-15.5% turf algae, respectively), while the higher temperature marine lakes (31-32 °C and >32 °C) did not harbor hard coral or CCA. Benthic composition in the reefs was significantly influenced by geographic distance among sites but not by human activity or depth. Benthic composition in the marine lakes appeared to be structured by temperature, salinity, and degree of connection to the adjacent sea. Our results suggest that beyond a certain temperature (>31 °C), benthic communities shift away from coral dominance, but new outcomes of assemblages can be highly distinct, with a possible varied dominance of macroalgae, benthic cyanobacterial mats, or filter feeders such as bivalves and tubeworms. This study illustrates the possible use of marine lake model systems to gain insight into shifts in the benthic community structure of tropical coastal ecosystems if hard corals are no longer dominant.

Spatial patterns of ß-diversity under cumulative pressures in the Western Mediterranean Sea.

Understanding the spatial dynamics of biodiversity is an essential issue in marine ecology and requires combining information at local and regional scales. ß-diversity is an important measure of biodiversity that informs on the differences in community composition between sites and, thus, in the species turnover in the community structure. In this study, we analysed and predicted the spatial patterns of ß-diversity for fishes, invertebrates and the demersal assemblage along the Iberian Mediterranean coast. We used Bayesian Bootstrap Generalized Dissimilarity Models (BBGDMs) to study the effects of environment and human pressures on the ß-diversity of invertebrate, fishes and the entire demersal assemblage from 1994 to 2015 using different time windows to account for temporal variability. Then, we used these relationships to predict the spatial patterns of ß-diversity in the whole Iberian Mediterranean coast. Our results highlighted that the regional spatial patterns of ß-diversity were best described by bathymetry and a cumulative index of coastal impacts. We identified specific regions with the highest ß-diversity in the study area, which were complementary to hotspots of species richness and presented different degree of overlapping with existent marine protected areas. Overall, our study illustrates that by modelling spatial turnover using ß-diversity we can better understand and predict spatial variation of biodiversity and the effects of particular variables, providing relevant information to end-users and policy makers for designing specific spatial conservation and management strategies.

Microplastic ingestion and its effects οn sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus: A field study in a coastal East Mediterranean environment.

Microplastics (MPs) are recognized as an increasing threat to the marine environment, but little is known about their effects on benthic organisms, including sea urchins, when ingested. For this purpose, wild sea urchins (P. lividus) and seafloor sediment samples were investigated across three coastal areas of Zakynthos Island (Ionian Sea), each exposed to different anthropogenic pressures, revealing a consistent pattern in MP abundance, shape, and color. Biomarkers related to oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, and genotoxicity showed no significant effects of MP ingestion in the sea urchins, except for a positive correlation between GST activity and ingested MPs, suggesting a possible activation of their detoxification system in response to MP ingestion. While MP concentrations in sea urchins and sediments were within the low range reported in the global literature, it remains crucial to conduct further investigations in areas with MP pollution approaching predicted levels to fully comprehend the potential effects of MP pollution on marine organisms.

Impact of climate change on the distribution and predicted habitat suitability of two fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus and Epomophorus labiatus) in Ethiopia: Implications for conservation.

Fruit bats serve as crucial bioindicators, seed dispersers, pollinators, and contributors to food security within ecosystems. However, their population and distribution were threatened by climate change and anthropogenic pressures. Understanding the impacts of these pressures through mapping distribution and habitat suitability is crucial for identifying high-priority areas and implementing effective conservation and management plans. We predicted the distribution and extent of habitat suitability for Rousettus aegyptiacus and Epomophorus labiatus under climate change scenarios using average predictions from four different algorithms to produce an ensemble model. Seasonal precipitation, population index, land-use land cover, vegetation, and the mean temperature of the driest quarter majorly contributed to the predicted habitat suitability for both species. The current predicted sizes of suitable habitats for R. aegyptiacus and E. labiatus were varied, on average 60,271.4 and 85,176.1 km2, respectively. The change in species range size for R. aegyptiacus showed gains in suitable areas of 24.4% and 22.8% in 2050 and 2070, respectively. However, for E. labiatus, suitable areas decreased by 0.95% and 2% in 2050 and 2070, respectively. The range size change of suitable areas between 2050 and 2070 for R. aegyptiacus and E. labiatus shows losses of 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively. The predicted maps indicate that the midlands and highlands of southern and eastern Ethiopia harbor highly suitable areas for both species. In contrast, the areas in the northern and central highlands are fragmented. The current model findings show that climate change and anthropogenic pressures have notable impacts on the geographic ranges of two species. Moreover, the predicted suitable habitats for both species are found both within and outside of their historical ranges, which has important implications for conservation efforts. Our ensemble predictions are vital for identifying high-priority areas for fruit bat species conservation efforts and management to mitigate climate change and anthropogenic pressures.

Human-modified landscapes driving the global primate extinction crisis.

The world's primates have been severely impacted in diverse and profound ways by anthropogenic pressures. Here, we evaluate the impact of various infrastructures and human-modified landscapes on spatial patterns of primate species richness, at both global and regional scales. We overlaid the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps of 520 primate species and applied a global 100 km2 grid. We used structural equation modeling and simultaneous autoregressive models to evaluate direct and indirect effects of six human-altered landscapes variables (i.e., human footprint [HFP], croplands [CROP], road density [ROAD], pasture lands [PAST], protected areas [PAs], and Indigenous Peoples' lands [IPLs]) on global primate species richness, threatened and non-threatened species, as well as on species with decreasing and non-decreasing populations. Two-thirds of all primate species are classified as threatened (i.e., Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable), with ~86% experiencing population declines, and ~84% impacted by domestic or international trade. We found that the expansion of PAST, HFP, CROP, and road infrastructure had the most direct negative effects on primate richness. In contrast, forested habitat within IPLs and PAs was positively associated in safeguarding primate species diversity globally, with an even stronger effect at the regional level. Our results show that IPLs and PAs play a critical role in primate species conservation, helping to prevent their extinction; in contrast, HFP growth and expansion has a dramatically negative effect on primate species worldwide. Our findings support predictions that the continued negative impact of anthropogenic pressures on natural habitats may lead to a significant decline in global primate species richness, and likely, species extirpations. We advocate for stronger national and international policy frameworks promoting alternative/sustainable livelihoods and reducing persistent anthropogenic pressures to help mitigate the extinction risk of the world's primate species.

Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe.

Declines in European bird populations are reported for decades but the direct effect of major anthropogenic pressures on such declines remains unquantified. Causal relationships between pressures and bird population responses are difficult to identify as pressures interact at different spatial scales and responses vary among species. Here, we uncover direct relationships between population time-series of 170 common bird species, monitored at more than 20,000 sites in 28 European countries, over 37 y, and four widespread anthropogenic pressures: agricultural intensification, change in forest cover, urbanisation and temperature change over the last decades. We quantify the influence of each pressure on population time-series and its importance relative to other pressures, and we identify traits of most affected species. We find that agricultural intensification, in particular pesticides and fertiliser use, is the main pressure for most bird population declines, especially for invertebrate feeders. Responses to changes in forest cover, urbanisation and temperature are more species-specific. Specifically, forest cover is associated with a positive effect and growing urbanisation with a negative effect on population dynamics, while temperature change has an effect on the dynamics of a large number of bird populations, the magnitude and direction of which depend on species' thermal preferences. Our results not only confirm the pervasive and strong effects of anthropogenic pressures on common breeding birds, but quantify the relative strength of these effects stressing the urgent need for transformative changes in the way of inhabiting the world in European countries, if bird populations shall have a chance of recovering.

Pathways to protect marine biodiversity: Could Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) be benefited by landscape ecology?

The marine environment faces multiple threats, many of which are still undiscovered. Anthropogenic noise is considered a representative indicator of the human footprint. The aim of this short communication is to protect marine biodiversity by exploiting basic principles of Landscape and Soundscape Ecology and borrowing methods and tools to identify and map the human induced noise of the marine environment and thus create, based on this information layer, a connectivity pathway among all Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Today it is of vital importance to take urgent action towards protecting the marine environment. Could we be inspired by effective and practical solutions of biodiversity conservation, already successfully implemented in the terrestrial environment, taking into account the special and diverse characteristics of the marine environment to protect marine biodiversity?

Disentangling the effects of different human disturbances on multifaceted biodiversity indices in freshwater fish.

Evaluating the effects of anthropogenic pressures on several biodiversity metrics can inform the management and monitoring of biodiversity loss. However, the type of disturbances can lead to different responses in different metrics. In this study, we aimed at disentangling the effects of different types of anthropogenic disturbances on freshwater fish communities. We calculated diversity indices for 1109 stream fish communities across France by computing richness and evenness components for ecological, morphological, and phylogenetic diversity, and used null models to estimate standardized effect sizes. We used generalized linear mixed models to assess the relative effects of environmental and anthropogenic drivers in driving those diversity indices. Our results demonstrated that all diversity indices exhibited significant responses to both climatic conditions and anthropogenic disturbances. While we observed a decrease of ecological and phylogenetic richness with the intensity of disturbance, a weak increase in morphological richness and evenness was apparent. Overall, our results demonstrated the importance of disentangling various types of disturbances when assessing human-induced ecological impacts and highlighted that different facets of diversity are not impacted identically by anthropogenic disturbances in stream fish communities. This calls for further work seeking to integrate biodiversity responses to human disturbances into a multifaceted framework, and could have beneficial implications when planning conservation action in freshwater ecosystems.

A Critical Gap in Seagrass Protection: Impact of Anthropogenic Off-Shore Nutrient Discharges on Deep Posidonia oceanica Meadows.

In the Mediterranean, anthropogenic pressures (specifically those involving nutrient loads) have been progressively moved to deeper off-shore areas to meet current policies dealing with the protection of marine biodiversity (e.g., European Directives). However, conservation efforts devoted to protecting Posidonia oceanica and other vulnerable marine habitats against anthropogenic pressures have dedicated very little attention to the deepest areas of these habitats. We studied the remote influence of off-shore nutrient discharge on the physiology and structure of deep P. oceanica meadows located nearest to an urban sewage outfall (WW; 1 km) and an aquaculture facility (FF; 2.5 km). Light reduction and elevated external nutrient availability (as indicated by high δ15N, total N and P content and N uptake rates of seagrass tissues) were consistent with physiological responses to light and nutrient stress. This was particularly evident in the sites located up to 2.5 km from the WW source, where carbon budget imbalances and structural alterations were more evident. These results provide evidence that anthropogenic nutrient inputs can surpass critical thresholds for the species, even in off-shore waters at distances within the km scale. Therefore, the critical distances between this priority habitat and nutrient discharge points have been underestimated and should be corrected to achieve a good conservation status.

Use of Habitat Suitability Model as a Tool to Highlight Best Conservation Area for the Red-bellied Monkey (Cercopithecus erythrogaster erythrogaster) in Southern-Benin, West Africa.

Wildlife habitats are increasingly degraded as a result of anthropogenic pressures. The IUCN recently updated the red list category of the red-bellied monkey (Cercopithecus erythrogaster erythrogaster) from Endangered to Critically Endangered due to its population decrease, habitats degradation and various threats to its conservation. It is therefore important to identify areas of great importance for the sustainable conservation of the subspecies. The Species Distribution Model (SDM) is a method increasingly used by conservationists to help find these areas and thus limit areas of intervention. In this study, maximum entropy model was used to identify suitable habitats for the red-bellied monkey in landscape of southern-Benin from occurrence data and selected predictor variables according to ecological habitat requirements of the subspecies. The suitable habitat model for the red-bellied monkey has a good predictive power (AUC = 0.97). The variables that contributed most to the final model, as indicated by the permutation importance, were: Distance to Water (47.7%), Land Cover Class (23.1%), Brightness (17.0%), Wetness (4.7%), Human Population Size (2.8%) and Elevation (2.2%). Thus, using Maximum Training sensitivity and Specificity threshold, 3.62% of the landscape was classified as suitable and 96.38% was classified as unsuitable for the red-bellied monkey. The largest area of suitable habitat is found in protected areas (57.46%), mainly in the Lama Forest Reserve central core (49.5%). The landscape is fragmented and 91.49% of suitable habitats are between 0 and 0.01 km2 in size. The mean size of suitable habitats in the landscape is 0.017 ± 0.545 km2. Nevertheless, there is no significant difference between the mean size of suitable habitats in protected areas and those in the unprotected area (P = 0.061, Mann-Whitney U tests). The Average Nearest Neighbor Distance of suitable habitats in the landscape is low (0.139 km) and the Average Nearest Neighbor Ratio (R) is less than 1 (R = 0.408, p < 0.001). Those features indicate a clustered pattern of suitable habitats for the red-bellied monkey in the landscape. This makes it possible to foresee the establishment of connections between the isolated suitable habitats and thus allow for the long-term conservation of the species populations.

Effects of wildfire ash on the growth and biochemical profiles of the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor.

Wildfires are a social and environmental concern to the world due to their many adverse effects, including risk to the public health and security, economic damages in prevention and fight, ecosystems pollution, land usage sustainability, and biodiversity. In the Mediterranean region, these events have increased in the last years. Although several studies evaluated the impacts of the wildfires on the structure and function of the ecosystems and their communities, there is a lack of information at the biochemical level beyond the toxicological effects to the organisms. So, aiming to evaluate the potential toxic and biochemical effects of pine and eucalypt ash from high and low severity burned areas in the aquatic environments, L. minor growth, fatty acid and carbohydrate profiles were studied. Data showed that the wildfires ash from high severity burned areas are more toxic, with a higher growth inhibition than when exposed to ash from low severity burned areas. Considering the ash from low severity burned areas, eucalypt ash revealed to be more noxious to the macrophyte than pine ash. Furthermore, it was observed a decrease in the diversity and abundance of fatty acids content, comparing with the control. An opposite trend was observed in carbohydrates which increased with the organisms' exposure to almost all ash types, except in case of the organisms exposed to eucalypt ash from high severity burned areas, where carbohydrate content decreased.

Identifying management opportunities to combat climate, land, and marine threats across less climate exposed coral reefs.

Conserving coral reefs is critical for maintaining marine biodiversity, protecting coastlines, and supporting livelihoods in many coastal communities. Climate change threatens coral reefs globally, but researchers have identified a portfolio of coral reefs (bioclimatic units [BCUs]) that are relatively less exposed to climate impacts and strongly connected to other coral reef systems. These reefs provide a proactive opportunity to secure a long-term future for coral reefs under climate change. To help guide local management efforts, we quantified marine cumulative human impact (CHI) from climate, marine, and land pressures (2013 and from 2008 to 2013) in BCUs and across countries tasked with BCU management. Additionally, we created a management index based on common management measures and policies for each pressure source (climate, marine, and land) to identify a country's intent and commitment to effectively manage these pressures. Twenty-two countries (79%) had increases in CHI from 2008 to 2013. Climate change pressures had the highest proportional contribution to CHI across all reefs and in all but one country (Singapore), but 18 BCUs (35%) and nine countries containing BCUs (32%) had relatively high land and marine impacts. There was a significant positive relationship between climate impact and the climate management index across countries (R2 = 0.43, p = 0.02), potentially signifying that countries with greater climate impacts are more committed to managing them. However, this trend was driven by climate management intent in Fiji and Bangladesh. Our results can be used to guide future fine-scale analyses, national policies, and local management decisions, and our management indices reveal areas where management components can be improved. Cost-effectively managing local pressures (e.g., fishing and nutrients) in BCUs is essential for building a climate-ready future that benefits coral reefs and people.

Identificación de Oportunidades de Gestión para Combatir las Amenazas Climáticas, Marinas y Terrestres en los Arrecifes de Coral Menos Expuestos al Clima Resumen La conservación de los arrecifes de coral es de suma importancia para mantener la biodiversidad marina y para sostener el medio de vida en muchas comunidades costeras. El cambio climático es una amenaza mundial para los arrecifes de coral; aun así, los investigadores han identificado un portafolio de arrecifes de coral (unidades bioclimáticas[UBCs]) que se encuentran relativamente menos expuestos a los impactos climáticos y están conectados a otros sistemas arrecifales. Estos arrecifes proporcionan una oportunidad proactiva de asegurar un futuro a largo plazo para los arrecifes de coral frente al cambio climático. Para ayudar a guiar los esfuerzos locales de manejo, cuantificamos el impacto humano acumulativo (IHA) sobre los ambientes marinos a partir de las presiones climáticas, marinas y terrestres (del 2008 al 2013) en las UBCs y en los países encargados del manejo de estas. Además, creamos un índice de manejo con base en las medidas y políticas comunes de gestión para cada fuente de presión (clima, ambiente marino, suelo) para identificar la intención y el compromiso de cada país para manejar de manera efectiva estas presiones. Veintidós países (79%) tuvieron incrementos en el IHA entre 2008 y 2013. Las presiones por el cambio climático tuvieron la contribución proporcional más alta al IHA en todos los arrecifes y en todos los países excepto uno (Singapur), pero 18 UBCs (35%) y nueve países que cuentan con UBCs (32%) tuvieron impactos terrestres y marinos relativamente altos. Hubo una relación positiva significativa entre el impacto climático y el índice de manejo climático entre los países (R2 = 0.43, p = 0.02), lo que potencialmente significa que los países con un mayor impacto climático están más comprometidos con su manejo. Sin embargo, esta tendencia estuvo impulsada por las intenciones de manejo climático en Fiyi y en Bangladesh. Nuestros resultados pueden usarse para orientar los análisis a fina escala, las políticas nacionales y las decisiones locales de manejo en el futuro. Nuestros índices de manejo también revelan áreas en donde se pueden mejorar los componentes gestores. El manejo rentable de las presiones locales (p. ej.: la pesca, los nutrientes) dentro de las UBCs es esencial para construir un futuro preparado climáticamente que beneficie a los arrecifes y a las personas.

Public perception of ecosystem services provided by the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis related to anthropogenic activities.

BACKGROUND: Mussels provide many ecosystem services as habitat, food, water filtration and recreational fishing. However, mussels are vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures such as harvesting or trampling, among others. In this frame, it would be paramount to engage society in marine conservation and improving its awareness about environmental policies. The first step lies in properly assessing what is the perception and concerns of society about marine ecosystems. Our study aims to fill this gap by examining public perception of services provided by Mytilus galloprovincialis, its state of conservation and the factors (including anthropogenic activities) shaping mussel beds. METHODS: This study is based on a face-to-face survey consisting of seven open-ended and seven multiple-choice questions of 404 people conducted in 2019 at different shores in the North Portuguese coast. The influence of respondent profile in terms of age, education, gender and place of residence was also assessed. RESULTS: Most of the participants in our survey (74%) considered that mussels contributed to human well-being and life quality; however, only 31% considered that mussels provide us with many benefits. Regarding the perceived state of mussel services, most of the respondents asserted that mussel services (purification of seawater, habitat, food for other species) worsened in the last 10 years. In contrast, the service as human food was perceived as in an identical state and scientific and traditional knowledge was the only service perceived in a better state. Concerning the state of mussel beds, most of the participants perceived it as good (45%) but a similar percentage (41%) asserted ignoring it. When considering the influence of different factors on mussel beds, only environmental management was considered as having a positive impact by a higher percentage of respondents. The majority of the participants considered that factors included in the questionnaire contributed to worsen mussel beds, ranging between 51% for coastal erosion and 90% for pollution. Education level and age were the main socio-economic factors driving public awareness about the importance of mussel services, its state of conservation and the factors shaping mussel beds. DISCUSSION: Results showed that perception about the importance of mussels for human well-being and the quantity of delivered benefits increased with the education level. Moreover, older people perceived human food as the most important service offered by mussels. Therefore, our results suggest that mussels are mainly known as food resource; however, most of the people ignore their relevant ecological role and the many other benefits that mussels provide. Thus, it is necessary to actively engage society about importance of mussel beds. As M. galloprovincialis is a relevant economic resource, our data could improve the diffusion of knowledge among citizens, stakeholders and scientists, contributing to its sustainability.

Probability maps of anthropogenic impacts affecting ecological status in European rivers.

Understanding how anthropogenic pressures affect river ecological status is pivotal to designing effective management strategies. Knowledge on river aquatic habitats status in Europe has increased tremendously since the introduction of the European Union Water Framework Directive, yet heterogeneities in mandatory monitoring and reporting still limit identification of patterns at continental scale. Concurrently, several model and data-based indicators of anthropogenic pressures to freshwater that cover the continent consistently have been developed. The objective of this work was to create European maps of the probability of occurrence of river conditions, namely failure to achieve good ecological status, or to be affected by specific pervasive impacts. To this end, we applied logistic regression methods to model the river conditions as functions of continental-scale water pressure indicators. The prediction capacity of the models varied with river condition: the probability to fail achieving good ecological status, and occurrence of nutrient and organic pollution were rather well predicted; conversely, chemical (other than nutrient and organic) pollution and alteration of habitats due to hydrological or morphological changes were poorly predicted. The most important indicators explaining river conditions were the shares of agricultural and artificial land, mean annual net abstractions, share of pollution loads from point sources, and the share of upstream river length uninterrupted by barriers. The probability of failing to achieve good ecological status was estimated to be high (>60%) for 36% of the considered river network of about 1.6 M km. Occurrence of impact of nutrient pollution was estimated high (>60%) in 26% of river length and that of organic pollution 20%. The maps are built upon information reported at country level pursuant EU legal obligations, as well as indicators generated from European scale models and data: both sources are affected by epistemic uncertainty. In particular, reported information depend on data collection scoping and schemes, as well as national knowledge and interpretation of river system pressures. In turn, water pressure indicators are affected by heterogeneous biases due to incomplete or incorrect inputs and uncertainty of models adopted. Lack of effective reach- and site-scale indicators may hamper detection of locally relevant impacts, for example in explaining alteration of habitats due to morphological changes. The probability maps provide a continental snapshot of current river conditions, and offer an alternative source of information on river aquatic habitats, which may help filling in knowledge gaps. Foremost, the analysis demonstrates the need for developing more effective continental-scale indicators for hydromorphological alterations and chemical pollution.

Ecology, evolution, and epidemiology of zoonotic and vector-borne infectious diseases in French Guiana: Transdisciplinarity does matter to tackle new emerging threats.

French Guiana is a European ultraperipheric region located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It constitutes an important forested region for biological conservation in the Neotropics. Although very sparsely populated, with its inhabitants mainly concentrated on the Atlantic coastal strip and along the two main rivers, it is marked by the presence and development of old and new epidemic disease outbreaks, both research and health priorities. In this review paper, we synthetize 15 years of multidisciplinary and integrative research at the interface between wildlife, ecosystem modification, human activities and sociodemographic development, and human health. This study reveals a complex epidemiological landscape marked by important transitional changes, facilitated by increased interconnections between wildlife, land-use change and human occupation and activity, human and trade transportation, demography with substantial immigration, and identified vector and parasite pharmacological resistance. Among other French Guianese characteristics, we demonstrate herein the existence of more complex multi-host disease life cycles than previously described for several disease systems in Central and South America, which clearly indicates that today the greater promiscuity between wildlife and humans due to demographic and economic pressures may offer novel settings for microbes and their hosts to circulate and spread. French Guiana is a microcosm that crystallizes all the current global environmental, demographic and socioeconomic change conditions, which may favor the development of ancient and future infectious diseases.

Evaluating coral reef ecosystem services outcomes from climate change adaptation strategies using integrative system dynamics.

Coral reef ecosystems provide a broad spectrum of essential ecological, economic and cultural services for Small Island Developing State (SIDS) communities. However, coral reef communities are increasingly threatened by the adverse impacts of human activities at both global and local scales. This study aims to develop an integrated dynamic assessment framework to evaluate coral reef conditions under different adaptation and climate change scenarios, and their consequential economic impacts in the small island community of Port Resolution on Tanna Island in Vanuatu. Our assessment framework follows a sequential multilayered modelling approach that uses System Dynamics (SD) coupled with Bayesian Network (BN) modelling to deal with the complexity and dynamicity of socioeconomic and environmental systems, and impacts from trans-discipline variables. The BN incorporated existing data and expert knowledge to project the future conditions of coral reefs under different scenario settings, and to parametrise and quantify the SD model where the existing data and information was insufficient. The SD was then used to simulate the dynamic relationship between coral reef condition and the economic benefits derived from its ecosystem services under different climate change (i.e. RCPs) and management scenarios through to 2070. Our findings show that sustainable community-based conservation management strategies are key to preserving the flow of coral reef ecosystem services under RCP 2.6 and 6.0. Importantly, we demonstrate that the implementation of an integrated portfolio of management strategies better protects ecosystem services provided by coral reefs and maximises the total economic benefits achieved over the long-term despite a temporary and short-term economic loss due to high initial capital investments and income reduction due to fishing and tourism restrictions.

A temporal record of microplastic pollution in Mediterranean seagrass soils.

Plastic pollution is emerging as a potential threat to the marine environment. In the current study, we selected seagrass meadows, known to efficiently trap organic and inorganic particles, to investigate the concentrations and dynamics of microplastics in their soil. We assessed microplastic contamination and accumulation in 210Pb dated soil cores collected in Posidonia oceanica meadows at three locations along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with two sites located in the Almería region (Agua Amarga and Roquetas) and one at Cabrera Island (Santa Maria). Almería is known for its intense agricultural industry with 30 000 ha of plastic-covered greenhouses, while the Cabrera Island is situated far from urban areas. Microplastics were extracted using enzymatic digestion and density separation. The particles were characterized by visual identification and with Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and related to soil age-depth chronologies. Our findings showed that the microplastic contamination and accumulation was negligible until the mid-1970s, after which plastic particles increased dramatically, with the highest concentrations of microplastic particles (MPP) found in the recent (since 2012) surface soil of Agua Amarga (3819 MPP kg-1), followed by the top-most layers of the soil of the meadows in Roquetas (2173 kg-1) and Santa Maria (68-362 kg-1). The highest accumulation rate was seen in the Roquetas site (8832 MPP m-2 yr-1). The increase in microplastics in the seagrass soil was associated to land-use change following the intensification of the agricultural industry in the area, with a clear relationship between the development of the greenhouse industry in Almería and the concentration of microplastics in the historical soil record. This study shows a direct linkage between intense anthropogenic activity, an extensive use of plastics and high plastic contamination in coastal marine ecosystems such as seagrass meadows. We highlight the need of proper waste management to protect the coastal environment from continuous pollution.