The status of forest carbon markets in Latin America.

Tropical rainforests of Latin America (LATAM) are one of the world's largest carbon sinks, with substantial future carbon sequestration potential and contributing a major proportion of the global supply of forest carbon credits. LATAM is poised to contribute predominantly towards high-quality forest carbon offset projects designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, halt biodiversity loss, and provide equitable conservation benefits to people. Thus, carbon markets, including compliance carbon markets and voluntary carbon markets continue to expand in LATAM. However, the extent of the growth and status of forest carbon markets, pricing initiatives, stakeholders, amongst others, are yet to be explored and extensively reviewed for the entire LATAM region. Against this backdrop, we reviewed a total of 299 articles, including peer-reviewed and non-scientific gray literature sources, from January 2010 to March 2023. Herein, based on the extensive literature review, we present the results and provide perspectives classified into five categories: (i) the status and recent trends of forest carbon markets (ii) the interested parties and their role in the forest carbon markets, (iii) the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) approaches and role of remote sensing, (iv) the challenges, and (v) the benefits, opportunities, future directions and recommendations to enhance forest carbon markets in LATAM. Despite the substantial challenges, better governance structures for forest carbon markets can increase the number, quality and integrity of projects and support the carbon sequestration capacity of the rainforests of LATAM. Due to the complex and extensive nature of forest carbon projects in LATAM, emerging technologies like remote sensing can enable scale and reduce technical barriers to MRV, if properly benchmarked. The future directions and recommendations provided are intended to improve upon the existing infrastructure and governance mechanisms, and encourage further participation from the public and private sectors in forest carbon markets in LATAM.

Influence of urban forests on residential property values: A systematic review of remote sensing-based studies.

Urban forests provide direct and indirect benefits to human well-being that are increasingly captured in residential property values. Remote Sensing (RS) can be used to measure a wide range of forest and vegetation parameters that allows for a more detailed and better understanding of their specific influences on housing prices. Herein, through a systematic literature review approach, we reviewed 89 papers (from 2010 to 2022) from 21 different countries that used RS data to quantify vegetation indices, forest and tree parameters of urban forests and estimated their influence on residential property values. The main aim of this study was to understand and provide insights into how urban forests influence residential property values based on RS studies. Although more studies were conducted in developed (n = 55, 61.7%) than developing countries (n = 34, 38.3%), the results indicated for the most part that increasing tree canopy cover on property and neighborhood level, forest size, type, greenness, and proximity to urban forests increased housing prices. RS studies benefited from spatially explicit repetitive data that offer superior efficiency to quantify vegetation, forest, and tree parameters of urban forests over large areas and longer periods compared to studies that used field inventory data. Through this work, we identify and underscore that urban forest benefits outweigh management costs and have a mostly positive influence on housing prices. Thus, we encourage further discussions about prioritizing reforestation and conservation of urban forests during the urban planning of cities and suburbs, which could support UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and urban policy reforms.

The number of tree species on Earth.

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.

Human disturbance and shifts in vertebrate community composition in a biodiversity hotspot.

Understanding how human modification of the landscape shapes vertebrate community composition is vital to understanding the current status and future trajectory of wildlife. Using a participatory approach, we deployed the largest camera-trap network in Mesoamerica to date to investigate how anthropogenic disturbance shapes the occupancy and co-occurrence of terrestrial vertebrate species in a tropical biodiversity hotspot: the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. We estimated species richness in different categories of land protection with rarefaction analysis and estimated the expected occupancy with a joint species distribution model that included covariates for anthropogenic disturbance, land protection, habitat quality, and habitat availability. Areas with the most stringent land-use protections (e.g., Corcovado National Park, 24 species [95% CI 23-25]) harbored significantly more species than unprotected areas (20 species [19.7-20.3]), mainly due to a reduced presence of large-bodied species of conservation concern in unprotected areas (e.g., jaguar Panthera onca and white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari). Small-bodied generalist species, such as opossums (Didelphidae) and armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus), in contrast, were more common at disturbed sites, resulting in a significant difference in vertebrate community composition between sites with low and high disturbance. Co-occurrence of species was also mainly associated with response to disturbance. Similar responses to disturbance create two groups of species, those whose site-level occupancy usually increased as anthropogenic disturbance increased and those whose estimated occupancy decreased. The absence of large-bodied species entails an important loss of ecological function in disturbed areas and can hinder forest development and maintenance. Efforts to protect and restore forested landscapes are likely having a positive effect on the abundance of some threatened species. These efforts, however, must be sustained and expanded to increase connectivity and ensure the long-term viability of the wildlife community.

Perturbaciones Humanas y Cambios en la Composición de la Comunidad de Vertebrados en un Punto Caliente de Biodiversidad Resumen El entendimiento de cómo las modificaciones humanas del paisaje conforman la composición de las comunidades de vertebrados es vital para entender el estado actual y la trayectoria futura de la fauna. Mediante una estrategia participativa, desplegamos la mayor red de cámaras trampa en Mesoamérica hasta la fecha para investigar cómo la perturbación antropogénica determina la ocupación y coocurrencia de las especies terrestres de vertebrados en un punto caliente de biodiversidad tropical: la Península de Osa, Costa Rica. Estimamos la riqueza de especies en diferentes categorías de protección de suelo con un análisis de rarefacción y estimamos la ocupación esperada con un modelo de distribución conjunta de especies que incluyó covariables para la perturbación antropogénica, la protección del suelo, la calidad del hábitat y la disponibilidad del hábitat. Las áreas con la protección más estricta de uso de suelo (p. ej.: Parque Nacional Corcovado, 24 especies [95% CI 23-25]) albergaron significativamente a más especies que las áreas desprotegidas (20 especies [19.7-20.3]), principalmente debido a la presencia reducida de especies de talla grande de interés para la conservación en las áreas desprotegidas (p. ej.: el jaguar Panthera onca, el pecarí de labios blancos, Tayassu pecari). Al contrario, las especies generalistas de talla pequeña, como las zarigüeyas (Didelphidae) y el armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) fueron más comunes en los sitios perturbados, lo que resulta en una diferencia significativa en la composición de las comunidades de vertebrados entre los sitios con una perturbación baja y alta. La coocurrencia de especies también estuvo asociada principalmente con la respuesta a la perturbación. Las respuestas similares a la perturbación crean dos grupos de especies: aquellas cuya ocupación a nivel de sitio generalmente incrementó conforme incrementó la perturbación antropogénica y aquellas cuya ocupación estimada disminuyó. La ausencia de especies de talla grande conlleva una pérdida importante de la función ecológica en las áreas perturbadas y puede dificultar el desarrollo y mantenimiento del bosque. Los esfuerzos para proteger y restaurar los paisajes forestales probablemente estén teniendo un efecto positivo sobre la abundancia de algunas especies amenazadas. Estos esfuerzos, sin embargo, deben ser sostenidos y expandidos para incrementar la conectividad y asegurar la viabilidad a largo plazo de la comunidad faunística.

Agricultural land use changes stream dissolved organic matter via altering soil inputs to streams.

Agricultural land use leads to significant changes in both the quality (e.g., sources and compositions) and quantity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) exported from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. However, the effect of agricultural activities often interacts with those of hydroclimatic drivers, making it difficult to delineate agriculture-induced changes and identify associated mechanisms. Using partial least square path modeling (PLS-PM), we examined the relative importance of agricultural land use, stream order, precipitation, and temperature in mediating allochthonous versus autochthonous sources and pathways that influenced stream DOM quality and quantity. We analyzed stream water DOM from 15 small streams draining watersheds across a gradient of agricultural land use in Southeast USA for about one year. For DOM quantity, agricultural land use increased the export of DOC and various DOM pools (terrestrial humic, microbial humic, and protein-like DOM) from land to streams, and for DOM quality, agricultural streams showed greater proportions of microbial humic compounds than forested streams. The PLS-PM model for DOM quantity accounted for 75.5% of total variance and identified that agricultural land use increased stream water DOM quantity primarily through increasing allochthonous inputs, which can be attributed to shallower flow paths in agricultural watersheds that enabled the export of organic materials from the upper, organic-rich soil horizon. PLS-PM models for DOM quality only explained ~13% of the total variance, highlighting the complex dynamics between environmental drivers and stream water DOM. Relative to commonly used multivariate statistic modeling (e.g., redundancy analysis (RDA)), PLS-PM models offer the advantages of identifying the primary pathway by which agricultural lands alter freshwater DOM and quantifying the relative importance of interactive effects of agriculture and hydroclimatic drivers. Therefore, structural equation modeling is a powerful tool that should be more widely adopted to distinguish among multiple drivers and mechanisms regulating freshwater biogeochemistry.

Afforestation, reforestation and new challenges from COVID-19: Thirty-three recommendations to support civil society organizations (CSOs).

Afforestation/reforestation (A/R) programs spearheaded by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play a significant role in reaching global climate policy targets and helping low-income nations meet the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, these organizations face unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, these challenges affect their ability to address issues associated with deforestation and forest degradation in a timely manner. We discuss the influence COVID-19 can have on previous, present and future A/R initiatives, in particular, the ones led by International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs). We provide thirty-three recommendations for exploring underlying deforestation patterns and optimizing forest policy reforms to support forest cover expansion during the pandemic. The recommendations are classified into four groups - i) curbing deforestation and improving A/R, ii) protecting the environment and mitigating climate change, iii) enhancing socio-economic conditions, and iv) amending policy and law enforcement practices.

Author Correction: Strategic approaches to restoring ecosystems can triple conservation gains and halve costs.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Rare pre-Columbian settlement on the Florida Gulf Coast revealed through high-resolution drone LiDAR.

Drone-mounted, high-resolution light detection and ranging reveals the architectural details of an ancient settlement on the Gulf Coast of Florida without parallel in the Southeastern United States. The Raleigh Island shell-ring complex (8LV293) of ca. 900 to 1200 CE consists of at least 37 residential spaces enclosed by ridges of oyster shell up to 4 m tall. Test excavations in 10 of these residential spaces yielded abundant evidence for the production of beads from the shells of marine gastropods. Beads and other objects made from gulf coastal shell were integral to the political economies of second-millennium CE chiefdoms across eastern North America. At places as distant from the coast as the lower Midwest, marine gastropods were imported in raw form and converted into beads and other objects by craftspeople at the behest of chiefs. Bead making at Raleigh Island is exceptional not only for its level of production at the supply end of regional demand but also for being outside the purview of chiefly control. Here we introduce the newly discovered above-ground architecture of Raleigh Island and outline its analytical value for investigating the organization of shell bead production in the context of ancient political economies. The details of shell-ring architecture achieved with drone-mounted LiDAR make it possible to compare the bead making of persons distributed across residential spaces with unprecedented resolution.

Strategic approaches to restoring ecosystems can triple conservation gains and halve costs.

International commitments for ecosystem restoration add up to one-quarter of the world's arable land. Fulfilling them would ease global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity decline but could displace food production and impose financial costs on farmers. Here, we present a restoration prioritization approach capable of revealing these synergies and trade-offs, incorporating ecological and economic efficiencies of scale and modelling specific policy options. Using an actual large-scale restoration target of the Atlantic Forest hotspot, we show that our approach can deliver an eightfold increase in cost-effectiveness for biodiversity conservation compared with a baseline of non-systematic restoration. A compromise solution avoids 26% of the biome's current extinction debt of 2,864 plant and animal species (an increase of 257% compared with the baseline). Moreover, this solution sequesters 1 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent (a 105% increase) while reducing costs by US$28 billion (a 57% decrease). Seizing similar opportunities elsewhere would offer substantial contributions to some of the greatest challenges for humankind.