Ecological equivalence assessment: The potential of genetic tools, remote sensing and metapopulation models to better apply the mitigation hierarchy.

Within the framework of the mitigation hierarchy, biodiversity offsetting is the main tool promoted to reach No Net Loss. One of the determining factors of offsetting success is the evaluation of ecological equivalence. Various equivalence assessment methods (EAMs) have been developed to provide a framework to evaluate the balance between expected biodiversity losses and gains. In the context of achieving No Net Loss, EAMs must address challenges of Operationality, Currency, Uncertainty, Spatial scale and Time frame. In this study, we investigated the way the most widely used EAMs address these challenges, positing that certain tools from ecological science could limit the trade-offs between these challenges and improve the ecological assessment process. To this end, we analysed the risks and benefits associated with the inclusion of genetic tools (landscape genetics and eDNA), remote sensing and metapopulation models in selected EAMs. Our results revealed trade-offs between these five challenges, in particular between Operationality and Currency. The EAMs varied strongly in these two aspects, depending on the general assessment approach and the biodiversity component they focus on. To a lesser degree, Time frame and Spatial scale also differed between the methods. We identified that the integration of the different tools differs among them, being easier for remote sensing and metapopulation models than for the genetic tools. Nevertheless, the integration resulted in benefits compared to the current use of the methods - benefits that included improving the objectivation of the assessment and the automatization potential. The tools also show potential for automatization, which could have major benefits for operationality. In terms of risks, the integration of these tools increases the technical complexity of the methods, requiring new skills, and would change the overall approach of the ecological assessment.

Climate and habitat interact to shape the thermal reaction norms of breeding phenology across lizard populations.

Substantial plastic variation in phenology in response to environmental heterogeneity through time in the same population has been uncovered in many species. However, our understanding of differences in reaction norms of phenology among populations from a given species remains limited. As the plasticity of phenological traits is often influenced by local thermal conditions, we expect local temperature to generate variation in the reaction norms between populations. Here, we explored temporal variation in parturition date across 11 populations of the common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) from four mountain chains as a function of air temperatures during mid-gestation. We characterized among-population variation to assess how local weather conditions (mean and variance of ambient temperatures during mid-gestation) and habitat openness (an index of anthropogenic disturbance) influence the thermal reaction norms of the parturition date. Our results provide evidence of interactive effects of anthropogenic disturbance and thermal conditions, with earlier parturition dates in warmer years on average especially in closed habitats. Variation in the reaction norms for parturition date was correlated with mean local thermal conditions at a broad geographical scale. However, populations exposed to variable thermal conditions had flatter thermal reaction norms. Assessing whether environmental heterogeneity drives differentiation among reaction norms is crucial to estimate the capacity of different populations to contend with projected climatic and anthropogenic challenges.

Towards an absolute light pollution indicator.

The growing concern about the negative impact of artificial light at night on biodiversity and human health increases the need of defining a general indicator that could be used for characterizing light pollution as well as performing both spatial and temporal comparisons. In this paper, we show that the traditional indicators based on direct numerical measurements of sky brightness suffer from significant limitation due to calibration bias and lack of reproducibility. Furthermore, these measures are most often performed in periods of clear sky. They do not reflect the wide variety of meteorological conditions that can produce highly inhomogeneous levels of light pollution on a given site. To overcome these issues, we propose a statistical indicator called NSB Dispersion Ratio. This indicator is derived from a statistically significant number of individual night sky brightness measurements, under various meteorological conditions. It is independent of any absolute photometer calibration. It only requires on-time precise corrections of the contribution of natural light sources such as the Galactic plane.

The roles of plasticity versus dominance in maintaining polymorphism in mating strategies.

Although natural selection is expected to reduce variability, polymorphism is common in nature even under strong selective regimes. Discrete polymorphisms in mating strategies are widespread and offer a good opportunity to understand the genetic processes that allow the maintenance of polymorphism in relatively simple systems. Here we explored the genetic mechanism underlying the expression of discrete mating strategies in the rock-paper-scissors (RPS) game. Heterozygotes carry the genetic information for two different strategies, yet little attention has been devoted to the mechanisms underpinning heterozygote phenotype and its consequences for allele frequency dynamics. We explored the maintenance of polymorphism under 1) genetic dominance or 2) plasticity, as mechanisms driving the expression of alternative strategies in males. We developed an alternative mating strategy model and analysed allele frequency dynamics using time series analyses. Our results show that both genetic mechanisms can maintain polymorphism depending on population demographic characteristics but that plasticity can enhance the likelihood that polymorphism is maintained relative to dominance. Time series analysis on simulation outcomes show that the RPS game is mostly driven by a single strategy, but the importance of this strategy on long term dynamics is stronger when gene expression shows dominance rather than plasticity.

A database of life-history traits of European amphibians.

In the current context of climate change and landscape fragmentation, efficient conservation strategies require the explicit consideration of life history traits. This is particularly true for amphibians, which are highly threatened worldwide, composed by more than 7400 species, which is constitute one of the most species-rich vertebrate groups. The collection of information on life history traits is difficult due to the ecology of species and remoteness of their habitats. It is therefore not surprising that our knowledge is limited, and missing information on certain life history traits are common for in this species group. We compiled data on amphibian life history traits from literature in an extensive database with morphological and behavioral traits, habitat preferences and movement abilities for 86 European amphibian species (50 Anuran and 36 Urodela species). When it were available, we reported data for males, females, juveniles and tadpoles. Our database may serve as an important starting point for further analyses regarding amphibian conservation.

Dispersal syndromes and the use of life-histories to predict dispersal.

Due to its impact on local adaptation, population functioning or range shifts, dispersal is considered a central process for population persistence and species evolution. However, measuring dispersal is complicated, which justifies the use of dispersal proxies. Although appealing, and despite its general relationship with dispersal, body size has however proven unsatisfactory as a dispersal proxy. Our hypothesis here is that, given the existence of dispersal syndromes, suites of life-history traits may be alternative, more appropriate proxies for dispersal. We tested this idea by using butterflies as a model system. We demonstrate that different elements of the dispersal process (i.e., individual movement rates, distances, and gene flow) are correlated with different suites of life-history traits: these various elements of dispersal form separate syndromes and must be considered real axes of a species' niche. We then showed that these syndromes allowed accurate predictions of dispersal. The use of life-history traits improved the precision of the inferences made from wing size alone by up to five times. Such trait-based predictions thus provided reliable dispersal inferences that can feed simulation models aiming at investigating the dynamics and evolution of butterfly populations, and possibly of other organisms, under environmental changes, to help their conservation.