Southern Black Korhaan is “Vulnerable” to extinction and a South African endemic that is restricted to the area of the Northern Cape Province that is west of the Great Escarpment, and to the area south of the Great Escarpment in the Western Cape, and the western section of the Eastern Cape Province. The 1990, 2014, and 2020 land use land cover (LULC) databases prepared for South Africa were used to determine the LULC categories that best describe suitable habitat for the birds using beta regressions and data on the exact locality of the birds from BirdLasser. The South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP) reporting rates were used to determine the change in the relative abundance of the birds between the first and second SABAP. Beta regression models were compiled using the bird’s reporting rate and the total surface area, and three other landscape metrics, of the per pentad LULC categories considered to be suitable habitat for them. These models and the SABAP reporting rates revealed that Southern Black Korhaan is adversely affected by the loss of, especially, its fynbos habitat to crop agriculture. In 2020, the area of suitable habitat available to the bird was estimated to be 2,035,526 ha on terrain with a slope of ≤4°. Southern Black Korhaan remains “Vulnerable” to extinction because of the continued decline of >30% in the size of its population over three generations (31 years). The cumulative effects of habitat fragmentation and loss on Southern Black Korhaan and other threatened taxa must be mitigated by conserving and, where appropriate, rehabilitating suitable habitat (e.g. Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve’s Corridors and Rehabilitation Project) in the protected areas, critical biodiversity areas, and ecosystem support areas identified in the provincial spatial conservation plans. Together these areas form a perforated landscape that ensures maximum connectivity between the remaining patches of indigenous habitat.

The intrinsic complexity, variety of concepts and numerous ways to quantify landscape heterogeneity (LH) may hamper a better understanding of how its components relate to ecological phenomena. Our study is the first to synthesize understanding of this concept and to provide the state of the art on the subject based on a comprehensive systematic literature review of 661 articles published between 1982 and 2019. Definitions, terminologies and measurements of LH were diverse and conflicting. Most articles (534 out of 661) did not provide any definition for LH, and we found great variation among the studies that did. According to our review, only 10 studies measured the effects of different land-cover types on biotic or abiotic processes (functional LH). The remaining 651 studies measured physical attributes of the landscape without mentioning that different land-cover types may impact biotic and abiotic processes differently (structural LH). The metrics most frequently used to represent LH were the Shannon diversity index and proportion of land-cover type. Most metrics used as proxies of LH also coincided with those used to represent non-heterogeneity metrics, such as fragmentation and connectivity. We identify knowledge gaps, indicate future perspectives and propose guidelines that should be addressed when researching LH.

Small mammals can be used as environmental indicators and have been intensively studied in fragmented landscapes of Atlantic Forest, with a wide range of field methods. Our aim in this study was two-fold: we tested for the effects of methods and for the effects of the main environmental variables on observed small mammal richness in fragments of Atlantic Forest. We gathered information on small mammal richness, methods and environmental variables from 122 fragments of Atlantic Forest through literature review. These data were analysed using linear models and model selection based on AIC values along with a regression tree analysis. We found that studies will record more species with bigger trapping effort, using pitfall traps and sampling all forest strata. We also confirmed two important ecological assumptions: fragments at lower latitudes and bigger fragments were the ones with higher species richness. Methodological and environmental variables were analysed together on a regression tree, where trapping effort was the most important variable, surpassing any environmental effect. Considering that a significant number of the studies on Atlantic Forest fragments did not use pitfall traps or sample all forest strata, their results on forest fragmentation were affected by sampling bias.

Human–wildlife conflict is one of the most pressing issues in conservation. Low-income rural communities are disproportionately affected by negative interactions with large predators, which often leads to retaliatory killings and persecution of the animals. To overcome this, socio-ecological studies that merge existing knowledge of large predator ecology with long-term livestock depredation monitoring are required. We examined patterns and drivers of livestock depredation in northern Botswana, using a mixed effects model of the government's long-term monitoring data on human–wildlife conflict, to identify ways to reduce depredation at key spatial and temporal scales. We compared the results to farmers’ understanding of their personal risk within the landscape. We analysed 342 depredation events that occurred during 2008–2016, using variables measured at different scales. The variables affecting the locations of depredation events at the 2-km scale were distance to protected areas and predator and herbivore density, with increased depredation in the wet season. At a 1-km scale, herbivore density did not have a significant effect, but the effect of other variables was unchanged. The 4-km scale model was influenced by livestock and herbivore density, with increased depredation in the wet season. Livestock depredation could be reduced by establishing an 8-km livestock-free buffer along the protected area boundary. There was disparity between government data on human–wildlife conflict, depredation reported by farmers in interviews and farmers’ risk awareness. Farmers would benefit from workshops providing tools to make evidence-based decisions and minimize their risk of negative interactions with wildlife. This would ultimately contribute to wildlife conservation in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area.

The island of Bonaire is a long-established Marine Protected Area (MPA), the reefs of which were extensively mapped in the early 1980s. Satellite remote sensing techniques were used to construct reef maps for 2008–2009. Metrics describing the spatial structure of coral habitat at the landscape scale – including coral cover, fragmentation, patch size and connectivity between patches – were calculated and compared between these two time periods. Changes were evaluated in and out of the MPAs and in areas exposed and sheltered from storm damage. Overall, coral cover has declined during the past three decades, being replaced by sand, but the decline has not been as drastic as elsewhere in the Caribbean. Fragmentation of the reef habitat has occurred, resulting in smaller and more disparate patches, but these changes were not associated with exposure along the coastline. However, total coral cover was maintained in sheltered areas, whereas it declined along exposed shorelines. Human protection of reefs by marine reserves had variable effects on coral cover and fragmentation. One of two no-diving marine reserves showed increases in coral cover accompanied by decreases in the number of patches of coral and an increase in the size of individual patches over the time period, while the second reserve exhibited the opposite trend. Advances in satellite remote sensing techniques allow for a more rapid assessment of changes in reefs at the landscape level, which can be used to identify spatial changes in the reef environment, including areas of coral decline.

Toxoplasma gondii, a zoonotic parasite of global importance, infects all endothermic vertebrates, with extensive health implications. The prevalence of this parasite is seldom monitored in wildlife. Here, a semi-aquatic species, the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) was used as a model to assess the potential effect of climate, land cover and biotic factors on T. gondii seroprevalence in British wildlife. The Sabin–Feldman cytoplasm-modifying dye test identified T. gondii antibodies in 25·5% of blood samples from otters found dead, mainly as road kill, in England and Wales, between 2004 and 2010. Otters in the east of England were more likely to be infected with T. gondii than those in western regions. Land cover and temperature are key determinants of T. gondii infection risk, with more infection in arable areas and lower infection where temperatures are higher. The probability of T. gondii infection increased with host age, reflecting cumulative exposure with time, but there was no association between T. gondii seroprevalence and cause of host death.

Sustained pollinator services within coffee farms depend substantially on a diverse bee community. While studies have been conducted to understand the impacts of forest proximity and farm level management on pollinators, few have examined the interaction between these two spatial scales. We surveyed pollinator communities within 18 sites on a large organic farm surrounded by native forest in southern Costa Rica. We selected sites 0, 50 and 150 m from the forest edge within shaded and sparsely-shaded (sun) portions of the farm to quantify the influence of both shade management and distance to contiguous forest on pollinator communities. Contrary to similar studies, native bees dominated the composition of pollinators on this farm. Overall, pollinator diversity and activity did not differ significantly neither between the shade management types nor among the sites 0, 50 or 150 m from the forest edge. However, pollinator diversity was found to be significantly higher at sun sites near forest (0 m) compared with further away, whereas the diversity was the same for the shade sites regardless of forest proximity. We found that greater numbers of coffee flowers within each site increased bee abundance and flower visitation frequency. Bee abundance was greater in sites with less ground cover and bee diversity and visitation frequencies were higher in sites with greater amounts of shade canopy cover and trees in flower. Based on our results, we suggest including flowering shade trees that provide high levels of canopy cover, maintaining or re-establishing forested areas within or surrounding farms, and eliminating or reducing agrochemical use to increase native pollinator activity and diversity within coffee farms.

Whereas broad-scale Amazonian forest types have been shown to influence the structure of the communities of medium- to large-bodied vertebrates, their natural heterogeneity at smaller scale or within the terra firme forests remains poorly described and understood. Diversity indices of such communities and the relative abundance of the 21 most commonly observed species were compared from standardized line-transect data across 25 study sites distributed in undisturbed forests in French Guiana. We first assessed the relevance of a forest typology based on geomorphological landscapes to explain the observed heterogeneity. As previously found for tree beta-diversity patterns, this new typology proved to be a non-negligible factor underlying the beta diversity of the communities of medium- to large bodied vertebrates in French Guianan terra firme forests. Although the species studied are almost ubiquitous across the region, they exhibited habitat preferences through significant variation in abundance and in their association index with the different landscape types. As terra firme forests represent more than 90% of the Amazon basin, characterizing their heterogeneity – including faunal communities – is a major challenge in neotropical forest ecology.

Mass-flowering plant species are often pollinated by social bees that are able to use the abundant resource by recruiting workers from their colonies. In this study we surveyed pollinators on the mass-flowering perennial crop coffee (Coffea arabica) in its native range in Ethiopia. Previous studies in areas where coffee is introduced often find the social honeybee, Apis mellifera, to be the dominant pollinator. In those areas, the bee-species composition visiting coffee varies with a higher bee diversity closer to forest or in less modified habitats. We surveyed pollinators of coffee under different shade-tree structures, by collecting hoverflies and bees landing on coffee flowers in 19 sites in south-west Ethiopia. We found the native honeybee (A. mellifera) to be the dominant visitor of coffee flowers in all sites. Honeybee abundance was not affected by the local shade-tree structure, but was positively affected by the amount of coffee flower resources. Other pollinators were positively affected by complex shade-tree structures. To conclude, the honeybee is clearly the dominant pollinator of coffee in Ethiopia along the whole shade-tree structure gradient. Its high abundance could be a consequence of the provision of traditional bee hives in the landscape, which are colonized by wild swarming honeybees.

An area close to the Qinghai-Tibet plateau region and subject to intensive deforestation contains a large focus of human alveolar echinococcosis while sporadic human cases occur in the Doubs region of eastern France. The current review analyses and compares epidemiological and ecological results obtained in both regions. Analysis of rodent species assemblages within quantified rural landscapes in central China and eastern France shows a significant association between host species for the pathogenic helminth Echinococcus multilocularis, with prevalences of human alveolar echinococcosis and with land area under shrubland or grassland. This suggests that at the regional scale landscape can affect human disease distribution through interaction with small mammal communities and their population dynamics. Lidicker's ROMPA hypothesis helps to explain this association and provides a novel explanation of how landscape changes may result in increased risk of a rodent-borne zoonotic disease.

There is evidence in the literature that a variety of logging practices may result in significant short and long-term changes to vegetation in the forest understory, however, these changes are still largely unknown for many forest types. The objective of this study was to determine the short-term effects of shelterwood logging on tree and non-arboreal plant species composition and diversity in both the understory and sapling strata within the Owain Lake Stand of old-growth red and eastern white pine located in Temagami, Ontario. The most significant changes were increases of white birch (800%), red maple (363%) and bracken fern (110%) in the understory. The most significant decreases within the understory occurred in mosses and liverworts (110%), Canada mayflower (49%) and starflower (28%). Bracken fern, red maple, and bush honeysuckle were the three most abundant species in the post-harvest understory plant community and will probably increase in their abundance under the present disturbed condition. A second shelterwood cut in 20 to 40 years may further facilitate an increase in these three species primarily by increasing light levels at the forest floor. All three species are very vigorous and are likely to dominate the forest understory until the upper canopy closes resulting in decreased light intensity at the forest floor.

The Sierra de Tamaulipas is a biogeographically isolated mountain system in Northern Mexico, where habitat fragmentation by land-management practices is a possible threat to wildlife conservation. As a case example, we used GIS analyses to evaluate how human activities influence the landscape structure of jaguar (Panthera onca) habitat in the region. The study: (1) ranked potential habitat based on associations between environmental attributes (topography, streams and vegetation) and the frequency distribution of jaguar sighting records; (2) classified current land cover from a 1990 Landsat-TM image and mapped the landscape structure of high potential habitat; and (3) compared the degree to which mature natural vegetation is fragmented by different types of owners. Jaguar sites showed significant associations with tropical deciduous and oak forests, and low, west or south-east slopes, between 400 and 900 m. About 52% of the high potential habitat was mapped as mature natural vegetation, which was distributed as two large patches (28% of the land area) and many small forest patches (98% at < 80 ha). The number and size-class distribution of high-potential habitat patches varied little amongst four ownership types, but the dispersed distribution of more subsistence and commercial-based owners across the landscape suggests the need for collaborative participation in a conservation plan. From our study the need to scale up from managing individual land parcels is substantiated and areas that promote regional contiguity of jaguar habitat in the Sierra de Tamaulipas are identified.

Distributions of flying-fox (Pteropus alecto and P. scapulatus) were examined in relation to use of habitat in the essentially natural landscape of northern Australia. There were differences between the species in terms of the vegetation used for roosting and foraging, which were related to the reproductive cycle and seasonal variation in temperature, rainfall and the availability of preferred foods. Important habitats of P. alecto varied seasonally and included floodplain, mangrove, monsoon rainforest, Melaleuca open-forest, and Eucalyptus miniata/E. tetrodonta open-forest and woodland. The minimum scale at which conservation of P. alecto should be attempted is in the order of 5000 km2, based on seasonal patterns of habitat use. The size of this area will make conservation via traditional reserves difficult and conservation of important habitats outside reserves will be needed. Habitats protected for the benefit of P. alecto will also benefit P. scapulatus but because P. scapulatus is more mobile, displays greater yearly variation in distribution and is less well understood than P. alecto, appropriate conservation actions are less certain.

The diet of the Irish hare Lepus timidus hibernicus was investigated in Northern Ireland. Faecal pellets were collected at regular intervals from three contrasting study sites and from a number of randomly selected sites from known land classes. Microhistological techniques were employed to analyse the pellets. Grass species occurred in high percentage frequencies in all samples of faecal pellets and a wide variety of plant species were represented (up to 26 species in one study site). In a stratified, random survey of the presence of hares, areas of lowland intensive agriculture had fewer positive records than expected. It is contended that L. t. hibernicus may not be able to sustain viable populations in areas of intensive agriculture, which are almost exclusively composed of ryegrass Lolium spp.

One of the most complex and contentious issues in Australian ecology concerns the environmental impact of Aboriginal landscape burning. This issue is not only important for the development of a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics and evolution of the Australian biota, but is central to the formulation of appropriate strategies for the conservation of the nation's biodiversity. Ethnographic evidence leaves little doubt that Aboriginal burning played a central role in the maintenance of the landscapes subsequently colonized by Europeans. Both 19th century European colonists and anthropologists in the 20th century documented the indispensability of fire as a tool in traditional Aboriginal economies, which have aptly been described as ‘fire-stick farming’. Aborigines used fire to achieve short-term outcomes such as providing favourable habitats for herbivores or increasing the local abundance of food plants, but it is not clear whether or not Aborigines had a predictive ecological knowledge of the long-term consequences of their use of fire. A large body of ecological evidence suggests that Aboriginal burning resulted in substantial changes in the geographic range and demographic structure of many vegetation types. Aboriginal burning was important in creating habitat mosaics that favoured the abundance of some mammal species and in the maintenance of infrequently burnt habitats upon which the survival of specialized fauna depends. Aboriginal fire regimes were probably critical for the maintenance of at least one species of tree (Callitris intratropica) in the monsoon tropics.

The question of the original impact of humans on the Australian environment is fundamentally speculative because of vague, disputed time frames proposed for the waves of colonization and shifting settlement patterns of Aborigines in the late Quaternary period. There is an inherent circular argument concerning the cause and effect of climate change, vegetation change, and burning through the late Quaternary. Charcoal and pollen evidence from long sedimentary cores is ambiguous and cannot be used to demonstrate unequivocally the initial impact of Aboriginal people on the landscapes of Pleistocene Australia. The sparse available evidence does not support the hypotheses that Aboriginal burning was primarily responsible for the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna; was critical for the maintenance of habitats of small mammals that have become extinct following European colonization; initiated widespread accelerated soil erosion rates in either the Pleistocene or Holocene; or forced the evolutionary diversification of the Australian biota. Burning may have caused the extinction of some fire-sensitive species of plants and animals dependent upon infrequently burnt habitats, and it must have maintained structurally open vegetation such as grasslands and also extended the range of fire-adapted species, such as Eucalyptus, into environments climatically suitable for rain forest. Palaeoecological research concerning prior impacts of Aborigines must give way to focused studies of the role of different anthropogenic fire regimes in contemporary ecosystems that have not been destroyed by European colonization. Such research is crucial for comprehending the role of Aboriginal burning in the maintenance of Australia's unique, rich biodiversity.