Resilience
Willingness to Pay for Mangroves’ Coastal Protection: A Case Study in Santo Angel, Calauag, Quezon, PhilippinesBackgroundPeople recognize mangroves for providing crucial coastal protection against strong wave actions, including tsunamis and storm surges, with examples from Bangladesh, Florida, and the Philippines demonstrating their effectiveness. However, despite their importance, global mangrove extent has been decreasing, primarily due to human activities, particularly in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, land-use conversion, exploitation, and natural hazards have significantly reduced mangrove areas since the early 1900s. Open access copy available |
The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territoryBackgroundThe Earth faces a climate crisis as human activities increasing the release of harmful greenhouse gases, turning scientists' warnings of extreme conditions into reality. Climate records are breaking, causing widespread suffering. This report examines the global climate crisis, presenting key climate facts and policy recommendations for scientists, policymakers, and the public. It serves as an up-to-date resource on the escalating emergency. Open access copy available |
The 10 Elements of Agroecology: enabling transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food systems through visual narrativesBackgroundAgriculture and food systems around the world are failing to deliver the desired outcomes for food security and nutrition, creating an urgent need for transformative change to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Addressing this challenge requires stakeholders to adopt holistic approaches that integrate population, diet, and food production, moving beyond a narrow focus on technological advancements and productivity. Agroecology, which incorporates social, political, and economic dimensions, provides a promising pathway to build sustainable and equitable food systems. Open access copy available |
Selecting tree species to restore forest under climate change conditions: Complementing species distribution models with field experimentationBackground:Available with subscription or purchase |
Plant Respiration in a Warmer WorldBackground:It has been estimated that, globally, plants release 60 gigatons of CO2 during the respiration process. Many studies have shown that an increase in global temperature will increase leaves respiration rates, which in turn will decrease carbon uptake and increase atmospheric CO2 concentration (contributing even more to higher global temperature). Available with subscription or purchase |
The eco-evolutionary history of Madagascar presents unique challenges to tropical forest restorationBackgroundMadagascar forests contain high biodiversity and species endemism, while also being heavily threatened by deforestation. Restoration of these forests may be unique to many other restoration projects due to the unique evolutionary history of the island. Goals and MethodsThe authors conduct a literature review of publications to determine if forest restoration in Madagascar is more challenging. With compiled literature from 1990 to 2022, the authors consequently describe unique challenges to Madagascar forest restoration in order to facilitate higher quality restoration projects. Available with subscription or purchase |
Identifying hotspots for ecosystem restoration across heterogeneous tropical savannah-dominated regionsBackgroundIn the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, ecological restoration projects are a valuable tool for meeting global sustainability climate goals. Tropical regions are at the center of attention for their high biodiversity, carbon sink, and benefits to culture and human livelihood. Tropical dry savannahs are understudied even though they cover a large portion of tropical regions. Savannah dominated landscapes are valuable for their high plant diversity and vegetation type variation and high species turnover. Benefits to restoring these ecosystem types are also understudied. Open access copy available |
National parks and conservation concessions: a comparison between mammal populations in two types of tropical protected areas in Ucayali, PeruBackgroundPeru holds the second largest portion of the Amazon rainforest and is threatened by illegal logging and crop cultivation, as well as mining and other activities. Protected areas are one method of forest conservation, which can exist as conservation concessions. These areas of land granted for protection and rehabilitation area vital to maintaining the health and distribution of the forest. Biodiversity is understudied in many of these regions, especially about terrestrial mammals. Open access copy available |
Overcoming biotic homogenization in ecological restorationBackgroundRegional, or gamma, diversity is often lower in restored landscapes compared to reference landscapes due to the selection of few desirable species for planting. Lowered diversity in restored landscapes is leading to overall biotic homogenization which puts ecosystems and humans in a more vulnerable position for adapting to environmental changes. Available with subscription or purchase |
Restoration of plant species and genetic diversity depends on landscape‐scale dispersalIntroductionThe article cites the importance of restoration efforts that leads to resilient, self-sustaining ecosystems in order to combat immense global change. Though biological and species diversity are key to this venture, they are rarely considered a factor. Thus, this review article highlights the connection between seed dispersal and species richness and diversity to landscape restoration. Available with subscription or purchase |
