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This study examines the landscape characteristics of high-suitability habitats for the Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) during the non-breeding season in inland and coastal wetlands of the middle and lower Yangtze River regions, and seeks to elucidate the distribution patterns and their drivers. Using the MaxEnt model and landscape analysis, the following conclusions were obtained: (1) High-suitability habitats for the Black-tailed Godwit cover approximately 128,800 km2 and are primarily distributed across the middle and lower Yangtze River regions. (2) The dominant environmental variables were identified as elevation, distance to water source, slope, distance to paddy field, land use classification, and minimum temperature of the coldest month. (3) Landscape fragmentation, habitat connectivity, human disturbance, and climate change were found to be associated with the shift in the Black-tailed Godwit's distribution from coastal to inland areas. (4) The distribution of the Black-tailed Godwit in the Nanji Wetland showed significant moderate positive correlation with shallow-water area (r = 0.38, p < 0.05) and significant moderate negative correlation with deep-water area (r = -0.48, p < 0.01). (5) At large spatial scales (coastal and inland wetlands), habitat connectivity and fragmentation were found to exert a greater influence, whereas at smaller spatial scales (Nanji Wetland) land use areas (wetlands and shallow-water areas) and food resources were found to exert greater influence on the Black-tailed Godwit's distribution. This study synthesizes findings from multiple sources and aims to provide a reference for the conservation of the Black-tailed Godwit.

Protected areas (PAs) are critical to mitigation of drastic biodiversity decline and habitat loss. Despite considerable global progress in PAs, future efforts need to overcome persistent challenges related to coverage and effectiveness. With limited capacity for expansion of PAs, achieving the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) will depend on other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). Such measures deliver effective and sustained biodiversity conservation outside of PAs. Globally important agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS) are institutionally conserved traditional agricultural landscapes (TAL) that support local livelihoods while conserving agrobiodiversity and resident wild biodiversity. Thus, GIAHS represent a promising yet underutilized model for advancing OECMs agenda. To explore this potential, drawing on a synthesis of peer&#x2011;reviewed literature, policy documents, and case studies, we examined the foundations of OECMs, considered the distinctive advantages of GIAHS for achieving global conservation targets, and devised policy and practical strategies for leveraging GIAHS as potential OECMs. First, we found that OECMs can enhance ecological representation and connectivity across broader landscapes and that their inclusive and flexible nature creates opportunities for diverse landscapes to contribute to conservation, including TAL, which are inherently sustainable and multifunctional. Second, the conservation contributions of GIAHS, spanning biodiversity maintenance, ecosystem service provision, and landscape connectivity, provide practical criteria for prioritizing future conserved areas. The synergistic management and biocultural approaches inherent to GIAHS offer models for effective conservation strategies. Finally, conservation outcomes of GIAHS closely align with the outcome-based framework of OECMs. To translate this alignment into action, priorities must include strengthening policy and legal strategies and enhancing the evidence base. Hacer que la conservaci&#xf3;n sea inclusiva y tenga peso mediante sistemas de patrimonio agr&#xed;cola de importancia mundial, como posibles medidas de conservaci&#xf3;n territorial eficaces Resumen Las &#xe1;reas protegidas (AP) son fundamentales para mitigar la dr&#xe1;stica disminuci&#xf3;n de la biodiversidad y la p&#xe9;rdida de h&#xe1;bitats. A pesar de los considerables avances a nivel mundial en materia de AP, los esfuerzos futuros deben superar los retos persistentes relacionados con la cobertura y la eficacia. Dada la capacidad limitada para ampliar las AP, el cumplimiento de los objetivos del Marco Mundial para la Diversidad Biol&#xf3;gica de Kunming&#x2010;Montreal depender&#xe1; de otras medidas de conservaci&#xf3;n basadas en el territorio (OMCBT). Dichas medidas permiten una conservaci&#xf3;n eficaz y sostenida de la biodiversidad fuera de las AP. Los sistemas del patrimonio agr&#xed;cola de importancia mundial (SPAIM) son paisajes agr&#xed;colas tradicionales (PAT) conservados institucionalmente que sustentan los medios de vida locales al tiempo que conservan la agrobiodiversidad y la biodiversidad silvestre residente. Por lo tanto, los SPAIM representan un modelo prometedor, aunque infrautilizado, para impulsar la agenda de las OMCBT. Para explorar este potencial, bas&#xe1;ndonos en una s&#xed;ntesis de la literatura revisada por pares, documentos de pol&#xed;ticas y estudios de caso, examinamos los fundamentos de las OECM, consideramos las ventajas distintivas de los SPAIM para alcanzar los objetivos de conservaci&#xf3;n globales y dise&#xf1;amos estrategias pol&#xed;ticas y pr&#xe1;cticas para aprovechar los SPAIM como posibles OMCBT. En primer lugar, constatamos que las OMCBT pueden mejorar la representaci&#xf3;n ecol&#xf3;gica y la conectividad en paisajes m&#xe1;s amplios, y que su naturaleza inclusiva y flexible crea oportunidades para que diversos paisajes contribuyan a la conservaci&#xf3;n, incluidos los paisajes agr&#xed;colas tradicionales, que son intr&#xed;nsecamente sostenibles y multifuncionales. En segundo lugar, las contribuciones a la conservaci&#xf3;n de los SPAIM, que abarcan el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad, la provisi&#xf3;n de servicios ecosist&#xe9;micos y la conectividad del paisaje, proporcionan criterios pr&#xe1;cticos para priorizar futuras &#xe1;reas de conservaci&#xf3;n. La gesti&#xf3;n sin&#xe9;rgica y los enfoques bioculturales inherentes a los SPAIM ofrecen modelos para estrategias de conservaci&#xf3;n eficaces. Por &#xfa;ltimo, los resultados de conservaci&#xf3;n de los SPAIM se ajustan estrechamente al marco basado en resultados de las OMCBT. Para traducir esta alineaci&#xf3;n en acciones, las prioridades deben incluir el fortalecimiento de las estrategias pol&#xed;ticas y legales y la mejora de la base emp&#xed;rica.

Temperate agricultural landscapes are experiencing unprecedented biodiversity declines. Landscape simplification is commonly identified as a driver of species loss across taxonomic groups, but the contribution of crop and non-crop habitats to farmland biodiversity conservation is surprisingly poorly known. Using 86 paired permanent grasslands and oilseed rape fields in five European countries, we assess how habitat type shaped plant, butterfly, wild bee, and carabid assemblages and whether increasing grassland amount in surrounding landscapes fosters the spillover of grassland-associated biodiversity to oilseed rape fields. We find habitat type rather than landscape-level grassland amount determines diversity and shapes species assemblages: plants and butterflies are more diverse in grasslands, while wild bees and carabids are equally or more diverse in oilseed rape fields. Increasing landscape-level grassland amount affects species assemblage composition but only reduces turnover between habitats in wild bees. Overall, both grasslands and oilseed rape fields harbour distinct sets of species, together contributing complementarily to regional diversity. Safeguarding biodiversity in agricultural landscapes therefore requires not only the conservation of permanent semi-natural habitats but also biodiversity-friendly management of disturbed habitats such as crop fields that can contribute valuable species.

The conversion of native vegetation to anthropogenic land uses and landscape fragmentation are primary drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem services decline in tropical watersheds. Understanding how land use shapes the spatial configuration of forest fragments is essential to inform conservation and restoration strategies. We evaluated the configurational fragility of forest remains in the Lower S&#xe3;o Francisco River Watershed, Brazil, combining structural metrics (area, core area and shape index) with land use and land cover (LULC). Fragility levels were defined through hierarchical classification and their relationship with LULC was tested using distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA). A principal component analysis (PCA) first summarized LULC variation. The watershed is dominated by anthropogenic matrices, with agriculture and pasture occupying 66.9% of the area, mainly pasture (57.7%). This resulted in 37,022 highly reduced and discontinuous forest fragments, of which 72.2% exhibited high configurational fragility. Savanna formation, the most representative native vegetation, had 96.1% of its patches within intermediate to high fragility levels. The PCA revealed three dominant gradients: herbaceous formations, wooded sandbank vegetation and wetlands (PC1), contrast between savanna formations and pasture (PC2), and heterogeneity of forests, forest plantation and mosaic of uses (PC3). db-RDA confirmed this pattern (adjusted R 2&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.362), with CAP1 explaining 92.2% of the constrained variation, demonstrating a strong opposition between natural environments and anthropogenic land uses. This study shows that configurational fragility is strongly driven by anthropogenic LULC, revealing that landscapes with the same forest cover may differ in fragility depending on the spatial organization of the remnants. In the area analyzed, sublevels High III and Intermediate I predominated, where small fragments dominated by edges coexist with larger and irregular patches, with occasional occurrences of Low III. As a management guideline, it is recommended to protect strategic remnants, intervene in intermediate areas, and restore zones of high fragility. Future studies should integrate these sublevels with functional indicators and temporal dynamics.

This study provides a comprehensive global assessment of land-use change and landscape fragmentation over a 30-year period (1992-2022), integrating spatial metrics across 37 land-cover types and multiple geopolitical regions. Using high-resolution Copernicus land-cover datasets, we quantified changes in number of patches, mean patch size, and size of the largest patch to evaluate structural shifts in landscapes. The results reveal a global trend toward increased fragmentation, with a 10.3% rise in patch number, a 9.2% decline in mean patch size, and a 40% reduction in the size of the largest patch. The most severe fragmentation trends occurred in tropical biodiversity hotspots, particularly in South America, Central Africa, and South-Eastern Asia, and are likely associated with processes such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, and infrastructure development. Even in regions where natural cover is stable or increasing, such as parts of Europe and China, landscapes may still experience increasing structural fragmentation, which has been widely associated with reduced connectivity, alterations in ecological processes, and increased vulnerability of specialist species. Patterns vary regionally: in developed regions, fragmentation is often linked to long-term landscape subdivision and land-use intensity, whereas in tropical developing regions, large intact habitats are being rapidly reduced. The findings underscore the necessity of conservation strategies that address both habitat area and spatial configuration, promoting ecological corridors, heterogeneous agricultural matrices, and multifunctional agroforestry systems. By combining temporal depth and thematic breadth, we offer novel insights into the structural transformation of global landscapes, informing policy and sustainable land-management efforts in the face of accelerating global change.

Urbanisation can negatively impact biodiversity, often resulting in smaller and more isolated populations-which can be particularly detrimental for habitat specialists. Yet, under the right ecological conditions, urbanised greenspaces can also act as refugia for remnant populations to persist. The Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) is an example of a macrohabitat specialist; it is an amphibian which relies specifically on habitat with bogs/fens and adjacent upland forests. In New Brunswick, Canada, this salamander is presumed to be critically imperilled as it had previously only been observed in a single location, a protected national park. A second population, however, was recently discovered within an urbanised greenspace in Riverview, New Brunswick. Notably, this area is enveloped by anthropogenic landscape features (e.g., roads, parking lots, housing, businesses), which demonstrates how this species can also occur in more urbanised areas. Our study aims to understand the population ecology of Four-toed Salamanders at this newly described site and investigate how its habitat use allows it to persist in an area with strong anthropogenic disturbance. We estimated the current relative abundance and density, and quantified the demographics, of Four-toed Salamanders at the Riverview site, while also testing to see if these salamanders favoured specific microhabitats within both fen and upland forest habitats. We contrasted a wide range of suitable environmental variables (e.g., substrate temperature, acidity, canopy cover, humidity, and plant percent coverage) between locations containing a salamander to nearby, unoccupied locations. We found a total of 67 salamanders across all surveys, which translates to a conservative relative population density estimate of 2.12 individuals/ha. We observed few differences in microhabitats between where salamanders were seen and random locations, which suggests that suitable microhabitats were not limited for these amphibians at this site. These differences were that salamanders preferred higher slopes within moss hummocks in fens, cooler substrates in the forest, and the presence of woody debris in the forest. Our study provides key insights into the habitat characteristics of Four-toed Salamanders at the northern extent of their range, a species with a cryptic lifestyle that is widely considered to be a macrohabitat specialist. By quantifying the ecological features of an urban habitat being used by Four-toed Salamanders in New Brunswick, we expand the types of ecosystems conservation biologists and wildlife managers should consider viable when conducting additional surveys and assessments for this species. This study increases our knowledge about the niche of an amphibian whose conservation and protection in New Brunswick, and more broadly in Canada, is hindered by a lack of foundational natural history data.

Wetland management frequently adopts fragmented conservation or restoration strategies, neglecting their synergistic cobenefits under budgetary constraints, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions. While existing studies predominantly focus on isolated conservation or restoration efforts, few systematically integrate both approaches to maximize cobenefits of ecosystem services (ESs) under budget constraints. To minimize this gap, we explored potential cobenefits of ESs by synergizing conservation and restoration based on the framework of systematic conservation planning and the Marxan model, demonstrated by the case of urban wetlands in the Wuhan City, China. We integrated ESs assessments, potential restoration sites and hydrological accessibility to identify cost-effective areas that align conservation and restoration priorities for maximizing multiple ESs. The results reveal that integrated conservation and restoration solutions can cost-effectively enhance regional multiple ESs (i.e., carbon storage, flood regulation, habitat quality, and landscape & culture), and that the contribution of restoration becomes increasingly important as target levels increase,&#xa0;highlighting the necessity of synergizing conservation and restoration to maximize their cobenefits for integrated urban wetland management. Our research framework is replicable to inform policy and management decisions that balance ecological conservation with urban development, ensuring the long-term sustainability of wetland ecosystems and their services.

Increasingly, the conservation of large and wide-ranging animals is challenged by environmental variability, static boundaries of protected areas, and the expansion of human activities. The Critically Endangered Onager (Equus hemionus onager) exemplifies these issues in Qatrouiyeh National Park (QNP) and the surrounding Bahram-e-Goor Protected Area (BPA) in Iran. Using GPS telemetry data from 9 adult females tracked over 2&#x2009;years, we examined seasonal patterns in movement and incursions into cultivated lands in 2017 and 2018. Net squared displacement analyses indicated that most individuals exhibited range-resident behavior with occasional nomadic movements, with no evidence for migration (i.e., predictable movements to and from distinct seasonal ranges). Both monthly home range size and monthly movement rate varied seasonally, peaking in late spring and early summer (May-July). Individual home ranges were between 257 and 1,928&#x2009;km2, while the extrapolated population-level home range (718&#x2009;km2; 95% confidence interval&#x2009;=&#x2009;276-1368) extended well outside QNP, covering large portions of the BPA. Occurrence distributions also expanded beyond the protected area into adjacent cultivated lands, highlighting the use of human-occupied areas by onagers. We recorded 2,285 (out of 72,168) GPS locations within cultivated lands and their surrounding 50&#x2009;m buffer, with 60% of these incursions occurring immediately adjacent to QNP. Most incursions occurred at night and were strongly associated with both season and cumulative rainfall over the preceding 9&#x2009;months. These findings emphasize how rainfall-driven variability in resource dynamics shapes the spatial distribution and behavior of onagers, thus elevating the risk of conflict with humans. The scale and seasonality of Onager movements highlight the need for flexible, landscape-level conservation strategies that extend beyond fixed park boundaries to encompass critical habitats and to mitigate conflict across the broader region.

Characterising hierarchical population structure is crucial to understanding a species' evolutionary history and informing effective conservation and management strategies. Many terrestrial species in North America have experienced a wide range of evolutionary pressures at multiple scales, ranging from large-scale range shifts and recolonisations driven by glacial cycles to more localized contemporary habitat degradation and fragmentation. Hence in this region, given the multi-level evolutionary forces at play, genetic variation and diversity are often hierarchically structured. We analysed genomic diversity and variation in woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) across western Canada using genotypes from ~33,000 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) loci from 759 geo-referenced individuals spanning 45 pre-defined subpopulations. We employed genetic clustering methods and measures of genetic differentiation to characterise hierarchical population structure in the region and tested for latitudinal changes in heterozygosity resulting from post-glacial recolonisation and hybridisation. Our results confirm that woodland caribou genetic diversity and differentiation occur at multiple hierarchical levels, reflecting post-glacial recolonisation patterns and landscape heterogeneity. Notably, the major genetic clusters identified in our study do not align with current recognised units for the species in this region. We also observe elevated heterozygosity in the mid-latitudes of the sampled range, indicative of hybridisation following secondary contact during post-glacial recolonisation. These findings underscore the need to consider and include genetic diversity at all hierarchical levels in conservation planning, as wide-ranging species often experience diverse and complex evolutionary histories and pressures.

Understanding how future land-use dynamics reshape urban ecological network connectivity remains a critical challenge for sustainable landscape management. This study couples land-use simulation with ecological network analysis to assess network changes in Minsk, Belarus, under three 2035 scenarios: business as usual (BAU), ecological conservation development (ECD), and rapid urban development (RUD). The results show that projected urban expansion, especially under the RUD scenario, encroaches on forest habitats and intensifies ecological source fragmentation, while ECD better maintains ecological source suitability and network stability. The number of ecological corridors increases from 99 in 2022 to 122, 118, and 107 under the BAU, ECD, and RUD scenarios, respectively; and mean corridor length increases from 1876&#x202f;m to 2155&#x202f;m, 1938 m, and 2234&#x202f;m, respectively, corresponding to increases of 8.1-23.2% in corridor number and 3.3-19.1% in mean corridor length. These increases likely reflect longer and more fragmented linkages rather than improved overall connectivity. By integrating landscape-scale pattern changes with corridor-level pinch points and barrier points, this study reveals how alternative development pathways reshape critical network components and conservation priorities. The findings provide scenario-based and spatially explicit evidence for adaptive ecological network planning under future land-use uncertainty.

Human activities are modifying Earth's ecosystems in different ways and at different scales, and conserving multiple aspects of biodiversity has become important for maintaining ecosystem stability. Plant productivity and habitat heterogeneity are important environmental factors for bird survival. In this study, we investigated the impact of these two factors on avian taxonomic and functional diversity in the Louzishan National Nature Reserve, a small protected area in Liaoning Province, China. We surveyed bird communities during summer (breeding season) and winter (resident period) and used NDVI as a proxy for productivity, while habitat heterogeneity was quantified based on landscape composition. We then analyzed taxonomic and functional alpha diversity (Shannon index and Rao's Q) and beta diversity (&#x3b2;sor, &#x3b2;sim, &#x3b2;sne) in relation to productivity, habitat heterogeneity, and spatial distance. Our results revealed complex seasonal patterns. In summer, pairwise differences in NDVI were positively related with taxonomic beta diversity (&#x3b2;sor) and its turnover component (&#x3b2;sim), with turnover dominating total beta diversity, indicating that species replacement driven by productivity gradients is the main mechanism. Summer pairwise differences in habitat heterogeneity were positively related with the nestedness component (&#x3b2;sne). In summer, NDVI was positively related with taxonomic and functional alpha diversity. In winter, habitat heterogeneity showed a significant negative relation with taxonomic alpha diversity but a hump-shaped (nonlinear) relationship with functional alpha diversity; pairwise differences in NDVI and habitat heterogeneity were not significantly related to any winter beta diversity component, whereas spatial distance was positively related with both overall taxonomic and functional beta diversity. Overall, our findings highlight a seasonal shift in community assembly processes: environmental filtering (productivity and habitat heterogeneity) dominates in summer, whereas dispersal limitation prevails in winter. These results underscore the importance of considering seasonal dynamics and multiple diversity dimensions when assessing the conservation value of small protected areas.

Wildfires, unplanned fires that start and spread under the influence of weather and fuel composition, are increasing in frequency, duration, and severity across North America. While wildfires are one component of wildland fire, a broader natural process in many ecosystems, their changing behavior poses growing ecological and management challenges. Although wildfire is widely recognized as an important disturbance, empirical research quantifying its impacts on freshwater ecosystems remains limited and fragmented. As a result, our understanding of how wildfire affects imperiled freshwater systems remains underdeveloped. The objective of this review was to synthesize the existing empirical literature and identify key knowledge gaps to guide future research on wildfire-freshwater interactions across both biotic and abiotic components. At the biological scale, uncertainties remain around species- and community-level responses (e.g., direct and indirect effects on biota). Freshwater habitat dimensions should also be the focus of further research, including alterations to physical structure (e.g., vegetation) and physicochemical conditions (e.g., temperature). From a management perspective, critical questions relate to fire-informed restoration (e.g., specialized techniques, role of managed burns)&#xa0;and strategies for enhancing ecosystem resilience (e.g., identifying relevant indicators, links to watershed health). Understanding how land-use change (e.g., forestry) and climate change interact to influence wildfire regimes and generate cumulative effects across landscapes is also essential in this new wildfire reality. To advance research and practice, we recommend comprehensive monitoring, standardization of methods and indicators, recognition of the role of cultural and prescribed burns, meaningful knowledge co-production, and bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and management action.

Long-term, year-round grazing by large herbivores is increasingly used to restore degraded temperate heathlands and grasslands, yet the behavioral mechanisms of grazers underlying restoration remain insufficiently understood. We combined over 13 years of high-resolution GPS-tracking data of free-ranging Heck cattle and Konik horses with repeated vegetation surveys across various habitat types (encroachment-derived Calamagrostis epigejos stands, dry sandy grasslands, dry heaths, and pioneer forests) in Central Germany. We quantified how habitat preference and vegetation structure co-develop under low-intensity, year-round grazing following abandonment. Habitat preference differed among habitat types and showed clear seasonal patterns. Preference values were consistently higher in summer than in winter for both grazer species, reflecting selective use of productive regrowth. Winter preferences were weak, indicating low selectivity and homogeneous space use that facilitated grazing in habitats otherwise avoided during the growing season, including dry heaths and pioneer forests. Across the study period, we detected long-term shifts in habitat preference that corresponded with vegetation changes associated with the restoration of dry heaths and sandy grasslands. As standing biomass declined, C. epigejos and grass litter decreased, open soil increased, and Calluna vulgaris advanced into the optimal phase. These structural improvements reduced forage-quality contrasts among habitats, resulting in progressively weaker preference patterns and a more even distribution of habitat use across the landscape. Our results provide rare long-term empirical evidence linking grazer behavior and vegetation dynamics in conservation grazing systems and highlight that year-round extensive grazing, rather than summer-only grazing, is required to achieve stable long-term restoration outcomes.

Human activity is driving a biodiversity crisis marked not only by accelerating species extinctions but also by rapid erosion of genetic and phylogenetic diversity. De-extinction science has emerged in response. Here, we synthesize de-extinction as a conservation workflow that integrates ancient and museum genomics, comparative genome analysis, high-precision genome engineering, stem cell platforms, advanced assisted reproductive technologies (ART), emerging ex-utero gestation systems, and AI-enabled ecological modelling and monitoring. We frame three primary conservation applications: (i) reconstruction of lost ecological functions via engineered de-extinct species, (ii) genetic rescue and de-endangerment through restoration of lost diversity, repair of deleterious alleles, and enhancement of adaptive potential in living species, and (iii) acceleration of enabling technologies, particularly ART and stem cell capabilities, that remove reproductive bottlenecks in threatened taxa. Recent advances in sequencing and assembly now support high-quality genomes from extinct and archival material (e.g., thylacine, mammoth, dodo), enabling identification of functionally relevant variation, much of which resides in regulatory landscapes rather than coding sequence alone. In parallel, next-generation editing systems (base, prime, twinPE and large-fragment integration approaches) are shifting the field from single-variant correction to systematic rewriting of loci and regulatory modules, supported by long-read validation and stringent cell-line quality control. We discuss complementary cellular routes (somatic cells and pluripotent stem cells), the promise of in vitro gametogenesis and synthetic embryo models, and the potential of artificial gestation to overcome surrogate scarcity and interspecies incompatibility. Finally, we highlight rewilding as the decisive endpoint, requiring adaptive management, Indigenous partnership, and high-fidelity AI-assisted monitoring. Taken together, de-extinction is best understood as a technology engine for conservation, one that expands the actionable toolkit for preventing extinctions, restoring resilience, and rebuilding lost biodiversity.

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by reduced bone strength and increased fracture risk. Conventional evaluation relies mainly on bone mineral density and microarchitecture, but these measures do not fully capture the tissue-level material properties that contribute to fragility. Here, we integrated Raman-derived compositional information with microarchitectural, local mechanical, and single-cell transcriptomic data to map a multi-scale coupling landscape and identify a conserved compositional fingerprint of osteoporotic trabecular bone. Trabecular bone alterations were profiled by Raman spectroscopy in murine models of natural aging and ovariectomy (OVX)-induced osteoporosis. A linear support vector machine (LSVM) classifier was trained for automated phenotyping of Raman spectra. Raman-defined spectral features were then integrated with micro-CT-based microarchitectural measurements, nanoindentation-derived local mechanical properties, and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) to contextualize compositional changes across structure, mechanics, and remodeling programs. We identified a conserved osteoporotic Raman fingerprint characterized by reduced phosphate and collagen signals and increased lipid-associated bands. These compositional signatures were strongly associated with micro-CT-defined structural deterioration and nanoindentation-derived local mechanical alterations, specifically reduced hardness and increased elastic modulus. Furthermore, scRNA-seq revealed shifts in BMMSC transcriptomic programs related to mineral, extracellular matrix, and lipid metabolism that paralleled the Raman-defined changes. The OVX model further confirmed the etiological robustness of this Raman fingerprint in capturing multi-scale alterations in bone quality. Raman-based compositional fingerprinting provides a multidimensional readout that can be integrated with structural imaging, mechanical testing, and transcriptomic profiling. This cross-scale framework refines osteoporosis evaluation, supports the development of advanced diagnostic strategies, and offers mechanistic insight into bone fragility beyond conventional structural metrics.

Enhancing Flood Regulation Ecosystem Services (FRES) offers an effective way to reduce urban flood risks. Land use influences both FRES supply and flood risk, thereby altering their supply-demand balance. However, current studies are mostly descriptive, and the few mechanism studies confined to either function or form provide only a partial view of land use impacts, obscuring complex nonlinear and spatially heterogeneous mechanisms and thus limiting targeted environmental management. To address this gap, this study constructs a framework integrating multidimensional "function-form-pattern-intensity" land use characteristics with the GWRF-SHAP model, an interpretable spatial machine learning approach. Validated in the flood-prone metropolis of Tianjin (China), this framework reveals the nonlinear and spatially heterogeneous mechanisms driving the FRES supply-demand ratio. Furthermore, K-means clustering was utilized to translate these mechanistic insights into zoning strategies for decision support. Results reveal severe mismatches, notably with 23.12% of units classified as "low supply-high demand". Our analysis identifies that land use intensity and pattern exert a stronger influence than form or function, and further uncovers distinct critical nonlinear thresholds for key indicators, particularly land use intensity (LUI) and built-up area cores (B_core). Spatially, driving mechanisms vary significantly: high-density areas are constrained by POI density, suburbs by LUI and B_core, while peripheral ecological zones are driven by landscape connectivity. Overall, we reveal pronounced FRES mismatch and highlight the need for targeted, threshold-aware land use interventions. This study advances FRES research from description to mechanism-based management, providing a replicable framework for optimizing land use toward flood-resilient and sustainable urban management.

Forest conversion from natural forests to secondary forests and plantations has significantly altered wildlife habitats in subtropical regions. However, the drivers of disparities in bird and mammal multidimensional diversity between these forest types remain poorly understood. We analyzed a four-year camera-trapping dataset to compare the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity and community structure of birds and mammals. Our results indicated that forest conversion impacts biodiversity differently across taxa. Birds exhibited higher taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in secondary forests than in plantations. A similar pattern was also evident for birds among different stand types. However, mammals exhibited considerable taxonomic diversity but showed higher phylogenetic diversity and structure in secondary forests. A similar pattern was also evident for mammals among different stand types. Beta diversity revealed significant differences in bird taxonomic composition and mammal phylogenetic composition between secondary and plantation forests. Furthermore, elevation primarily influenced bird taxonomic diversity, phylogenetic diversity and structure in secondary forests, whereas mammal functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity and structure were more sensitive to elevational changes in both secondary and plantation forests. These findings reveal that birds and mammals respond distinctively to forest conversion. We emphasize that management strategies must be group-specific. For birds, we recommend prioritizing the preservation of secondary forests as biodiversity refugia and transforming structurally simplified plantations into complex habitats by retaining legacy trees and native understory vegetation. For mammals, conservation should prioritize landscape-scale connectivity by protecting continuous forest corridors along altitudinal gradients. Practically, this requires restricting further fragmentation of high-altitude habitats and restoring native vegetation in degraded corridors to facilitate dispersal and maintain the phylogenetic integrity of mammal communities.

Mirabilis himalaica is an endemic Tibetan medicinal plant distributed from the Western Himalaya to the Hengduan Mountains, highly regarded for its abundant flavonoids. Traditional knowledge holds that its medicinal properties vary considerably with geographic origin, yet the genetic and metabolic basis of this differentiation remains poorly understood. Here, we integrated plastome resequencing of 134 individuals from 23 populations with metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of three representative sites to investigate population genetic variation and flavonoid metabolic differentiation. Pan-plastome revealed a typical quadripartite structure (154,232-154,422 bp) containing 113 unique genes across M. himalaica. A total of 620 SNVs, 171 indels, and four small inversions were identified from the pan-plastome, and further analyses based on these variants supported the delineation of four genetic lineages across all individuals. Overall genetic diversity was high (HT = 0.985, HS = 0.580), with majority variation occurring among groups (71.038%). Both IBD and IBE analyses found a significantly positive correlation between genetic distance and geographic and environmental distance (IBD: r = 0.348, p = 0.001; IBE: r = 0.219, p = 0.016). Flavonoids represented the most abundant metabolites (19.5%) and showed significantly higher accumulation in high-altitude populations, where key biosynthetic genes (e.g., CHS) were upregulated. Notably, these altitude-associated metabolic patterns were observed independently of the plastome-based genetic lineages. Together, we propose defining four evolutionary lineages as conservation units and prioritizing populations with unique haplotypes. This study provides critical genomic resources for provenance tracing, quality evaluation, and conservation management of this endangered Tibetan medicinal plant, and offers preliminary insights into the parallel patterns of pan-plastome variation and altitude-related metabolic differentiation, though without evidencing a direct causal link between them.

The study explored community views on the roles of various institutional actors in promoting forest landscape restoration in Ghana. Using mixed methods, data were gathered from 417 households in the Kakum Conservation Area through surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions involving representatives from the Forestry Commission (FC), the Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), licensed buying companies (LBCs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and traditional authorities. Results show that NGOs are viewed as the most effective due to their community engagement, responsiveness, and empowerment efforts. Meanwhile, the FC, COCOBOD, and LBCs received lower ratings due to limited interaction and perceived inefficiencies. Traditional authorities are vital in mobilizing communities, enforcing cultural conservation, and safeguarding forest resources, highlighting the significance of informal governance. Factors such as demographics, visibility, engagement frequency, past performance, and credibility shape community perceptions of these institutions. Additionally, 98% of respondents noted weak or nonexistent coordination among institutions, often due to conflicting goals and competition, especially between NGOs and LBCs. The study emphasizes that integrating traditional and formal governance systems is essential for sustainable restoration. Strengthening institutional collaboration can enhance restoration outcomes, but state institutions should remain central, with activities tailored to local needs.