Species on islands frequently experience founder events and population bottlenecks and are often subject to disturbances that further reduce population sizes. Despite these challenges, some island lineages persist for millennia—the paradox of persistence. Here, we synthesize genomic studies across island systems and show that reported effective population sizes are frequently below 100, but assessments of genetic load and its temporal dynamics remain uncommon. We show that island systems can offer critical insights into how small populations maintain viability and adaptive potential. Future research on genomic erosion needs to broaden taxonomic and geographic coverage, leverage temporal genomic data, and integrate demographic and fitness-based approaches to link evolutionary resilience on islands with the conservation of increasingly fragmented populations worldwide.

In complex life cycles that include a transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitat, life stages experience very different effects of environmental variability (e.g., precipitation vs. temperature). But stages do not evolve independently, constraining adaptive responses to stage-specific effects. Faced with these constraints, species often shift the timing of metamorphosis to minimize time in the stage—and habitat—experiencing the greatest fitness costs. Currently, however, we have limited understanding of how such life-cycle shifts affect phenotypic evolution within stages, fitness trade-offs across stages, and population demography. Resolving these effects will inform how many animals respond to climate change, but requires deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of phenotypic, developmental, and fitness trade-offs across complex aquatic/terrestrial life cycles.

Modern animal tracking devices reliably record movement in horizontal and vertical dimensions, positioning movement ecology to transition towards true three-dimensional (3D) analyses. True 3D tracking, in which horizontal and vertical positions are paired through time, is particularly valuable for marine megafauna, which traverse coastal, pelagic, and aerial environments, making them ideal for illustrating how 3D data can advance movement ecology. By synthesising early approaches to 3D tracking in these taxa, we show that these studies provide ecological perspectives unobtainable from two-dimensional data, identify key barriers limiting wider adoption, and highlight emerging solutions. Broader adoption of true 3D tracking is critical for addressing remaining knowledge gaps in marine megafauna ecology and for improving conservation frameworks to protect the 3D environments these species occupy.

Animal behaviours shape ecological dynamics, from species distributions to ecosystem function. These dynamics emerge from the behaviours of multiple interacting species, which reflect both the available species pool and local environmental conditions. By taking an assemblage-scale approach, we add a new dimension to reveal how and why behaviour varies geographically and with what consequences. We distinguish between fundamental behaviours, a species’ full repertoire, and realised behaviours, the filtered subset expressed locally. This framework provides the foundation for understanding geographic variation in assemblage-level behaviours, guiding development of testable predictions about how environmental gradients structure behavioural expression across space, with the potential to identify consequences for ecosystem function and behaviourally mediated vulnerabilities under global change.

Animal behaviours shape ecological dynamics, from species distributions to ecosystem function. These dynamics emerge from the behaviours of multiple i…

Climate warming can threaten biodiversity and trigger warming-related disturbances. Increasing tree cover in a landscape is recognized as a measure for cooling and moisture retention under certain conditions, but the role of its configuration—the spatial pattern of tree cover for a given amount—remains poorly understood. Building on recent evidence, we propose that the configuration of planted trees or restored forest in the landscape can influence the effectiveness of warming adaptation measures. We hypothesize that planting trees or restoring forests in a more fragmented configuration increases microclimatic refugia, reduces warming exposure for open- and edge-habitat species, and limits warming-related disturbances. We also hypothesize that a less fragmented configuration creates fewer but cooler microclimatic refugia and mitigates negative warming effects on patch-interior species.

Many populations face increasing extinction risk, but persistence can occur via ‘rescue’, defined as an increase in population growth rates or abundance that lowers extinction probability. Such rescue manifests as demographic rescue (immigration offsetting vital rate declines), evolutionary rescue (adaptive response to selection), or genetic rescue (gene flow introducing beneficial genetic variation). We emphasize that rescue is a population-level outcome, not a management strategy, and the three rescue types are not mutually exclusive; for example, gene flow could lead to demographic, genetic, and evolutionary rescue. Understanding the interactions within and among these types of rescue and balancing immediate demographic gains with long-term adaptive potential is crucial for developing effective management actions tailored to diverse taxa and changing ecological contexts.

Moderately light-demanding juvenile tree species across light gradients are under-represented in forest ecosystems compared to shade-tolerant and strongly light-demanding species. We propose that herbivore-mediated constraints on shade adaptation provide a mechanistic explanation for this pattern because plant traits favoring shade adaptation often increase vulnerability to herbivory.

Forest restoration has to move beyond attempts to rebuild complex ecosystems and instead focus on creating the conditions for their self-organization. Artificial intelligence can support this transition by expanding human capacity to navigate complexity, but if applied uncritically, it could reinforce the very biases it is intended to overcome.

Collective behaviour is widespread in the animal kingdom and can enhance individual fitness. Yet not all collective behaviours are adaptations. Instead, some may be nonadaptive or ‘evolutionary spandr...

Fire regimes are shifting worldwide, yet no common framework describes their direction, rate, or ecological effects. We introduce fire-regime velocity, the rate and direction of movement through a multidimensional fire-regime state space. By linking velocity to adaptive responses, the framework can help predict the consequences of fire-regime shifts for population persistence.

Succession is a fundamental concept in ecology because it provides perspectives on how ecosystems change over time and respond following disturbance. It is also a useful concept for conservation and restoration because human activity has increased the frequency and magnitude of disturbances globally. Ecosystem ecology offers a unique perspective on succession because it views dynamics through the lens of process-based currencies—such as net ecosystem production—that subsume multiple simultaneous properties of energy and nutrient flow, thereby providing a useful measure with which to monitor and anticipate net change. Studying succession through these perspectives reveals fundamental patterns that unify central principles of ecosystem ecology and provide a predictive model on which to base conservation and restoration efforts.

Rare events are low-frequency environmental events whose magnitude and ecological consequences can vary across ecosystems. In this review, we clarify the terminology used to describe these anomalies and propose a statistical definition that disentangles environmental rarity and magnitude from ecological impact. Rare events generate a wide range of responses, from population declines and ecosystem reorganisation to neutral or even positive demographic outcomes. Exceptionally intense perturbations potentially dominate ecological outcomes regardless of their rarity. More commonly, however, their influence on long-term dynamics emerges from the joint effects of magnitude and return interval, such that less extreme but more frequent perturbations could contribute more consistently to population trajectories than rarer events. Long-term demographic studies are essential to identify how rare events shape ecological dynamics.

Collective behaviour is widespread in the animal kingdom and can enhance individual fitness. Yet not all collective behaviours are adaptations. Instead, some may be nonadaptive or ‘evolutionary spandrels’—traits that originated as by-products in the sense proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. Here, we argue that self-organising processes provide a route through which evolutionary spandrels in collective animal behaviour can occur, and we provide three examples: spatial organisation in primate groups, division of labour in ants, and insect chorusing. We then consider how such outcomes may be co-opted into adaptive roles through exaptation and conclude by outlining the challenges associated with testing adaptive and nonadaptive hypotheses in collective behaviour research using individual-based studies, phylogenetic comparative analyses, and agent-based models.

In our previous study [1], we called for establishing transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) to achieve biodiversity conservation goals and sustainability in transboundary areas. Specifically, we proposed several strategic pathways for establishing TBPAs. Following this work, Azevedo-Santos and Ottoni [2] wrote that freshwater biodiversity should be considered in TBPAs. As the TBPA establishment framework we proposed is not confined to any specific ecosystem type, this commentary provides a valuable opportunity to support our core perspective that effective transboundary conservation could account for cross-ecosystem effects.

Humans aren’t the only ones to preempt conflict.

The realized niche captures only a fraction of the conditions in which a species can survive and reproduce, yet remains the basis for most predictions of how species respond to global change. No matter how sophisticated species distribution models have become, reliance on the realized niche biases forecasts of population persistence and range shifts. Rapid global change has turned the fundamental niche from a theoretical construct into a mission-critical objective for conservation science. Empirical tools exist to operationalize it. If we stop holding the fundamental niche to higher epistemic standards than the realized niche and treat survival and regeneration data from beyond the realized niche as genuine reflections of it, then we can advance this foundational yet surprisingly nascent research program.

Phytoplankton fix half of global CO2 annually and drive key global nutrient cycles. They depend on interactions with bacteria, viruses, and protists. Yet our understanding of these interactions remains fragmented. We introduce symbiotic capacity—an organism’s ability to initiate, maintain, and modulate partnerships—as a quantifiable trait fundamental to phytoplankton ecology and resilience in changing oceans. By adapting Tinbergen’s four questions from ethology, we reveal critical gaps in our knowledge regarding phytoplankton symbiotic capacity. While functional benefits, molecular mechanisms, and evolutionary origins of phytoplankton symbioses are increasingly documented, their developmental dynamics remain almost entirely unexplored. Bridging molecular mechanisms to planetary-scale biogeochemical processes requires a fifth question and suitable model systems, such as Chaetoceros diatoms, that integrate laboratory tractability with ecological relevance.

Humans aren’t the only ones to preempt conflict.

Droughts are intensifying worldwide, reorganizing ecosystems and threatening biodiversity and human health. Yet their effects on infectious diseases are poorly understood and sometimes paradoxical, with water limitation often amplifying water-associated infections. This complexity arises because drought not only reduces water availability but also restructures the host–pathogen interactions that govern transmission. Synthesizing theory and empirical evidence from water-associated diseases, we identify three ecological mechanisms through which drought modifies infection dynamics: concentrating organisms into shrinking refugia, selectively favoring drought-tolerant hosts, vectors, and pathogens, and amplifying transmission heterogeneity across landscapes. By linking hydrological change to core epidemiological and ecological processes, this framework highlights parasite traits and strategies likely to be favored during drought while providing a foundation for forecasting infections in a water-limited world.

Darwin’s Naturalization Conundrum asks whether invaders succeed by resembling or differing from native species. Ramirez-Parada et al. demonstrate that climate plays a crucial role in determining both outcomes: invaders resemble natives in cold or dry regions but diverge in warm, humid ones, thereby reframing the conundrum as an environmental continuum.

In cooperatively breeding species, reproductively capable individuals often forgo breeding to assist others. This socially induced infertility is typically viewed as a consequence of cooperative breeding, yet the remarkable diversity of its mechanisms remains unexplained. We propose that cooperative living inevitably increases opportunities for reproduction among relatives, selecting for reproductive suppression to regulate the costs of inbreeding and reproductive conflict. Species-specific variation in inbreeding tolerance subsequently determines how suppression evolves. Where inbreeding tolerance is high, increased intragroup reproductive conflict favours strong physiological suppression of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis to maintain social cohesion. Where inbreeding tolerance is low, behavioural mechanisms regulate reproduction while preserving reproductive competence. This framework explains mechanistic diversity and generates testable predictions across cooperative vertebrates.

In Box 1, the authors inadvertently misrepresented the work in one of the references. The sentence should state:

Animals in dryland systems often aggregate around water, concentrating trophic pressure, transporting resources, and modifying habitat. These effects have been described as piospheres of degraded soils and vegetation; however, we argue that this framing is incomplete. We propose that animal aggregations around surface water generate a ripple effect: cross-scale, reciprocal impacts on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that vary with water availability. As surface water becomes increasingly scarce under global change, management and conservation approaches should prioritize the restoration of spatiotemporal variability in surface waters. An integrated approach that bridges linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and combines community and ecosystem ecology is necessary to identify emergent ecosystem properties, predict landscape-scale impacts of altered surface water availability, and inform adaptive management.

Coprolites—fossil material extruded from an animal’s digestive system—represent a rare insight into trophic interactions in deep time. However, while the first animals appeared about 600 million years ago, the first coprolites are only observed in the earliest Cambrian. Conversely, in modern oceans, fecal pellets are an important part of the particulate organic carbon in the water column and the global flux of organic carbon to deep water. In this review, we analyze the impact of the advent of fecal matter on the Cambrian Radiation by examining coprolites, analyzing animal biology, and contextualizing this through the role of fecal pellets in the oceanic nutrient cycle. We illustrate the central position of coprolites in driving the Cambrian Radiation.

Fungi are widely recognized as phenotypically plastic, a characteristic often invoked to explain the persistence of ecosystem functions under disturbance. How plasticity varies across taxa remains a key question. Emerging evidence implies species-specific, phylogenetically structured responses, with the strongest divergence under environmental extremes, making fungal community composition essential to ecosystem functioning.

Fisheries-induced evolution (FIE) is typically framed in terms of genetic change, yet epigenetic processes linking environmental variation to phenotype remain overlooked. We propose that selective harvesting, by restructuring demographic and ecological conditions, can shape epigenetically mediated phenotypic responses in exploited populations, with important implications for FIE research and fisheries management.

Whole-genome resequencing data, associated metrics, and their trends over time can be used to inform extinction threat rankings rendered by conservation agencies around the world. Surveys of individual genome sequences can critically address risks to population sustainability by means of key metrics such as heterozygosity. Genomic metrics have yet-unrealized potential to help authorities determine how a given population or species of conservation concern should be formally categorized (e.g., ‘listed’ or ‘delisted’) with respect to discrete threat categories. To stimulate productive discourse, we provide a general heuristic framework for how genomic metrics could be used to refine conservation threat assessments (e.g., to help determine whether species should be listed or not).

In natural chemical mixtures, a few molecules matter far more than their abundance suggests. Two recent studies identify defensive polyketides in estuarine mudflats and root exudate metabolites in a nitrogen-limited rhizosphere as compounds that restructure communities at trace concentrations, providing convergent evidence for candidate keystone molecules at the molecular scale.

Species range contractions are a defining feature of the Anthropocene. Given their prevalence, a key question arises: do range contractions follow consistent patterns? Empirical studies have produced mixed results, revealing some emergent patterns, but also considerable variation among taxa. Here, we present a framework that seeks to explain this variation, conceptualising range contractions as the outcome of the interaction between species’ population growth rates and threat impacts, mediated by environmental conditions. Our framework shows how four primary patterns of range contraction arise, with a fifth emerging under incomplete threat spread. By describing when, where, and why particular patterns of decline occur, our framework advances understanding of species’ responses to global change and provides a basis for more generalisable conservation strategies.

Intergroup conflict is a powerful selective force throughout the animal kingdom. While research has traditionally focused on actions during and after contests, animals also exhibit behavioural flexibility in anticipation of potential intergroup encounters. Synthesising findings from diverse taxa, we describe how social species adjust pre-emptive information gathering, resource use, cohesion, synchrony, and intragroup interactions across a heterogeneous ‘landscape of intergroup conflict’. We show how variation in threat level, driven by spatial context, rival characteristics, and individual motivation, affects these behaviours, and how balancing sensed information and memories of past interactions underlies associated decision-making. Testing the consequences of intergroup pre-emptive behaviour using experimental, technological, and analytical advances will develop understanding of its role in socio-cognitive evolution, population dynamics, and community structure.

Anthropogenic food subsidies often elevate wildlife populations. Reducing these subsidies may alter behavior more rapidly than population size, creating a transient period of heightened human–wildlife conflict. Recognizing these transitional dynamics can improve conflict mitigation and conservation outcomes while enhancing public safety for communities living alongside dangerous species.

Recently, Li et al. [1] initiated an important discussion about the role of transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) in biodiversity conservation, nature’s contributions to people, and cultural values. Their study opened an opportunity to broaden the discussion on freshwater biodiversity. This is essential because, for a long time and across many regions of the world, freshwater ecosystems, which have high levels of biodiversity, have been neglected when creating protected areas [e.g., 2–4]. Paradoxically, freshwater biodiversity is extremely threatened [e.g., 5] and, therefore, needs to be targeted in conservation strategies such as TBPAs [4].

SCCS helps young conservation scientists gain experience, learn new ideas and make contacts that will be valuable for their future careers.

The species pool is a fundamental concept with the potential to connect ecological and evolutionary processes in community ecology and biogeography. However, current definitions of the concept primarily focus on contemporary ecological processes, ignoring the historical and evolutionary processes that generated the species pool. We propose a phylogenetic framework that defines the species pool by inferring evolutionary connectivity between communities in a biogeographic region. Our framework is better suited to addressing questions regarding assembly processes occurring over long time periods, offering deeper evolutionary insights for community ecology and conservation biogeography.

Forest conservation typically prioritizes total area, treating every hectare as interchangeable regardless of how the landscape is configured. Analyzing 17 million patches, Zou et al. reveal that per-area productivity rises superlinearly with patch size. Fragmentation can, therefore, erode carbon sequestration, exposing a hidden cost that challenges area-based conservation paradigms.

What determines where species occur and where they do not? Brightly et al. showed that cold-origin lineages are less likely to form amphitropical distributions. This raises questions about the biogeographical costs and opportunities of adapting to a particular thermal environment, with implications for species persistence or extinction under climate change.