Near-Term Forecasting of Terrestrial Mobile Species Distributions for Adaptive Management Under Extreme Weather Events.

Across the globe, mobile species are key components of ecosystems. Migratory birds and nomadic antelope can have considerable conservation, economic or societal value, while irruptive insects can be major pests and threaten food security. Extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency and intensity under ongoing climate change, are driving rapid and unforeseen shifts in mobile species distributions.

Widespread introduced species dominate the urban tree assemblage on the endemic-rich tropical island of São Tomé.

The Afrotropics are experiencing some of the fastest urbanisation rates on the planet but the impact of city growth on their rich and unique biodiversity remains understudied, especially compared to natural baselines. Little is also known about how introduced species influence β-diversity in these contexts, and how patterns coincide with native ranges of species. Here we investigated how tree assemblages of the endemic-rich Afrotropical island of São Tomé differed between urban, rural and natural zones.

A global meta-analysis reveals contrasting impacts of air, light, and noise pollution on pollination.

In the face of biodiversity decline, understanding the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystem functions is critical for mitigation. Elevated levels of pollution are a major threat to biodiversity, yet there is no synthesis of their impact on many of the major ecosystem functions, including pollination. This ecosystem function is both particularly vulnerable as it depends on the fine-tuned interaction between plants and pollinators and hugely important as it underpins the flora of most habitats as well as food production.

The Contribution of Environmental Science to Mental Health Research: A Scoping Review.

Mental health is influenced by multiple complex and interacting genetic, psychological, social, and environmental factors. As such, developing state-of-the-art mental health knowledge requires collaboration across academic disciplines, including environmental science. To assess the current contribution of environmental science to this field, a scoping review of the literature on environmental influences on mental health (including conditions of cognitive development and decline) was conducted.

How do information flows affect impact from environmental research? - An analysis of a science-policy network.

Evidence of the impact arising from environmental research is increasingly demanded. Exchanges between science providers and actors that use scientific knowledge to address environmental problems are recognized as a key component of the mechanisms through which impact occurs. Yet, the role of interactions between science and policy actors in delivering and shaping research impact is not well established.

The features and processes underpinning high-quality data generation in participatory research and engagement activities.

Participatory approaches are widely used by researchers to gather data and insight about how the environment is perceived, valued and used. The participatory activities may be creating information as part of curiosity-driven blue-skies research or to inform policy/practise decision-making.The quality and usability of data derived from participatory approaches are heavily influenced by how activities are conducted.

Nature, smells, and human wellbeing.

The link between nature and human wellbeing is well established. However, few studies go beyond considering the visual and auditory underpinnings of this relationship, even though engaging with nature is a multisensory experience. While research linking smell to wellbeing exists, it focuses predominantly on smells as a source of nuisance/offence.

Meeting sustainable development goals via robotics and autonomous systems.

Robotics and autonomous systems are reshaping the world, changing healthcare, food production and biodiversity management. While they will play a fundamental role in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals, associated opportunities and threats are yet to be considered systematically. We report on a horizon scan evaluating robotics and autonomous systems impact on all Sustainable Development Goals, involving 102 experts from around the world.

Can biodiverse streetscapes mitigate the effects of noise and air pollution on human wellbeing?

Most of the global population are urban, with inhabitants exposed to raised levels of pollution. Pollutants negatively impact human wellbeing, and can alter the structure and diversity of ecosystems. Contrastingly, urban biodiversity can positively contribute to human wellbeing.

Ecological and economic implications of alternative metrics in biodiversity offset markets.

Policy tools are needed that allow reconciliation of human development pressures with conservation priorities. Biodiversity offsetting can be used to compensate for ecological losses caused by development activities. Landowners can choose to undertake conservation actions, including habitat restoration, to generate biodiversity offsets.

Increases in subsistence farming due to land reform have negligible impact on bird communities in Zimbabwe.

Habitat alterations resulting from land-use change are major drivers of global biodiversity losses. In Africa, these threats are especially severe. For instance, demand to convert land into agricultural uses is leading to increasing areas of drylands in southern and central Africa being transformed for agriculture.

The Time Machine framework: monitoring and prediction of biodiversity loss.

Transdisciplinary solutions are needed to achieve the sustainability of ecosystem services for future generations. We propose a framework to identify the causes of ecosystem function loss and to forecast the future of ecosystem services under different climate and pollution scenarios. The framework (i) applies an artificial intelligence (AI) time-series analysis to identify relationships among environmental change, biodiversity dynamics and ecosystem functions; (ii) validates relationships between loss of biodiversity and environmental change in fabricated ecosystems; and (iii) forecasts the likely future of ecosystem services and their socioeconomic impact under different pollution and climate scenarios.

Why cultural ecosystem services matter most: Exploring the pathways linking greenspaces and mental health in a low-income country.

Exposure to urban greenspaces promotes a variety of mental health benefits. However, much of the evidence for these benefits is biased towards high-income countries. In contrast, urban areas in low-income settings that have the highest rates of urbanisation remain understudied.

How urbanisation alters the intensity of the urban heat island in a tropical African city.

Due to the combined effects of urban growth and climate change, rapid urbanisation is particularly challenging in African cities. Areas that will house a large proportion of the urban population in the future coincide with where natural hazards are expected to occur, and where hazard risk management institutions, knowledge, and capacity are often lacking. One of the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, whereby urban areas are warmer than the surrounding rural areas.

The influence of human values on attitudes and behaviours towards forest conservation.

Human attitudes and behaviours have been linked to the degradation of global biodiversity, particularly forest ecosystems. Indeed, effective conservation actions require that the attitudes and behaviours of affected individuals and communities are taken into account. While several studies have examined how human attitudes and behaviours affect conservation, it is still unclear which, and how, human value orientations influence conservation attitudes and behaviour.

Tree species richness and diversity predicts the magnitude of urban heat island mitigation effects of greenspaces.

The Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) is a widely recognised phenomenon that profoundly affects the quality of life for urban citizens. Urban greenspace can help mitigate the UHIE, but the characteristics that determine the extent to which any given greenspace can cool an urban area are not well understood. A key characteristic is likely to be the properties of trees that are found in a greenspace.

A global horizon scan of the future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on urban ecosystems.

Technology is transforming societies worldwide. A major innovation is the emergence of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), which have the potential to revolutionize cities for both people and nature. Nonetheless, the opportunities and challenges associated with RAS for urban ecosystems have yet to be considered systematically.

Exploring uncharted territory: Do urban greenspaces support mental health in low- and middle-income countries?

Exposure to urban greenspaces promotes an array of mental health benefits. Understanding these benefits is of paramount importance, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where cities are expanding at an unprecedented rate. However, the existing evidence-base for the health benefits of greenspaces has a strong bias towards high-income countries.

Do ecosystem service frameworks represent people's values?

Since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was published, a plethora of ecosystem service frameworks have been developed to conceptualise the links between the natural environment and society. The intended geographic scales of application, the policy/practice context, and the scientific disciplines involved have driven variations in how the frameworks are constructed. However, the frameworks are homogenous in that they have been created predominately based on expert opinions and views of how ecosystem services are structured.

Rapid redistribution of agricultural land alters avian richness, abundance, and functional diversity.

The conversion of natural, or seminatural, habitats to agricultural land and changes in agricultural land use are significant drivers of biodiversity loss. Within the context of land-sharing versus land-sparing debates, large-scale commercial agriculture is known to be detrimental to biodiversity, but the effects of small-scale subsistence farming on biodiversity are disputed. This poses a problem for sustainable land-use management in the Global South, where approximately 30% of farmland is small-scale.

Wetlands for Wellbeing: Piloting a Nature-Based Health Intervention for the Management of Anxiety and Depression.

Nature-based health interventions (NBIs) for the treatment of poor mental health are becoming increasingly common, yet evidence to support their effectiveness is lacking. We conduct a pilot study of a six-week intervention, aiming to engage individuals with wetland nature for the treatment of anxiety and/or depression. We employed a mixed methods design, using questionnaires, focus groups and semi-structured interviews to evaluate the intervention from the perspective of participants (n = 16) and healthcare professionals (n = 2).

Scale dependency of conservation outcomes in a forest-offsetting scheme.

Offset schemes help avoid or revert habitat loss through protection of existing habitat (avoided deforestation), through the restoration of degraded areas (natural regrowth), or both. The spatial scale of an offset scheme may influence which of these 2 outcomes is favored and is an important aspect of the scheme's design. However, how spatial scale influences the trade-offs between the preservation of existing habitat and restoration of degraded areas is poorly understood.

Not All Green Space Is Created Equal: Biodiversity Predicts Psychological Restorative Benefits From Urban Green Space.

Contemporary epidemiological methods testing the associations between green space and psychological well-being treat all vegetation cover as equal. However, there is very good reason to expect that variations in ecological "quality" (number of species, integrity of ecological processes) may influence the link between access to green space and benefits to human health and well-being. We test the relationship between green space quality and restorative benefit in an inner city urban population in Bradford, United Kingdom.