Conservation and Biodiversity
Summary
Biodiversity—the variety of genes, species and ecosystems—underpins the services and resilience of the biosphere. Yet over recent decades anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, overharvesting, invasive species, pollution and climate change have driven species loss at rates far above natural background levels. Effective responses combine habitat protection, restoration of degraded ecosystems and sustainable management of land and resources. Conservation must integrate scientific knowledge with social dimensions, from protected‐area design and ecological restoration to community stewardship, behavioural interventions and policy measures that balance human needs with the intrinsic value of the natural world.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Urban landscapes can harbour unexpectedly rich pollinator communities. A replicated experimental study in Central European cities found that bees and other Hymenoptera showed higher species richness, phylogenetic diversity and flower‐visitation rates in urban sites than in neighbouring rural areas. Ecotonal strips of insect‐friendly vegetation bordering roads and parks further enhanced pollination services, suggesting that well‐managed green infrastructure can transform cities into hotspots for pollination, with benefits for wild plants and urban crops.
Coral reef restoration has taken an innovative turn with the advent of bionic biomaterials. Researchers have developed 3D-printed “bionic corals” that mimic both the skeletal and tissue microarchitecture of living corals, optimising light distribution to support high‐density microalgal growth. These programmable synthetic habitats replicate the optical and mechanical traits of natural coral–algal symbioses, offering new tools for reef research, bioenergy applications and scalable restoration platforms.
Research from all publishers
A novel decision‐support framework has been applied to map illicit trade in live cheetahs from eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula. By combining habitat suitability indices with graph‐theory network models, researchers identified likely source populations and transit corridors. This scalable approach can guide targeted enforcement and community engagement to disrupt trafficking routes and protect remnant cheetah metapopulations.
Landscape‐scale eradication of invasive American bullfrogs in a southwestern US wildlife refuge demonstrated simultaneous removal of two major amphibian pathogens. A before–after–control‐impact study using environmental DNA showed that, following the bullfrog removal campaign, both Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (chytrid fungus) and ranaviruses were co‐extirpated with the host. These findings underline the power of coordinated eradication to restore native amphibian communities and reduce disease risk.
Conservation and Biodiversity publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in conservation and biodiversity across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Habitat suitability index: A quantitative score predicting the capacity of an environment to support a given species based on key ecological variables.
Ecotone: A transition zone between distinct habitat types that often supports elevated species richness and functional complementarity.
Bionic materials: Engineered substrates that replicate biological structures and functions to interact with living organisms in restoration or biotechnological applications.
Phylogenetic diversity: A measure of biodiversity that reflects the evolutionary relationships among species within a community.
Graph‐theory network model: A mathematical framework representing habitat patches and connections as nodes and edges to analyse movement, trade or dispersal pathways.
References
- Urban areas as hotspots for bees and pollination but not a panacea for all insects. Nature Communications (2020).
- Bionic 3D printed corals. Nature Communications (2020).
- Successful eradication of invasive American bullfrogs leads to coextirpation of emerging pathogens. Conservation Letters (2023).
About these summaries
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