Reviews & Analysis

Ongoing and projected climate changes are bringing increased marine heatwave frequency and intensity, threatening the health and survival of coral reefs. This Roadmap outlines the potential for assisted evolution methods to increase thermal tolerance in corals and describes ways to accelerate research and development for enhancing coral adaptation rates.

Nature-based carbon projects are widely promoted as delivering both climate and biodiversity benefits. However, carbon accounting requirements can diverge from the needs of biodiversity conservation. This Perspective examines challenges related to additionality, leakage, permanence and unintended social and ecological impacts, highlighting limits to the utility of carbon markets for conservation.

Meeting the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals in Africa relies on scaling up genomics research and digital sequence information infrastructure across the continent. This Roadmap presents the African BioGenome Project’s theory of change, which identifies challenges and makes recommendations for actions to improve genomics research while meeting global biodiversity goals.

Attributing biodiversity change to interacting human drivers requires causal frameworks that integrate observational, experimental and mechanistic approaches across scales. In this Perspective, the authors discuss an attribution framework to strengthen causal inference and guide more effective biodiversity management under rapidly changing global conditions.

Thermal stress reduces fertility in animals at temperatures below lethal, yet these sublethal effects remain underrepresented in biodiversity forecasts. This Review synthesizes current knowledge on how elevated temperatures reduce reproductive output and the evolutionary and ecological downstream effects of this phenomenon.

The drivers of cognitive variation remain elusive. In this Perspective, Wooster et al. propose the predatory intelligence hypothesis, positing that the complex interactions between predator and prey promote cognitive variation on individual, developmental and evolutionary levels.

Understanding biodiversity loss and achieving global commitments requires effective biodiversity monitoring. This Roadmap outlines the necessary steps to achieve a transnational European Biodiversity Observation Network built around Essential Biodiversity Variables, combining targeted sensing methods, spatial design, data sharing, data integration and modelling workflows, and coordinated governance to deliver policy-ready insights.

Extreme events — such as floods, droughts and heatwaves — are escalating in frequency, magnitude and duration. This Review discusses the implications of these global changes for biodiversity in rivers, across population, community and ecosystem scales.

The urban mosaic is a complex assimilation of habitats, biotic and abiotic factors with eco-evolutionary influence on local and regional biodiversity. In this Review, the authors explore this urban mosaic through the lens of island biogeography, describing the eco-evolutionary dynamics influencing species adaptation to urban landscapes.

Butterflies and moths are key indicators of functioning and healthy ecosystems around the world. This Review describes the evolutionary history of the order Lepidoptera and tracks shifts in researchers’ understanding of the clade in the genomic era; it also explores biogeographic patterns and conservation efforts for threatened species.

Climate model intercomparison projects have been essential in identifying mechanisms of human-caused climate change, but similar efforts in biodiversity science have lagged behind. This Perspective discusses existing biodiversity model intercomparison projects and identifies opportunities for their advancement in the future.

Scientists disagree about area-based conservation’s role in addressing biodiversity loss. This Perspective examines how conservation scientists, land systems scientists and political ecologists approach these debates differently and argues that environmental data justice frameworks can bridge epistemic divides, helping researchers to develop more effective and equitable conservation interventions.

Global shark and ray populations have declined sharply, driven by expanding fisheries and inequitable gaps in catch, trade and distribution data. This Review assesses global status, highlights drivers of decline, and outlines the regulatory, market-based and conservation actions needed to reduce mortality and reverse shark and ray biodiversity loss.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) and ecosystem restoration are effective approaches to address marine and coastal biodiversity loss and meet Global Biodiversity Framework targets, but have been applied separately to date. This Perspective outlines how ecoscape restoration and climate-smart MSP can be aligned to deliver reciprocal benefits and accelerate biodiversity recovery.

The question of how to define a species has a long history and continued relevance for ongoing biological and conservation research. This Review describes the history of the species problem, and explores how novel evolutionary pressures and constraints of the Anthropocene might be complicating species definitions even further.

Soil biodiversity is poorly studied compared to aboveground biodiversity, but is an important driver of ecosystem functioning. This Review discusses advances in research into the relationships between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, highlighting that integrative and causal study approaches will be needed to fill the gaps in our understanding.

Antarctica has a unique environment and geographic isolation that affect its biodiversity patterns. In this Perspective, the authors examine how five key ecological processes shape Antarctica’s biodiversity and use this information to establish predictions for future change in the region.

Experiments manipulating tree species diversity and measuring effects on ecosystem function have been important tools for assessing how biodiverse forests can accumulate biomass, store carbon and help to meet climate goals. This Review summarizes key findings from global tree biodiversity experiments.

Mushroom-forming fungi have along evolutionary history and a suite of important ecological roles. This Review highlights advances in understanding of Agaricomycetes evolution and ecology driven by genomic research.

Although long neglected in biodiversity conservation policy, the importance of soil biodiversity is now recognized by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This Perspective describes this important policy breakthrough and offers strategies to build on it for successful monitoring and conservation outcomes.