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Pioneer of biodiversity accounting who overhauled the Red List of threatened species.

Tackling global problems requires a fresh approach, argues Georgina Mace, as the British Ecological Society celebrates its centenary.

Phylogenetic regression and structural equation modelling of environmental, social and life history traits across the primate clade indicates correlates for same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB), and suggests that while environmental and life history traits tend to influence SSB indirectly, social complexity directly promotes its occurrence.

An analysis of the impact of logging intensity on biodiversity in tropical forests in Sabah, Malaysia, identifies a threshold of tree biomass removal below which logged forests still have conservation value.

The fraction of C4 plants in terrestrial biomass decreased from 16% to 12% between 1982 and 2016, but the change is too small to explain the observed change in the isotopic composition of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to estimates based on a C3/C4 distribution model and a carbon cycle box model.

The global community is committed to reducing the rate of loss of biodiversity, but how can progress be measured? A novel system to tackle the problem may also identify key factors behind the changes.

To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.

Non-human primates deliver ecological processes to tropical ecosystems. In this study, a trait-based approach is used to assess the vulnerability of 607 primate taxa to cyclones and droughts, extreme climatic events that are expected to increase or intensify in the coming decades.

Agricultural expansion removes habitat vital for biodiversity. This modelling study finds that 4.6–11.2% of global ice-free land can be devoted to crops and 7.9–15.7% to pasture to support commonly suggested levels of local biodiversity—less than suggested in previous studies.

Islands are thought to be an area of high concern in terms of invasive species impact. Here a global, network-oriented analysis of invasive species on islands characterizes this threat.

Analysis of a global data set of local biodiversity comparisons reveals an average 13.6% reduction in species richness and 10.7% reduction in abundance as a result of past human land use, and projections based on these data under a business-as-usual land-use scenario predict further substantial loss this century, unless strong mitigation efforts are undertaken to reverse the effects.

Analysis of the FLUXNET2015 dataset provides observational evidence for widespread thermal acclimation of canopy-scale photosynthesis and its timescales across diverse biomes, improving its representation in land surface models.

The development of the post-2020 strategic plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a vital window of opportunity to set out an ambitious plan of action to restore global biodiversity. The components of such a plan, including its goal, targets and some metrics, already exist and provide a roadmap to 2050.

This study finds that vegetation models commonly underestimate the productivity of West African forests, owing to bias in fractional absorbed photosynthetic radiation (fAPAR) and leaf level photosynthetic capacities.

Testing 255 combinations of chemicals versus bacterial communities shows species diversity contributes to resilience against increasingly complex stressor mixtures.

This study uses in situ respirometry assays and transplant experiments with salmonid fish to disentangle the effects of chronic and acute thermal exposure. They show that chronic exposure to warming can attenuate salmonid thermal sensitivity, highlighting the need to incorporate the potential for thermal acclimation or adaptation when forecasting global warming consequences.

Using a bioenergetic model and manipulative field experiment along a natural stream temperature gradient, the authors identify a temperature-induced trophic cascade where the presence of fish increases algal biomass and reduces decomposition, but only under warming.

Divergent conceptions of living nature between conservationists and other groups of people can hinder progress to protect biodiversity. This Perspective reflects on the use of the concept of biodiversity, willingness to expand its ambit, and engagement with the various drivers of change.

Root exudates can either promote or impede the formation of stable, mineral-associated soil organic carbon (MAOC). Yet, carbon stabilisation in MAOC is decoupled from changes in the total soil carbon pool, i.e., carbon sequestration.

Using systematic satellite observations of land surface temperature and soil moisture during soil dry-downs, the spatially-explicit global distribution of the critical soil moisture threshold of plant water stress and its drivers is uncovered.

Logged forests in Borneo have higher energy flow from vegetation to and broad range of bird and mammal species relative to old-growth forests and oil palm plantations, showing that they can be diverse and ecologically vibrant ecosystems.

Organisms can alter their physiological response to warming. Here, the authors show that the ability to raise metabolic rate following exposure to warming is inverse to body size and provide a mathematical model which estimates that metabolic plasticity could amplify energy flux through ecosystems in response to warming.

This study finds that West African ecosystems are generally more productive than equivalent ecosystems in Amazonia. It also suggests that a semi-deciduous forest site in Ghana is the world’s most productive forest measured to date.

The authors study social and mounting behaviours in male rhesus macaques across 3 yr, finding that same-sex sociosexual behaviour is both repeatable and heritable within this population.

Certain bats species have previously been identified as ancestral sources of coronaviruses that infect humans but there is limited data on the genomic diversity or zoonotic potential of viruses infecting bats in the UK. Here, the authors use deep sequencing and in vitro assays to characterise coronaviruses recovered from 48 bat faecal samples.

The natural capital concept is making way into government policy processes and the private sector, but different understandings of the approach might lead to misuse or omissions. In order to address this issue, a comprehensive framework for natural capital analysis and decision making is presented.

Using trait-based optimality theory that unifies stomatal responses and acclimation of plants to changing environments, this study builds a model of the coupling of CO₂ and water vapour exchanges through the leaves. This successfully predicts the simultaneous decline in carbon assimilation, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic capacity during progressive droughts.

Accounting for species interactions is shown to be crucial for building more robust predictions of how climate change will affect the carbon cycle.

Analysis of global eco-acoustic data shows that soundscape-based predictions of avian biodiversity do not generalize across datasets, but changes in soundscapes do consistently indicate changes in avian communities.

Lower CO₂ and more-frequent fires may have supported grassland expansion in the Amazon during the Last Glacial Maximum, according to vegetation modelling using a range of boundary conditions tested against existing pollen records.

Using global flux tower observations, the authors show that atmospheric dryness always reduces photosynthesis, whereas soil dryness can increase photosynthesis if soil water stores are sufficient.

Elevated atmospheric CO₂ has stimulated plant growth, yet the future land carbon sink may be constrained in part by nutrient availability. Here the authors review plant nutrient acquisition strategies and the need for better representation in models to improve predictions of land carbon uptake.

Two decades ago the first Earth Summit raised the question of how biological diversity loss alters ecosystem functioning and affects humanity; this Review looks at the progress made towards answering this question.

Global patterns and trends in primary production are estimated using remote-sensing-based models. This Perspective outlines ways to ensure that the next generation of model predictions robustly characterizes how this key element of the terrestrial carbon cycle is changing.

Testing ecophysiological theory using tree traits along a vapour pressure deficit (VPD) gradient shows, as predicted, that photosynthetic capacity is higher at higher VPD sites. Contrary to the predictions, potential water conductivity tends to increase with higher VPD.

The concept of ecosystem multifunctionality has emerged from two distinct research fields. In this Perspective, the authors reconcile these views by redefining multifunctionality at two levels that will be relevant for both fundamental and applied researchers.