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Global rarity of intact coastal regions

Management of the land–sea interface is essential for global conservation and sustainability objectives because coastal regions maintain natural processes that support biodiversity and the livelihood of billions of people. However, assessments of coastal regions have focused strictly on either the terrestrial or marine realm. Consequently, understanding of the overall state of Earth's coastal regions is poor. We integrated the terrestrial human footprint and marine cumulative human impact maps in a global assessment of the anthropogenic pressures affecting coastal regions.

Temperature-based activity estimation accurately predicts surface activity, but not microhabitat use, in the Endangered heliothermic lizard Gambelia sila

With the existence of many endangered terrestrial ectotherms now being threatened in the face of climate change, effective tools to aid in the management of their conservation are necessary. Temperature-based activity estimation (TBAE) is an automated method for predicting surface activity and microhabitat use based on the temperature of an organism and its habitat, and TBAE may be used to reduce the monitoring effort for sensitive species. However, its efficacy has not been assessed in heliothermic species.

Assessing human well- being constructs with environmental and equity aspects: A review of the landscape

1. Decades of theory and scholarship on the concept of human well- being have informed a proliferation of approaches to assess well- being and support public policy aimed at sustainability and improving quality of life. 2. Human well- being is multidimensional, and well- being emerges when the dimensions and interrelationships interact as a system. In this paper, we illuminate two crucial components of well- being that are often excluded from policy because of their relative difficulty to measure and manage: equity and interrelationships between humans and the environment. 3.

Do trade-offs govern plant species’ responses to different global change treatments?

Plants are subject to trade-offs among growth strategies such that adaptations for optimal growth in one condition can preclude optimal growth in another. Thus, we predicted that a plant species that responds positively to one global change treatment would be less likely than average to respond positively to another treatment, particularly for pairs of treatments that favor distinct traits. We examined plant species’ abundances in 39 global change experiments manipulating two or more of the following: CO2, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, temperature, or disturbance.

Continuity and change in the contemporary Pacific food system

The Pacific food system has become progressively more integrated into global food regimes. This integration has had impacts on availability and consumption of food, population health, and vulnerability to external drivers. We describe major elements of the contemporary food system to provide a foundation for analysis of food system transitions and public health outcomes. Although crop production has doubled in the last fifty years, it has not kept pace with population growth. This deficit is increasingly filled by imported foods, particularly staples, meat and sugar.

Historical food consumption declines and the role of alternative foods

The adoption of sustainable alternative foods could potentially reduce the environmental burden of human food production if it can reduce demand for products with higher environmental impact. However, there is little empirical evidence for how frequent food consumption declines are when alternative foods are introduced, limiting our knowledge of the potential for such introductions to drive food system transformations.

Shifting stoichiometry: Long-term trends in stream-dissolved organic matter reveal altered C:N ratios due to history of atmospheric acid deposition

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DON) are important energy and nutrient sources for aquatic ecosystems. In many northern temperate, freshwater systems DOC has increased in the past 50 years. Less is known about how changes in DOC may vary across latitudes, and whether changes in DON track those of DOC. Here, we present long-term DOC and DON data from 74 streams distributed across seven sites in biomes ranging from the tropics to northern boreal forests with varying histories of atmospheric acid deposition.

State of Alaska's salmon and people: introduction to a special feature

Indigenous peoples and salmon stewardship: a critical relationship

Indigenous Peoples and salmon in the lands now called Alaska have been closely entwined for at least 12,000 years. Salmon continue to be central to the ways of life of Alaska Natives, contributing to physical, social, economic, cultural, spiritual, psychological, and emotional well-being. Salmon have also become important to Alaskan settlers.

Conservation needs to integrate knowledge across scales