The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: what it does and does not do, and how to improve it

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) marks one of the most ambitious environmental agreements of the 21st century. Yet despite the ambition, and the considerable change in approach since negotiating its predecessor (the 2025 Vision and Aichi targets), the many pressures, including working through a global pandemic mean that the final agreement, despite several years of delay, is weaker than might have been hoped for. The GBF provides a set of four goals, composed of 23 targets (and a series of supporting annexes) which explore the options for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the mobilisation of necessary resources to maintain life on Earth. In this perspective we systematically examine the composition of the GBF, exploring what the targets lack and what weaknesses exist in text. We also detail the link between the targets and the key indicators which can be used to track success toward fulfilling the targets. We offer key recommendations which could help strengthen the application of various targets, and show where the indicators could be improved to provide more detailed information to monitor progress. Furthermore, we discuss the association between targets and their indicators, and detail where indicators may lack the necessary temporal resolution or other elements. Finally, we discuss how various actors might better prepare for the successor to the GBF in 2030 and what has been learnt about the negotiating process, including lessons to help ensure that future agreements can circumnavigate issues which may have weakened the agreement

Reconstructing cave past to manage and conserve cave present and future

Whilst restoration and recovery of ecosystems has become a major priority, developing a baseline of what biodiversity was like prior to disturbance, and what might have driven changes in wildlife populations often remains unknown in many systems. Challenging to access ecosystems, such as subterranean ecosystems which cannot be monitored by remote sensing and frequently have very little information provide a significant challenge to understanding how biodiversity patterns may have changed, and how they might be more effectively managed. Caves represent unique ecosystems, key sites for our own human history, but with their unique conditions and stability can provide insights into their own past use as well as an index of local climate and vegetation. In addition, caves host many of the worlds over 1400 bat species, meaning that the ability to reconstruct past population trajectories may facilitate their conservation, as well as that of the many other, often undescribed cave dependant species. Here we discuss the various types of data from biological, chemical, geological and social that can be used to reconstruct the past history of cave sites across various timescales. We discuss the considerations needed for each approach as well as providing examples to guide the application of such approaches to better understand cave systems and their varying uses over time, and highlight how such data may facilitate cave management

Searching the web builds fuller picture of arachnid trade

Trade in arachnids includes millions of individuals and over 1264 species, with over 70% of individuals coming from the wild. Wildlife trade is a major driver of biodiversity loss, yet whilst the impacts of trade in some species are relatively well-known, some taxa, such as many invertebrates are often overlooked. Here we explore global patterns of trade in the arachnids, and detected 1,264 species from 66 families and 371 genera in trade. Trade in these groups exceeds millions of individuals, with 67% coming directly from the wild, and up to 99% of individuals in some genera. For popular taxa, such as tarantulas up to 50% are in trade, including 25% of species described since 2000. CITES only covers 30 (2%) of the species potentially traded. We mapped the percentage and number of species native to each country in trade. To enable sustainable trade, better data on species distributions and better conservation status assessments are needed. The disparity between trade data sources highlights the need to expand monitoring if impacts on wild populations are to be accurately gauged and the impacts of trade minimised.Peer reviewe

Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world

publishedVersio

Developing a collaborative framework for naturalistic visual search

While much research has investigated the mechanisms of visual search behaviour in laboratory-based computer tasks, there has been relatively little work on whether these results generalise to more naturalistic search tasks and thus how well existing theories explain real-world search behaviour. In addition, work relating to this question has often been carried out by researchers working in very different disciplines, including not just vision science but also fields such as consumer behaviour, sports science and medical science, making it more difficult to get an overview of the progress made and open questions remaining. We present findings from a systematic review of real-world visual search, showing that we can group the current literature into theoretical and applied approaches, and that there are certain well-studied topics (e.g., X-ray screening) but that there are relatively few links made across different search tasks and/or search contexts. We also present preliminary work detailing our development of a “naturalistic search task battery”, which aims to provide a suite of open source, reproducible and standardised real-world search tasks, thus enabling the generation of comparable data across multiple studies and aiding theory and modelling in this area

Copper(I) complexes of P-stereogenic Josiphos and related ligands

Starting from (R)-Ugi's amine, diastereoselective lithiation followed by Ar'PCl 2 and then Ar’’MgBr led to the generation, as single diastereoisomers, of (R,S p,S phos) [Ar’=Ph, Ar’’=o-Tol] and (R,S p,R phos) [Ar’=o-Tol, Ar’’=Ph] PPFA ligand derivatives. Amine substitution of both with HPCy 2 gave P-stereogenic Josiphos ligands, and then addition of CuCl, the corresponding copper(I) complexes. The latter were also generated by using borane P and N protecting groups and in situ Cu(I) complexation, avoiding the isolation of air-sensitive phosphine intermediates. This protection methodology was also applied to the synthesis of Josiphos/CuCl complexes derived from PCl 3. In addition, related bulky cobalt-sandwich complex-based derivatives were also obtained. Preliminary investigation revealed isolated CuCl complexes as competent catalyst precursors for enantioselective conjugate addition reactions

Global patterns and drivers of leaf photosynthetic capacity : the relative importance of environmental factors and evolutionary history

Altres ajuts: Fundación Ramon Areces grant CIVP20A6621Aim: understanding the considerable variability and drivers of global leaf photosynthetic capacity [indicated by the maximum carboxylation rate standardized to 25°C (Vc,max25)] is an essential step for accurate modelling of terrestrial plant photosynthesis and carbon uptake under climate change. Although current environmental conditions have often been connected with empirical and theoretical models to explain global Vc,max25 variability through acclimatization and adaptation, long-term evolutionary history has largely been neglected, but might also explicitly play a role in shaping the Vc,max25 variability. - Location: global - Time period: contemporary - Major taxa studied: terrestrial plants. - Methods: we compiled a geographically comprehensive global dataset of Vc,max25 for C3 plants (n = 6917 observations from 2157 species and 425 sites covering all major biomes world-wide), explored the biogeographical and phylogenetic patterns of Vc,max25, and quantified the relative importance of current environmental factors and evolutionary history in driving global Vc,max25 variability. - Results: we found that Vc,max25 differed across different biomes, with higher mean values in relatively drier regions, and across different life-forms, with higher mean values in non-woody relative to woody plants and in legumes relative to non-leguminous plants. The values of Vc,max25 displayed a significant phylogenetic signal and diverged in a contrasting manner across phylogenetic groups, with a significant trend along the evolutionary axis towards a higher Vc,max25 in more modern clades. A Bayesian phylogenetic linear mixed model revealed that evolutionary history (indicated by phylogeny and species) explained nearly 3-fold more of the variation in global Vc,max25 than present-day environment (53 vs. 18%). - Main conclusions: these findings contribute to a comprehensive assessment of the patterns and drivers of global Vc,max25 variability, highlighting the importance of evolutionary history in driving global Vc,max25 variability, hence terrestrial plant photosynthesis