Conservation biology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Twice a year, billions of nocturnal avian migrants traverse landscapes that are changing through natural and anthropogenic forces. Here, the authors identify light pollution as an influential predictor of bird migration stopover density across the USA.

The authors introduce a new computational method, HapNe, for inferring the recent effective size of human populations. HapNe does not require high-quality genotype data, making it suitable for the study of ancient DNA samples.

Abrupt regime shifts could in theory be predicted from early warning signals. Here, the authors show that true critical transitions are challenging to classify in lake planktonic systems, due to mismatches between trophic levels, and reveal uneven performance of early warning signal detection methods.

Results from 316 Bombus terrestris colonies at 106 agricultural sites across eight European countries find pesticides in bumble bee pollen to be associated with reduced colony performance, especially in areas of intensive agriculture.

In this study, the authors use a dataset of stable isotope compositions of otoliths from Atlantic bluefin tuna to infer the thermal sensitivity of metabolic performance in their first year of life. They then assess the likely trajectories of tuna production until end century under differing emission scenarios in their two main spawning grounds, the western Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea.

Louis De Grandpré studies the traditional lands of Canada’s Pessamit people in the face of widespread logging.

Tracking devices show that protecting these solitary wanderers will require regulation over enormous stretches of open ocean.

Nataly Castelblanco Martínez works to raise awareness of the perils faced by the much-loved marine mammals.

Ancient-genomics studies are boosting efforts to save Scotland’s endangered ‘Highland tigers’ — and keep them separate from domestic cats.