The Asia region harbors exceptional chondrichthyan (shark, ray, and chimaera) diversity but faces intense fishing pressure. The Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA) process provides a collaborative, evidence-based framework to identify critical habitats and inform spatial management. We assessed ISRAs across the Bay of Bengal, Southeast Asia, and the Northwest Pacific to characterize their extent, ecological significance, and...

Glaciers cover approximately 60% of the Svalbard archipelago, but despite extensive research on Svalbard’s glaciers and their retreat, little is known about the effect of glaciers with different termination points on fjordic benthic communities in the Arctic. Billefjorden, Svalbard, includes bays influenced by runoff from inland glaciers and Nordenskiöldbreen, a glacier that, due to retreat, has split into a marine- and a shor...

Background Past studies linking geologic and climatic controls on speciation in the Himalaya, Tibet and Hengduan (HTH) regions do not fully capture the mechanisms underlying patterns of plant diversity and endemism in hyperdiverse mountain ecosystems. Aims This study sheds new light on the orogenic and climatic drivers of plant endemism and diversity in the HTH region and unravels the mechanisms behind plant speciation and ass...