Correlative species distribution models are widely used to quantify past shifts in ranges or communities, and to predict future outcomes under ongoing global change. Practitioners confront a wide range of potentially plausible models for ecological dynamics, but most specific applications only consider a narrow set. Here, we clarify that certain model structures can embed restrictive assumptions about key sources of forecast u...

The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) recently adopted a resolution with a mandate to negotiate a new international legally binding instrument (a treaty) on plastic pollution. The mandate includes the need to ‘prevent’ as well as ‘reduce’ and ‘eliminate’ plastic pollution through a ‘comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic’. Unsustainable production and consumption of virgin (primary) plast...

The world’s largest extant fish, the whale shark Rhincodon typus , is one of the most-studied species of sharks globally. The discovery of predictable aggregation sites where these animals gather seasonally or are sighted year-round – most of which are coastal and juvenile-dominated – has allowed for a rapid expansion of research on this species. The most common method for studying whale sharks at these sites is photographic i...