Eelgrass ( Zostera marina ) constitutes critical habitat worldwide in terms of ecosystem services and biodiversity, yet less than 30% coverage remains in Danish waters compared to historical records. Persistent eutrophication has substantially reduced water clarity, making light the primary limiting factor for the distribution of eelgrass. Through particle filtration, filter-feeders such as blue mussels ( Mytilus edulis ) can...

Climate change is expected to create a range of impacts on biodiversity, land use, and economic activities, but those sector impacts are rarely analysed together. Here, we assess how climate change and socioeconomic narratives will affect land use and biodiversity in the state of Bavaria, Germany. We apply a multi-sectoral modelling approach with two climate projections (RCP 2.6 and 8.5) downscaled from three different climate...

Impact evaluation of conservation actions is a crucial step in global efforts to curb the biodiversity crisis. Through robust impact evaluation, practitioners can assess the effectiveness of conservation strategies and optimize the use of limited resources. Despite a proliferation of methods and tools for evaluating conservation impact, no standardized method exists to assess and compare the impact, and global contribution, of...

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement aga...

Stopping declines in biodiversity is critically important, but it is only a first step toward achieving more ambitious conservation goals. The absence of an objective and practical definition of species recovery that is applicable across taxonomic groups leads to inconsistent targets in recovery plans and frustrates reporting and maximization of conservation impact. We devised a framework for comprehensively assessing species...