Biodiversity net gain (BNG) is a “net outcome” planning policy which aims for development projects to leave biodiversity in a better state than before they started. Understanding the origins and history of existing mandatory BNG is necessary to understand the drivers and barriers that have influenced the policy to date and could inform the development and implementation of future BNG policies. Biodiversity net gain legislation...

Urban areas are altered from natural landscapes in several ways that can impact wildlife. Birds are widespread in urban areas, and it is well documented that there are phenotypic differences between urban and non‐urban conspecifics. However, little is known about which characteristics of the urban environment are driving differences. We used 9 years of data from nest boxes spread across 20 sites along a 40‐km urban–non‐urban g...

Evidence of hydrothermal venting on the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Central Arctic Ocean has been available since 2001, with first visual evidence of black smokers on the Aurora Vent Field obtained in 2014. But it was not until 2021 that the first ever remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives to hydrothermal vents under permanent ice cover in the Arctic were conducted, enabling the collection of vent fluids, rocks, m...

For future sustainable management of fisheries, we anticipate deeper and more diverse information will be needed. Future needs include not only biological data, but also information that can only come from fishers, such as real-time ‘early warning’ indicators of changes at sea, socio-economic data and fishing strategies. The fishing industry, in our experience, shows clear willingness to voluntarily contribute data and experie...

The extent to which any particular taxon supplies novel natural products depends on biological and evolutionary differences, and on decisions made by (or constraints on) biodiscovery scientists. The influences of different sources of variability on the biodiscovery process were examined in a study of the Cnidaria, a group recognised as an important source of novel marine natural products. The number of species with at least on...

Coral research is being ushered into the genomic era. To fully capitalize on the potential discoveries from this genomic revolution, the rapidly increasing number of high-quality genomes requires effective pairing with rigorous taxonomic characterizations of specimens and the contextualization of their ecological relevance. However, to date there is no formal framework that genomicists, taxonomists, and coral scientists can co...

Globally, collapse of ecosystems—potentially irreversible change to ecosystem structure, composition and function—imperils biodiversity, human health and well‐being. We examine the current state and recent trajectories of 19 ecosystems, spanning 58° of latitude across 7.7 M km 2 , from Australia's coral reefs to terrestrial Antarctica. Pressures from global climate change and regional human impacts, occurring as chronic ‘press...

Well‐intentioned environmental management can backfire, causing unforeseen damage. To avoid this, managers and ecologists seek accurate predictions of the ecosystem‐wide impacts of interventions, given small and imprecise datasets, which is an incredibly difficult task. We generated and analysed thousands of ecosystem population time series to investigate whether fitted models can aid decision‐makers to select interventions. U...

Human–wildlife conflicts are commonly addressed by excluding, relocating, or lethally controlling animals with the goal of preserving public health and safety, protecting property, or conserving other valued wildlife. However, declining wildlife populations, a lack of efficacy of control methods in achieving desired outcomes, and changes in how people value animals have triggered widespread acknowledgment of the need for ethic...

While many studies have documented the effect that glacial cycles have had on northern hemisphere species, few have attempted to study the associated effect of aridification at low latitudes in the southern hemisphere. We investigated the past effects that cyclic aridification may have had on the population structure and history of a widespread endemic Australian bird species, the Australian magpie ( Gymnorhina tibicen ). One...