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International agreements aim to conserve 17% of Earth's land area by 2020 but include no area‐based conservation targets within the working landscapes that support human needs through farming, ranching, and forestry. Through a review of country‐level legislation, we found that just 38% of countries have minimum area requirements for conserving native habitats within working landscapes. We argue for increasing native habitats to at least 20% of working landscape area where it is below this minimum. Such target has benefits for food security, nature's contributions to people, and the connectivity and effectiveness of protected area networks in biomes in which protected areas are underrepresented. We also argue for maintaining native habitat at higher levels where it currently exceeds the 20% minimum, and performed a literature review that shows that even more than 50% native habitat restoration is needed in particular landscapes. The post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is an opportune moment to include a minimum habitat restoration target for working landscapes that contributes to, but does not compete with, initiatives for expanding protected areas, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Increasingly, often ecologist collects data with nonlinear trends, heterogeneous variances, temporal correlation, and hierarchical structure. Nonlinear mixed‐effects models offer a flexible approach to such data, but the estimation and interpretation of these models present challenges, partly associated with the lack of worked examples in the ecological literature. We illustrate the nonlinear mixed‐effects modeling approach using temporal dynamics of vegetation moisture with field data from northwestern Patagonia. This is a Mediterranean‐type climate region where modeling temporal changes in live fuel moisture content are conceptually relevant (ecological theory) and have practical implications (fire management). We used this approach to answer whether moisture dynamics varies among functional groups and aridity conditions, and compared it with other simpler statistical models. The modeling process is set out “step‐by‐step”: We start translating the ideas about the system dynamics to a statistical model, which is made increasingly complex in order to include different sources of variability and correlation structures. We provide guidelines and R scripts (including a new self‐starting function) that make data analyses reproducible. We also explain how to extract the parameter estimates from the R output. Our modeling approach suggests moisture dynamic to vary between grasses and shrubs, and between grasses facing different aridity conditions. Compared to more classical models, the nonlinear mixed‐effects model showed greater goodness of fit and met statistical assumptions. While the mixed‐effects approach accounts for spatial nesting, temporal dependence, and variance heterogeneity; the nonlinear function allowed to model the seasonal pattern. Parameters of the nonlinear mixed‐effects model reflected relevant ecological processes. From an applied perspective, the model could forecast the time when fuel moisture becomes critical to fire occurrence. Due to the lack of worked examples for nonlinear mixed‐effects models in the literature, our modeling approach could be useful to diverse ecologists dealing with complex data. Nonlinear mixed‐effects models offer a flexible approach to analyze complex data, but the estimation and interpretation of these models present challenges to ecologists, partly associated with the lack of developed examples in the literature. We illustrate the nonlinear mixed‐effects modeling approach using temporal dynamics of vegetation moisture with field data. We provide guidelines and R scripts that make data analyses reproducible and also explain how to extract the parameter estimates from the R output.

Despite the growing recognition of sustainability in forest management, comprehensive multi-criteria evaluations of silvicultural practices remain scarce, particularly in Patagonia. In this study, we applied a multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate the sustainability of different strip-cutting intensities in secondary Nothofagus antarctica forests in Northern Patagonia, Argentina. The performance of four management alternatives was assessed: no cutting, low cutting intensity, medium cutting intensity, and high cutting intensity. These alternatives were evaluated across 11 indicators of nature’s contributions to people. Indicator values were estimated from previous research across three contrasting sites, complemented by expert surveys to estimate weights and target values for each indicator. The results indicate that the key indicators included those associated with firewood harvesting, fire and invasions prevention, and timber species plantation performance. Medium cutting intensity consistently emerged as the most sustainable option across all sites, models, and scenarios. In contrast, no cutting performed poorly across most sites, models, and scenarios. These findings underscore the importance of integrating diverse ecological and socioeconomic indicators into forest management planning. The promotion of medium cutting intensity has the potential to enhance sustainability in N. antarctica forests, thereby contributing to the development of resilient and multifunctional landscapes in Northern Patagonia.

Fil: Garibaldi, Lucas Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones En Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural. - Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones En Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural; Argentina

Citizen science is a powerful tool for connecting members of the public with research and for obtaining large amounts of data. However, it is far less commonly implemented in developing countries than in developed countries. We conducted a large-scale citizen-science program monitoring honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses in Argentina to examine how a national consortium composed of local coordinators and two different recruitment strategies influenced volunteer participation. These strategies consisted of online questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with beekeepers to record bee health issues. We found that use of both recruitment strategies was necessary because they reached different volunteer profiles and different locations, and therefore influenced the survey’s results. Furthermore, public participation increased when the number of local coordinators was higher, regardless of recruitment strategy. These findings could also apply to other developing countries, where lack of internet access for some potential volunteers, logistical constraints such as long distances, and poor infrastructure hamper implementing large-scale citizen-science programs.

Abstract The forest–steppe ecotone in Argentine Patagonia has been planted with non-native Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinus radiata, and P. contorta. As in many other planted areas of the Southern Hemisphere, there is great concern about increasing landscape flammability. We determined, under lab conditions, live fuel moisture content (LFMC) and leaf ignition of these conifers, a naturalized poplar, and 13 native species. The mean LFMC was inversely related to leaf ignition of these species. The conifer LFMC was lower than that of most natives, making the conifers the most ignitable species. Pinus ponderosa and Pseudotsuga menziesii showed the spring dip phenomenon (i.e., low LFMC in early spring). Leaf ignition and LFMC may help elucidate some flammability components at species levels. At landscape scales, however, they have to be evaluated along with other landscape traits such as structure and stand composition. Understanding this landscape context will require full-scale experimental fires. Nevertheless, our results provide useful information for fire danger assessment, and also for setting policies aimed at planning and applying appropriate silvicultural techniques for fire prevention and control, and hence reducing fire danger at stand or landscape levels.

Forest biomass with energy purpose is gaining importance. Although there is a lot of information about afforestation for energy purpose, native resource management for biofuel production is a less studied topic. Consequently, generating information about management of local forest types that have potential for providing biomass for energy, such as resprouting shrublands, becomes a priority objective. We evaluated the effects of harvesting intensity on coppice growth in three resprouting shrublands with contrasting site conditions in northern Patagonia (Argentina). At each site, three harvesting treatments in strips of increasing width were randomly assigned to six permanent plots of 31.5 × 45 m during 2013–2014. Four years after, we measured resprouts (number and size of stems) of the five native dominant species. We found that almost all species responded to harvesting intensity by enhancing the coppice growth rates. Nonetheless, species showed different strategies for resource obtention. When analyzing at the community level, the response to harvesting intensity was consistent among the hillside sites, but conservative in the valley bottom site with the worst environmental conditions. Due to the high response of these species to harvesting intensity, we conclude that intense shrubland management for biomass commercialization could be a viable option depending on site conditions.