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Invasive alien species are a major threat to native insular species. Eradicating invasive mammals from islands is a feasible and proven approach to prevent biodiversity loss. We developed a conceptual framework to identify globally important islands for invasive mammal eradications to prevent imminent extinctions of highly threatened species using biogeographic and technical factors, plus a novel approach to consider socio-political feasibility. We applied this framework using a comprehensive dataset describing the distribution of 1,184 highly threatened native vertebrate species (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List) and 184 non-native mammals on 1,279 islands worldwide. Based on extinction risk, irreplaceability, severity of impact from invasive species, and technical feasibility of eradication, we identified and ranked 292 of the most important islands where eradicating invasive mammals would benefit highly threatened vertebrates. When socio-political feasibility was considered, we identified 169 of these islands where eradication planning or operation could be initiated by 2020 or 2030 and would improve the survival prospects of 9.4% of the Earth’s most highly threatened terrestrial insular vertebrates (111 of 1,184 species). Of these, 107 islands were in 34 countries and territories and could have eradication projects initiated by 2020. Concentrating efforts to eradicate invasive mammals on these 107 islands would benefit 151 populations of 80 highly threatened vertebrates and make a major contribution towards achieving global conservation targets adopted by the world’s nations.

Initiatives to manage landscapes for both biodiversity protection and sustainable development commonly employ participatory methods to exploit the knowledge of citizens. We review five examples of citizen groups engaging with landscape scale conservation initiatives to contribute their knowledge, collect data for monitoring programs, study systems to detect patterns, and test hypotheses on aspects of landscape dynamics. Three are from landscape interventions that deliberately target biodiversity conservation and aim to have sustainable development as a collateral outcome. The other two are driven primarily by concerns for agricultural sustainability with biodiversity conservation as a collateral outcome. All five include programs in which, management agencies support data collection by citizen groups to monitor landscape changes. Situations where citizen groups self-organise to collect data and interpret data to aid in landscape scale decision making are less common and are restricted to landscapes where the inhabitants have a high level of scientific literacy. Given the complexity of landscape processes and the multiple decision makers who influence landscape outcomes we argue that citizen science broadly defined should be an essential element of landscape scale initiatives. Conservation managers should create space for citizen engagement in science and should empower citizen groups to experiment, learn, and adapt their decision-making to improve landscape scale outcomes.

The Bokikokiko or Christmas Island Warbler (Acrocephalus aequinoctialis) is found only on Kiritimati (Christmas) and Teraina (Washington) Islands in the Republic of Kiribati. The population on Kiritimati Island is threatened by habitat degradation, sea level rise, and predation from feral cats (Felis catus), Pacific rats (Rattus exulans), and recently arrived black rats (Rattus rattus). There is scant information about distribution and abundance of the Bokikokiko. From 2007 to 2012, we conducted surveys with song playbacks at 83 points on 12 transects in the northern half of Kiritimati Island to measure abundance of the Bokikokiko and begin monitoring for possible declines associated with the spread of rats, and we collected habitat data to investigate factors that influenced Bokikokiko abundance. Song playbacks resulted in a 263% increase in detection rate over passive listening. We detected an average (±1 SE) of 0.63 ± 0.11 birds per point using playbacks. Average population density was 0.36 ± 0.06 birds per hectare, but abundance varied among regions, and no birds were detected in some areas with apparently suitable habitat. Range of the Bokikokiko encompassed an area of 14,180 ha but was fragmented by many lagoons and bare ground, and only about half that area was actually occupied. Estimated population size was 2,550 ± 425 birds. Bokikokiko were more abundant in areas with taller Heliotropium trees and taller Scaevola shrubs, and less abundant in areas with more Suriana shrubs, bare ground, and grass. Conservation actions needed for the Bokikokiko include ongoing removal of rats from islets within the lagoons of Kiritimati Island, protection of preferred habitat from development and fires, and translocations to create additional populations on rat-free atolls.

The nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily includes, in addition to ligand-activated transcription factors, members called orphan receptors, for which no ligand has yet been identified. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the nuclear receptor superfamily can be split into six subfamilies. Interestingly, there appears to be no relationship between the position of a given liganded receptor in the tree and the chemical nature of its ligand. For example, RAR and RXR, which both recognize retinoids, belong to two different subfamilies, suggesting an independence between the evolutionary history of the receptors and their ligand binding abilities. A PCR screen for the presence of NR genes in several phyla of early- and nonmetazoan organisms suggests that NR are specific to metazoans and also reveals that the NR genes in Hydra or Anemonia appear to be limited to homologues of orphan receptors. Taken together these data suggest that the first members of the superfamily were probably orphan receptors that later on gained the ability to bind a ligand. Finally, we observed that SmFTZ-F1 and SmRXR are expressed at different levels along the life cycle of the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni. This suggests that these receptors may play a role in the control of the development of this organism.