Monthly Paper Recommendations

Below is a top30 recommended journal article list for this month from a comprehensive collection of journals that features applied ecology / conservation. I developed an AI agent that aggregates recent publications, enriches entries with metadata (title, journal, abstract), and scores each article against my interests learned from my publications and selected favorite articles to surface the most relevant papers. The list prioritizes high-impact and closely aligned work while still including exploratory items to broaden coverage. Thought it might give some better idea of my research flavor.

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Top 10 picks ▼

Ambitious forest biodiversity conservation under scarce public funds: Introducing a deferrence mechanism to conservation auctions

Conservation auctions with deferred payments directly address budgets/ROI and dynamic timing of investment; leverages land-market mechanisms to prioritize protected area expansion under scarce public funds.

Johanna Kangas; Janne S. Kotiaho; Markku Ollikainen

Ecological Economics

Using structured decision making to evaluate the tradeoffs of selective fish passage

Applies structured decision making to weigh ecological, social, and economic trade-offs for selective fish passage—clear multi-objective prioritization and stakeholder-weighted optimization.

Shane Flinn; Andrew M. Muir; Kelly Robinson

Conservation Science and Practice

Using constructed value of information to identify key uncertainties for a decision tree analysis in iterative structured decision making

Focuses on value of information within iterative SDM; uses CVOI to decide when to monitor vs act and simplifies to decision trees—core to monitoring vs management trade-offs.

Laura M. Keating‐Elske; James R.N. Glasier; Laura D. Burns; Julian R. Dupuis; Llewellyn Haines; Lacey Hébert; Justis Henault; Jennifer Heron; Jessica E. Linton; Zachary G. MacDonald; Felix A.H. Sperling; Robert A. Sissons

Conservation Science and Practice

Land tenure contributions to protected area growth under alternative conservation targets in the Australian monsoon tropics

Systematic conservation planning for protected area growth with explicit land tenure constraints; prioritizes threatened vs potentially threatened species and highlights cost-effective Indigenous PA expansion.

Emmeline Norris, Ben Scheele, Marcel Cardillo

Conservation Biology

Restoration based on cost–benefit optimization: A grasslands pilot study

Spatial restoration prioritization via linear programming maximizing benefit-to-cost ratios; integrates land-use history, species distributions, and acquisition costs—strong on ROI/cost-effectiveness and land-use change.

Sarah R. Weiskopf; Toni Lyn Morelli; Tina G. Mozelewski; Alexey N. Shiklomanov; Susannah B. Lerman

Ecological Applications

Optimising fire and predator management for conservation

Optimization of co-occurring threats (fire regimes and predator control) to recover threatened species; linear programming under uncertainty—relevant to endangered species management and structured prioritization.

William L. Geary; Ayesha I. T. Tulloch; Tim S. Doherty; Dale G. Nimmo; Euan G. Ritchie; Jeffrey O. Hanson; Marika A. Maxwell; Adrian F. Wayne

Journal of Applied Ecology

How much species' biodiversity could area targets protect globally?

Global systematic prioritization linking area targets to species coverage; quantifies trade-offs and efficient selection of optimal protected areas—central to protected area prioritization and target setting.

Qianshuo Zhao; Mark John Costello

Ecography

From tree loss to climate gains: Rethinking carbon flows, payoffs, and trade-offs of forest landscape restoration

Addresses dynamic/sequential restoration decisions and timing, comparing active vs. hybrid strategies with dynamic LCA; emphasizes ROI/cost‐effectiveness and trade-offs in climate mitigation and biodiversity co‐benefits—guiding investment under budget constraints.

Marco di Cristofaro; Federico Valerio Moresi; Mauro Maesano; Riccardo Salvati; Dora Cimini; Daniele Cecca; Giulia Bonella; Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza

Journal of the Total Environment

Integrating biodiversity hotspots, ecological gradients, and ecosystem services for transboundary conservation in the Gaoligong Mountains

Develops a transboundary conservation plan integrating threatened species hotspots, ecosystem services, ecological gradients, and connectivity; quantifies trade-offs (e.g., with carbon/soil/water) and identifies priority areas outside existing protection—highly relevant to protected-area prioritization and systematic planning under land-use pressure.

Zhongde Huang, Qiying Wang, Jie Wang, Zhou Fang, Lin Wang, Maroof Ali, Zhangqian Yang, Haoran Chen, Shi Xue, Qin Zhou, Changgao Cheng, Feiling Yang, Yang Bai

Conservation Biology

The Untapped Potential of Food Webs in Systematic Conservation Planning

Directly targets systematic conservation planning by proposing how to integrate food‐web metrics into spatial prioritization to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services; speaks to trade-offs, resilience, and stronger protected-area design.

Louise M. J. O'Connor; Wilfried Thuiller; Ulrich Brose; Éléonore Chenevois; Carla Freund; Benoit Gauzens; Pierre Gaüzere; Catherine Graham; Michael Harfoot; Myriam R. Hirt; Sébastien Lavergne; Luigi Maiorano; Atte Moilanen; Peter H. Verburg; Piero Visconti; Laura J. Pollock

Conservation Letters

Top 30 picks ▼

A framework for designing multi-objective landscapes for conservation

Title indicates multi-objective landscape design for conservation, directly relevant to systematic conservation planning, protected area/landscape prioritization, and explicit trade-offs between biodiversity and ecosystem services; likely aligns with portfolio/efficient frontier thinking and cost-effectiveness across objectives.

Alienor L.M. Chauvenet; Anna R. Renwick; Hugh P. Possingham; Vanessa M. Adams; Jennifer McGowan; Vesna Gagić; Nancy A. Schellhorn

Biological Conservation

Optimal control of Lantana camara: an entropy-based sustainable strategy

Presents dynamic optimal control policies for managing an invasive species, matching sequential decision-making over time and structured decision making in conservation; connects to adaptive management/endangered species management contexts via threat control and incorporates a sustainability (risk) metric via entropy.

Shyam Kumar; Preet Mishra; R. K. Brojen Singh

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Integrating ecosystem service flows into zoning for the management of ecological risks: A case study of the Pinglu Canal Watershed

Zoning that integrates ecosystem service flows directly supports systematic conservation planning and protected-area zoning while addressing trade-offs among ecological risk, human uses, and management objectives.

Ruijing Qiao; Zhenghong Liang; Naixin Yin; Song Zhang; Luming Liu; Wangye Lu; Feiling Yang; Ronghua Zhong; Jie Li

Journal of Environmental Management

Spatial identification of priority restoration-protection regions based on ecosystem services-climate-human framework on the Tibetan Plateau

Spatial prioritization of restoration–protection using an ecosystem services–climate–human framework aligns with protected area prioritization under land-use/climate change and integrates biodiversity–ecosystem service co-benefits.

Zhengrong Yuan; Hui Zhao; Da Wei; Meihong Wang; Ruoming Li; Xiaodan Wang

Journal of Environmental Management

Assessing the climate change vulnerabilities of long-term ecological monitoring programs

CCAM provides a structured decision-making framework to adapt long-term monitoring under climate change, clarifying monitoring vs. management roles and enhancing value-of-information for conservation decisions.

Madeleine C. Burns; David J. Lawrence; David Thoma; Koren Nydick; Joel Reynolds; Jena Hickey; Marie Denn; Kirk Sherrill; Jessica Weinberg McClosky

Journal of Environmental Management

Optimizing thinning regimes for Larix olgensis plantations: A dual-objective approach for carbon balance and wood production

Optimizes sequential thinning timing/intensity to balance carbon and timber (dual objectives), exemplifying dynamic decisions, ROI/cost-effectiveness, and trade-offs in forest management under discounting and uncertainty.

Xueying Lin; Guanmou Chen; Lingbo Dong

Journal of Environmental Management

Implications of global distributive justice principles for implementation of the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Distributive justice framework for implementing the GBF addresses environmental justice/inequality, budget responsibilities, and global trade-offs in financing and burden-sharing for biodiversity action.

Ina Lehmann, Marcel Kok, Roos Immerzeel, Alexandra Marques

Conservation Biology

Mapping area of habitat for inland wetland species

Area of Habitat mapping for inland wetland species strengthens data foundations for systematic conservation planning and protected area prioritization, including for underrepresented taxa.

Francesca A. Ridley, Catherine A. Sayer, Louise Mair, Daniele Baisero, Monika Böhm, Thomas M. Brooks, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Viola Clausnitzer, Jeorg Freyhof, Günther Grill, Ian Harrison, Randall R. Jiménez, Bernhard Lehner, Nicholas B. W. Macfarlane, Andrew J. Plumptre, Arnout van Soesbergen, Thomas A. Worthington, Thomas Starnes

Conservation Biology

Detecting mass mortality events in wildlife populations

Presents a monitoring design framework for detecting mass mortality events, quantifying how sampling frequency and detectability affect information yield—key to value-of-information and surveillance optimization.

Jesse L. Brunner, Justin M. Calabrese

Conservation Biology

From digital decision-support to policy implementation: An operational framework for agri-environmental schemes

Operational framework bridging digital decision-support to policy for agri-environment schemes advances structured decision making, implementation under budget constraints, and managing environment–agriculture trade-offs.

A.C. Wartenberg; C. Cheng; C. Marples; H. Dettmann; K. Hemminger; F. Ghafarian; L. Schaan; M. Scoville; S.D. Bellingrath-Kimura

Biological Conservation

Water sparing versus sharing: Depolarising wetland management with novel environment-agriculture policy

Analyzes water sparing vs. sharing to depolarize wetland–agriculture conflicts, directly tackling trade-offs and policy design for biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation in working landscapes.

Matthew W. Herring; Stephen T. Garnett; Kerstin K. Zander

Biological Conservation

Integrating climate and anthropogenic dynamics can inform multifaceted management for declining mule deer populations

Integrates climate and anthropogenic dynamics with management actions across multiple populations to inform prioritization and optimize restoration under constraints—relevant to adaptive management and trade-off evaluation.

Teagan A. Hayes; Aaron N. Johnston; L. Embere Hall; Jill Randall; Matthew Kauffman; Chris Keefe; Kevin L. Monteith; Tabitha A. Graves

Ecological Applications

Time‐varying flow–ecology relationships for an endangered fish population: Longfin Smelt in the San Francisco Estuary

Time-varying flow–ecology modeling for an endangered fish supports adaptive management under non-stationarity, linking hydrological decisions to species outcomes in a dynamic, data-driven framework.

Parsa Saffarinia; James A. Hobbs; Stephanie M. Carlson; Albert Ruhí

Ecological Applications

Passive acoustic monitoring can provide insights into occupancy dynamics and impacts of disturbance for at-risk species

Demonstrates scalable passive acoustic monitoring with Bayesian dynamic occupancy to quantify disturbance impacts and trends, informing monitoring design and management responses at regional scales.

Jason M. Winiarski; Sheila A. Whitmore; Connor M. Wood; Jonathan P. Eiseman; Erin C. Netoskie; Matthias E. Bieber; H. Anu Kramer; Kevin G. Kelly; Kate McGinn; Craig Thompson; Sarah C. Sawyer; Stefan Kahl; Holger Klinck; M. Zachariah Peery

Ecological Applications

Overcoming the mismatch between restoration planning and implementation: The critical role of smallholders in Chile

Highlights the implementation gap in restoration prioritization due to land tenure/governance and emphasizes empowering smallholders—key for realistic systematic planning, equity, and socio-economic feasibility.

Pablo Bravo‐Monasterio; Enzo Martelli‐Moya; Marcela A. Bustamante‐Sánchez; Leland K. Werden

Journal of Applied Ecology

Keystone management species under the Endangered Species Act can promote ecosystem-based management

Concept of Keystone Management Species under the ESA shows how endangered species management catalyzes cross-sector, ecosystem-based management—linking single-species mandates to broader conservation outcomes.

Sean A. Hayes; Joe Roman

Frontiers in Conservation Science

Effectiveness of territorial protection categories in conserving an endemic island bird during population fluctuation

Directly addresses protected area effectiveness and advocates dynamic, sequential conservation planning to protect refugia during population declines—aligning with systematic conservation planning, protected area prioritization, and endangered species/adaptive management under uncertainty.

Luis M. Carrascal; Ángel C. Moreno; Juan Carlos Illera

Conservation Science and Practice

Mapping Mediterranean bentho‐demersal communities to better inform marine conservation

Maps bentho-demersal communities to evaluate and guide MPA network coverage and representation—classic systematic conservation planning and protected area prioritization with biodiversity–fishery trade-offs to inform cost-effective spatial allocation.

Miguel López; Morane Clavel‐Henry; Joan B. Company; Nixon Bahamón; Otso Ovaskainen

Conservation Science and Practice

Crop‐raiding by a forest ungulate in Earth's largest tropical agricultural frontier potentially costs local farmers ~ <scp>US</scp> $700 m and disproportionately penalizes smallholders

Quantifies large economic losses from wildlife–agriculture conflict and identifies spatial hotspots to target preventive measures—speaks to land-use change, ROI/cost-effectiveness and trade-offs, structured decision-making for coexistence, and environmental justice via disproportionate impacts on smallholders.

Hugo C. M. Costa; Carlos A. Peres; Neander M. Heming; Dionei José da Silva; Manoel dos Santos‐Filho; João Vitor Campos‐Silva; Danielle Storck‐Tonon

Journal of Applied Ecology

Habitat Quality Variation Across Stages of a Conservation Program

Examines ‘stewardship drop’ across stages of an incentive program and suggests payment timing and monitoring design—relevant to dynamic/sequential decisions, monitoring vs management, and cost-effective program design in conservation on private lands.

Michael G. Sorice; Kyle Clifton; Klaus Moeltner; Wylie Carr; Nicole Adimey

Conservation Letters

Exploratory picks ▼

Using lessons from criminal justice research to improve conservation law enforcement research and practice

Applies procedural justice from criminal justice to conservation law enforcement in PAs—an unexpected but relevant lens for improving compliance, reducing conflict, and addressing environmental justice alongside deterrence.

Freya A. V. St. John, Leejiah Dorward, Harriet Ibbett, Martina Feilzer

Conservation Biology

Effects of organized guarding on mortality from human–elephant conflict in northeast India

Rigorous 20-year impact evaluation of organized guarding for human–elephant conflict reveals unintended increases in elephant mortality—illuminating trade-offs, the need for counterfactual evaluation, and adaptive management design.

Nitin Sekar, Tanay Bhatt, Arpit Deomurari, Sanchaya Sharma, Poonam Kumari, Athisii Kayina, E. Somanathan

Conservation Biology

Optimizing camera‐trap survey designs for multi‐species density estimation using spatial capture–recapture models

Optimization-based, multi-species camera-trap design directly tackles monitoring vs. management trade-offs and ROI by improving precision across species with differing space-use—useful for structured decision-making and value-of-information planning.

Gonçalo Curveira‐Santos; Gates Dupont; Chris Sutherland; Charli Pretorius; Simon Naylor; Kerrin Allan; Laura C. Gigliotti

Journal of Applied Ecology

Unlocking the potential of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) for achieving conservation targets: A global scoping review

Global scoping review of OECMs under 30x30 highlights gaps in effectiveness evidence, socio-cultural integration, and decision-support—useful for PA prioritization alternatives, planning under budgets, and cross-objective trade-offs.

Dimitra Petza; Eva Amorim; Emna Ben Lamine; Francesco Colloca; Esther Dominguez Crisóstomo; Erika Fabbrizzi; Simonetta Fraschetti; Ibon Galparsoro; Sylvaine Giakoumi; Maren Kruse; Vanessa Stelzenmüller; Stelios Katsanevakis

Ambio

Refining land-use-specific carbon emission factors for commodity-driven deforestation monitoring in Colombia

Commodity- and land-use–specific carbon emission factors for Colombia enable targeted, spatially explicit interventions in deforestation-free supply chains—relevant to land-use change, market feedbacks, and maximizing conservation ROI.

Camilo Zamora; Robert Masolele; Katja Berger; Johannes Reiche; Christopher Martius; Louis Verchot; Zoltan Szantoi; Martin Herold

Environmental Research Letters

Lost and found: A natural field experiment on charitable donations, extinctions, and finance for conservation

Natural field experiment on charitable donations and extinctions offers behavioral insights for financing conservation—outside the box yet valuable for budgeting, fundraising strategies, and portfolio-style resource allocation.

Michael K. Tanner

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

A tiered assessment framework for interregional flows of ecosystem services from migratory species

Tiered framework for interregional ecosystem service flows from migratory species links qualitative to dynamic models—guiding when to invest in better data (VOI) vs. action and enabling multi-region, sequential conservation planning.

D. J. Semmens; K. J. Bagstad; J. J. Derbridge; J. E. Diffendorfer; W. E. Thogmartin; B. J. Mattsson; A. Lien; C. C. Chester; J. A. Dubovsky; L. López‐Hoffman

Conservation Biology