Historical nonequilibrium processes are often considered the main drivers of global biodiversity patterns. We argue that while biodiversity is often out of equilibrium, the concept of equilibrium is still crucial for interpreting macroecological diversity patterns, and current confusion in the literature stems from misunderstandings concerning equilibrium dynamics. We demonstrate how an equilibrium-based framework, such as the ‘Equilibrium Theory of Biodiversity Dynamics’ (ETBD), illuminates diversity patterns in space and time, including the latitudinal diversity gradient, even in the out-of-equilibrium context. This framework has profound implications for understanding diversity dynamics during historical, current, and future climate changes, suggesting that while temperate diversity is probably below its equilibrium level, tropical biodiversity could be above its equilibrium, elevating extinction risk in tropical biomes.

In the context of nature conservation, a nexus can be defined as the interlinkages of biodiversity in protected and conserved areas with food, water, health, or climate. Evidence of nature conservation expansion scenarios suggest that such interlinkages are ubiquitous across management types, realms, and scales. Ignoring these interlinkages, including synergies, co-benefits, leakages, and trade-offs, can reduce the effectiveness and cross-sectoral benefits of future protected and conserved area expansions. Integrated planning that is inclusive of different value and knowledge systems can help to bridge disciplines and mitigate severe trade-offs impacting effectiveness of these areas. To enable appropriate expansion of protected and conserved areas to 30% of land and sea by 2030, identifying and including such interlinkages in spatial planning is essential.

Chronic anthropogenic disturbances (i.e., the continuous removal of small portions of forest biomass) are pervasive in tropical dry forest. We demonstrate that these disturbances trigger consistent changes across multiple ecological levels, from population to ecosystem levels. Plant populations exhibit contrasting responses, with some species being negatively affected, whereas others persist or even thrive. Communities become species-poor and dominated by disturbance-adapted plant and animal species. At the ecosystem level, chronic disturbances reduce forest biomass, soil nutrient concentration/stocks, productivity, and the provision of ecosystem services. Collectively, these responses drive dry forests across four potential transitions: arrested succession, forest–shrub conversion, novel ecosystems, and desertification.

Animal behavior is often viewed as stemming from predictable genetic and environmental factors. However, despite our best attempts to control genetic and environmental influences on behavior, variation among individuals still persists: what we call ‘stochastic individuality’. Increasing research suggests that this might be more than just measurement error, and might instead be rich in biological insights. In this review we examine what is known about stochastic individuality, including potential biological mechanisms and its potential adaptive value, and we provide guidance for how to quantify and test outstanding questions about its role in driving patterns of behavioral diversity. Incorporating stochasticity may be a key missing component in mapping the links from genotype to phenotype and predicting the interplay between phenotype and fitness.

Recognized under the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), ‘Other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs) hold both promise and pitfalls for achieving the ‘30×30’ target. A recent article in Trends in Ecology and Evolution suggests that China could meet this goal by combining ~18% of terrestrial area in protected areas (PAs) with ~12% as OECMs [1]. The authors emphasized the need for clear identification, evaluation, and recognition processes, highlighting opportunities as well as governance challenges.

Climate change threatens coral reefs globally. Birkart and Alvarez-Filip document local extirpation of a keystone coral species in Mexico following unprecedented heat stress, suggesting similar outcomes for ∼70% of the Greater Caribbean’s shallow-water reefs. This highlights the need to upscale surveys using emerging technologies to locate, protect, and propagate surviving corals.

We thank Volker Herzig [1] for his interesting commentary on our recent paper [2]. We welcome the opportunity to clarify some points. Herzig structures his critique around three main arguments. First, he states that our venom definition requires the mechanical delivery of venom 'by specialised morphological structures', while excluding chemical delivery. Second, he disagrees with us that delivery via an injury should be an integral part of the concept of venom, and he proposes an alternative definition that does not reference mode of delivery.

First defined by Arthur Tansley approximately 90 years ago, ecosystems arguably remain less monitored and understood than other dimensions of biodiversity. While our characterisation and understanding of ecosystems has improved, many of the issues pointed out by Tansley remain unresolved. We highlight how combining geodiversity research and complex system science, while better integrating cultural diversity and research outcomes across biodiversity dimensions, could help to address these issues and rapidly improve our ability to predict long-term ecosystem behaviour and dynamics. As ecosystems continue to gain traction in policy spheres, such knowledge will be key to strengthening the legal framing for biodiversity conservation, use, and management.

Grassy trees – large forest-adapted monocots such as bamboo, palm, and bananas – combine grass-like rapid growth with tree-like canopy dominance. Their ambiguous status between woody and herbaceous plants has led to research neglect. Recognizing them as a distinct growth form is key to harnessing their potential as nature-based solutions for sustainability.

Eradication and control of invasive pests in the sea is poorly developed. Advancing beyond cumbersome, inefficient, and often manual removal of marine pests will require ambition and innovation. We outline key steps to enable effective marine pest control and eradication by (i) building upon strategic and tactical approaches used in successful terrestrial pest control campaigns, and (ii) developing a toolbox of effective and scalable marine pest-control methods. To overcome widespread defeatism, we advocate that marine biosecurity risk-benefit decision making should favor action to build knowledge and confidence of how to drive pest populations into decline. These are achievable steps toward stronger marine biosecurity systems that can expand our capacity to eliminate or reduce pest populations and their negative impacts.

While populations can adapt to rapid environmental change in the Anthropocene, adaptation costs may limit evolutionary rescue, even when standing population genetic variation is high. Here, we argue that adaptation costs are linked to evolutionary trade-offs involving scenario- or system-specific traits that usually promote environmental specialization and species coexistence. Adaptation costs can be cryptic, and are more likely to emerge in populations under fluctuating environments or under multiple stressors. Adaptation costs mediated by ecological processes such as competition and symbiosis can limit population growth and species ranges. We advocate for considering adaptation costs in global change studies to improve predictions of future population responses, biological production, and ecosystem resilience.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technologies have rapidly evolved beyond genome editing, transforming fields such as molecular diagnostics, biosensing, transcription...

Affiliative social relationships have clear links to fitness in many species, yet exactly why that is the case remains elusive. We unify theory from socioecology and network science to set forth testa...

Biodiversity loss due to agricultural expansion and intensification is well documented. Accordingly, the Global Biodiversity Framework calls for transforming agroecosystems towards sustainable management. Yet, cultivated land remains a blind spot in global, open-access biodiversity data, creating knowledge gaps and reporting biases. Overcoming this requires tailored incentives, data integration, and farmer agency.

The Janzen–Connell hypothesis (JC effect) has been proposed as a mechanism for explaining high tropical tree diversity via negative conspecific density dependence imposed by natural enemies. Seed masting describes the uneven investment in reproduction between years, and could be a mechanism for reducing seed predation by means of predator satiation. JC effects select for wider dispersal kernels, allowing species to escape enemies in space, while the predator-satiation model of seed masting assumes escape from predators in time. Although representing contrasting ecological dynamics, both models are predicated on similar assumptions: that tree recruitment is limited by seed mortality via natural enemies. We suggest that the individual fitness advantages of masting and JC dynamics would be better understood by considering both mechanisms together.

Conservation of deep-sea ecosystems is often hindered by insufficient data on biodiversity composition, distribution, and ecological status. As global efforts to expand deep-sea exploration continue, we illustrate how cost-effective deep-sea research can build local capacity; promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in deep-sea science; and generate essential data for conservation initiatives.