Ecology

OverviewWe compiled systematically sampled empirical taxa occurrence across the landscape, and inferentially assembled respective blue and green local food webs by combining these data with a metaweb approach. We quantified key properties of the inferred food webs, then analysed with GIS-derived environmental information how focal food-web metrics change along elevation and among different land-use types in blue versus green systems. Details are given below.Assemble food webs using a metaweb approachWe applied a metaweb method to obtain the composition and structure of multiple local food webs across a landscape spatial scale10. A metaweb is an accumulation of all interactions (here, trophic relationships) among the focal taxa. In this study, we built our metaweb based on known trophic interactions derived from literature and published datasets, which themselves were all based on primary empirical natural history observations. We further complemented or refined the trophic interactions in the metaweb based on expert knowledge of primary observations that are not yet published or only accessible in grey literature. The expert knowledge covers authors and collaborators who have specific natural history knowledge on Central European plants, herbivorous insects, birds, fish, and aquatic invertebrates. Importantly, these observations were all based on empirical observations and/or unpublished data accumulated over considerable field research experience. The respective literature we referred, as well as the metaweb itself with information source of each trophic link (online repository), are provided in Supplementary Methods. By assuming that any interaction in the metaweb will realise if the interacting taxa co-occur, the metaweb approach allows an inference of local food webs if taxa occurrence is known. Such an assumption of fixed diets may lead to an over-estimation of the locally realised trophic links32, as it essentially ignores the possible intraspecific diet variation caused by resource availability61,62, predation risk63, temperature64, ontogenetic shift65, or other genetic and environmental sources66. Therefore, the food webs we inferred systematically using this method capture trophic relationships driven by community composition (species presence versus absence) but not the above-mentioned processes. Nonetheless, since the trophic interactions were based on empirical observations, the fixed diets can be seen as collapsing all intraspecific variations of diet-determining traits (or trait-matching) at species level, within which we know realisable interactions surely exist. This, together with co-occurrence as a pre-requisite, gives realistic boundaries for the potential interaction realisation, which is plausible and non-biased when applying to localised sites. With this approach, we were addressing a systematic comparison among potential local food webs between the blue and green systems and across the selected gradients. For sensitivity analyses considering the potential inaccuracy of the metaweb approach mentioned here, please see further below Food-web metrics and analyses and Supplementary Discussion.We compiled taxa occurrence of four terrestrial and two aquatic broad taxonomic groups (“focal groups”) to assemble local green and blue communities, respectively and independently, based on the well-resolved data available. Each focal group referred to a distinct taxonomic group, and the within- and among-group trophic relationships captured most of the realised interactions. These focal groups were vascular plants, butterflies, grasshoppers, and birds in the green biome, and stream invertebrates and fishes in the blue biome. Notably, with “butterflies” we refer to their larval stage and accordingly their mostly-herbivorous trophic interactions throughout this study. Larval interactions were also the predominant interaction assessed for stream invertebrates (i.e., all interactions of stream invertebrates focussed on their aquatic stage, which is predominant larval). The occurrence data of these focal groups were compiled from highly standardised multiple-year empirical surveys of various authorities, all conducted by trained biologists with fixed protocols (Supplementary Methods). The information across sites should thus be representative and can be up-scaled to the landscape. The occurrences of plants, butterflies, birds, and stream invertebrates were from the Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland programme (BDM Coordination Office67) managed by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU/FOEN). The occurrences of grasshoppers and fishes were from the Swiss database on faunistic records, info fauna (CSCF), where we further complemented fish occurrence from the data of Progetto Fiumi Project (Eawag). In terms of biological resolution, taxa were resolved to species level in most cases, while the plant and butterfly groups included some multi-species complexes. Insects of the order Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera were resolved to species, while all other stream invertebrates were resolved to family level. These were each treated as a node later in our food-web assembly, and referred to as “species”, as the species within such complexes and families mostly share the same trophic role. Spatially, the occurrence datasets adopted coordinates resolved to 1 × 1 km2. The species that were recorded in the same 1 × 1 km2 grid were considered to co-occurred. We took the co-occurring four/two focal groups to form local green/blue local communities, respectively. To obtain better co-occurrence across group-specific data from different sources (e.g., BDM and info fauna), we intentionally coarsened the grasshopper and fish occurrence to 5 × 5 km2 coordinates. This is arguably a biologically acceptable approximation considering the high mobility of these two groups. Also, we only included known stream-borne fishes and dropped pure lake-borne ones to match our stream-only invertebrate occurrence data. Across all 462 green and 465 blue communities we assembled, we covered 2016 plant, 191 butterfly, 109 grasshopper, 155 bird, 248 stream invertebrate, and 78 stream fish species. Unlike the knowledge of plant occurrence in green communities, we did not have detailed occurrence information of the basal components (e.g., primary producers) in blue ones. Therefore, we assumed three mega nodes—namely plant (including all alive or dead plant materials), plankton (including zooplankton, phytoplankton, and other algae), and detritus—as the basal nodes occurring in all blue communities, without further discrimination of identities or biology within. These adding to our focal groups thus cover major taxonomic groups as well as trophic roles from producers to top consumers in both blue and green systems.Taking the above-assembled local communities then drawing trophic links among species (nodes) according to the metaweb yielded the local food webs (illustrated in Fig. 1), representatively covering the whole Swiss area. Notably, although our understanding of trophic interactions indeed encompassed some links across the blue and green taxa (e.g., between piscivorous birds and fishes), our occurrence datasets did not present sufficient spatial grids where these taxa co-occur. We, therefore, did not include such links, nor assembled blue-green interconnected food webs, but the blue and green food webs separately instead (but see Supplementary Discussion). Also, we dropped isolated nodes, i.e., basal nodes without any co-occurring consumer and consumer nodes without any co-occurring resource, from the inferred food webs. These could possibly be passing-by species that were recorded but had no trophic interaction locally, or those that interact with non-focal taxa whose occurrence information was unknown to us. We thus had to exclude them to focus on evidence-supported occurrences and trophic interactions. Nonetheless, across all cases, isolated nodes were rather rare (averaged less than 3% of species occurred in either blue or green communities).Environmental dataWe acquired environmental data across all of Switzerland (42,000 km2) on a 1 × 1 km2 grid basis (i.e., values are averaged over the grid) from GIS databases, with which we mapped environmental conditions to the grids where we assembled food webs. These included: topographical information from DHM25 (Swisstopo, FOT), land-cover information from CLC (EEA), and climate information (averaged over the decade of 2005–2015) from CHELSA. Among environmental variables, elevation and temperature are essentially highly correlated. In this study, we took elevation as the focal environmental gradient throughout, as after accounting for the main effects of elevation on temperature, the residual temperature was not a good predictor of the food-web metrics we looked at (see next section, and Supplementary Table 4). In other words, by analysing along the elevation gradient, we already captured most of the temperature influences on food webs. Based on the labels provided by the GIS databases, we categorised the originally detailed land cover into the five major land-use types that we used in this study, namely forest, scrubland, open space, farmland, and urban area. Forest includes broad-leaved, coniferous, and mixed forests. Scrub includes bushy and herbaceous vegetation, heathlands, and natural grasslands. Open space encompasses sparsely vegetated areas, such as dunes, bare rocks, glaciers and perpetual snow. Farmland include any form of arable, pastures, and agro-forestry areas. Finally, urban area is where artificial constructions and infrastructure prevail. As each grid could contain multiple land-use types, we then defined the dominant land-use type of the grid as any of the five above that occupied more than 50% of the grid’s area. Analyses separated by land-use types with subsetted food webs (land-use-specific analyses) were based on the grids’ dominant land-use type. There were a few grids where the dominant land-use type did not belong to the focal major five, e.g., wetlands or water bodies, and a few where no single land-use type covered more than 50% of the area. Food webs of these grids were still included in the overall analyses but excluded from any land-use-specific analyses (as revealed in the difference in sample sizes between all versus land-use type subsetted food webs in Fig. 2; analyses details below).Food-web metrics and analysesWe quantified five metrics as the measures of the food webs’ structural and ecological properties. For the fundamental structure of the food webs, the number of nodes (“No. Nodes”) reflects the size of the web, meanwhile represents local species richness (though the few isolated nodes were excluded as above-mentioned). Connectance is the proportion of realised links among all potential ones (thus bounded 0–1), reflecting how connected the web is. We also derived holistic topological measures, namely nestedness and modularity. Nestedness of a food web, on the one hand, describes the tendency that some nodes’ narrower diets being subsets of other’s broader diets. We adopted a recently developed UNODF index68 (bounded 0–1) that is especially suitable for quantifying such a feature in our unipartite food webs. On the other hand, modularity (bounded 0–1 with our index) reflects the tendency of a food web to form modules, where nodes are highly connected within but only loosely connected between. Nestedness and modularity are two commonly investigated structures in ecological networks and have been considered relevant to species feeding ecology24 and the stability of the system69. Finally, we measured the level of consumers’ diet niche overlap of the food webs (Horn’s index70, bounded 0–1), which essentially depends on the arrangement of trophic relationships (thus the structure of the webs), and could have strong ecological implications as niche partitioning has been recognised to be a key mechanism that drives species coexistence71,72. We selected these fundamental and holistic properties as they are potentially more relevant to the processes that may have shaped food webs across a landscape scale (e.g., community assembly), in comparison to some node- or link-centric properties. Also, addressing similar metrics as in the literature13,69 would facilitate potential cross-study comparison or validation.To first gain a glimpse of the structure of the blue and green food webs, we performed a principal component analysis (PCA; Fig. 3a) on the inferred food webs (n = 462 and 465 in green and blue, respectively) taking the four structural metrics (number of nodes, connectance, nestedness, and modularity) as the explaining variables of blue versus green system types. We then confirmed that system type, elevation, and land-use type were all important predictors of food-web metrics (whereas the residual temperature after accounting elevation effects was not) by conducting general linear model analyses, taking the former as interactive predictors while the latter response variables (Supplementary Tables 3, 4). To check how elevation influences food-web properties in blue and green systems separately, and how food-web properties depend on each other, we ran a series of piecewise structural equation modelling (SEM)73 analyses on inferred food webs (Fig. 3b, c) whose dominant land use can be defined (n = 421 and 430 in green and blue, respectively). This was also conducted on subsetted webs of each of the five major land-use types (Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2). The SEM relationships were derived from linear mixed model analyses with dominant land-use type as a random effect (assumption tests see Supplementary Figs. 12–17). The SEM structure of direct effects was set according to the literature13,69 and is illustrated in Fig. 3b. In short, this structure tests the dependencies from elevation (an environmental predictor) to food-web metrics (ecological responses). The further dependencies among food-web metrics themselves were assigned with the principle of pointing from relative lower-level properties to higher-level ones. That is, from number of nodes (purely determined by nodes) to connectance (determined by numbers of nodes and links), further to nestedness and modularity (holistic topologies, determined further by the arrangement of links), then to diet niche overlap (ecological functional outcome).Finally, to check and visualise the exact changing patterns of food webs, we applied generalised additive models (GAMs) to reveal the relationships between food-web metrics and the whole-ranged elevation (Figs. 4 and 5), as well as a particular comparison between food webs in forests and farmlands below 1500 m a.s.l. (Supplementary Fig. 5), as this elevation segment covered most of the sites belonged to these two land-use types. We also performed a series of linear models (LMs) and least-squared slope comparisons based on land-use-specific subsets of food webs (Figs. 4 and 5; Supplementary Figs. 3 and 4), to investigate whether food-web elevational patterns are different among land-use types (assumption tests see Supplementary Tables 5 and 6). In the GAMs analyses, specifically, we simulated two sets of randomised webs, i.e., “keep-group” and “fully”, as the null models to compare with the inferred ones74. Both randomisations generated ten independently simulated webs from each input inferred local food web, keeping the same number of nodes and connectance as of the latter. On the one hand, the keep-group randomisation shuffled trophic links from an input local web but only allowed them to realised fulfilling some pre-set within- and among-group relationships. That is, in green communities, birds can feed on all groups, grasshoppers on any groups but birds, while butterflies only on plants; in blue communities, fishes can feed on all groups, while invertebrates on themselves and the basal resources. These pre-set group-wide relationships captured the majority of realistic trophic interactions compiled in our metaweb. On the other hand, the fully randomised webs shuffled trophic links disregarding the biological identity of nodes. The GAMs of nestedness, modularity, and niche overlap illustrated the patterns of these randomised webs (Fig. 5). Comparing among the three types of webs, the patterns exhibited already by fully randomised webs should be those contributed by variations in web size and connectance, while the difference between keep-group and fully randomised webs by the focal-group composition of local communities, and the difference between inferred and keep-group randomised webs further by the realistic species-specific diets. In addition, we also applied the same GAMs and LMs approach to analyse node richness, as well as both realised and potential diet generality (vulnerability for plants) of each focal group (Supplementary Figs. 6–11). These analyses provided hints about the changes in community composition and species diet breadths along elevation and among land-use types, which helped explain the detected food-web responses in mechanistic ways.In addition, to check if our findings were shaped or strongly influenced by the potential inaccuracy of using the metaweb, we repeated the above PCA, SEM, and GAM analyses as a series of sensitivity analyses. We generated food webs based on our locally inferred ones (i.e., the observations) but with random 10% link removal. This procedure mimics the effect of potential intraspecific diet variation (mentioned earlier) so that some trophic interactions in the metaweb do not realise locally. Overall, these analyses with link removal showed that our conclusions are qualitatively and quantitatively highly robust, and only very minorly affected by the such potential inaccuracy of metawebs, which is also in accordance to other food-web studies (see e.g., Pearse & Altermatt 201575). All details and outcomes of these additional analyses are given in Supplementary discussion.All metric quantification and analyses were performed under R version 4.0.3 (R Core Team76). All applied packages and functions were described in Supplementary Methods, while the R scripts performing these tasks can be accessed at the online repository provided.Reporting summaryFurther information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article. More

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It was therefore necessary to separate areas of net loss and net gain and areas of gross loss and gross gain to remove zeros and log-transform to achieve normal distribution. Area of mangrove change was correlated with size of the mangrove geomorphic unit (higher area of mangrove loss or gain in bigger units), therefore we included geomorphic unit size as an explanatory variable in the models with primary response variables. We selected the transformations of these primary variables – percent net loss, percent net gain, percent gross loss, and percent gross gain to include in the analysis, because the percent changes control for differences in relative sizes of geomorphic units and because net change alone can underestimate the extent of change57.Examining mangrove change across geomorphic settings is likely to be relevant to socioeconomic and environmental conditions. Mangroves occur in the intertidal zone in diverse coastal geomorphic settings (e.g., deltas, estuaries, lagoons) shaped by rivers, tides, and waves58,59. The distribution, structure, and productivity of mangroves varies spatially with regional climate and local geomorphological processes (e.g., river discharge, tidal range, hydroperiod, and wave activity) that control soil biogeochemistry60,61,62,63. These geomorphic settings are defined by natural landscape boundaries (e.g., catchments/bays) which also often delineate boundaries of human settlements. A global mangrove biophysical typology v2.2 dataset64 was used for the delineation of landscape mangrove geomorphic units, which used a composite of the GMW dataset from the 1996, 2007, 2010, and 2016 timesteps to classify the maximal extent of mangrove cover into 4394 units (classified as delta, estuarine, lagoon or open coast). The mangrove geomorphic units do not include non-mangrove patches, unless they have been lost from the unit over time. The mean size of geomorphic units was 33.63 ha. Some splits of geomorphic units were undertaken to reduce size and divide by country boundaries. The four largest deltas (northern Brazil Delta ID 70000, Sundarbans Delta ID 70004, Niger Delta ID 70009, and Papua coast Delta ID 70013) were split into 4, 5, 4, and 2 units, respectively to aid with data processing. Mangrove geomorphic units that overlapped two countries (Peru/Ecuador, Singapore/Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea/Australia) were split by the national boundary.The country governing each geomorphic unit was assigned to match national-level variables to geomorphic units. To capture mangroves that are mapped outside of country coastline boundaries, we did a union of the GADM country shapefile v3.665 and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) v1166. The following manual country designations were made to resolve overlapping claims in the EEZs: (1) Hong Kong was merged with China as Hong Kong does not have a mapped EEZ; (2) The overlapping claim of Sudan/Egypt was maintained as a joint Sudan/Egypt designation, as this is an area of disputed land called the Halayib Triangle. However, for this study, mangrove units within this area were assigned to Egypt because Egypt currently has military control over the area; (3) Mayotte (claimed by France and Comoros) was assigned to Mayotte as it is a separate overseas territory of France recognised in GADM that has different socioeconomic variables; (4) The protected zone established under the Torres Strait Treaty was assigned to Australia as these islands are Australian territory.Areas of mangrove cover in 1996, 2007, and 2016, and gross losses and gains in each geomorphic units over the two time periods were assessed in ArcMap 10.867. Percent losses and gains were calculated in R 4.0.268. In using the GMW mapping, a minimum mapping unit of 1 ha is recommended for reliable results5, therefore we removed all geomorphic units less than 1 ha from the analysis, which reduced the available sample size from 4394 across 108 countries to 4235 units across 108 countries. In calculating percent net gains, 11 and 12 of the units returned infinity values for 1996–2007 and 2007–2016, respectively, because there was no initial mangrove cover. In these instances, 100% gain was assigned to these units.Socioeconomic variables (Supplementary Table 4)Economic growthPrevious global analyses of mangroves have been limited by data availability on economic activity to national metrics, such as a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)12,18. Night-time lights satellite data provide local measures of economic activity that are comparable through time and available globally9,69. The data improve estimates of GDP in low to middle income countries69 and are strongly correlated with local indicators of human development70 and electricity consumption and GDP at the national-level71. We used the Night-time Lights Time Series v472 stable lights data, where transient lights that are deemed ephemeral, e.g., fires, have been filtered out and non-lit areas set to zero73, choosing the newer satellites where applicable70. As a proxy for local economic growth, we calculated the change in annual average stable lights within a 100 km buffer of the centroid of each geomorphic unit from 1996 to 2007 and 2007 to 2013 (no data available past 2013) using the ‘raster’ package in R74. The 100 km buffer was chosen to account for pressures from human activity within and surrounding the mangrove area, and to avoid bias with larger spatial units70.Market accessibilityTravel time to the nearest major market (national or provincial capital, landmark city, or major population centre) has been shown to be a stronger predictor of fish biomass on coral reefs than population density or linear distance to markets27. We used the global map of travel time to cities for 201575 to estimate the average travel time from each geomorphic unit to the nearest city via surface transport using the ‘raster’ package in R74, as an indicator of access to markets to trade commodities (e.g., rice, shrimp, palm oil).Economic complexityPrevious studies have examined the effect of GDP on mangrove change18, however, this is a blunt measure of country capability. Measuring a country’s economic complexity, that is the diversified capability of a nation’s economy, is preferable. For example, a country with high GDP but low economic complexity can be prone to regulatory capture by high-value natural resource industries and resource corruption26. Therefore, we used the Economic Complexity Index (ECI)76 for countries as an indicator of regulatory independence. The ECI had better coverage of countries in later years (Supplementary Table 4), therefore the ECI for the end of the time periods was used (2007 and 2016), although we recognise this may reduce the detection of trends because of potential time lags in impacts.DemocracyWe used the Varieties of Democracy (VDEM) index v10 which measures a country’s degree of freedom of association, clean elections, freedom of expression, elected executives, and suffrage77, and has been indicated to influence NDC ambition in countries to address climate change78. We adopted the VDEM index for the start of the time periods (1996 and 2007) to account for potential time lags in impacts.Community forestry supportWe determined the extent that community forestry (CF) is implemented across countries through a systematic review of articles returned in the Web of Science database (Core collection; Thomson Reuters, New York, U.S.A.). We used the search terms: TS = (“community forestry” OR “community-based forestry” OR “social forestry”) AND (TI = ”country” OR AB = ”country”) to identify how many CF case studies were reported in each country, and whether any were in mangroves. As scientific literature is biased towards particular regions, we also reviewed relevant FAO global studies79,80,81 and online databases (ICCA registry82 and REDD projects database83) to identify additional case studies (Supplementary Fig. 5). We then generated scores of 0–3 for each country based on summing values assessed using these criteria: +1 (1–50 CF case studies); +2 ( >50 CF case studies); +1 (CF case study in mangroves). There may have been some double counting as we counted the number of case studies in each article, and we will have missed CF projects not published or communicated in English. However, this is likely to have had a limited impact on the scoring method.Indigenous landThe proportion of Indigenous peoples’ land versus other land per country was calculated from national-level data84. Whilst this study involved Indigenous peoples’ land mapping at a global scale, the spatial data was not published, and thus we could only evaluate the influence of Indigenous land at the national level rather than local level.Restoration effortThe number of mangrove restoration sites per country was calculated from combining two datasets collated by C. Lovelock (2020) and Y.M. Gatt and T.A. Worthington (2020) identifying mangrove restoration project locations from web searches in English and for scientific and grey literature using Google Scholar. Duplications were removed and the number of sites was used as an indicator of effort. This will underrepresent effort in countries with few, large sites, and where restoration projects are not published or communicated in English.Climate commitmentsThe Paris Agreement is a global programme for countries to commit to climate action by submitting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework for the Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). First, we reviewed NDCs for mangrove-holding nations from the NDC Registry85 submitted as of 07/01/2021 to determine the extent that mangroves or coastal ecosystems were included in national climate policy (scoring method in Supplementary Table 4). We hypothesised that countries with mangrove or coastal ecosystem NDCs may be more likely to promote mangrove conservation or restoration. While the first NDCs were submitted around 2015, at the end of our time series, we suspected higher commitments would point towards a stronger baseline in environmental governance. Most countries submitted updated or second NDCs during 2021 however these were not considered relevant to the time periods assessed. Google Translate was used to interpret NDCs in languages other than English.Ramsar wetlandsThe ecological character of Ramsar wetlands have been found to be significantly better than those of wetlands generally86. The area of Ramsar coastal and marine wetlands from the Ramsar Sites Information Service87 was calculated per country. Thirty-eight mangrove-holding countries are not signatories to the Ramsar Convention, and these countries were assigned a value of 0. The area of Ramsar wetlands per country was scaled by dividing by the country’s area of mangroves in 1996.Environmental governanceWe assessed the Environmental Performance Index (EPI)88 as an indicator of a country’s effectiveness in environmental governance. The biodiversity and habitat (BDH) issue category assesses countries’ actions toward retaining natural ecosystems and protecting the full range of biodiversity within their borders. We took the BDH score for 2020 for the 2007–2016 time period and the BDH score for 2010 for the 1996–2007 time period (calculated by subtracting the ten-year change from BDH 2020). However, due to collinearity with other variables this index was excluded from the analysis (see statistical analysis).Protected area managementWe also assessed Marine Protected Area (MPA) staff capacity as an indicator of the effectiveness of management of protected areas for countries. We used published global marine protected area (MPA) management data14 which is based on the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT), the World Bank MPA Score Card, and the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Programme’s MPA Management Assessment Checklist. Adequate staff capacity was the most important factor in explaining fish responses to MPA management globally, followed by budget capacity, but they were significantly correlated14. We, therefore, calculated the mean staff capacity across MPAs per country as our indicator. Mangroves can be included in terrestrial protected areas, which are not represented in this dataset, however, this measure provides an indicator of national governance of protected areas. However, due to collinearity with other variables this indicator was excluded from the analysis (see statistical analysis). The extent of protected areas was not included in the analysis because it has already been found to influence mangrove loss18.Biophysical variables (Supplementary Table 5)Coastal geomorphic typeMangrove extent change likely varies among different coastal geomorphic settings because human activities or environmental changes occur more commonly in some geomorphic settings than others. For example, losses of lagoonal mangroves were nearly twice as large as those in other geomorphic types24. Landscape geomorphic units from the global mangrove typology dataset v2.264 were classified as delta, estuary, lagoon or open coast.Sediment availabilityMangrove expansion and retreat are driven by sediment deposition and erosion, which are influenced by sediment availability from rivers and wave action, and alterations in hydrodynamic regimes47,89. We used the sediment trapping index from the global free-flowing rivers (FFR) dataset90 to indicate sediment availability from rivers within different geomorphic units. A mangrove catchment dataset was created based on the HydroSHEDS database91. River networks that intersected with mangrove geomorphic units were linked to that unit’s ID. Where rivers intersected multiple units, they were manually assigned by visual inspection. River basins that intersected either with the geomorphic units directly or the river networks were also linked to that unit’s ID. The FFR dataset90 was then spatially joined to the mangrove catchment dataset to identify the most downstream (i.e., the coastal outlet) segment of each FFR and its associated sediment trapping index. Not all geomorphic units (n = 3475) were linked to an FFR, however, an individual unit could be linked with several FFRs. Therefore, the unit sediment trapping index was the weighted mean of the river values, with weighting based on each FFR’s average long-term (1971–2000) naturalised discharge (m3s−1), with discharge set to the minimum value for segments with zero flow. Geomorphic units without connecting FFRs were given an index of zero (no sediment trapping). The sediment trapping index represents the percentage of the potential sediment load trapped by anthropogenic barriers along the river section. The focus on river barriers may obscure larger scale oceanic patterns that influence mangrove losses and gains (e.g., movement of mud banks from the Amazon River over 1000’s of kilometres92) or increases in sediment that could be coming from soils with catchment deforestation and erosion.Habitat fragmentationMany countries with high mangrove loss have been associated with elevated fragmentation of mangrove forests, although the relationship is not consistent at the global scale93. We calculated the clumpiness index of mangrove patches within geomorphic units within each time period, as this habitat fragmentation metric is independent of areal extent93. Whilst habitat fragmentation can be human-driven, clumpiness measures the patchy distribution of mangroves, which can also be due to natural factors inducing edge effects. We used a similar approach to Bryan-Brown, et al.86 to quantify the clumpiness index. The ‘landscape’ was defined as the combined extent of the mangrove geomorphic units across four timesteps (1996, 2007, 2010, and 2016) from the GMW dataset56. For the three focal years in this study (1996, 2007, and 2016) each geomorphic unit (n = 4394) was converted into a two-class polygon, where class one represented mangroves present during that time step and class two mangroves present in the other time steps (i.e., areas of mangrove loss). The polygons were transformed to a projected coordinate system (World Cylindrical Equal Area) and converted to rasters with a resolution of 25 m. Each raster was imported into R version 3.6.394, with clumpiness calculated using the package ‘landscapemetrics’ v1.5.095.Clumpiness describes how patches are dispersed across the landscape and ranges between minus one, where patches are maximally disaggregated, to one, where patches are maximally aggregated, a value of zero represents a case whereby patches are randomly distributed across the landscape. The clumpiness index requires that both classes are present in the landscape, therefore a no data value (NA) was returned for units where no loss of mangroves had occurred, or where there was 100% gain of mangroves in a later time period. The number of directions in which patches were connected was set to eight. The following manual fixes were conducted for NA values returned: 1) Where NA was returned for units where no loss of mangroves had occurred in another time period, i.e., class 1 (mangrove present) = 1 and class 2 (mangrove loss) = 0, assume +1 (maximally clumped); and 2) Where NA was returned for units where there was 100% gain of mangroves in a later time period, i.e., class 1 (mangrove present) = 0, class 2 (mangrove present) = 1 (100% gain), assume −1 (maximally disaggregated).Tidal amplitudeIn settings of low tidal range, mangrove vertical accretion is less likely to keep pace with rapid sea level rise3. However, in settings of high tidal range, mangroves may be more extensive and vulnerable to conversion to aquaculture or agriculture because of larger tidal flat extents. The Finite Element Solution global tide model (FES2014)96 is considered one of the most accurate tide models for shallow coastal areas97 and was selected to estimate the mean tidal amplitude within each geomorphic unit using the principal lunar semi-diurnal or M2 tidal amplitude as this is this most dominant tidal constituent98. To account for potential variation in the tidal amplitude across large geomorphic units, the raster pixel value for M2 tidal amplitude96 closest to the centroid of each mangrove patch within each unit was calculated, with the smallest value set at 0.01 m. For each geomorphic unit, the tidal amplitude was calculated as the weighted mean of the patch values, with weighting based on the patch area relative to the total unit area.Antecedent sea-level riseThe distribution of mangroves on shorelines changes over time with sediment accretion, erosion, subsidence, and sea-level rise (SLR)99, and periods of low sea level can cause mangrove dieback100. We used regional mean sea-level trends between January 1993 and December 2015 from the global sea level Essential Climate Variable (ECV) product v.2101,102 to estimate the mean antecedent SLR for each geomorphic unit. Spatial variation in regional sea-level trends generally range between −5 and +5 mm yr−1 (global mean of 3 mm yr−1)13. Extreme values ( >5 mm yr−1) observed in the dataset are subject to high levels of uncertainty (Sea Level CCI team, pers. comm.), and were therefore truncated to 5 mm yr−1. The raster pixel value for SLR102 closest to the centroid of each mangrove patch within each geomorphic unit was calculated. The geomorphic unit antecedent SLR values was calculated as the weighted mean of the patch values within the unit.DroughtWhilst long-term precipitation and temperature influence mangrove distribution globally62, periods of low rainfall have been reported to cause extensive mangrove dieback at regional scales, particularly when combined with high temperatures and low sea levels103. We used the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) from the global SPEI database v.2.6104 as an index of drought severity. SPEI is derived from precipitation and temperature and is considered an improved drought index that allows spatial and temporal comparability105,106. The mean SPEI raster pixel value was calculated for each time period and then averaged across the geomorphic units using the ‘ncdf4’107 and ‘raster’ packages74 in R.Tropical storm frequencyLarge-scale destruction of mangroves across regions have been reported from strong winds, high energy waves, and storm surges associated with tropical storms108. We used the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) dataset since 1980 v4109 to calculate the number of tropical cyclone occurrences (points along their paths) within a 200 km buffer of the centroid of geomorphic units within each time period using the sf package110 in R. Maximum wind velocity and surface pressures are likely experienced within 100 km of a cyclone’s eye111, therefore the 200 km buffer zone was selected to cover the average size of geomorphic units (33.63 ha), and all tropical storms potentially influencing mangrove growth. Whilst tropical storms affect only 42% of the world’s mangroves60, they are likely to be important stressors within cyclone-impacted countries.Minimum temperatureExtreme low temperature events were a driver of mangrove loss in subtropical regions, such as Florida and Louisianan of the US, and China28,112. We used the WorldClim bioclimatic variable 6 (minimum temperature of the coldest month averaged for the years 1970–2000)113 to calculate the mean minimum temperature across the geomorphic units using the ‘sf’110 and ‘raster’ packages74 in R. Where NAs were returned due to no overlapping raster layer, the value of the closest raster pixel to the centroid of the geomorphic unit was assigned.Statistical analysisWe used multi-level linear modelling to investigate relationships between mangrove cover change variables and socioeconomic and biophysical variables to consider landscape (level 1) and country (level 2) predictors in a hierarchical approach114. For each response variable, we modelled the response for 1996–2007 and 2007–2016, using explanatory variables specific to the time-period where available. Data inspection revealed that high percent loss or gain was concentrated in small geomorphic units, therefore to avoid bias in our results, we removed geomorphic units less than 100 ha from the analysis, which further reduced the available sample size to 3134 units across 95 countries. Statistical analysis was undertaken in R 4.0.268.The response variables were log-transformed to fit normal distribution. We tested for collinearity between our explanatory variables using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r  > 0.5) (Supplementary Tables 6 and 7). MPA staff capacity and EPI were excluded from our models because MPA staff capacity was correlated with ECI 2007 and ECI 2016 (both r = 0.54), and EPI 2020 was correlated with VDEM 2016 (r = 0.63). To improve model fit, travel time to the nearest city, mangrove restoration effort and Ramsar wetland area (relative) were log+1-transformed, and tidal amplitude was log-transformed.Two linear multi-level (mixed-effects) models were fitted for each response variable using the lme function in the ‘lme4’ package115 (Supplementary Table 8). First, a random intercept model with intercepts of landscape-level predictors varying by country was fitted. Then a random intercept and slope (coefficients) model with intercepts of landscape-level predictors varying by country, as well as slopes for socioeconomic predictors considered to have between-country variation (travel time to nearest city and night-time lights growth) was fitted, as we expect that mangrove cover change may respond to economic growth and market accessibility depending on national governance. A likelihood ratio test between the null linear model and the null random intercept model for each response variable showed that effects varied across countries and therefore we included country as a random effect (Supplementary Table 9). We also conducted likelihood ratio tests between the random intercept model and the random coefficient model to test whether the effect of travel time and night-time lights on mangrove change varies across countries. If significant, the model including random slopes for travel time and night-time lights was used (Supplementary Table 9). Mixed-effects models were fitted by maximum likelihood and model fit was validated by inspection of residual plots for the four response variables included in the analysis; percent net loss, percent net gain, percent gross loss, and percent gross gain (Supplementary Table 9).To test for spatial autocorrelation we performed spatial autoregressive (SAR) models using the errorsarlm function in the ‘spatialreg’ package116. SAR models were first fitted using a range of neighbourhood distances (50, 500, and 1000 km in 100 km intervals) for the net change variable117. Distance of 500 km showed the smallest AIC and was therefore adopted for all response variables. Neighbourhood lists of the centroid coordinates of the geomorphic units were defined with the row-standardised (‘W’) coding using the ‘spdep’ package118. We then produced Moran’s I correlograms using the correlog function in the ‘ncf’ package119 and the centroid coordinates of the geomorphic units. Correlograms for the multi-level model and SAR model were compared for each response variable (Supplementary Fig. 4). The SAR models did not improve spatial autocorrelation for any of the mangrove cover change variables and therefore the multi-level models were adopted.Hotspot estimatesWe defined hotspots as geomorphic units where raw values of percent net and gross loss and gain between 2007 and 2016 ((gamma)) differed by more than two standard deviations (sd) from the country average ((mu)).$${{{{{{rm{More}}}}}}},{{{{{{rm{loss}}}}}}}/{{{{{{rm{more}}}}}}},{{{{{{rm{gain}}}}}}}=left(gamma -mu right) , > , (2,times {{{{{{rm{sd}}}}}}})$$
(1)
$${{{{{{rm{Less}}}}}}},{{{{{{rm{loss}}}}}}},/,{{{{{{rm{less}}}}}}},{{{{{{rm{gain}}}}}}}=left(gamma -mu right) , < , -(2,times {{{{{{rm{sd}}}}}}})$$ (2) We excluded countries with only one geomorphic unit. Large deviations of the raw value from the country average were found for small units at a threshold below 50 km2, therefore we removed all units smaller than 50 km2 to overcome bias of hotspots towards smaller sites. This likely removed the identification of several hotspots. For example, Myanmar has had some large gains due to river sediments in the Gulf of Martaban (net gain of 100 % in Estuary 5834 and 39 % in Open Coast 62244), however, these areas were small (8 and 2 km2, respectively) and were therefore removed from the hotspot estimates.We analysed the factors contributing to hotspots by spatial investigation of satellite imagery in Google Earth with mangrove specialists from those countries. The hotspots were also assessed against protected area datasets for those countries120,121,122,123.Reporting summaryFurther information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article. More

A health-care worker in Chicago, Illinois, administers a COVID-19 vaccine aimed at the Omicron subvariant.Credit: Scott Olson/Getty

Omicron boosters protect against future variantsBooster shots against current SARS-CoV-2 variants can help to arm the human immune system against variants yet to arise. That’s the implication of two studies (W. B. Alsoussi et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/jhht (2022); C. I. Kaku et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/jhhv; 2022) that analysed how a booster shot or breakthrough infection affects antibody-producing cells. The work shows that some cells evolve to exclusively create antibodies targeting new strains, whereas others make antibodies against both new and old strains.The findings have not been peer reviewed, but provide reassurance that vaccines targeting the Omicron variant will be effective. Their utility had been questioned because of evidence that the immune system has trouble pivoting between variants.One study examined people who became infected with Omicron after receiving the original vaccine. One month after infection, nearly 97% of participants’ antibodies against the virus bound to the original strain better than to Omicron BA.1. But six months after infection, nearly half of their B cells produced antibodies that bound to Omicron BA.1 better than to the original strain — showing that the immune system continued to adapt long after the infection had passed.

White Island, also called Whakaari, is one of New Zealand’s most active volcanos.Credit: Phil Walter/Getty

Charge dropped in New Zealand volcano caseVolcanologists have applauded a judge’s decision to dismiss one of two criminal charges against New Zealand’s Earth-science research agency, GNS Science. The charges were laid in the wake of a fatal 2019 volcanic eruption on Whakaari White Island, a popular tourist destination, that killed 22 people and injured 25 others.GNS Science issues volcanic-alert bulletins for the country’s active volcanoes, which are disseminated to the media, emergency-response agencies and the public through a service called GeoNet. The dismissed charge alleged that GNS Science should have coordinated with tour operators and other agencies and reviewed its volcanic-alert bulletins to ensure that they effectively communicated the implications of volcanic activity on the island.With the charge dismissed, scientific organizations that provide information on public health and safety risks can now “breathe a bit of a sigh of relief”, says Simon Connell, a lawyer at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.GNS Science is also charged with having failed to ensure the health and safety of helicopter pilots whom it hired to take its employees to the island. This charge will go to trial. GNS Science has pleaded not guilty.

A herd of Asian elephants wandered out of their nature reserve in southwestern China last year.Credit: Wang Zhengpeng/VCG via Getty

Asian elephants mostly roam outside protected areas — and it’s a problemAsian elephants spend most of their time outside protected areas because they prefer the food that they find there, an international team of scientists reports. But this behaviour is putting the animals and people in harm’s way, say researchers.If protected areas do not contain animals’ preferred habitats, they will wander out, says Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, who studies Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in Menglun, China.Human–elephant conflict is the biggest threat for Asian elephants. Over the past few decades, animals in protected areas have increasingly wandered into villages. They often cause destruction, damaging crops and infrastructure and injuring and even killing people.Campos-Arceiz and his colleagues set out to get a precise picture of Asian-elephant movements. They collared 102 individuals in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, recording 600,000 GPS locations over a decade. They found that elephants tend to spend most of their time in habitats outside the protected areas, at the forest edge and in areas of regrowth. The findings were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology (J. A. de la Torre et al. J. Appl. Ecol. https://doi.org/gq28qp; 2022) on 18 October.The researchers suspect that the elephants venture out because they like to eat grasses, bamboo, palms and fast-growing trees, which are commonly found in disturbed forests and are relatively scarce under the canopy of old-growth forests.Philip Nyhus, a conservation biologist who specializes in human–wildlife conflict at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, says that Asian elephants live deep in dense forest and so are much more difficult to study than African elephants, which roam open savannahs. “The sample size is impressive,” he says.The research provides strong evidence for how to set up suitable protected areas that reduce the risk of elephants wandering out, he says.The results do not diminish the importance of protected areas, which provide long-term safety for the animals, says Campos-Arceiz. “But they are clearly not enough.” More

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We found a significant positive relationship between pollen- and plant richness regardless of differences in plant diversity, landscape structure and environmental conditions between the two study regions. This finding represents a major step stone towards more accurate paleoecological reconstructions of plant diversity in temperate Central Europe, as previous studies on this topic have mostly been conducted in boreal and boreal-nemoral zones8,11, in high mountain habitats10 or in southern Europe9,12.Methodological differences e.g., in diversity indices, data transformations or sample sizes used make comparison between studies difficult. Nevertheless, the strongest relationships seem to be found when habitats with contrasting patterns of plant diversity are compared, such as forests and alpine vegetation7 or forests, peatlands and grasslands11. Also in our study, we found the strongest correlations when complete datasets combining forested and open habitats were analysed together for both study regions. As it is well known that plant richness is generally lower in forests than in open landscapes across temperate and boreal regions28, this finding may seem rather trivial. However, it is important for paleoecological reconstruction because Holocene changes in diversity in temperate regions were largely driven by changes in the relative abundance of major habitat types (such as forests, grasslands, wetlands and man-made habitats), and not just by changes in species richness within these habitats5,6.Regarding individual habitats, the pollen-plant diversity relationship is often rather strong and significant in grasslands and other open habitats8,11; for example the WCM open-habitat subset in this study. Open habitats are generally richer in species, thus providing a longer gradient of species richness compensating for the taxonomical imprecision of the pollen analysis. In forested sites with less species, we found mostly non-significant relationships. Moreover, two other factors may play a role.First, high pollen productivity of trees biases the diversity relationship according to the studies from northern Europe16. However, a study from an elevational transect in southern Norway showed that the strongest bias in representation occurs only in the boreal forest biome, which is dominated by high pollen producers10. Our dominant vegetation component, Picea and Quercus, have intermediate to high pollen productivity (2–2.5), whereas true high pollen producers such as Alnus and Betula ( > 3) are less abundant in our study area (Supplementary Fig. S2). Adjustment of pollen counts by PPEs led to stronger relationship between pollen and floristic richness only in the WCM open-habitat subset (Supplementary Fig. S4).Second, interception of pollen by the tree canopies29 and subsequent washout to the forest floor affects the diversity relationship of forest sites more than pollen productivity. This noise described also as a vegetation filtering30 can be illustrated in our dataset by pollen of long-distance transport from Ambrosia artemisiifolia-type, which has the closest source populations ca. 50 km south-eastwards from WCM region31; or pollen of Artemisia, growing in open habitats. Both pollen taxa are more abundant in the forest than in open sites (Supplementary Fig. S3).Regarding the application of these results for the interpretation of fossil record, we suggest to consider only marked changes of pollen richness in the past and to avoid overinterpretation of small differences, as the non-significant relationships obtained in both forest datasets suggest some limitations of the method.We showed that the pollen-plant diversity relationship may be at least partly disentangled by knowing the exact spatial position of plant species in broader surroundings of the pollen sampling sites. Changes in the relationship with changing spatial scale are largely driven by the numbers of species newly appearing as the radius of surveyed area increases, especially as new habitats are added (Fig. 5, Supplementary Fig. S5). Remarkably, in the BMH region it increases with distance, whereas the opposite trend was observed in the WCM region. This discrepancy may be explained by non-uniform richness patterns in different habitats and by different landscape structure (i.e. spatial arrangement of different habitats) in the two study regions.At open-habitat sites in the WCM area, most species generally appeared within the first 40 m. This observation is consistent with the knowledge of extremely high fine-scale plant diversity in the local steppic meadows, where a substantial portion of the species pool occurs on a scale of tens of square meters32. Moreover, the grain size of the habitat mosaic in the WCM region is finer than in the BMH region. Therefore, the closest pollen-plant diversity relationship across habitats in the WCM region is achieved over shorter distances. Although habitats such as built-up areas and roads occurring at distances greater than 40 m may be species-rich and compositionally different from the grasslands and forests, it appears that high fine-scale plant diversity (in our case in WCM open-habitat subset) limits the influence of the surrounding landscape on pollen richness and reduces the source area of pollen richness. Several studies of the relevant source area of pollen report analogous results33,34,35. A weakening relationship between pollen diversity and plant diversity with distance has also been observed in the Mediterranean region9, although their interpretations are limited by field survey methodology.The appearance of open habitats within forests led to the increase of species numbers and the local maxima of adjusted R2 in both regions. While in the BMH forest the appearance of forest roads at about 70 m was crucial, meadows and orchards at about 250 m played a similar role in the WCM forest subset. In the WCM open-habitat subset diversity patterns in the first tens of metres were crucial, while in the BMH open-habitat subset increased correlation of floristic and pollen richness appeared only at 400 and 550 m; at this distance many species appeared due to the frequent transition of meadow complexes to shrubby habitats and built-up areas. Also other studies from semi-open landscapes found a high correlation between pollen richness and landscape openness17,26,27.Estimating the source area of pollen variance as a regression of pollen and floristic variance implies that the resulting distance of 100–250 m represents all datasets. Although they differ in species richness, openness and habitats, the relationship between variances is fairly linear. The exception is the WCM open-habitat subset suggesting that the spatial scale at which the pollen variance corresponds to the floristic variance cannot be generalized.The strong effect of high pollen richness in the WCM open-habitat subset is also visible in the comparison of pollen and floristic variance. At 150 m, the WCM open-habitat subset had much lower floristic variance than the other subsets. Floristic variance in this subset corresponding to the pollen variance and the pattern of the other datasets lay at 6 m (Fig. 6b). Again, this may be caused by the high fine-scale diversity of the meadows, which include most pollen types present in the surrounding landscape. Only a few new species appeared in broader surroundings and at 150 m, WCM open habitats are more similar than other analysed habitats. The fact that extremely high alpha diversity is compensated by low beta diversity has already been reported from the open habitats of the White Carpathians36. The linearity and the significance of the variance relationship within the rest of the datasets indicate robustness and possible applicability to a variety of fossil records.The mechanism of establishing the source area of pollen variance was similar to that mentioned for the source area of pollen richness. The appearance of new habitats with new species (Fig. 5) like open habitat for forest sites (WCM forest subset) or built-up areas for open sites (BMH open-habitat subset), caused small to negligible increases of floristic variance. Moreover, the high yet insignificant relationship of the variances at the distance between 250 and 600 m (Fig. 6a) corresponds to the distance of the second range of fit between floristic and pollen richness (Fig. 4a).Beta diversity, understood as directional turnover (temporal or spatial), is becoming more frequently used in pollen analysis22,24 than beta diversity as a non-directional variation. According to Nieto-Lugilde et al.25 pollen-based turnover correlates with forest-inventory-based turnover. We extend this finding from woody taxa to all species and from directional turnover to non-directional variance. Moreover, forest sites with high contributions to pollen beta diversity also show an increased contribution to floristic beta diversity (Fig. 4b).The reference data on plant diversity report 1477 species in 15 mapping squares covered by our survey for the BMH region and 2045 species in 14 squares for the WCM region37. It means that we recorded 54.1 and 53.7%, respectively, of the known regional species pool in the two regions. We consider this as a rather good result and the close agreement in representativeness between the two regions speaks for consistency in data quality between the datasets. We advise that future studies covering wider areas and various biomes should preferentially use high-quality floristic data collected in targeted field surveys rather than database data or data from simplified field surveys. Only then we will be able to understand the pollen-plant diversity relationships more realistically and in a spatially explicit manner.In order to interpret fossil pollen richness in the light of our present results, we need to consider landscape openness, which can be roughly inferred from the ratio of arboreal and non-arboreal pollen. Variation of pollen richness during the forest phases of the records should be interpreted more carefully, especially in cases of low variation. In all other cases, the pollen richness is significantly linked to the plant richness within a distance of ten to several hundreds of meters, depending on the distance of the expected species-rich patches. More

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