Freshwater biodiversity is under great threat across the globe as evidenced by more severe declines relative to other types of ecosystems. Some of the main stressors responsible for these concerning trends is habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss stemming from anthropogenic activities, including energy production, urbanization, agriculture, and resource extraction. Habitat protection and restoration both play an integral role in efforts to save freshwater biodiversity and associated ecosystem services from further decline. In this paper, we summarize the sources of threats associated with habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss and then outline response options to protect and restore freshwater habitats. Specific response options are to legislate the protection of healthy and productive freshwater ecosystems, prioritize habitats for protection and restoration, enact durable protections, conserve habitat in a coordinated and integrated manner, engage in evidence-based restoration using an adaptive management approach, ensure that potential freshwater habitat alterations are mitigated or off-set, and future-proof protection and restoration actions. Such work should be done through a lens that engages and involves local community members. We identify three broad categories of obstacles that could arise during the implementation of the response options outlined: (a) scientific (e.g., inaccessible data or uncertainties), (b) institutional and management (e.g., capacity issues or differing goals across agencies), and (c) social and political (e.g., prioritizing economic development over conservation initiatives). The protection and restoration of habitats is key to Bend the Curve for freshwater biodiversity, with a comprehensive, connected, and coordinated effort of response options needed to protect intact habitats and restore fragmented, degraded, and lost habitats and the biodiversity and ecosystem services that they support.

Animal migration has fascinated scientists and the public alike for centuries, yet migratory animals are facing diverse threats that could lead to their demise. The Anthropocene is characterised by the reality that humans are the dominant force on Earth, having manifold negative effects on biodiversity and ecosystem function. Considerable research focus has been given to assessing anthropogenic impacts on the numerical abundance of species/populations, whereas relatively less attention has been devoted to animal migration. However, there are clear linkages, for example, where human‐driven impacts on migration behaviour can lead to population/species declines or even extinction. Here, we explore anthropogenic threats to migratory animals (in all domains – aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial) using International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Threat Taxonomy classifications. We reveal the diverse threats (e.g. human development, disease, invasive species, climate change, exploitation, pollution) that impact migratory wildlife in varied ways spanning taxa, life stages and type of impact (e.g. from direct mortality to changes in behaviour, health, and physiology). Notably, these threats often interact in complex and unpredictable ways to the detriment of wildlife, further complicating management. Fortunately, we are beginning to identify strategies for conserving and managing migratory animals in the Anthropocene. We provide a set of strategies that, if embraced, have the potential to ensure that migratory animals, and the important ecological functions sustained by migration, persist.

For millennia humans have extracted biological and physical resources from the planet to sustain societies and enable the development of technology and infrastructure. Growth in the human population and changing consumption patterns have increased the human footprint on ecosystems and their biodiversity, including in fresh waters. Freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity face many threats and it is now widely accepted that we are in a biodiversity crisis. One means of protecting and restoring freshwater biodiversity is to better manage the exploitation of freshwater biota and aggregate resources (e.g., sand, gravel, and boulders). Here we outline the threats arising from such exploitation and identify response options to ensure that methods and levels of extraction are sustainable and allow recovery of over-exploited freshwater biodiversity and ecosystems. The guidance we provide will enable practitioners, policy-makers, and resource stewards to embrace effective, sustainable, and evidence-based approaches to resource extraction. Response options for managing species exploitation include strengthening assessment and reporting, using science-based approaches to reduce overexploitation and support recovery, embracing community engagement, and building or tightening legislation. Response options for managing exploitation of freshwater aggregate resources include reducing demand for harvest, strengthening governance, reporting, and monitoring of environmental impacts, and promoting the restoration of degraded ecosystems or compensating for losses. Diverse case studies highlight examples of where various management actions have been implemented in an effort to consider how they can be scaled up and adapted to other contexts. Managing exploitation will be a key aspect of broader initiatives needed to protect and restore freshwater biodiversity around the globe.

Road networks threaten biodiversity and particularly herpetofauna, including common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), which have an especially slow life history that prevents rapid r...