The concept of "sentinel species" is important in the environmental health sciences because sentinel species can provide integrated and relevant information on the types, amounts, availability, and effects of environmental contaminants. Here we discuss the use of mink (Mustela vison) as a sentinel organism by reviewing the pertinent literature from exposure- and effects-based studies. The review focuses on mercury (Hg) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as they are persistent, ubiquitous, and bioaccumulative contaminants of concern to both humans and wildlife. Mink are widely distributed, abundant, and regularly trapped in temperate, aquatic ecosystems, and this makes them an excellent model to address issues in environmental pollution on both temporal and spatial scales. As a high-trophic-level, piscivorous mammal, mink can bioaccumulate appreciable concentrations of certain pollutants and have been shown to be sensitive to their toxic effects. The husbandry and life history of mink are well understood, and this has permitted controlled dosing experiments to be conducted using animals reared in captivity. These manipulative studies have yielded important quantitative information on exposure-response relationships and benchmarks of adverse health effects, and have also allowed the cellular mechanisms underlying toxic effects to be explored. Furthermore, the data accrued from the laboratory continue to validate observations made in the field. Research derived from mink can bridge and integrate multiple disciplines, and the information collected from this species has allowed environmental health scientists to better understand and characterize pollution effects on ecosystems.

The invasion of ecosystems by exotic species is currently viewed as one of the most important sources of biodiversity loss. The largest part of this loss occurs on islands, where indigenous species have often evolved in the absence of strong competition, herbivory, parasitism or predation. As a result, introduced species thrive in those optimal insular ecosystems affecting their plant food, competitors or animal prey. As islands are characterised by a high rate of endemism, the impacted populations often correspond to local subspecies or even unique species. One of the most important taxa concerning biological invasions on islands is mammals. A small number of mammal species is responsible for most of the damage to invaded insular ecosystems: rats, cats, goats, rabbits, pigs and a few others. The effect of alien invasive species may be simple or very complex, especially since a large array of invasive species, mammals and others, can be present simultaneously and interact among themselves as well as with the indigenous species. In most cases, introduced species generally have a strong impact and they often are responsible for the impoverishment of the local flora and fauna. The best response to these effects is almost always to control the alien population, either by regularly reducing their numbers, or better still, by eradicating the population as a whole from the island. Several types of methods are currently used: physical (trapping, shooting), chemical (poisoning) and biological (e.g. directed use of diseases). Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, depending on the mammal species targeted. The best strategy is almost always to combine several methods. Whatever the strategy used, its long-term success is critically dependent on solid support from several different areas, including financial support, staff commitment, and public support, to name only a few. In many cases, the elimination of the alien invasive species is followed by a rapid and often spectacular recovery of the impacted local populations. However, in other cases, the removal of the alien is not sufficient for the damaged ecosystem to revert to its former state, and complementary actions, such as species re-introduction, are required. A third situation may be widespread: the sudden removal of the alien species may generate a further disequilibrium, resulting in further or greater damage to the ecosystem. Given the numerous and complex population interactions among island species, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the removal of key species, such as a top predator. This justifies careful pre-control study and preparation prior to initiating the eradication of an alien species, in order to avoid an ecological catastrophe. In addition, long-term monitoring ofthe post-eradication ecosystem is crucial to assess success and prevent reinvasion.

In the last two decades, interest in species distribution models (SDMs) of plants and animals has grown dramatically. Recent advances in SDMs allow us to potentially forecast anthropogenic effects on patterns of biodiversity at different spatial scales. However, some limitations still preclude the use of SDMs in many theoretical and practical applications. Here, we provide an overview of recent advances in this field, discuss the ecological principles and assumptions underpinning SDMs, and highlight critical limitations and decisions inherent in the construction and evaluation of SDMs. Particular emphasis is given to the use of SDMs for the assessment of climate change impacts and conservation management issues. We suggest new avenues for incorporating species migration, population dynamics, biotic interactions and community ecology into SDMs at multiple spatial scales. Addressing all these issues requires a better integration of SDMs with ecological theory.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has caused a pandemic in humans. Farmed mink (Neovison vison) are also susceptible. In Denmark, this virus has spread rapidly among farmed mink, resulting in some respiratory disease. Full-length virus genome sequencing revealed novel virus variants in mink. These variants subsequently appeared within the local human community.

The American mink, Neovison vison, is an established, alien invasive species in the United Kingdom that originally colonized the country at a time when two native mustelids (otters, Lutra lutra, and polecats, Mustela putorius) were largely absent. Both of these species are now recovering their populations nationally. We compared the relative abundance and the behavior of mink in the 1990s and in the 2000s in an area of southern England where both otters and polecats were absent in the 1990s but reappeared in the intervening years. We found that mink were still abundant in the 2000s in the presence of otters and polecats, but that they appeared to have altered some aspects of their behavior. In accordance with previous studies, we found that mink consumed fewer fish in the presence of otters. We also found that mink were predominantly nocturnal in the 1990s (in the absence of competitors) but were predominantly diurnal in the 2000s (in the presence of competitors). We hypothesize that this temporal shift may be an avoidance mechanism allowing the coexistence of mink with the otter and the polecat, although we are unable to attribute the shift to one or the other species. We also found that mink in the presence of competitors weighed less but remained the same size, suggesting the possibility of a competitor-mediated decline in overall body condition. This is one of very few field studies demonstrating a complete temporal shift in apparent response to competitors. The implications of this study are that recovering otter populations may not lead to significant and long-term reductions in the number of invasive mink in the United Kingdom as has been suggested in the media, although we cannot exclude the possibility of a decline in mink in the longer-term.

Understanding biological invasions is crucial for their control and prevention. Specially, establishing whether invasive species operate within the constraint of conservative ecological niches, or if niche shifts occur at all commonly as part of the invasion process, is indispensable to identifying and anticipating potential areas of invasion. Ecological niche modeling (ENM) has been used to address such questions, but improvements and debate in study design, model evaluation, and methods are still needed to mature this field. We reanalyze data for Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), native to North America, but invasive in Europe. Our main finding was that, when the analysis extent is established carefully based on analogous sets of environmental conditions, all evidence of niche shifts disappears, suggesting that previous reports of niche shifts for this species are artifacts of methods and interpretation, rather than biological reality. Niche conservatism should be tested only within appropriate, similar, environmental spaces that are accessible to both species or populations being compared, thus avoiding model extrapolation related to model transfers. Testing for environmental similarity between native and invaded areas is critical to identifying niche shifts during species invasion robustly, but also in applications of ENM to understanding temporal dimensions of niche dynamics.

Multiple invasive species have now established at most locations around the world, and the rate of new species invasions and records of new invasive species continue to grow. Multiple invasive species interact in complex and unpredictable ways, altering their invasion success and impacts on biodiversity. Incumbent invasive species can be replaced by functionally similar invading species through competitive processes; however the generalized circumstances leading to such competitive displacement have not been well investigated. The likelihood of competitive displacement is a function of the incumbent advantage of the resident invasive species and the propagule pressure of the colonizing invasive species. We modeled interactions between populations of two functionally similar invasive species and indicated the circumstances under which dominance can be through propagule pressure and incumbent advantage. Under certain circumstances, a normally subordinate species can be incumbent and reject a colonizing dominant species, or successfully colonize in competition with a dominant species during simultaneous invasion. Our theoretical results are supported by empirical studies of the invasion of islands by three invasive Rattus species. Competitive displacement is prominent in invasive rats and explains the replacement of R. exulans on islands subsequently invaded by European populations of R. rattus and R. norvegicus. These competition outcomes between invasive species can be found in a broad range of taxa and biomes, and are likely to become more common. Conservation management must consider that removing an incumbent invasive species may facilitate invasion by another invasive species. Under very restricted circumstances of dominant competitive ability but lesser impact, competitive displacement may provide a novel method of biological control.

Scenarios of changes in biodiversity for the year 2100 can now be developed based on scenarios of changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate, vegetation, and land use and the known sensitivity of biodiversity to these changes. This study identified a ranking of the importance of drivers of change, a ranking of the biomes with respect to expected changes, and the major sources of uncertainties. For terrestrial ecosystems, land-use change probably will have the largest effect, followed by climate change, nitrogen deposition, biotic exchange, and elevated carbon dioxide concentration. For freshwater ecosystems, biotic exchange is much more important. Mediterranean climate and grassland ecosystems likely will experience the greatest proportional change in biodiversity because of the substantial influence of all drivers of biodiversity change. Northern temperate ecosystems are estimated to experience the least biodiversity change because major land-use change has already occurred. Plausible changes in biodiversity in other biomes depend on interactions among the causes of biodiversity change. These interactions represent one of the largest uncertainties in projections of future biodiversity change.

Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970-2014). Inter-continental and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration in trade in the twentieth century. For all taxonomic groups, the increase in numbers of alien species does not show any sign of saturation and most taxa even show increases in the rate of first records over time. This highlights that past efforts to mitigate invasions have not been effective enough to keep up with increasing globalization.

Infectious diseases, in particular canine distemper virus (CDV), are an important threat to the viability of wild carnivore populations. CDV is thought to be transmitted by direct contact between individuals; therefore, the study of species interactions plays a pivotal role in understanding CDV transmission dynamics. However, CDV often appears to move between populations that are ecologically isolated, possibly through bridge hosts that interact with both species. This study investigated how an introduced species could alter multihost interactions and act as a bridge host in a novel carnivore assemblage of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), invasive American mink (Neovison vison), and threatened river otters (Lontra provocax) in southern Chile. We found that rural dogs interact with mink near farms whereas in riparian habitats, minks and river otters shared the same latrines with both species visiting sites frequently within time intervals well within CDV environmental persistence. No interactions were observed between dogs and otters at either location. Both dog and mink populations were serologically positive for CDV, making the pathogen transfer risk to otters a conservation concern. Altogether, introduced mink in this ecosystem have the potential to act as bridge hosts between domestic dogs and endangered carnivores.

<p id="p00005"><strong>Aims:</strong> The otter is an indicator and flagship species of aquatic ecosystems. Its populations have undergone a drastic decline in China, and have become locally extinct in some regions due to anthropogenic disturbance. However, the current literature on otters in China is inadequate, which has subsequently affected conservation of the species. We aim to assess the potential distribution and conservation priority areas of the Eurasian otter (<i>Lutra lutra</i>) in Northeast China.</p><p id="p00010"><strong>Methods:</strong> In this study, we integrated species distribution models with otter survey data from 2016 to 2020 to assess Eurasian otter distribution. Then, we used the geographic information system and core-area zonation algorithm in Zonation 4.00 to identify conservation priority areas for otter protection. Using the anthropogenic pressures layer, we also evaluated anthropogenic stressors in each province. Then, we analyzed the conservation status of the otter based on the spatial distribution of national nature reserves. Furthermore, we used Inner Mongolia Forest Industry Group, Daxing&#x02019;anling Forestry Group and Yichun Forest Industry Group as case studies to analyze the role of state-owned forest areas for otter conservation. </p><p id="p00015"><strong>Results:</strong> The results demonstrate that potential distribution and conservation priority areas cover 104,515.04 km²and 45,448.99 km², respectively. Large swathes of conservation priority areas remain for the otter in Daxing&#x02019;anling which are connected with conservation priority areas in Xiaoxing&#x02019;anling and there is no obvious geographical boundary between them. Therefore, these regions are mandatory to conserve to maintain the stability of otter populations in Northeast China. Otters in the Liaoning Province faced the greatest anthropogenic pressures, followed by the Jilin Province and Heilongjiang Province. Otters in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region faced the lowest amount of pressure. There is potential distribution for the otter in 63 nature reserves and conservation priority areas in 32 nature reserves out of the 110 reserves in the region. The study area includes 11.64% of the otter&#x02019;s potential distribution and 10.88% of conservation priority areas. Three state-owned forest industry groups cover 71.18% of the potential distribution of the otter (74,390.89 km²) and 79.26% of the conservation priority areas (36,022.22 km²). </p><p id="p00020"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study indicates that state-owned forest areas may play a greater role in the protection of biodiversity following a comprehensive ban on logging in natural forests. Therefore, we propose that areas with important conservation value in state-owned forest land should be gradually included under the protections of national parks in order to achieve systematic and complete protection of biodiversity. Finally, we suggest: (1) strengthening the management of river pollutions; (2) reducing fishing intensity; (3) a long-term field monitoring network be established to study population changes in otters; (4) increasing the investment in scientific research on otters; and (5) raising awareness of otter conservation through public education.</p>

水獭是水生生态系统重要的指示种和旗舰种, 由于强烈的人为干扰, 中国的水獭种群数量大幅下降, 部分区域已局部灭绝。然而目前国内对水獭的调查和研究非常有限, 本底不清的状况已经严重影响到水獭的野外保育工作。本文以东北地区的欧亚水獭指名亚种(Lutra lutra lutra)为研究对象, 基于2016-2020年的调查数据, 使用组合建模的方法评估了水獭的潜在分布区; 利用地理信息系统和系统保护规划软件分析了水獭的保护优先区并计算了各省级行政区内水獭潜在分布区和保护优先区面临的人类压力; 结合国家级自然保护区的空间布局分析了水獭的保护现状, 并以内蒙古森工集团、大兴安岭林业集团、伊春森工集团三大国有林区为例分析了重点国有林区在水獭保护中的作用。结果表明: (1)水獭潜在分布区和保护优先区面积分别为104,515.04 km²和45,448.99 km², 其中大兴安岭的水獭保护优先区集中连片, 并与小兴安岭的保护优先区相连, 栖息地之间没有明显地理隔离, 是维持东北地区水獭种群稳定的重中之重; (2)水獭面临的人类压力大小依次为: 辽宁 > 吉林 > 黑龙江 > 内蒙古; (3)研究区内110个国家级自然保护区中有63个包含水獭潜在分布区, 覆盖面积为12,168.93 km², 仅占水獭潜在分布区面积的11.64%, 其中32个国家级自然保护区包含水獭保护优先区, 占水獭保护优先区面积的10.88%; (4)三大国有林区涵盖了71.18%的水獭潜在分布区和79.26%的保护优先区(面积分别为74,390.89 km²和36,022.22 km²)。由此可见, 尽管水獭潜在分布区中国家级自然保护区占比较低, 但是在天然林全面禁伐的背景下, 重点国有林区可能在未来东北地区的生物多样性保护中发挥更大作用, 因此我们建议将重点国有林区中具有重要保护价值的区域逐步纳入以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系中, 以实现生物多样性的系统性和完整性保护。最后, 本文结合研究结果和实地调研提出以下保护建议: (1)加强对河流污染物的管理; (2)控制渔民捕鱼强度; (3)开展全面的水獭专项调查并建立长期的监测体系; (4)加大对水獭的科研投入; (5)加强宣传力度, 提升公众保护意识。

Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases are accelerating at an unprecedented rate in the current era of globalization, with substantial impacts on the global economy, public health, and sustainability. Alien species invasions have been hypothesized to be important to zoonotic diseases by introducing both existing and novel pathogens to invaded ranges. However, few studies have evaluated the generality of alien species facilitating zoonoses across multiple host and parasite taxa worldwide. Here, we simultaneously quantify the role of 795 established alien hosts on the 10,473 zoonosis events across the globe since the 14 century. We observe an average of ~5.9 zoonoses per alien zoonotic host. After accounting for species-, disease-, and geographic-level sampling biases, spatial autocorrelation, and the lack of independence of zoonosis events, we find that the number of zoonosis events increase with the richness of alien zoonotic hosts, both across space and through time. We also detect positive associations between the number of zoonosis events per unit space and climate change, land-use change, biodiversity loss, human population density, and PubMed citations. These findings suggest that alien host introductions have likely contributed to zoonosis emergences throughout recent history and that minimizing future zoonotic host species introductions could have global health benefits.© 2022. The Author(s).