Synergies between speciation and conservation science yield novel insights for mitigating the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene

The Earth is experiencing ongoing and devastating environmental change, largely, if not entirely, due to anthropogenic impacts. This is leading inexorably to the fragmentation of our biosphere and threatens biodiversity across all continents and habitats. While forests harbor over 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, 70% of the Earth’s remaining forests are within 1 km of a forest edge (1). The loss of aquatic habitat is equally alarming, iconically represented by the dramatic loss of coral reef habitat, which is projected to reach an 84% loss in response to ongoing climate change (2–5). Indeed, the simultaneous impacts of habitat fragmentation and land conversion (6, 7), species loss (8–10), the proliferation of “anthropogenic mass”(11), and, notoriously, climate change (12) are disrupting virtually all natural systems, and with catastrophic consequences (13). The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity COP15 Framework established a global agreement to designate 30% of land as protected areas, which, though promising, still falls short of the 44% of terrestrial habitat that is needed to prevent major biodiversity loss (14). And though biologically informed connectivity among protected areas can increase their ecological efficacy, only ~10% of the global terrestrial protected areas are structurally connected (15, 16) with critical connectivity threatened by land use conversions (17). This accelerating process has served as a call-to-arms for ecologists and evolutionary biologists alike, especially given the need to develop operational guidelines that define a well-connected landscape (18). Here, this Special Feature focuses on the challenges of measuring, monitoring, and maintaining the exchange of genetic material among wildlife populations (i.e., “gene flow”) as a means for restoring connectivity in an increasingly fragmented world (17, 19).

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