Ecological time lags and the journey towards conservation success
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Global conservation targets to reverse biodiversity declines and halt species extinctions are not being met despite decades of conservation action. However, a lack of measurable change in biodiversity indicators towards these targets is not necessarily a sign that conservation has failed; instead, temporal lags in species' responses to conservation action could be masking our ability to observe progress towards conservation success. Here we present our perspective on the influence of ecological time lags on the assessment of conservation success and review the principles of time lags and their ecological drivers. We illustrate how a number of conceptual species may respond to change in a theoretical landscape and evaluate how these responses might influence our interpretation of conservation success. We then investigate a time lag in a real biodiversity indicator using empirical data and explore alternative approaches to understand the mechanisms that drive time lags. Our proposal for setting and evaluating conservation targets is to use milestones, or interim targets linked to specific ecological mechanisms at key points in time, to assess whether conservation actions are likely to be working. Accounting for ecological time lags in biodiversity targets and indicators will greatly improve the way that we evaluate conservation successes.
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Time lags of recovery of different species are highly variable because of different life-span and fecundity, with short-lived species expected to display short time-lags.
“Finally, time lags of recovery of different species are highly variable because of different life-span and fecundity, with short-lived species expected to display short time-lags (Watts et al., 2020).”
From A meta-analysis of environmental responses to freshwater ecosystem restoration in China (1987–2018) (2023) · cites this paper as Watts et al., 2020
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Developing a national indicator of functional connectivity
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- Authors
- Watts, K., Whytock, R. C., Park, K. J., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Macgregor, N. A., Duffield, S., & McGowan, P. J. K.
- Affiliations
- University of Stirling (GB)
- University of Kent (GB)
- Natural England (GB)
- Newcastle University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Watts, Kevin
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Ecology & Evolution
- Published
- 2020-01-27
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 304-311
- ISSN
- 2397-334X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3001470161
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 10
- FWCI
- 1.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
- Funders
- multiple funders in acknowledgements
- RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council (NE/L002590/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Conservation, Ecology, Wildlife Education
- Keywords
- conservation success, biodiversity indicators, conservation targets, biodiversity loss, conservation evaluation
- MeSH terms
- Conservation of Natural Resources, Ecology, Biodiversity, Extinction, Biological
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