The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus, initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness.

In marine ecosystems, little is known about how competition with invasive fishes may affect the resource use of native predators. Throughout the western Atlantic, invasive Indo-Pacific lionfishes (Pterois spp.) are likely to compete with native mesopredators such as the graysby Cephalopholis cruentata, an ecologically similar serranid. In conjunction with a before-after-controlimpact lionfish removal experiment, this study measured whether graysby population size, diet, and condition varied in relation to cohabitant lionfish biomass. Lionfish, graysby, and prey populations were surveyed and sampled along a contiguous reef ledge in Biscayne National Park, south Florida. Mesopredator diet was measured with stable isotope (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) and gut content analyses, and isotopic niches were used to compare patterns of inter-and intraspecific resource use diversity. The isotopic niches of graysby and lionfishes overlapped by 67%, suggesting similar population-level resource use. On sites with higher lionfish biomass, graysby isotopic niche was 34% smaller and overlapped 47% less with that of lionfishes, possibly indicating both a narrower breadth of resource use and associated interspecific niche segregation. Although gut content analyses suggested that graysby may consume less fishes on high lionfish biomass sites, prey fish populations did not vary accordingly, potentially inferring interference by lionfishes on graysby foraging behavior. However, graysby condition was not related to lionfish biomass, so the 2 species ultimately did not fit the classic definition of competitors. By discussing potential influences of lionfishes on graysby resource use, our research contributes useful information to the study of how invasive lionfishes may affect native predator communities.

Artificial reefs are commonly used as a management tool, in part to provide ecosystem services, including opportunities for recreational fishing and diving. Quantifying the use of artificial reefs by recreational boaters is essential for determining their value as ecosystem services. In this study, four artificial–natural reef pairs in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (off western Florida) were investigated for boat visitation rates using autonomous acoustic recorders. Digital SpectroGram (DSG) recorders were used to collect sound files from April 2013 to March 2015. An automatic detection algorithm was used to identify boat noise in individual files using the harmonic peaks generated by boat engines, and by comparing the sound amplitude of each file with surrounding files. In all four pairs, visitation rates were significantly higher at the artificial reef than the natural reef. This increase in boat visitation was likely due to actual or perceived increased quality of fishing and diving at the artificial reefs, or to lack of knowledge of the presence or locations of the natural reefs. Inshore reefs (<15 m depth) had high variability in monthly visitation rates, which were generally highest in warmer months. However the seasonal signal was dampened on offshore reefs (>25 m depth). This study appears to be the first to use acoustic data to measure participant use of boating destinations, and highlights the utility of acoustic monitoring for the valuation of this important ecosystem service provided by artificial reefs.

Research that uses stable isotope analysis often involves a delay between sample collection in the field and laboratory processing, therefore requiring preservation to prevent or reduce tissue degradation and associated isotopic compositions. Although there is a growing literature describing the effects of various preservation techniques, the results are often contextual, unpredictable and vary among taxa, suggesting the need to treat each species individually. We conducted a controlled experiment to test the effects of four preservation methods of muscle tissue from four species of upper trophic-level reef fish collected from the eastern Gulf of Mexico (Red Grouper Epinephelus morio, Gag Mycteroperca microlepis, Scamp Mycteroperca phenax, and Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus). We used a paired design to measure the effects on isotopic values for carbon and nitrogen after storage using ice, 95% ethanol, and sodium chloride (table salt), against that in a liquid nitrogen control. Mean offsets for both δ13C and δ15N values from controls were lowest for samples preserved on ice, intermediate for those preserved with salt, and highest with ethanol. Within species, both salt and ethanol significantly enriched the δ15N values in nearly all comparisons. Ethanol also had strong effects on the δ13C values in all three groupers. Conversely, for samples preserved on ice, we did not detect a significant offset in either isotopic ratio for any of the focal species. Previous studies have addressed preservation-induced offsets in isotope values using a mass balance correction that accounts for changes in the isotope value to that in the C/N ratio. We tested the application of standard mass balance corrections for isotope values that were significantly affected by the preservation methods and found generally poor agreement between corrected and control values. The poor performance by the correction may have been due to preferential loss of lighter isotopes and corresponding low levels of mass loss with a substantial change in the isotope value of the sample. Regardless of mechanism, it was evident that accounting for offsets caused by different preservation methods was not possible using the standard correction. Caution is warranted when interpreting the results from specimens stored in either ethanol or salt, especially when using those from multiple preservation techniques. We suggest the use of ice as the preferred preservation technique for muscle tissue when conducting stable isotope analysis as it is widely available, inexpensive, easy to transport and did not impart a significant offset in measured isotopic values. Our results provide additional evidence that preservation effects on stable isotope analysis can be highly contextual, thus requiring their effects to be measured and understood for each species and isotopic ratio of interest before addressing research questions.