Human-elephant conflict is a major conservation concern in elephant range countries. A variety of management strategies have been developed and are practiced at different scales for preventing and mitigating human-elephant conflict. However, human-elephant conflict remains pervasive as the majority of existing prevention strategies are driven by site-specific factors that only offer short-term solutions, while mitigation strategies frequently transfer conflict risk from one place to another. Here, we review current human-elephant conflict management strategies and describe an interdisciplinary conceptual approach to manage species coexistence over the long-term. Our proposed model identifies shared resource use between humans and elephants at different spatial and temporal scales for development of long-term solutions. The model also highlights the importance of including anthropological and geographical knowledge to find sustainable solutions to managing human-elephant conflict.

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Quantifying coupled spatio-temporal dynamics of phenology and hydrology and understanding underlying processes is a fundamental challenge in ecohydrology. While variation in phenology and factors influencing it have attracted the attention of ecologists for a long time, the influence of biodiversity on coupled dynamics of phenology and hydrology across a landscape is largely untested. We measured leaf area index (L) and volumetric soil water content (θ) on a co-located spatial grid to characterize forest phenology and hydrology across a forested catchment in central Pennsylvania during 2010. We used hierarchical Bayesian modeling to quantify spatio-temporal patterns of L and θ. Our results suggest that the spatial distribution of tree species across the landscape created unique spatio-temporal patterns of L, which created patterns of water demand reflected in variable soil moisture across space and time. We found a lag of about 11 days between increase in L and decline in θ. Vegetation and soil moisture become increasingly homogenized and coupled from leaf-onset to maturity but heterogeneous and uncoupled from leaf maturity to senescence. Our results provide insight into spatio-temporal coupling between biodiversity and soil hydrology that is useful to enhance ecohydrological modeling in humid temperate forests.

Coastal and deltaic sediment balances are crucial for a region's sustainability. However, such balances remain difficult to quantify accurately, particularly for large regions. We calculate organic and mineral sediment mass and volume balances using field measurements from 273 Coastwide Reference Monitoring System sites across the Louisiana Coast between 2006 and 2015. The rapid relative sea level rise rate (average 13.4 mm/year) is offset by the small dry bulk densities observed (average 0.3 g/cm3) to produce a 16.2 ± 41.1% mass deficit and 24.1 ± 14.0% volume deficit, significantly smaller than recent predictions for 2000–2100 (73–79% mass deficit). Geostatisical estimates show that this deficit is primarily located in areas not directly nourished by major rivers, yet these regions still accumulate ~24 MT/year of mineral sediment. A fluvial sediment discharge of 113.8 MT/year suggests a coast‐wide trapping efficiency of 31.5 ± 15.8% of the riverine sediment, excluding subaqueous deposition. Organic accumulation accounts for 25% of all mass accumulation during our study period, and total organic mass accumulation per unit area is relatively constant in both directly and indirectly nourished regions. Sediment characteristics in the modern coastal wetlands differ from the Holocene deposit, suggesting secular changes within the system that will likely continue to influence coastal dynamics over the coming decades. Our results suggest that the gap between accommodation and accumulation (mass or volume) during this decade was not as large as the previously predicted century average.