Despite building a clear and compelling message about the importance of conserving biodiversity and what we risk in depleting it, meaningful engagement from implicated stakeholders remains limited. Past studies have examined the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and displaying behavior that would help to conserve it. Essentially, increasing awareness and interest in environmental issues does not ensure that individuals will make the necessary changes in behaviours detrimental to biological conservation. This is a concern as failure to meaningfully engage the public into acting on conservation strategies will hamper efforts to curb biodiversity loss. Herein the authors investigate why action to address biodiversity loss has been slow or deficient in many jurisdictions. The authors draw from models and theories developed in health and social sciences to provide context to the key factors that prevent action and propose steps that could be taken to stimulate it.

Despite building a clear and compelling message about the importance of conserving biodiversity and what we risk in depleting it, meaningful engagement from implicated stakeholders remains limited. Past studies have examined the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and displaying behavior that would help to conserve it. Essentially, increasing awareness and interest in environmental issues does not ensure that individuals will make the necessary changes in behaviours detrimental to biological conservation. This is a concern as failure to meaningfully engage the public into acting on conservation strategies will hamper efforts to curb biodiversity loss. Herein the authors investigate why action to address biodiversity loss has been slow or deficient in many jurisdictions. The authors draw from models and theories developed in health and social sciences to provide context to the key factors that prevent action and propose steps that could be taken to stimulate it.

Hypholoma fasciculare is regarded as a potentially effective biocontrol agent against Armillaria root disease. However, trials examining its effectiveness are currently limited to controlled lab conditions and field studies conducted mostly during the summer season. We examined the ability of H. fasciculare to survive and grow underground during the winter and spring seasons to offer insight on its ability to provide year-round protection. Pine blocks inoculated with H. fasciculare were buried in three thinned pine plantations at 30 and 100 cm depths from February 1, 2018 to May 13, 2018 (101 days) to examine how winter and spring soil temperatures at two different soil depths impacted growth. A significant interactive effect of soil depth and month on soil temperature (F3,40 = 15.94, p < 0.001) was observed. Mean growth rates did not vary significantly between the two soil depths (F1,23 = 0.91, p = 0.393) as growth rates were 0.25 ± 0.11 and 0.31 ± 0.10 mm/day at 30 and 100 cm depths, respectively. Our study supports developing H. fasciculare as a biocontrol agent against Armillaria root disease given its ability to grow underground during the winter and early spring seasons, a period during which Armillaria has a reduced growing capacity.