Studies on threatened species in highly modified and unprotected landscapes are necessary for the development of appropriate conservation policies. This is particularly important for species with large home ranges, such as the giant armadillo Priodontes maximus, whose occurrence in anthropogenic landscapes is poorly known despite its categorization as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. We searched and surveyed for the giant armadillo within human-modified areas in central Brazil using direct and indirect methods across a wide region dominated by diverse farming environments and scattered remnants of natural vegetation. During a 14-year period (2003–2016), we located 54 records of the species, including three road-kills and two instances of poaching. Most of the occurrence points (83%) were in native vegetation, with 17% in anthropogenic environments (pastures and roads). We confirmed the presence of the giant armadillo within a wide, intensely human-altered region. These findings indicate that Cerrado and Atlantic Forest remnants in modified landscapes in central Brazil play an important role as refuges for this armadillo species. In addition to habitat loss, road-kills and poaching persist as threats to the giant armadillo. Conservation actions are necessary to minimize human impacts and facilitate the persistence of the giant armadillo in this region. Policies that both deter illegal deforestation and strengthen incentives for the protection of natural vegetation remnants and restoration of biological corridors such as gallery forests would aid conservation of the giant armadillo in this area.

We compared exotic pasture grass cover near the edges of 20–25-y-old secondary forests (N = 8) with those of mature forests (N = 8), bordering actively grazed pastures on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador. We estimated grass cover in 224 1 × 3-m plots along transects that ran from the pasture edge into forest interiors (11–44 m). Using a spline regression, we divided the transects into three segments: exterior (in the pasture), edge and interior (in the forest). With a stepwise regression, we tested the effect of transect section, forest type and distance from edge on grass cover. Forest type, distance from edge, interior transect section and the combined effect of distance from edge in both the interior and exterior sections explained variation in grass cover. Grass abundance was higher and penetrated further into secondary than mature forests. Edge proximity and differences in forest canopy openness likely favours recruitment and persistence of pasture grasses.

Amphibians are known to be sensitive to environmental change but their responses at the level of metacommunities to short-term environmental variability are poorly understood. We used field data from two protected areas, La Pera and Nahá (Chiapas, Mexico) to test for variation in metacommunity properties for two consecutive years (2009 and 2010). Amphibians and accompanying environmental data were recorded to a standardized protocol within each landscape, in four or five transects of 50 × 2-m per patch, for 30 and 31 patches, respectively. We found 23 species in La Pera and 30 in Nahá (21 species shared). Metacommunity structure was analysed using reciprocal averaging (RA) ordination by means of metrics for coherence, turnover and boundary clumping, with Spearman rank correlation used to examine relationships with environmental variables. The metacommunity structure varied differentially among the landscapes between years, being classed as quasi-Gleasonian in La Pera in both years, but Clementsian for Nahá in 2009 and Gleasonian for Nahá in 2010. In further illustration of variation between years, in 2009 the principal community gradient (RA axis 1) for La Pera was significantly positively correlated with altitude (r = 0.36), forest disturbance status (r = 0.78), mean canopy cover (r = 0.79) and mean litter depth (r = 0.67), while in 2010 it was correlated with latitude (r = 0.38), mean grass-layer height (r = 0.38), incidence of rainfall prior to sampling (r = 0.35) and presence of temporary ponds (r = 0.45). Our findings support the notion that amphibians respond to short-term environmental changes by individualistic movement within the landscape as well as via population dynamic responses.

As climates change, some plant species will need to migrate across landscapes fragmented by unsuitable environments and human activities to colonize new areas with suitable climates as previously habited areas become uninhabitable. Previous modelling of plant's migration potential has generally assumed that climate changes at a constant rate, but this ignores many potentially important aspects of real climate variability. In this study, a spatially explicit simulation model was used to investigate how interannual climate variability, the occurrence of extreme events and step changes in climate might interact with gradual long-term climate change to affect plant species’ capacity to migrate across fragmented landscapes and persist. The considered types of climate variability generally exacerbated the negative effects of long-term climate change, with a few poignant exceptions where persistence of long-lived trees improved. Strategic habitat restoration ameliorated negative effects of climate variability. Plant functional characteristics strongly influenced most results. Any modelling of how climate change may affect species persistence, and how actions such as restoration may help species adapt, should account for both short-term climate variability and long-term change.