PeerJ – Biodiversity and Conservation section

17 January 2019

Phylogeography and population genetics of the endemic Malagasy bat, Macronycteris commersoni s.s. (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae)

Andrinajoro R. Rakotoarivelo, Steven M. Goodman, M. Corrie Schoeman, Sandi Willows-Munro

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Jason Blackburn –– Linkages between geography and bioinformatics are revolutionizing how we think about species, species distributions, and population dynamics.

14 January 2019

Method for the quantitative evaluation of ecosystem services in coastal regions

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Gregory Verutes –– coastal and marine ecosystem services are part of the Earth's life support system. these benefits are vital to nature and people. this article sheds light on the flow of some of these important benefits and how to score them in a cohesive framework.

20 December 2018

Optimal control of irrupting pest populations in a climate-driven ecosystem

Section Editor rating: 7 / 10

Patricia Gandini –– The paper based in a consumer - resource population provides a very well designed model that will help for the design of pest control programs by chosing adequate strategies and timings.

11 December 2018

Combining ultraconserved elements and mtDNA data to uncover lineage diversity in a Mexican highland frog (Sarcohyla; Hylidae)

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Tomas Hrbek –– Nice paper dwelling deep into the diversity of a rare species complex of Mexican tree frogs that also demonstrates the synergy of 16S rDNA and UCE data in studies of amphibian diversity.

5 December 2018

Simultaneous preservation of the DNA quality, the community composition and the density of freshwater oligochaetes for the development of genetically based biological indices

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Xavier Pochon –– This interesting study provides some of the fundamental method development for using DNA from soft bodied invertebrates in biological monitoring without destroying the specimens.

23 October 2018

The effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services at delivering improvements in water quality: lessons for experiments at the landscape scale

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Matthew Wilson –– Statistically-sound evaluation of the effectiveness of payments for ecosystem services is extremely difficult. This paper presents one the first attempts to implement a randomised controlled trial (the statistical gold-standard in evaluation of effectiveness) for watershed management. Along the way, the challenges and limitations of implementing such a scheme are highlighted: thus, the paper will serve as a valuable reference point for others in the field.

4 October 2018

Conceptual and empirical advances in Neotropical biodiversity research

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Tomas Hrbek –– A useful and for many probably a necessary overview of the complexities of structuring and origins of Neotropical biodiversity, and the need to pursue cross-disciplinary approaches if we hope to understand Neotropical biodiversity.

28 September 2018

Functional responses of a cosmopolitan invader demonstrate intraspecific variability in consumer-resource dynamics

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Xavier Pochon –– This interesting study investigated the effect of predator (green crabs) and prey (mussels) morphology on prey consumption using a consumer-resource dynamics model across native and invasive ranges of the European green crab (Carcinus maenas).

27 September 2018

Assessing the role of dispersed floral resources for managed bees in providing supporting ecosystem services for crop pollination

Editor rating: 7 / 10