Issues in biodiversity, sustainable fashion, and climate action

Wildlife populations are affected negatively by the global road network, which is expanding rapidly. We estimate the amount of global annual road mortality of mammals, reptiles, birds, and amphibians, based on 202 systematic roadkill surveys. We calculated an average annual per-km roadkill rate and multiplied it by the total length of the global road network. About 14.6 billion vertebrate animals (7.9 – 27.3 billion) are killed on roads per year, corresponding to 1.16% of global vertebrate biomass. This massive impact of roads on the planet’s biodiversity needs to be addressed urgently. In a second step, we conduct a multiple meta-regression of the effects of species traits on mammal responses to roads, using data from 92 studies. We found that mammals with large home ranges, low reproductive rates, and – surprisingly - small body sizes are most vulnerable to roads, i.e., populations of larger mammals respond less negatively to roads than smaller mammals when controlling for the effects of home range size and reproductive rate. Road mitigation for mammals should generally prioritize species with the combination of larger home ranges, lower reproductive rates, and smaller body sizes. Road densities should be kept low, roadless areas should be protected from road construction, and fences should be installed using small-mesh wildlife exclusion fencing. This differs from current road mitigation efforts which are typically targeted towards large mammals (using large-mesh fencing) and are often ineffective for smaller mammals.

Roads reduce ecological connectivity and increase wildlife mortality. Wildlife-vehicle collisions can impact the safety of motorist as well as the populations of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds, including endangered species. The Mont-Tremblant region is subjected to increasing pressure from urban expansion and increased traffic volumes on roads. Still, very little road ecology research has been done in this region. We seek to identify species at risk killed on roads and roadkill hotspots to understand the factors both environmental and anthropogenic influencing the spatial distribution of the hotspots and to propose mitigation measures. We conducted road mortality surveys from Mai 2025 to August 2025 on two roads (Route 117 and Chemin du Lac-Supérieur) close to Mont-Tremblant National Park. We recorded 249 dead animals of 55 species on Route 117 and 1864 dead animals of 45 species on Chemin du Lac-Supérieur. From these preliminary data, we can observe trends in species composition of animals trying to cross the roads and patterns of mortality hotspots with notable differences between the studied roads. 

We investigate endemic populations of the invasive spongy moth, asking whether populations persist after an outbreak crash and if this depends on forest stand composition. We examine whether the presence of oaks and pines influences persistence of post-outbreak populations in southern Quebec, a region marking the northern edge of the invasion range. We sampled 18 patches of forest containing stands of varying proportions of red oak and white pine trees, utilizing pheromone milk carton traps. We observed moths in virtually all surveyed stands, trapping ~12,500 moths in 2023 and 2024, during a non-outbreak period. Our results show that spongy moth densities are highly positively correlated to the presence of oak trees. However, no local extinctions were observed, regardless of habitat type, size, or forest composition surveyed. Our results suggest that despite lower densities, populations in the sampled region remain above the threshold maintaining endemic populations, creating reservoir pockets in a wide range of forest types that will eventually increase to the point of another outbreak. 

In the mission for Canada to reach net zero emissions, municipalities across the country have pledged to meet a growing need to lower their emissions to mitigate the climate crisis. Many municipalities have made these promises in the form of “Climate Action Plans” (CAP), official documents the municipalities release on their websites. As the buildings sector accounts for such a large proportion of energy consumption, the municipal CAPs provide crucial information as to how to mitigate carbon emissions. However, these plans can be hard to find and there is no available system by which they are organized. To address this, the Carbon Governance Living Lab has launched Canadian Municipal Climate Action Inventory webpage, where climate action in the buildings sector are coded and analyzed according to the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance’s System-Change Strategy Framework. This inventory not only allows the streamlining of finding plans across Canada, but reveals the geographic patterns of strategies and actions being used to reach net zero in the buildings sector (e.g., retrofitting government buildings, subsidizing heat pump installations). The dataset being made available as an interactive webpage also allows for policymakers and the public to see what actions are being taken in an open and accessible format, while also keeping municipalities accountable, reminding them that the public is looking at them for meaningful climate policies. This presentation will highlight findings from the database and the importance of disseminating scientific knowledge to a wider audience.