Advances in our knowledge of eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) coral reef biogeography and ecology during the past two decades are briefly reviewed. Fifteen ETP subregions are recognized, including mainland and island localities from the Gulf of California (Mexico) to Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). Updated species lists reveal a mean increase of 4.2 new species records per locality or an overall increase of 19.2 % in species richness during the past decade. The largest increases occurred in tropical mainland Mexico, and in equatorial Costa Rica and Colombia, due mainly to continuing surveys of these under-studied areas. Newly discovered coral communities are also now known from the southern Nicaraguan coastline. To date 47 zooxanthellate scleractinian species have been recorded in the ETP, of which 33 also occur in the central/south Pacific, and 8 are presumed to be ETP endemics. Usually no more than 20-25 zooxanthellate coral species are present at any given locality, with the principal reef-building genera being Pocillopora, Porites, Pavona, and Gardineroseris. This compares with 62-163 species at four of the nearest central/south Pacific localities. Hydrocorals in the genus Millepora also occur in the ETP and are reviewed in the context of their global distributions. Coral community associates engaged in corallivory, bioerosion, and competition for space are noted for several localities. Reef framework construction in the ETP typically occurs at shallow depths (2-8 m) in sheltered habitats or at greater depths (10-30 m) in more exposed areas such as oceanic island settings with high water column light penetration. Generally, eastern Pacific reefs do not reach sea level with the development of drying reef flats, and instead experience brief periods of exposure during extreme low tides or drops in sea level during La Niña events. High rates of mortality during El Niño disturbances have occurred in many ETP equatorial areas, especially in Panama and the Galápagos Islands during the 1980s and 1990s. Remarkably, however, no loss of resident, zooxanthellate scleractinian species has occurred at these sites, and many ETP coral reefs have demonstrated significant recovery from these disturbances during the past two decades.

Purchases of private land for conservation are common in California and represent an alternative to regulatory land-use policies for constraining land use. The retention or enhancement of ecosystem services may be a benefit of land conservation, but that has been difficult to document. The InVEST toolset provides a practical, low-cost approach to quantifying ecosystem services. Using the toolset, we investigated the provision of ecosystem services in Sonoma County, California, and addressed three related questions. First, do lands protected by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (a publicly funded land conservation program) have higher values for four ecosystem services -carbon storage, sediment retention, nutrient retention and water yield -than other properties? Second, how do the correlations among these services differ across protected versus non-protected properties? Third, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using the InVEST toolset to quantify ecosystem services at the county scale? We found that District lands have higher service values for carbon storage, sediment retention and water yield than adjacent properties and properties that have been developed to more intensive uses in the last 10 years. Correlations among the ecosystem services differed greatly across land-use categories, and these differences were driven by a combination of soil, slope and land use. While InVEST provided a low-cost, clearly documented way to evaluate ecosystem services at the county scale, there is no ready way to validate the results.

Throughout history California has been subjected to large catastrophic wildfires and the trend seems to be accelerating in recent years. We analysed and mapped the spatial–temporal patterns of predicted wildfire occurrence across California from 2000 until the end of the century. We identified areas that are extremely vulnerable to wildfires and analysed the threat to the wildland–urban interface and across California’s ecosystems. Mapping statewide projections of wildfire occurrence through space and time, and identifying different types of wildfire hot spots, is essential in identifying locations that will be increasingly threatened in the near and distant future. This newfound knowledge enhances our ability to conceptualise wildfire risk and make informed decisions.

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At the intersection of climate change and rural development, wildfire has emerged as a threat to agriculture in the Western United States. This nexus is particularly problematic for the rapidly developing cannabis industry in California, which includes farms located outside of traditional agricultural zones and within landscapes potentially more prone to wildfire. With the goal of determining whether cannabis is uniquely vulnerable to direct wildfire impacts (in terms of crop loss to burning), we integrated fire hazard severity zone (FHSZ) data, wildfire perimeters, and future burn regime projections in relation to the location and cultivated area of cannabis farming. We then applied descriptive statistics and generalized additive models (GAMs) to compare the location of licensed cannabis farms to other agricultural types in California, including grapes, pasture, and all other general crops combined.We found cannabis farming was located more often in high and very high FHSZs and closer to wildfire perimeters than any other agricultural type.GAM estimates of likelihood of occurrence in high and very high severity zones were highest for cannabis, even after accounting for spatial clustering of farm types, although there was no reliable difference in predicted distances to wildfire. Cannabis more often occurred in projected (from 2020 to 2100) wildfire hotspots than all other agricultural types, with GAM estimates affirming a reliably higher likelihood of cannabis in future hotspots than pasture or general crops. Our findings highlight cannabis' particular vulnerability to wildfire in California and may in fact underestimate wildfire risks given the potential indirect impacts of smoke to crops and farmworkers, which were not evaluated in this study. In light of the sector's growing economic importance in the state, these vulnerabilities should be considered in future cannabis and rural development policies.

Increasing global food production and livelihoods while maintaining ecosystem health will require significant changes in the way existing farming landscapes are managed. To this end, developing a systemic understanding of the economic and ecological impacts of different cropping systems, and identifying trade-offs and synergies between them, is crucial to inform decision-making for policy makers and landowners. Here, we investigate the impacts of agricultural land-use change for 15 distinct crops in Kern County, California, by looking at spatial and temporal changes in ecosystem indicators. We focus our analysis on three agricultural ecosystem pressures (water use, soil erosion, and pesticide use) and three agricultural ecosystem services (profits, calorie production, and C sequestration). Between 2002 and 2018, agriculture in Kern County underwent a shift from annual row crop to nut tree crop production. At the landscape-scale, we found high increases in ecosystem service provision (total profits, calorie production, and annual C sequestration increased by 105, 29, and 37%, respectively), coupled with smaller changes in ecosystem pressures (total soil erosion and evapotranspiration increased by 10 and 5%, respectively, and total pesticide use declined by 4%). We identified no salient trade-offs or synergies among crops. Our results illustrate that in the highly productive agricultural hotspot of Kern County, a combination of changes in land-cover allocation or land-use efficiency may have mitigated stronger negative environmental impacts following a broad shift from annual to perennial crops.

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