Hi,
I'm pretty behind on even screening new research - if you have a favorite paper from the past few months please feel free to pitch it to me along with why it's worth covering! This month I've got a paper on an interesting ecological engineering approach to wetland restoration, one on causes of fire in the Gran Chaco, and one on interest among ranchers in the Brazilian Pantanal in sustainable certification.
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WETLAND RESTORATION:
Petrakis et al. 2026 uses satellite imagery to document the degradation and subsequent restoration of a spring-fed wetland in an arid part of New Mexico. It dried out after water diversion and use for irrigation in the 1940s, and from 2008-2015 a series of changes were made to increase water retention (the so-called "Zeedyk" approach named after the last author on the paper). This included plugging diversion ditches / channels, widening channels, and adding many small rock dams all of which allow for slower flow and more water retention and infiltration. They actually doubled the area of the original wetland via restoration. On the one hand, these structures would impede connectivity for aquatic organisms, but on the other so does the absence of water. I can see a case being made for these kinds of structures in ephemeral headwaters in particular.
FIRE / CHACO:
Baumann et al. 2026 look at 40 years of fire history in the Gran Chaco (2/3 of which burned in that time) to find key drivers. 70% of all fires originated from clearing habitat for agriculture (91% in Bolivia), followed by burning existing cropland or pastures (28%, 7% in Bolivia). Fire was most common when initially clearing land, followed by regular burning of pastures, whereas regular use of fire was uncommon for croplands. Drought led to fires burning almost 5% more land than in non-drought years, which was significant but much less than I expected. One reason is that as a dry ecosystem, fuel loads are low, especially after longer droughts or other fires. The authors note that "other fires" (not from clearing land or burning ag lands) still were often set by humans, and some fires classified as "other" still originated from pasture fires before extending into forests.
PANTANAL / CATTLE SUSTAINABILITY:
Nogueira et al. 2026 interviewed ranchers in the Pantanal about beliefs and interest in adopting a sustainable certification scheme. Interviewees felt a lot of pride and identity as Pantaneiros, their unique ability to ranch effectively, and their sustainability. This is fairly universal in similar research I’ve seen of ranchers across the Americas. The biggest driver of them being willing to try for sustainable certification is direct support (likely both technical and financial – they report sustainable practices are both difficult and expensive, despite ALSO believing they’re already sustainable). The second biggest driver is how open they say they are to new ideas of managing their property, followed by being familiar with FPS (the certification scheme in question). Recognition of Pantaneiro culture had the smallest impact on intention to adopt of the four factors that helped to some degree. Belief that the government does not currently support sustainable cattle ranching was the biggest predictor of opposition to adopting sustainable certification.
REFERENCES:
Baumann, M., Maillard, O., Gasparri, I., Burton, J., Gavier Pizarro, G., & Kuemmerle, T. (2026). Fire dynamics in the South American Chaco and their link to agriculture and drought. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01793-z
Nogueira, D. G., de Olivera Roque, F., Borges, J. A. R., Tomas, W. M., Mills, M., Jagadish, A., Nunes, A. V., Leimgruber, P., Legh‐Smith, C., Marchini, S., & Morais Chiaravalloti, R. (2026). What Drives Conservation Adoption? Social Science Insights from Cattle Ranchers in the Pantanal Wetland, Brazil. Conservation Letters, 19(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/con4.70033
Petrakis, R. E., Norman, L. M., McGraw, M., Carson, S., Sponholtz, C., Weber, C., & Zeedyk, W. D. (2026). Regreening, restoring, and reconnecting a southwestern wetland ecosystem – the Zeedyk wetland. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 42(November 2025), 101964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2026.101964
Sincerely,
Jon
P.s. The adorable chunky puppy in the photo is Thor - until very recently he was one of almost 100 puppies currently available for adoption via Homeward Trails in addition to many quality adult dogs (already potty trained and no surprises about their eventual personality). He has been snapped up but as I write this his similar brother Loki and sister Freyja are somehow still up for grabs! This pic was taken at a puppy party I volunteered at which both raises funds for the shelter and helps pups find homes.
