The Numeniini is a tribe of 13 wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are Near Threatened or globally threatened, including two Critically Endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian- Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species.

During the Cretaceous and Paleogene, the Indian subcontinent was isolated as it migrated north from the east coast of Africa to collide with Asia. As it passed over the Reunion hotspot in the late Maastrichtian–early Danian, a series of lava flows extruded, known as the Deccan Traps. Also during this interval, there was a major mass-extinction event at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, punctuated by a meteorite impact at Chicxulub, Mexico. What were the biological implications of these changes in paleogeography and the extensive volcanism in terms of biodiversity, evolution, and biogeography? By combining chronostratigraphic, paleosol, and paleobotanical data, an understanding of how the ecosystems and climates changed and the relative contributions of the Chicxulub impact, Deccan Traps volcanism, and paleogeographic isolation can be gained. Understanding relative ages of paleobotanical localities is crucial to determining floristic changes, and is challenging because different methods (e.g., magnetostratigraphy, radiometric dating, vertebrate and microfossil biostratigraphy) sometimes give conflicting answers, or have not been done for paleobotanical localities. Climatic data can be obtained quantitatively by studying paleosol geochemistry, as well as qualitatively by examining functional traits and nearest living relatives of fossil plants. An additional challenge is revising macrofossil data, which includes some confidently identified taxa and others with uncertain affinities. This is important for understanding ecosystem composition both spatially and temporally, as well as the biogeographic implications of an isolated India.

Endemic to the islands of Guam and Rota in the Mariana Islands, Mariana Crow Corvus kubaryi is the only corvid in Micronesia. Currently, it survives on Guam only because of translocation of individuals from Rota (1999–2003). Island-wide surveys in 1982 and 1995 on Rota yielded population estimates of 1,348 and 592 respectively, indicating a 56% decrease in only 13 years. A sharp decline in the only viable Mariana Crow population has serious implications for conservation efforts on Rota and for efforts to re-establish the Guam population. However, the validity of the apparent decline has been debated among scientists and government management agencies. We augmented the 1982 and 1995 island-wide VCP surveys with (1) an additional island-wide survey conducted in 1998, and (2) roadside surveys conducted during 1991–1993 and again during 1999–2002. We also outline historical changes in Rota's limestone forest based on aerial photographs and historical information. Data from all surveys indicate a significant decline in the Mariana Crow population. Declines occurred especially along the north-central coast and in the area east of the airport known as As Dudo in the 1990s, but the data indicate an island-wide decline over the entire span of the surveys. Introduced predators, human persecution, and habitat loss and degradation by anthropogenic and natural causes have all contributed to the decline. Long-term preservation of this species will require effective brown treesnake Boiga irregularis control, habitat protection, continued monitoring and research, and increased public education and awareness of Rota's rare and endangered species.