Rapid developments in animal-tracking technology have enabled major advances in the field of movement ecology, which seeks to understand the drivers and consequences of movement across scales, taxa, and ecosystems. The field has made ground-breaking discoveries, yet the majority of studies in movement ecology remain reliant on observational approaches. While important, observational studies are limited compared to experimental methods that can reveal causal relationships and underlying mechanisms. As such, we advocate for a renewed focus on experimental approaches in animal movement ecology. We illustrate a way forward in experimental movement ecology across two fundamental levels of biological organisation: individuals and social groups. We then explore the application of experiments in movement ecology to study anthropogenic influences on wildlife movement, and enhance our mechanistic understanding of conservation interventions. In each of these examples, we draw upon previous research that has effectively employed experimental approaches, while highlighting outstanding questions that could be answered by further experimentation. We conclude by highlighting the ways experimental manipulations in both laboratory and natural settings provide a promising way forward to generate mechanistic understandings of the drivers, consequences, and conservation of animal movement.

Chemical pollution is one of the fastest-growing agents of global change. Numerous pollutants are known to disrupt animal behavior, alter ecological interactions, and shift evolutionary trajectories. Crucially, both chemical pollutants and individual organisms are nonrandomly distributed throughout the environment. Despite this fact, the current evidence for chemical-induced impacts on wildlife largely stems from tests that restrict organism movement and force homogeneous exposures. While such approaches have provided pivotal ecotoxicological insights, they overlook the dynamic spatiotemporal interactions that shape wildlife–pollution relationships in nature. Indeed, the seemingly simple notion that pollutants and animals move nonrandomly in the environment creates a complex of dynamic interactions, many of which have never been theoretically modeled or experimentally tested. Here, we conceptualize dynamic interactions between spatiotemporal variation in pollutants and organisms and highlight their ecological and evolutionary implications. We propose a three-pronged approach─integrating in silico modeling, laboratory experiments that allow movement, and field-based tracking of free-ranging animals─to bridge the gap between controlled ecotoxicological studies and real-world wildlife exposures. Advances in telemetry, remote sensing, and computational models provide the necessary tools to quantify these interactions, paving the way for a new era of ecotoxicology that accounts for spatiotemporal complexity.

Objectives: Illicit drug use presents a significant challenge to global health and public safety, requiring innovative and effective monitoring strategies. This study aimed to evaluate the current landscape of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for monitoring illicit drugs in Europe, focusing on collaboration, current practices, and barriers, while identifying opportunities for improvement. Study design: Cross-sectional survey-based study. Methods: Coordinated by the Sewage Analysis CORe Group Europe (SCORE) and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), two surveys were conducted in 2023 targeting researchers and stakeholders using WBE for illicit drugs. Data were analysed to identify trends, gaps, and opportunities for improving WBE implementation. Results: The findings indicate a robust research infrastructure and diverse analytical methods among European institutions. Two-thirds of the participating countries reported using WBE data to inform policy. However, challenges persist, particularly in securing funding and coordination, as well as generating national estimates from multiple locations and addressing specific local policy needs. Conclusions: WBE has proven to be a valuable tool for monitoring illicit drug trends and informing drug policies. To unlock its full potential, sustained funding, methodological standardization, and enhanced cooperation are essential. This study provides critical insights into the European WBE landscape, offering a roadmap for strengthening the integration of actionable WBE data into public health and policy frameworks.

The concept of regulatory capture has been extensively studied in academic literature, primarily within the social sciences. This phenomenon has been increasingly discussed in the environmental sciences as the impacts of regulatory capture on human and ecosystem health have become increasingly apparent. Regulatory capture is just one tactic employed by vested interests in the strategy of delaying, weakening, or abolishing policies designed to protect the public interest. Here, we define capture strategies as ‘the act of influencing individuals, organizations, or governments to prioritize corporate interests over those of human and ecosystem health’. Similar to the evolution of terms like whitewashing and greenwashing into the broader concept of colorwashing, this new definition expands the scope of capture to include a wide range of targets, such as individuals, educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations, media, and local, national, and intergovernmental organizations. By broadening the definition, we anticipate that researchers, policymakers, and civil society will find it easier to identify and prevent such nefarious activities. This paper illustrates how ‘capture strategies’ have played, and (unless kept in check) will continue to play, an instrumental role in obstructing efforts to address the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution.

Pharmaceuticals enter the environment at various stages of their lifecycle, including during manufacturing, use, and disposal (Figure 1) [Citation1]. Most approved pharmaceuticals exhibit poor environmental biodegradability, and wastewater treatment methods are largely ineffective in fully mineralizing these substances. This has led to increasing pharmaceutical contamination in the environment [Citation2]. A recent study tested 61 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in 258 rivers at 1,052 sampling locations, finding that over 25% of rivers globally contained at least one API at levels considered not safe for aquatic organisms [Citation3]. While the measured levels of APIs might be relatively safe for humans, they can still be harmful to wildlife and ecosystems. In this regard, evidence shows that certain pharmaceuticals, when released into the environment, can cause physiological, developmental, morphological, and behavioral changes in various species, highlighting the significant threat of pharmaceutical pollution to ecosystems.

Behavioural analysis has been attracting significant attention as a broad indicator of sub-lethal toxicity and has secured a place as an important subdiscipline in ecotoxicology. Among the most notable characteristics of behavioural research, compared to other established approaches in sub-lethal ecotoxicology (e.g. reproductive and developmental bioassays), are the wide range of study designs being used and the diversity of endpoints considered. At the same time, environmental hazard and risk assessment, which underpins regulatory decisions to protect the environment from potentially harmful chemicals, often recommends that ecotoxicological data be produced following accepted and validated test guidelines. These guidelines typically do not address behavioural changes, meaning that these, often sensitive, effects are not represented in hazard and risk assessments. Here, we propose a new tool, the EthoCRED evaluation method, for assessing the relevance and reliability of behavioural ecotoxicity data, which considers the unique requirements and challenges encountered in this field. This method and accompanying reporting recommendations are designed to serve as an extension of the “Criteria for Reporting and Evaluating Ecotoxicity Data (CRED)” project. As such, EthoCRED can both accommodate the wide array of experimental design approaches seen in behavioural ecotoxicology, and could be readily implemented into regulatory frameworks as deemed appropriate by policy makers of different jurisdictions to allow better integration of knowledge gained from behavioural testing into environmental protection. Furthermore, through our reporting recommendations, we aim to improve the reporting of behavioural studies in the peer-reviewed literature, and thereby increase their usefulness to inform chemical regulation.

Background  Over the last decade, pharmaceutical pollution in aquatic ecosystems has emerged as a pressing environmental issue. Recent years have also seen a surge in scientific interest in the use of behavioural endpoints in chemical risk assessment and regulatory activities, underscoring their importance for fitness and survival. In this respect, data on how pharmaceuticals alter the behaviour of aquatic animals appears to have grown rapidly. Despite this, there has been a notable absence of systematic efforts to consolidate and summarise this field of study. To address this, our objectives were twofold: (1) to systematically identify, catalogue, and synthesise primary research articles on the effects of pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour; and (2) to organise this information into a comprehensive open-access database for scientists, policymakers, and environmental managers.

Methods  We systematically searched two electronic databases (Web of Science and Scopus) and supplemented these with additional article sources. The search string followed a Population–Exposure–Comparison–Outcome framework to capture articles that used an aquatic organism (population) to test the effects of a pharmaceutical (exposure) on behaviour (outcome). Articles were screened in two stages: title and abstract, followed by full-text screening alongside data extraction. Decision trees were designed a priori to appraise eligibility at both stages. Information on study validity was collected but not used as a basis for inclusion. Data synthesis focused on species, compounds, behaviour, and quality themes and was enhanced with additional sources of metadata from online databases (e.g. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Taxonomy, PubChem, and IUCN Red List of Threatened Species).

Review findings  We screened 5,988 articles, of which 901 were included in the final database, representing 1,739 unique species-by-compound combinations. The database includes data collected over 48 years (1974–2022), with most articles having an environmental focus (510) and fewer relating to medical and basic research topics (233 and 158, respectively). The database includes 173 species (8 phyla and 21 classes). Ray-finned fishes were by far the most common clade (75% of the evidence base), and most studies focused on freshwater compared to marine species (80.4% versus 19.6%). The database includes 426 pharmaceutical compounds; the most common groups were antidepressants (28%), antiepileptics (11%), and anxiolytics (10%). Evidence for the impacts on locomotion and boldness/anxiety behaviours were most commonly assessed. Almost all behaviours were scored in a laboratory setting, with only 0.5% measured under field conditions. Generally, we detected poor reporting and/or compliance with several of our study validity criteria.

Conclusions  Our systematic map revealed a rapid increase in this research area over the past 15 years. We highlight multiple areas now suitable for quantitative synthesis and areas where evidence is lacking. We also highlight some pitfalls in method reporting and practice. More detailed reporting would facilitate the use of behavioural endpoints in aquatic toxicology studies, chemical risk assessment, regulatory management activities, and improve replicability. The EIPAAB database can be used as a tool for closing these knowledge and methodological gaps in the future.

Data and code are essential for ensuring the credibility of scientific results and facilitating reproducibility, areas in which journal sharing policies play a crucial role. However, in ecology and evolution, we still do not know how widespread data- and code-sharing policies are, how accessible they are, and whether journals support data and code peer review. Here, we first assessed the clarity, strictness and timing of data- and code-sharing policies across 275 journals in ecology and evolution. Second, we assessed initial compliance to journal policies using submissions from two journals: Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Mar 2023-Feb 2024: n = 2340) and Ecology Letters (Jun 2021-Nov 2023: n = 571). Our results indicate the need for improvement: across 275 journals, 22.5% encouraged and 38.2% mandated data-sharing, while 26.6% encouraged and 26.9% mandated code-sharing. Journals that mandated data- or code-sharing typically required it for peer review (59.0% and 77.0%, respectively), which decreased when journals only encouraged sharing (40.3% and 24.7%, respectively). Our evaluation of policy compliance confirmed the important role of journals in increasing data- and code-sharing but also indicated the need for meaningful changes to enhance reproducibility. We provide seven recommendations to help improve data- and code-sharing, and policy compliance.

Who conducts biological research, where they do it and how results are disseminated vary among geographies and identities. Identifying and documenting these forms of bias by research communities is a critical step towards addressing them. We documented perceived and observed biases in movement ecology, a rapidly expanding sub-discipline of biology, which is strongly underpinned by fieldwork and technology use. We surveyed attendees before an international conference to assess a baseline within-discipline perceived bias (uninformed perceived bias). We analysed geographic patterns in Movement Ecology articles, finding discrepancies between the country of the authors' affiliation and study site location, related to national economics. We analysed race-gender identities of USA biology researchers (the closest to our sub-discipline with data available), finding that they differed from national demographics. Finally, we discussed the quantitatively observed bias at the conference, to assess within-discipline perceived bias informed with observational data (informed perceived bias). Although the survey indicated most conference participants as bias-aware, conversations only covered a subset of biases. We discuss potential causes of bias (parachute-science, fieldwork accessibility), solutions and the need to evaluate mitigatory action effectiveness. Undertaking data-driven analysis of bias within sub-disciplines can help identify specific barriers and move towards the inclusion of a greater diversity of participants in the scientific process.

Despite the growing threat of pharmaceutical pollution, we lack an understanding of whether and how such pollutants influence animal behavior in the wild. Using laboratory- and field-based experiments across multiple years in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar; n = 730), we show that the globally detected anxiolytic pollutant clobazam accumulates in the brain of exposed fish and influences river-to-sea migration success. Clobazam exposure increased the speed with which fish passed through two hydropower dams along their migration route, resulting in more clobazam-exposed fish reaching the sea compared with controls. We argue that such effects may arise from altered shoaling behavior in fish exposed to clobazam. Drug-induced behavioral changes are expected to have wide-ranging consequences for the ecology and evolution of wild populations.