Assessing the effectiveness of riparian buffers in protecting biodiversity

Assessing the effectiveness of riparian buffers in protecting biodiversity | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Assessing the effectiveness of riparian buffers in protecting biodiversity Renato Dala-Corte, Xingli Giam, David Wilcove This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Riparian buffers – vegetation strips retained or established along waterways – are mandated in many countries for water and soil protection, yet their role in biodiversity conservation remains unclear. Our global meta-analysis compares forested riparian buffers (FRBs) with converted riparian zones (CRZs) in human-modified landscapes across forest biomes. We find that FRBs support higher animal biodiversity than CRZs at both local and landscape scales, particularly in agricultural areas. This pattern is consistent across most freshwater and riparian taxa, in both tropical and temperate regions. FRBs also harbor, on average, 32% more reference species (i.e., species found in continuous riparian forests) than do CRZs. Optimum buffer width estimates for species conservation were roughly an order of magnitude wider for birds and mammals (~ 200–380 m on each river side), than for amphibians (20–50 m) and invertebrates (6–50 m). Our findings support FRBs as an important global strategy for conserving biodiversity. Biological sciences/Ecology/Conservation biology Biological sciences/Ecology/Biodiversity Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files FigsS1S7.docx Supplementary figures 1 to 7 TableS1Laws.xls Supplementary table 1 TableS2Allstudiesincluded.xlsx Supplementary table 2 TablesS3S16.docx Supplementary tables 3 to 16 TableS17Bufferwidthstudies.xlsx Supplementary table 17 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6353341","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":439734113,"identity":"601b3117-3882-4edf-a6d6-a9262edc5dc9","order_by":0,"name":"Renato Dala-Corte","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA10lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJADxgdAgoePKLUHQAQbA7MBSAsbKVrYJCA0AWDe3nvw84cKOznz+c3HKr/m2MkAbXv46AYeLTJnziVLHDiTbCxzjC3ttuy2ZKDD2IyNc/BokZDIMZA42HYgcQYbj9ltyW3MQC08bNJ4tci/Mf4B0cL/rVhyWz0RWiR4zGC2sDF+3HaYCC08OWYWZ4B+kWBLM5Zm3Hach42ZkF/YzxjfqACGmATz4Ycff26rtudnb374GJ8WFMDMAyaJVQ4CjD9IUT0KRsEoGAUjBgAAiPI/4F3AVrUAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7492-3447","institution":"Princeton University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Renato","middleName":"","lastName":"Dala-Corte","suffix":""},{"id":439734114,"identity":"9b2c6bd3-a3a9-4310-a773-4c4d14d87949","order_by":1,"name":"Xingli Giam","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5239-9477","institution":"University of Tennessee, Knoxville","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xingli","middleName":"","lastName":"Giam","suffix":""},{"id":439734115,"identity":"4c218138-e403-46f9-95d7-424b5d305cc7","order_by":2,"name":"David Wilcove","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Princeton University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"","lastName":"Wilcove","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-01 12:55:25","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70191-y","type":"published","date":"2026-03-19T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":108762769,"identity":"802a1da5-138d-4f83-82ed-5a7da5cc47fb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-08 07:05:36","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":682672,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MSNatEE.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1_covered_d531b5fc-bb77-401c-b49f-c2d0ec1acaea.pdf"},{"id":83427463,"identity":"5e431194-4fbf-4775-ab71-24ff938b809f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:39:02","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":1101322,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSupplementary figures 1 to 7\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"FigsS1S7.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1/8e79cf0a86e064207ed7fec7.docx"},{"id":83427472,"identity":"fbf3f605-9c64-41fe-8c8f-901310478f9e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:39:03","extension":"xls","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":90112,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary table 1","description":"","filename":"TableS1Laws.xls","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1/7b57a585d58187b3fc20edc9.xls"},{"id":83427470,"identity":"d8d50266-3d5f-4ceb-85b0-740140736e5a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:39:02","extension":"xlsx","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":32765,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary table 2","description":"","filename":"TableS2Allstudiesincluded.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1/7ff46293fc439808ca687544.xlsx"},{"id":83428301,"identity":"85f345d5-52f1-4507-a7be-1265987fd61f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 06:03:01","extension":"docx","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":64214,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary tables 3 to 16","description":"","filename":"TablesS3S16.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1/85700a62f4502d206c7efe0e.docx"},{"id":83427447,"identity":"19cb94a0-2730-4e0d-b375-5512ff0745fc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-26 05:39:01","extension":"xlsx","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":13598,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary table 17","description":"","filename":"TableS17Bufferwidthstudies.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6353341/v1/dfd81482aa0ee72075da364d.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Assessing the effectiveness of riparian buffers in protecting biodiversity","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eRiparian buffers – vegetation strips retained or established along waterways – are mandated in many countries for water and soil protection, yet their role in biodiversity conservation remains unclear. Our global meta-analysis compares forested riparian buffers (FRBs) with converted riparian zones (CRZs) in human-modified landscapes across forest biomes. We find that FRBs support higher animal biodiversity than CRZs at both local and landscape scales, particularly in agricultural areas. This pattern is consistent across most freshwater and riparian taxa, in both tropical and temperate regions. FRBs also harbor, on average, 32% more reference species (i.e., species found in continuous riparian forests) than do CRZs. Optimum buffer width estimates for species conservation were roughly an order of magnitude wider for birds and mammals (~ 200–380 m on each river side), than for amphibians (20–50 m) and invertebrates (6–50 m). Our findings support FRBs as an important global strategy for conserving biodiversity.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Assessing the effectiveness of riparian buffers in protecting biodiversity","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-26 05:38:54","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6353341/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"dd189839-df36-430a-8d03-eef886171b8a","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 26th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":46814349,"name":"Biological sciences/Ecology/Conservation biology"},{"id":46814350,"name":"Biological sciences/Ecology/Biodiversity"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-08T07:05:30+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6353341","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70191-y","journal":{"identity":"nature-communications","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Nature Communications"},"publishedOn":"2026-03-19 04:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"March 19th, 2026"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-26 05:38:54","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s41467-026-70191-y","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70191-y","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6353341","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6353341","identity":"rs-6353341","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}