AbstractCultural landscapes are often characterized by a complex landscape structure providing different habitats, nesting place, food reservoirs and ecological networks, for different fauna and flora species. Edges between different land uses can be assimilated to ecotones, and land uses changes over the years also affect ecotones characteristics and associated biodiversity. This study intends to contribute to the understanding of the relation between land use changes and ecotone characteristics and changes in two Italian cultural landscapes inscribed in the UNESCO WHL and in the FAO GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems) Programme, applying a GIS-based methodology. In the last six decades, in both study sites, agricultural areas decreased with consequent increase of forests and shrublands. This trend affected ecotones presence and density, but in different ways depending on the characteristics of the study areas. In the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene UNESCO site the analyses recorded an overall reduction of ecotones total length (− 6.4%), in particular of the first level ecotones (the ones between forests and agricultural areas) due to the loss of high altitude pastures that have been recolonized by forests, and of the second level ecotones (the ones between different types of cultivated areas) due to the agricultural mosaic simplification caused by the reduction of mixed cultivations and the spread of monocultures. In the Olive Groves of the Slopes between Assisi and Spoleto GIAHS site, similar land use trends caused an increase of the total length of first (+ 53.7%) and second level ecotones (+ 13.5%). This different behavior highlighted for the two sites, demonstrates that the relation between land use changes and ecotones changes is site-specific. The average density of first level ecotones decreased in both the study sites (− 20.2% in the UNESCO site and − 30.3% in the GIAHS site), while the maximum density remains high (424 m/ha in the UNESCO site and 794 m/ha in the GIAHS site). The applied methodology and the classification of ecotones according to a hierarchical system demonstrated to be effective in their identification and assessment. The study demonstrated that cultural landscapes are characterized by important ecotones networks and that preserving landscapes of recognized cultural value also means protecting ecotones, and associated habitats and biodiversity. Instead of only focusing on increasing protected areas number and surface, EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 should consider traditional cultural landscapes as a pillar for biodiversity conservation.

AbstractClimate change is modifying plant communities and ecosystems around the world. Alpine ecosystems are of special concern on oceanic islands, due to their characteristic higher endemicity percentage, small area and undergoing severe climate change impact in the last few decades. During recent decades there has been increasing interest in the effects of climate change on biodiversity and a range of methods have been developed to assess species vulnerability. However, some new insights are necessary to obtain useful information for species management on oceanic islands. Here in the alpine area of two oceanic islands (Tenerife and La Palma) we evaluate the drivers that best explain the vulnerability of 63 endemic species along three scenarios, covering recent past to present and two future projections (2041–2060 and 2061–2080). The selected drivers were: loss of potential area, mismatch index between potential and occupied areas in different scenarios, and adaptive capacity constraints. We assess the influence of potential area size and whether the drivers of risk and the vulnerability for common, restricted and rare species are significantly different. Our results indicate that management must be widely distributed over the species, and not only focus on restricted species. Evidence for this was that drivers directly deriving from climate change showed no significant differences in their impact on the rarity groups identified. Vulnerability depends partially on the potential area size, showing a more complex picture where constraints on the adaptive capacity of the species have a strong enough influence to modify the effects of the characteristic drivers of climate change.

AbstractLandscape fragmentation impacts freshwater habitats and their quality, affecting aquatic insect assemblages. Adjacent terrestrial areas are important secondary habitats where amphibiotic insects mature, feed, find mates, and move to locate aquatic breeding habitats. Using a factorial design with 27 small and large ponds within small and large natural patches in an exotic tree plantation-fragmented landscape of South Africa, and odonates as model organisms, we investigated (1) how pond size/natural terrestrial patch size interaction affects odonate diversity patterns versus habitat quality variables, and (2) determined whether anisopterans and zygopterans respond differently to landscape fragmentation. Species richness was similar among ponds. However, odonate abundance was highest in large ponds regardless of natural terrestrial patch size. Zygopteran functional richness and diversity was driven by pond and natural patch size, suggesting that zygopterans are sensitive to landscape fragmentation. In contrast, anisopterans were more resilient to fragmentation and more likely to select suitable habitats following water chemistry and vegetation characteristics. Overall, large ponds were occupied by different odonate assemblages compared to small ponds, and occupancy was strongly associated with mobility traits. These findings emphasize that ponds in both small and large natural terrestrial patches have conservation value. A pondscape that represents various pond sizes is important for maintaining regional odonate diversity. Pond conservation needs to be considered in the wider terrestrial context, which host a range of important secondary habitats. Adjacent natural terrestrial habitats also connect nearby aquatic habitats, which enable insects to move across the landscape in response to natural and artificial drivers.

AbstractThe detection of local extinctions is often hindered by the lack of long-term monitoring schemes, and thus relies on time series of presence data. Recently, citizen science has repeatedly shown its value in documenting species occurrences. We investigated the effectiveness of unstructured citizen science records in reducing the perception of local extinctions in butterfly populations across Italian National Parks. We addressed three research questions: (i) the ability of citizen science data to supplement existing knowledge to complete time series of occurrences, (ii) the impact on data collection of three species features (species size, distribution and length of flight period) determining their appearance, and (iii) the interplay between participant effort and species appearance in the amount of diversity recorded on the iNaturalist platform. Our analysis of 98,922 records of Italian butterflies (39,929 from literature and 58,993 from iNaturalist of which 7427 from National Parks) showed that the addition of iNaturalist data filled many recent gaps in time series, thus reducing the perception of potential local extinctions. Records from more engaged users encompassed a higher fraction of local biodiversity and were more likely to reduce the perception of local extinctions. User effort strongly interacted with species features in determining the frequency of records for individual species. In particular, more engaged users were less affected by species size. We provided updated butterfly checklists for Italian National Parks and a R package to calculate potential extinction upon time series. These results offer guidance for protected areas, conservationists, policymakers, and citizen scientists to optimize monitoring of local populations.

AbstractInsect diversity has been decreasing significantly during the past decades. A main driver causing this negative trend is agricultural intensification, which causes habitat destruction and a deterioration of habitat quality. We caught flying arthropods with 28 Malaise traps and two light traps across a heterogeneous Central European agro-environment in southern Germany over a period of four years. The arthropods captured with Malaise traps were assigned to barcode index numbers (BINs) based on metabarcoding. Lepidopterans caught with light traps and light towers were identified based on morphological characters. Within the four years study, a total of 11,984 insect operational taxonomic units (OTUs) related to unique BINs on BOLD (> 95% similarity) were recorded across this agro-environment. 7835 of them could be assigned to insect order and the vast majority of them represent different species. Different estimates of the total species richness ranged between 8188 and 11,512 OTUs (a proxy for species). This number corresponds to about 26–36% of the total German insect fauna. Light trapping also yielded a high species diversity and returned 502 Lepidoptera species (compared to 784 species captured with Malaise traps). The overlap between light and Malaise traps was less than 45%. The Malaise trap catches showed that insects are more diverse along forest edges than in the centre of meadows. Our findings underline the high value of heterogeneous agro-environments for biodiversity, and the high value when combining data collected with different sampling techniques.

AbstractAll continents, excluding Antarctica and the Artic, have been affected by incursion from alien freshwater fish species. Australia has not been spared. Four hundred and fifty species have now been declared on the ornamental importation list, making management a real challenge. With approximately 25 non-native species documented, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has likely some problems with invasive freshwater fish. Many of these species have been intentionally introduced to increase access to food as a protein source for remote communities or have spread naturally from western parts of Java and Indonesia, and now constitute a large biomass on some floodplain areas in PNG. The Torres Strait is located between PNG and northern Queensland and was previously a land bridge, though now under higher sea levels the region exists as a series of approximately 300 islands. The threat of further range extension of freshwater fish from PNG into northern Queensland via the Torres Strait Islands is significant, with two invasive fish species already recorded on northern islands of the Torres Strait (climbing perch, Anabas testudineus which has been continually recorded for the past decade; and recently the GIFT tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus). Here we present a case to control further spread of invasive freshwater fish species towards Australia, using a Land and Sea Ranger program, where Rangers are trained to be confident in the identification of pest fish species and to implement strategies to protect their borders from potential future incursions. The success of this program relies on Rangers to continue partaking in surveillance monitoring of coastal waters, checking and controlling for any new invasive species moving from PNG into Australian waters. We outline the biosecurity obligation under Article 14 of the Treaty between the two nations, which identifies the importance of conservation and protection of coastal floodplains from invasive species, and the spread between both nations.