Abstract Introduction Forest restoration can be achieved by promoting natural regeneration or planting tree seedlings, but the relative benefits of these widely used approaches are questioned. Soil communities may influence restoration outcomes but are usually ignored by monitoring schemes. Objectives We investigated whether analyses of multitrophic soil communities and ecosystem functions can usefully complement conventional plant community measurements for assessing current and potential future states of naturally regenerating and planted native forests. Methods We used DNA metabarcoding to analyze multitrophic soil biodiversity alongside conventional plant community analyses in greater than 20‐year‐old forests of naturally regenerating and planted Leptospermum scoparium (mānuka, Myrtaceae), an important early‐successional tree native to Aotearoa—New Zealand, within two similar sites. Results Naturally regenerating forests had higher understory native plant cover and sapling wood density, and more saplings of species that dominate old‐growth forests. Planted forests had higher aboveground biomass, richnesses of soil bacteria and protists, and soil pathogen loads. Prokaryote metabolic pathways indicated greater importance of aboveground litter versus belowground plant exudates as soil inputs in planted and naturally regenerating forests, respectively. Soil analyses detected legacy effects of pre‐1860 Māori land use in several plots. Conclusions Soil biodiversity assessment provided information about past, current, and potential future ecological states that was not apparent from the analysis of aboveground plants alone. Our combined results show that planted forests initially grow faster and sequester more carbon, but naturally regenerating forests might be healthier and able to shift to an old‐growth forest state sooner.

Phytotelmata are small, plant-held water pools that support unique assemblages of fauna and flora. Aquatic Diptera are a significant component of these microecosystems. Based on an exhaustive review of over 100 years of published literature, a global database of phytotelmata-associated aquatic Diptera with Bromeliaceae and Zingiberales (7 families) was compiled to explore diversity and ecology and identify gaps in the research. This database is designed to provide a valuable baseline and to serve as an objective, informed tool for future monitoring and research. A total of 4979 unique associations between aquatic Diptera larvae and 117 species in 26 genera of Bromeliaceae and 27 species in 10 genera across 6 families of Zingiberales were assembled in the database. These reported aquatic Diptera span 369 species, 80 genera, and 14 families, and include taxa with diverse ecological roles as detritivores, filter feeders, predators, and prey. Mosquitoes (Culicidae) had the greatest number of documented species (227), and non-biting midges (Chironomidae) had the greatest number of documented genera (26) in the dataset. Several mosquito vectors (e.g., Anopheles, Aedes, and Culex) also complete their life cycles in these habitats, although records of vector mosquitoes compose only 6% of the assembled data. Because phytotelmata provide year-round aquatic refugia, they sustain regional aquatic Diptera diversity yet are threatened by habitat loss and other anthropogenic pressures. Furthermore, despite the important role of phytotelmata in freshwater ecology, diversity in these ephemeral freshwater habitats remains under-documented. This comprehensive analysis of existing literature establishes the first global baseline for aquatic Diptera in phytotelmata and offers a foundation for biodiversity assessments, conservation strategies, and future ecological research.

Old-growth oak (Quercus robur) forests in Europe are biodiversity hotspots, yet their airborne fungal diversity remains poorly studied. We investigated aeromycobiota in three Lithuanian oak stands (Punia, Dūkštos and Šilinė) using passive spore traps combined with DNA metabarcoding. Weekly sampling between August and September 2022 yielded 75 spore samples, producing 262,755 high-quality fungal sequences clustered into 1,881 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) representing six phyla and 36 classes. Ascomycota (53.1% of OTUs) and Basidiomycota (44.3%) dominated in richness, while Basidiomycota prevailed in relative sequence abundance (62.8%). Major taxa included Exobasidiaceae sp., Cladosporium sp., Melampsora sp., and Thelephora terrestris. Airborne fungal communities exhibited a substantial core assemblage shared among stands, accompanied by stand-associated differences in species richness and relative sequence abundance. The Punia stand showed the highest richness and the greatest proportion of stand-specific OTUs. Temporal variation was detectable but moderate relative to spatial differences among stands. Functional guild analysis revealed dominance of saprotrophs (46.5% of assigned OTUs), followed by pathotrophs (14.5%) and symbiotrophs (13.2%). Overall, our results demonstrate that passive spore traps-based airborne metabarcoding captures high fungal diversity and resolves both widespread and stand-associated community patterns in old-growth oak forests. This study provides the first characterization of aeromycobiota in old-growth Q. robur forests of Northern Europe and highlights the value of airborne metabarcoding for fungal biodiversity assessment and long-term forest monitoring.

A line with no hook: longline-associated passive eDNA samplers for deep-sea fish monitoring.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis depends critically on high-quality reference databases. However, widely used public repositories (e.g., NCBI) frequently suffer from annotation error, species misidentification, and sequence contamination, leading to unreliable biodiversity assessments. To address these issues, we introduce PhyloRef, a Snakemake-based, semi-automated phylogeny-guided workflow for reference library curation. PhyloRef improves scalability via taxonomic grouping, detects problematic records using clustering-based anomaly detection rather than rigid monophyly requirements, and conservatively flags ambiguous cases using a "similar_to=" annotation. PhyloRef leverages complete mitochondrial genomes while flexibly incorporating single-gene sequences to maximize taxonomic coverage when complete genomes are scarce. The workflow categorizes anomalies into three types: (1) single-sequence outliers, (2) inconsistent sequence pairs, and (3) minority deviations within multi-sequence clusters, flagging them for manual review via convenient visualizations or deleting them automatically by option. Importantly, sequences with ambiguous phylogenetic placement are annotated with a "similar_to=" label to alert users to potential uncertainty. We validated PhyloRef using mitochondrial genome datasets for Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes) and Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) extracted from NCBI. The tool identified and removed nine anomalous chondrichthyan sequences and 401 Actinopterygian sequences (~2.3% and ~5.2% of the initial datasets, respectively), yielding curated databases of 380 sequences (266 species) and 7258 sequences (4887 species), respectively. In addition, nine sequences were flagged with "similar_to=" label in chondrichthyan fishes and 597 in Actinopterygian fishes, to reduce the risk of misidentification in downstream eDNA analyses. This resource enhances the reliability of eDNA-based biodiversity and ecological studies. Future directions include integrating machine learning for anomaly detection, incorporating nuclear markers for improved taxonomic resolution, and developing automated updating modules.

The assessment of algal biodiversity in mountain glaciers is timely and critical. In this study, we evaluated the biodiversity of algae on an alpine glacier and their spatio-temporal variability in seven supraglacial habitats (snow, bare ice, bédières, water of cryoconite holes, dirt cones, sparse sediment, and cryoconite) over two years. Biovolume, diversity, and community structure were investigated using microscopy observations, providing a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of the algae dynamics. Algal communities were highly spatially and temporally variable. The community dynamics at the glacier scale were complex and structured by diverse ecological processes. The difference in species richness explained the major part (82.5%) of the variation in algal community composition among habitats. The snow was characterized by the higher local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD) values and by high replacement values. This habitat typically supported unique combinations of species and contributed greatly to glacier biodiversity (with 6 associated indicator taxa). Dirt cones, sparse sediment, and cryoconite communities showed high rates of species replacement, while the communities of bare ice, bédières, and water of cryoconite holes showed lower species richness. Bare ice was characterized by the lowest richness, due to the large dominance of Mesotaenium berggrenii, which bloomed at the end of the ablation period (biovolume 6 to 14-fold higher at late summer 2023 than in the other dates). Under warmer conditions, the forecasted decrease of snow and ice mass may remove the habitats that contribute most to the total biodiversity of the glacier, affecting the overall community dynamics and impacting the surrounding environments that benefit from the glacier's resources.

The Amazon basin harbors exceptional fish diversity, with more than 3,500 species reported. However, this biodiversity is increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activities and climate change. The Peruvian Amazon alone is home to nearly 1,000 freshwater fish species - approximately one-third of the entire Amazon - yet significant gaps remain in our understanding of their distribution, ecology, and conservation status. Molecular approaches, particularly environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, have emerged as promising alternatives for rapid and accurate biodiversity assessment. In this study, a metabarcoding workflow targeting a fragment of the 12S gene to eDNA samples collected from small streams and ponds near Iquitos, Peru, was applied to evaluate the applicability of this approach for local fish community inventories. Water from 12 sites was filtered, and DNA was extracted, amplified, and sequenced using high-throughput Illumina technology. Bioinformatic analyses included MOTU clustering, haplotype identification, and taxonomic assignment using the Lowest Common Ancestor (LCA) algorithm. A total of 226 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were identified, 95 of which were assigned to fish taxa and clustered into 44 MOTUs across four orders: Characiformes, Gymnotiformes, Siluriformes, and Cichliformes. The study highlights the effectiveness of eDNA metabarcoding in detecting both common and elusive species, while also highlighting current limitations due to incomplete DNA barcode reference libraries. These findings underscore the need to expand barcode databases to fully harness the potential of eDNA for monitoring Amazonian fish biodiversity and support its use as a valuable tool for inventorying fish communities in sensitive and understudied environments.

1. DNA metabarcoding-high-throughput sequencing of barcode regions from bulk samples-has become a key tool for insect biodiversity assessment. Yet, how methodological choices affect the accuracy of metabarcoding data remains insufficiently explored. In this paper, we ask: (1) How does the lysis method (non-destructive lysis vs. destructive homogenization) affect community recovery? (2) How comprehensively does metabarcoding capture species richness? (3) To what extent can spike-ins improve abundance estimates? (4) How accurately can species abundances be estimated?2. We evaluated the accuracy of insect metabarcoding using 4,749 bulk samples from a large-scale biodiversity survey subjected to mild lysis. Of these samples, 856 were also homogenized, allowing a systematic comparison of the effect of alternative treatments. To potentially improve abundance estimates, we added six biological spike-ins (i.e., foreign insects) to all samples, and two synthetic spike-ins (artificial DNA fragments) to the homogenization treatment. In addition, we established the contents of 15 samples by individually barcoding all specimens, enabling direct assessment of occurrence and abundance estimates.3. Our results revealed consistent differences between destructive and non-destructive treatments. While both methods reliably detected the majority of species, small and soft-bodied taxa were more often recovered after mild lysis than after homogenization, while the reverse was true for heavily sclerotized, hairy, and large taxa. Using biological spike-ins for calibration reduced the variance in read numbers per specimen considerably, especially in homogenized samples, while synthetic spike-ins were less effective. In a Bayesian analysis, where species data were matched to the best-fitting spike-in calibration curve, accurate abundance estimates (+/-1 individual) were obtained for 72.9% of species occurrences.4. Our results show that it is possible to obtain reasonably accurate abundance estimates from metabarcoding data, and that mild lysis and homogenization result in different taxon-specific biases in terms of occurrence data, with neither method outperforming the other. Accuracy is improved by homogenization rather than mild lysis of samples, and by the use of biological rather than synthetic spike-ins. Together, these findings provide a major step towards robust, quantitative biodiversity monitoring using DNA-metabarcoding.

The taxonomic status of Arbutus pavarii Pamp., a rare and geographically restricted species endemic to northeastern Libya, has long been debated, with some treatments considering it a synonym of A. unedo. To resolve this uncertainty, we applied an integrative molecular framework that combined multilocus DNA barcoding, phylogenetic inference, and multivariate statistical analyses. Five barcode loci-nrITS, matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, and rps16-were analyzed using barcode-gap diagnostics, TaxonDNA identification tests, and single-locus and concatenated phylogenetic analyses. Barcode-gap analyses based on Kimura 2-parameter distances revealed clear and reproducible separation between intra- and interspecific variation for A. pavarii, particularly for nrITS and the concatenated multilocus dataset, whereas conserved plastid loci showed limited discriminatory power when used individually. Phylogenetic reconstructions consistently recovered A. pavarii as a strongly supported monophyletic lineage, distinct from A. unedo and other Mediterranean congeners, with congruent topologies across the nuclear, plastid, and combined datasets. Multivariate analyses, including principal component analysis and heatmap clustering, further corroborate the genetic cohesion and distinctiveness of A. pavarii samples. Collectively, these results provide robust molecular evidence supporting the recognition of Arbutus pavarii as a distinct evolutionary lineage, rather than an intraspecific variant of A. unedo. This study established a reproducible multilocus framework for species delimitation in Arbutus and highlighted the importance of integrating nuclear and plastid markers to resolve complex taxonomic relationships. The clarified taxonomic status of A. pavarii has important implications for biodiversity assessment and conservation planning in the Mediterranean region, particularly in the Cyrenaican floristic province.

Context Camera traps are an essential tool for biodiversity monitoring, yet variations in the definition of time-to-independence (defined as the minimum time between consecutive records of the same species at a camera station considered to represent independent records) can influence species records and data comparability across studies. Aims Our study examines how different time-to-independence filters (30 min, 60 min, 12 h, and 24 h) affect the detection, and estimated richness, abundance, and composition of medium- and large-bodied mammals in the Tapajós National Forest, Brazilian Amazon. We expected that (1) estimated species richness would be similar among filters and (2) apparent species composition would vary more for rarely captured species than for commonly captured species ones across time-to-independence filters. Methods Using standardized camera-trap data from 38 plots, we applied the four thresholds to generate species accumulation curves, rank-abundance curves, and apparent species composition matrices to assess how filtering alters species records and inferred community structure. Key results Our findings indicated that estimated species richness remained consistent across filters, suggesting that studies based on species richness can integrate datasets with varying time-to-independence filters without introducing significant biases. Conversely, species abundance ranks and apparent composition varied notably across filters, particularly for rarely captured species, which exhibited greater sensitivity to temporal aggregation. Although commonly captured species were consistently detected across all filters, certain species that were infrequently recorded using short time-to-independence filters (i.e. 30 and 60 min) became frequently detected with longer filters (i.e. 24 h), altering their classification from ‘rare’ to ‘common’. Conclusions The stability of species richness across filters supports the use of datasets with different time frames in macroecological studies, enabling large-scale biodiversity assessments. However, the temporal sensitivity of apparent species composition, especially for rarely captured species, underscores the necessity of caution in community-level analyses. Implications Studies investigating species interactions or community structure should account for the effects of time-to-independence filters when comparing datasets. Standardizing camera-trap protocols or implementing methodological adjustments for different time-to-independence filters will be crucial for enhancing data comparability in ecological studies and ensuring robust conservation assessments.

Ecological studies quantifying the impact of land‐use change on biodiversity may be sensitive to the choice of reference points – or baselines – particularly when sampling across human land‐use gradients and other space‐for‐time comparisons. Much depends on whether the chosen baseline has already undergone shifts in species composition because of hunting, habitat loss and degradation. However, few studies have assessed the influence of shifting baselines on estimates of anthropogenic impacts. Using new survey data from five West African land‐use gradients, we examine how habitat patch size and structure influences the estimated impact of land‐use change on bird species richness and functional diversity. We show that smaller forests have already lost many forest‐dependent birds, particularly those with large body size or specialised ecological niches, leading to reduced estimates of biodiversity loss after deforestation. The steepest biodiversity loss was found in mid‐sized forests whereas relatively shallow declines were estimated for the most extensive forests – despite their richer taxonomic and functional diversity. In these larger forest blocks, accurate estimates of biodiversity loss may require longer transects extending beyond the biodiversity ‘shadow' caused by the more extensive spillover of forest species into the surrounding landscape, potentially linked to source–sink dynamics. These findings suggest that biodiversity assessments are highly sensitive to baseline selection and transect design, highlighting the risk of underestimating land‐use impacts unless shifting baselines are carefully considered.

Sea caves are exceptional yet highly vulnerable marine habitats, harboring rich and specialized biodiversity. Recognized as priority habitats under the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and the Barcelona Convention, they play a critical role in supporting unique species assemblages. Despite their ecological importance and widespread presence throughout the Mediterranean, quantitative data on the biodiversity and ecological functioning of sea caves particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean remain scarce. This study aims to document the biodiversity of Kaynak Sea Cave, located in the Aydıncık district of Mersin (Türkiye), and to contribute to a scientific framework for the conservation of sensitive species and key habitats in the region. Biodiversity assessments were conducted through scuba diving surveys and photographic documentation by experienced divers. A total of 119 species belonging to 12 major taxonomic groups (Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, Porifera, Cnidaria, Polychaeta, Crustacea, Mollusca, Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Tunicata, Pisces) were identified from photographic records. However, it is presumed that the actual species richness is significantly higher. This baseline inventory underscores the ecological value of Kaynak Cave and highlights the need for future comprehensive studies focusing on cryptic fauna, soft-bottom habitats, and seasonal-spatial dynamics of benthic communities.

Development of optimized COI primers for biodiversity assessment: a case study of ichthyoplankton in Vietnam

Mukura Forest is a biodiversity hotspot within the Albertine Rift essential for biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, and provision of water resources. Despite its importance, a comprehensive biodiversity and water quality assessment was lacking. This study surveyed plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, terrestrial arthropods, butterflies, water macroinvertebrates, diatoms and water quality. Water macroinvertebrates were collected by using the kick-nets and hand searching, while diatoms were sampled by substrate scraping. Further, water physicochemical properties were measured in situ using HQ40d Multimeter. Terrestrial arthropods were sampled through hand collection, sweep nets and pitfall traps, while butterflies were sampled using the sweep-net and baited traps. Birds were recorded via point counts and opportunistic observations; reptiles and amphibians were sampled through active searching and visual encounter surveys; mammals were trapped using Sherman live traps while vegetation was sampled using circular plots for woody species and nested quadrats for herbaceous plants. Collected specimens were identified using identification keys to the family and to species levels where possible. Results have indicated a total of 1 523 individuals of water macroinvertebrates and 25 diatom species. Results have also indicated 4 044 individuals of arthropods including 24 butterfly species. Avian surveys documented 124 species, with 12 Albertine Rift endemics and the critically endangered Hooded Vulture. Amphibians and reptiles yielded 12 and five species, respectively. Identified small mammals included 12 species, with three new records for Mukura. The floristic assessment identified 255 species, with two newly recorded. These findings underscore the significance of Mukura for biodiversity conservation and water quality. There is a need to identify collected specimens to specie level, make continuous study in Mukura and other tropical forests of Rwanda.

A comprehensive review of vertebrate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), including its molecular diversity and applications, is lacking. By comparing mtDNA structures from fish to mammals, this review provides a comprehensive account of the structural variations in vertebrate mtDNA in terms of its control region, structural heterogeneity, spacer sequences, sequence overlaps, and gene rearrangements. It discusses the inheritance, mutation mechanisms, and utilization of mtDNA markers, particularly cyt b and COI genes, in evolution and ecology, focusing on molecular barcoding. Moreover, focusing on technological advancements in next‐generation sequencing (NGS) and its revolutionary role in molecular biodiversity, ecological interrelations, and species extinction, we summarize different NGS‐based methods, namely minibarcode and SNP genotyping. eDNA metabarcoding further validated the capability of the COI marker as a minibarcode for fast and efficient biodiversity assessment. In this context, we discuss the relevance of mega‐biodiversity initiatives such as the Earth Biogenome Project and International Barcode of Life. The use of mtDNA in barcoding caters to intact specimens and scattered DNA fragments. This is a broad review of mtDNA structure and the role of a regulatory region, in addition to the functional biodiversity of the species.

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explore spider diversity and the effects of habitat types on spider distribution in the three different types of habitats in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This serves as an invaluable tool for biodiversity assessment while documenting the presence of spiders taxa across different habitats in the selected study areas. Spiders were collected using pitfall traps in Langeni forest, Kambi forest and Silaka Nature reserve. Two of these sites are situated in Mthatha and one in Port St Johns. A total of 12 families represented by 19 genera and 43 species/morphospecies were recorded. Habitat type did not significantly influence spider abundance. This present study provides an important insight into the composition and relative abundance of epigeic spiders in the a priori selected study sites. Even though the analysis of the sampling effort points the low species richness to under sampling, the dataset provides an indication of the families and guilds present in the studied forests during the period of study. The results also indicate that local habitat conditions may have an influence on the spider community structure. These data contribute to the growing knowledge of South African arachnology knowledge but due to limitations associated with the sampling, the data should be viewed as preliminary.

Abstract Context Understanding how ecological patterns and processes are affected by spatial heterogeneity is a foundational goal of landscape ecology. Recent extensions of this field have explored how habitat-associated soundscapes could inform biodiversity assessments and conservation decisions. Objectives The present study aims to expand understanding of spatial variation in estuarine soundscapes by evaluating its relationship with the surrounding habitat mosaics, nektonic community, and abiotic variables. Methods We sampled 24 habitat mosaics, including seagrass beds, saltmarsh creeks, oyster reefs, and unvegetated mudflats, in Back and Core Sounds, North Carolina, USA, during six sampling periods from May to August 2019. Soundscape summaries, including sound pressure level (SPL) and species-specific calls, were paired with patch- and landscape-scale habitat, community, and abiotic metrics. Differences among the acoustic spectrum at each site were evaluated using the spectral dissimilarity index and visualized using multivariate analyses. Multi-model inference and variance partitioning were used to evaluate the proportion of soundscape variation explained by each ecological metric. Results Landscape-scale habitat metrics were important explanatory variables for all soundscape metrics summarized. Specifically, multivariate analyses revealed four common soundscape types best differentiated by metrics of habitat size and shape at patch and landscape scales and the dominant sources of biological acoustic activity. Variation in SPL across the continuum of habitat heterogeneity sampled was typically explained by landscape-scale habitat metrics such as species richness, seagrass core area, and oyster reef perimeter. Species-specific call rates were explained by habitat and abiotic metrics and were unrelated to nektonic abundance and richness. Conclusions Our results suggest that soundscape metrics could be useful for monitoring estuarine habitat mosaics and acoustic communities over space and time as well as indicating environmental relationships for some soniferous species, though soundscapes may not be an effective proxy for nekton assemblage structure. This study also highlights the value of integrating multiple remote sensing technologies to understand patterns between landscape structure, ecological dynamics, and estuarine soundscapes as well as demonstrates the application of deep learning frameworks for interpretation of soundscape patterns.

Abstract. Jafron, Sutarno, Pangastuti A, Solichatun, Sugiyarto, Sunarto, Setyawan AD. 2025. Application of ISSR markers reveals extensive genetic variability in the tropical lycophyte Selaginella ciliaris. Asian J Trop Biotechnol 22: 80-93. Genetic information on early-diverging vascular plants remains limited, despite their ecological importance and emerging relevance in biotechnology. This study assessed genetic variability in the tropical lycophyte Selaginella ciliaris uses Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers as a cost-effective molecular approach for non-model plants. A total of 27 samples were analyzed using selected ISSR primers, generating clear and reproducible banding patterns. A total of 49 loci were scored, all of which were polymorphic (100% polymorphism), indicating a very high level of genetic variability. Dice genetic similarity coefficients were consistently low, ranging from 0.0000 to 0.0816, with the majority of pairwise comparisons falling below 0.05. Dice genetic similarity values were consistently low, and the frequency distribution of similarity classes was strongly skewed toward very low similarity ranges, reflecting pronounced multilocus differentiation. UPGMA cluster analysis further revealed the absence of dominant genetic groups, with samples forming small clusters and numerous singletons. These results demonstrate substantial genetic heterogeneity within S. ciliaris at a regional scale. The study confirms the effectiveness of ISSR markers for detecting genetic variability in non-model tropical plants lacking genomic resources. From an applied perspective, the high genetic diversity observed highlights the potential of S. ciliaris as a valuable genetic resource for early-stage germplasm screening, conservation planning, and future biotechnological research. This work provides baseline molecular insights into an understudied lycophyte and underscores the utility of ISSR markers as an accessible tool bridging biodiversity assessment and tropical plant biotechnology.

Research Highlight: Monitoring the restoration process can help us understand the relationships between plants and animals. By manipulating the habitat, researchers can evaluate how changes in plant community influence the diversity and distribution of associated fauna. Yet, the mechanisms shaping pollinators' diversity in response to forest attributes remain poorly understood. The study by Xie etal. (2025) demonstrates how tree richness and forest canopy cover influence pollinator communities by mediating floral resource availability in the understory and modifying microclimatic conditions within the forest. The authors found that tree richness increases canopy cover and consequently changes the microclimatic conditions within the forest, which, in turn, reshapes the niche space available for bee communities. Such findings are fundamental because they reveal how changes in one component of biodiversity cascade into others. Such mechanistic insights are also crucial for scaling up biodiversity assessments using remote sensing and for guiding restoration strategies that move beyond vegetation recovery to the restoration of ecosystem functions.

Occurrence data and range maps in endemicity analysis: Data choice matters.