Bridging beauty and biodiversity: Coupling diversity and aesthetics through optimized plant communities in urban riverfront landscapes

Urban waterfront areas are dynamic interfaces where human and natural systems converge, forming complex ecosystems that encompass social, economic, and environmental elements. These areas offer ecological benefits and aesthetic experiences. However, a disparity between social aesthetic preferences and vegetation diversity along riverbanks impedes the integration of ecological and aesthetic values. To address this, a plant community optimization strategy based on a coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) is proposed. Using the Xietang River in Suzhou, China as a case study, surveys were conducted on 33 woody plant plots and 60 herbaceous plant plots, assessing plant diversity with Shannon-Wiener, richness, and Pielou indices. Landscape beauty was evaluated by 87 respondents using the Scenic Beauty Estimation method. Using six representative plant communities as mediators, CCDM was applied to quantitatively analyze the coordination between plant diversity and aesthetics. Based on this analysis and considering factors influencing plant diversity and scenic beauty, plant community optimization strategies were devised to enhance the coordinated development of ecological diversity and aesthetics, fostering a synergistic improvement in ecological and aesthetic quality. Results revealed a range of coupling coordination across plant communities (0.203 to 0.947), encompassing various types. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a non-linear relationship between plant diversity and landscape beauty, influenced by independent yet partially overlapping factors. Hence, both aspects should be simultaneously considered in the planning and enhancement of riverbank areas. The coupling coordination degree offers a comprehensive understanding of harmonizing plant diversity and aesthetic value, providing a quantitative and objective approach to integrated research. This perspective extends beyond urban waterfront landscapes, holding significance for achieving dual goals of ecology and social services in urban design and landscape management.

Impact assessment of multiple pressures on ecosystem services with a state and transition model: Application to Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows

A significant challenge in the integration of ecosystem services into decision-making processes lies in effectively capturing the dynamics of marine socio-ecological systems, including their evolutionary pathways, equilibrium states, and tipping points. This paper explores the evolutionary trajectories of a vital marine ecosystem endemic to the Mediterranean Sea: the Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows, in response to various drivers of change. A state-and-transition model is employed to assess the ecosystem services provided by P. oceanica across different states defined by selected transitions, such as overfishing, fragmentation, pollution, and invasion by non-native species. To apply this model, scientific expertise is combined with field data generated using the Ecosystem-Based Quality Index to evaluate the conservation status of P. oceanica. This integrated approach allows for the representation of the ecosystem services offered by the meadows across different states, leveraging ecological data. The findings highlight the disproportionate impact on provisioning services, particularly sea urchins and commercial fish production, which suffer the most under various stressors. Notably, when these services decline to critical levels, the meadows cease to provide significant benefits. Finally, a synthesized representation is presented, merging ecological insights with monitoring data, offering a framework that is more accessible to stakeholders and decision-makers.

Pollinator-mediated effects of landscape-scale land use on grassland plant community composition and ecosystem functioning - seven hypotheses

Environmental change is disrupting mutualisms between organisms worldwide. Reported declines in insect populations and changes in pollinator community compositions in response to land use and other environmental drivers have put the spotlight on the need to conserve pollinators. While this is often motivated by their role in supporting crop yields, the role of pollinators for reproduction and resulting taxonomic and functional assembly in wild plant communities has received less attention. Recent findings suggest that observed and experimental gradients in pollinator availability can affect plant community composition, but we know little about when such shifts are to be expected, or the impact they have on ecosystem functioning. Correlations between plant traits related to pollination and plant traits related to other important ecosystem functions, such as productivity, nitrogen uptake or palatability to herbivores, lead us to expect non-random shifts in ecosystem functioning in response to changes in pollinator communities. At the same time, ecological and evolutionary processes may counteract these effects of pollinator declines, limiting changes in plant community composition, and in ecosystem functioning. Despite calls to investigate community- and ecosystem-level impacts of reduced pollination, the study of pollinator effects on plants has largely been confined to impacts on plant individuals or single-species populations. With this review we aim to break new ground by bringing together aspects of landscape ecology, ecological and evolutionary plant-insect interactions, and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research, to generate new ideas and hypotheses about the ecosystem-level consequences of pollinator declines in response to land-use change, using grasslands as a focal system. Based on an integrated set of seven hypotheses, we call for more research investigating the putative pollinator-mediated links between landscape-scale land use and ecosystem functioning. In particular, future research should use combinations of experimental and observational approaches to assess the effects of changes in pollinator communities over multiple years and across species on plant communities and on trait distributions both within and among species.

Intraspecific variation in fine-root traits is larger than in aboveground traits in European herbaceous species regardless of drought

Differences within species (Intraspecific trait variation - ITV) contribute substantially to overall trait variability and environmental harshness can reduce among-species variation. While aboveground traits have received considerable attention, knowledge about ITV in fine-root traits and how it differs from ITV in aboveground traits remains limited. This study examined the partitioning of trait variation aboveground and fine-root traits in 52 European herbaceous species and how such proportions change in response to drought, offering valuable insights for accurate functional species characterization and inter-species comparisons. We studied seven morphological aboveground and fine-root traits under drought and well-watered conditions in a greenhouse experiment. Linear mixed effect models and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) were employed to decompose trait variation, ensuring the robustness of our results. We also calculated variance partitioning for the combination of aboveground traits and the combination of fine-root traits, as well as pairs of analogous leaf and fine-root traits (i.e., traits that fulfill similar functions) for each treatment (control and drought). Among-species trait differences explained a greater proportion of overall variance than within-species variation, except for root dry matter content (RDMC). Height and leaf area stood out, with species' identity accounting for 87-90% of total trait variation. Drought had no significant effect on the proportions of variation in any of the traits. However, the combination of fine-root traits exhibited higher intraspecific variability (44-44%) than aboveground traits (19-21%) under both drought and control. Analogous root traits also showed higher ITV (51-50%) than analogous leaf traits (27-31%). Our findings highlight substantial within-species variation and the nuanced responses of fine-root traits, particularly RDMC, suggesting root traits' flexibility to soil heterogeneity that fosters less differentiation among species. Among-species trait differences, especially aboveground, may underscore distinct strategies and competitive abilities for resource acquisition and utilization. This study contributes to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the multifunctionality of the above- and belowground plants compartments.

Monitoring vegetation- and geodiversity with remote sensing and traits

Geodiversity has shaped and structured the Earth's surface at all spatio-temporal scales, not only through long-term processes but also through medium- and short-term processes. Geodiversity is, therefore, a key control and regulating variable in the overall development of landscapes and biodiversity. However, climate change and land use intensity are leading to major changes and disturbances in bio- and geodiversity. For sustainable ecosystem management, temporal, economically viable and standardized monitoring is needed to monitor and model the effects and changes in vegetation- and geodiversity. RS approaches have been used for this purpose for decades. However, to understand in detail how RS approaches capture vegetation- and geodiversity, the aim of this paper is to describe how five features of vegetation- and geodiversity are captured using RS technologies, namely: (i) trait diversity, (ii) phylogenetic/genese diversity, (iii) structural diversity, (iv) taxonomic diversity and (v) functional diversity. Trait diversity is essential for establishing the other four. Traits provide a crucial interface between in situ, close-range, aerial and space-based RS monitoring approaches. The trait approach allows complex data of different types and formats to be linked using the latest semantic data integration techniques, which will enable ecosystem integrity monitoring and modelling in the future. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Geodiversity for science and society'.

Defoliation, trampling and nutrient return differentially influence grassland productivity by modulating trait-dependent plant community composition: insights from a simulated grazing experiment

Ungulate grazing involves multiple components, including defoliation, dung and urine return, and trampling, which supply offsetting or synergistic effects on plant community composition and productivity (ANPP), but these effects have not been fully studied. Plant functional traits may reflect the response of plants to disturbance and their impact on ecosystem functions. Species turnover and intraspecific trait variation (ITV) are important drivers of community trait composition. We conducted a simulated grazing experiment in a steppe grassland in northern China to examine the effects of defoliation, dung and urine return, and trampling on community-weighted mean (CWM), functional diversity (FD) and ANPP, and to disentangle the roles of species turnover and ITV in driving these changes. We found that defoliation had a dominant effect on CWMs and FDs of all four traits through species turnover and ITV, respectively, resulting in a convergence of traits towards as more resource-acquisitive strategy. Dung-urine return resulted in more resource-acquisitive community traits mainly through ITV, whereas there were no significant effects on FDs except for leaf C/N. Trampling increased CWM of leaf dry matter content primarily driven by ITV, and had no significant effect on FDs. Furthermore, our simulated grazing positively affected ANPP, primarily due to nutrient additions from dung and urine, and ITV largely explained the variation in ANPP. These findings highlight the multifaceted effects of grazing components on community structure and ANPP, and the significance of ITV in shaping grassland plant communities and productivity.

Future changes in key plant traits across Central Europe vary with biogeographical status, woodiness, and habitat type

Many plant traits covary with environmental gradients, reflecting shifts in adaptive strategies and thus informing about potential consequences of future environmental change for vegetation and ecosystem functioning. Yet, the evidence of trait-environment relationships (TERs) remains too heterogeneous for reliable predictions, partially due to insufficient consideration of trait syndromes specific to certain growth forms and habitats. Moreover, it is still unclear whether non-native and native plants' traits align similarly along environmental gradients, limiting our ability to assess the impacts of future plant invasions. Using a Bayesian multilevel modelling framework, we assess TERs for native and non-native woody and herbaceous plants across six broad habitat types in Central Europe at a resolution of c. 130 km2 and use them to project trait change under future environmental change scenarios until 2081-2100. We model TERs between three key plant traits (maximum height, Hmax; specific leaf area, SLA; seed mass, SM) and individual environmental factors (7 climate variables and % urban land cover) and estimate trait change summed across all environmental effects. We also quantify the change in the average trait difference between native and non-native plants. Our models depict multiple TERs, with important differences attributed to biogeographical status and woodiness within and across habitat types. The overall magnitude of trait change is projected to be greater for non-native than native taxa and to increase under more extreme scenarios. Native woody plant assemblages may generally experience a future increase across all three traits, whereas woody non-natives may decline in Hmax and increase in SLA and SM. Herbaceous Hmax is estimated to increase and SLA to decrease in most habitats. The obtained trait projections highlight conditions of competitive advantage of non-native plants over natives and vice versa and can serve as starting points for projecting future changes in ecosystem functions and services.

Plant functional traits and biodiversity can reveal the response of ecosystem functions to grazing

Plant functional traits can elucidate the response of plant communities and ecosystems to biotic and abiotic disturbances. However, whether livestock consume more aboveground biomass (AGB) in communities dominated by species with 'acquisitive' traits or in communities where biodiversity is high is not well known. Here, we measured 22 functional traits of the grazing communities and control communities in a Mongolian Plateau desert steppe. The effects of grazing on AGB, CWM traits, species diversity, and functional diversity (FD) were analysed, furthermore, we estimated the grazing impact by using the log response ratio (LRR, an increasing value shows a higher grazing impact) and investigated the correlations between the LRR, plant growth, and community-weighted mean (CWM) traits and diversity indices. We found that grazing significantly increased the CWM dry matter content and carbon-to‑nitrogen ratio and decreased the CWM height, specific leaf area (SLA), and nitrogen and phosphorus contents. The AGB decreased, while species diversity and FD increased under grazing treatments. Additionally, we found that plant traits and biodiversity could predict the response of AGB to grazing, the LRR was higher in patches dominated by species with 'acquisitive' foliage and in patches with higher biodiversity; in these patches, plant growth was lower. In the study area, the response of CWM traits to grazing suggests an avoidance strategy, which may be more conducive for adapting to low resource utilization environments. Also, the relationship between the CWM traits and the LRR indicated that the effect of grazing on AGB was mainly related to the selective foraging of herbivores. In addition, patches preferred by livestock may not recover quickly, leading to slow growth and thus reduced biomass under grazing treatments after prolonged grazing.

Plant functional traits explain long-term differences in ecosystem services between artificial forests and natural grasslands

Declining ecosystem services have prompted numerous studies aiming at developing more sustainable management practices for vegetation restoration. Advances in functional ecology indicate that the sustainable management of afforestation ecosystems should be performed based on plant functional traits, which provides pivotal knowledge for long-term sustainable vegetation restoration. Currently, the mechanism of how plant functional traits affect long term ecosystem services in restored areas is still unclear. This study investigates plant functional traits and the associated ecosystem services from artificial forestlands (Robinia pseudoacacia, Caragana korshinskii) and natural grasslands following different durations of vegetation restoration (10, 20, 30 and 40 years) in the Danangou watershed, a loess hilly-gully region in the Loess Plateau, China. The results showed that 1) the water conservation services of artificial forestlands first decreased and then increased over time, whereas the soil conservation service had an opposite trend; in turn, natural grassland led to a consistent increase in soil conservation and carbon sequestration services over time. 2) Artificial forestlands had greater soil conservation and carbon sequestration services than natural grassland but had lower water conservation services. 3) Leaves had a greater impact on carbon sequestration and water conservation services than did root length and root biomass density. 4) Root biomass density had a greater effect on soil conservation services than did leaf carbon content and soil organic matter. 5) Leaf carbon content, specific root length, and root biomass density had significant effects on the trade-off value between any two ecosystem services with increasing time after restoration of artificial forestland. 6) Specific leaf area had a greater effect on the trade-off values among the three services than did the other functional traits in the natural grassland. In arid ecosystems, natural grasslands are the best restoration strategy given their higher water conservation services. However, in soil erosion-affected areas, restoration through artificial forestlands is more appropriate. To mitigate the trade-offs between ecosystem services, it is recommended that artificial forestlands be thinned before the leaf carbon content, specific root length, and root biomass density reach a maximum (i.e., mature forestland).

Mapping Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies on Plant Trait–Service Linkages Across Ecosystems: A Bibliometric Analysis

The concept of ‘ecosystem service’ has gained momentum in the twenty-first century to bridge the gap between human–nature interactions. However, the challenge remains to map the flow of ecosystem services (ES) for their efficient management. Among the multiple existing methods, biophysical assessments provide better knowledge of the state of the ecosystem and its mapping for complimentary services. Trait–service linkage is one of the tools to reliably link biodiversity with ES if we better understand the role functional traits play in the underlying ecosystem processes. In this paper, we have performed a bibliometric analysis of published literature on ES and plant functional traits to identify the current state of knowledge on trait–service linkage, biases, research gaps, and challenges. There was a skewed geographical basis for trait–service linkage studies; most studies were conducted in Europe and North America. The majority of the research focused on supporting and regulating ES, mainly carbon sequestration, biomass production, and climate regulation, using a particular set of vegetative traits, such as leaf, root, and plant height, and ignored most regeneration traits, except for a few flower traits. A matrix to quantify the association between ES and selected plant traits (specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf area, leaf nitrogen content, vegetation height, wood density, canopy density, root length, root density, flowering time, flower color and flower size) revealed that the two leaf traits (specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content) in the linkage have contrasting associations with multiple ES. The study illustrated that there is still a considerable research gap in linking plant traits with essential ES (biomass production, climate and water regulation). Thus, suggest future studies on ES should focus more on trait–service linkage across major ecosystems to underpin key ecosystem processes for better sustenance of ES and human well-being.

Response-effect trait overlap and correlation in riparian plant communities suggests sensitivity of ecosystem functioning and services to environmental change

Environmental changes and biodiversity loss have emphasized the need to understand how communities affect ecosystem functioning and services. In riparian ecosystems, integrative, generalizable, broad-scale models of ecosystem functioning are still required to fulfill this need. However, few studies have explored the links between functional traits, ecosystem functions, and the services of riparian vegetation. Here we adapt the response-effect trait framework to link drivers, traits, ecosystem functions, and services in riparian ecosystems and assess ecosystem functioning sensitivity to environmental changes. The response-effect trait framework distinguishes between traits related to responses to the environment (response traits) and effects on ecosystem functioning (effect traits). The framework predicts that if response and effect traits are tightly linked, shifts in environmental drivers may alter communities' traits and ecosystem functioning. We adapted the response-effect trait framework for riparian plant communities and used it to assess the overlap between response and effect traits. We tested for correlation among traits identified in the framework and for community functional responses to climatic, topographic, soil, and land cover factors using riparian plant communities along a Temperate-Mediterranean climate gradient in North Portugal. We found a high overlap between response and effect traits, with seven out of thirteen traits identified as both response and effect. Additionally, we found trait linkages in four groups of positively correlated community mean traits. Precipitation and aridity were the most predictive drivers of community functional structure, and life form and leaf area were the most responsive traits. Overall, our findings suggest riparian plant communities are likely to propagate the effects of environmental changes to ecosystem functioning and services, affecting several regulation ecosystem services. This work highlights the sensitivity of riparian ecosystems to environmental changes and how it can affect ecosystem services. Similar functional approaches can be useful for adaptive ecosystem management to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Could green infrastructure supplement ecosystem service provision from semi-natural grasslands?

Ancient semi-natural grasslands in Europe are important for ecosystem service (ES) provision. Often, the surrounding matrix contains 'Grassland Green Infrastructure' (GGI) that contain grassland species which have the potential to supplement grassland ES provision across the landscape. Here we investigate the potential for GGI to deliver a set of complementary ES, driven by plant composition.We surveyed 36 landscapes across three European countries comprising core grasslands and their surrounding GGI. We calculated community-level values of plant species characteristics to provide indicators for four ES: nature conservation value, pollination, carbon storage and aesthetic appeal.Inferred ES delivery for GGI was substantially lower than in core grasslands for conservation, pollination and aesthetic appeal indicators, but not for carbon storage. These differences were driven by the GGI having 17% fewer plant species, and compositional differences, with 61% of species unique to the core grasslands. In addition, connectivity to the core, the amount of GGI and inferred seed dispersal distances by livestock, were strongly positively correlated with conservation value, pollination and aesthetic indicators. All ES indicators showed similar responses to the GGI spatial structure and distance to the core, suggesting robust effects of these drivers on ES. We projected that improved landscape-wide delivery of nature conservation value and pollination could be achieved through targeted GGI management. Reductions in the distances seeds would need to disperse, more GGI, along with a diversification of the GGI elements, were predicted to enhance service credits.We conclude that for vegetation-related ES, species surveys can be employed to assess potential ES delivery. Creating and enhancing GGI is a useful landscape management strategy to supplement the ES delivered by ancient grasslands.

Modelling the stand dynamics after a thinning induced partial mortality: A compensatory growth perspective

INTRODUCTION

With increasing forest areas under management, dynamics of managed stands have gained more attention by forest managers and practitioners. Improved understanding on how trees and forest stands would respond to different disturbances is required to predict the dynamics of managed stand.s. Partial mortality commonly occurs in stand development, and different response patterns of trees and stands to partial mortality would govern stand dynamics.

METHODS

To investigate the possible response patterns using existing knowledge of growth and yield relationships, we developed TreeCG model, standing for Tree's Compensatory Growth, a state-dependent individual tree-based forest growth model that simulates the compensatory growth of trees after experiencing a partial mortality. The mechanism behind the simulation is the redistribution of resources, including nutrients and space, freed from died trees to surviving trees. The developed new algorithm simplified the simulations of annual growth increments of individual trees over a long period of stand development.

RESULTS

The model was able to reproduce the forest growth patterns displayed in long-term precommercial thinning experiments. The simulated forest growth displayed the process of compensatory growth from under compensation, to compensation-induced-equality, and to overcompensation over time.

DISCUSSION

Our model can simulate stand growth trajectories after different partial harvest regimes at different times and intensities, thus support decisions in best partial harvest strategies. This generic model can be refined with given tree species and specific site conditions to predict stand dynamics after given partial mortality for any jurisdictions under management. The simulation reassembles growth trajectories of natural stands when no thinning is conducted.

Macro-Morphological Traits of Leaves for Urban Tree Selection for Air Pollution Biomonitoring: A Review

Urban trees provide different ecosystem benefits, such as improving air quality due to the retention of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on their leaves. The main objective of this paper was to study, through a systematic literature review, the leaf macro-morphological traits (LMTs) most used for the selection of urban trees as air pollution biomonitors. A citation frequency index was used in scientific databases, where the importance associated with each variable was organized by quartiles (Q). The results suggest that the most biomonitored air pollutants by the LMTs of urban trees were PM between 1-100 µm (Q1 = 0.760), followed by O₃ (Q2 = 0.586), PM_2.5 (Q2 = 0.504), and PM₁₀ (Q3 = 0.423). PM was probably the most effective air pollutant for studying and evaluating urban air quality in the context of tree LMTs. PM_2.5 was the fraction most used in these studies. The LMTs most used for PM monitoring were leaf area (Q1) and specific leaf area (Q4). These LMTs were frequently used for their easy measurement and quantification. In urban areas, it was suggested that leaf area was directly related to the amount of PM retained on tree leaves. The PM retained on tree leaves was also used to study other f associated urban air pollutants associated (e.g., heavy metals and hydrocarbons).

Promoting Biodiversity Conservation Requires a Better Understanding of the Relationships Between Ecosystem Services and Multiple Biodiversity Dimensions

In order to reverse the global trend of biodiversity loss, the concept of ecosystem services has been widely applied to make policymakers and the general public realize that conserving biodiversity possesses both intrinsic and utilitarian values. However, to achieve this goal, it is necessary to first have a clear understanding of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES). To advance our understanding of this issue, we first reviewed the major progress in current BES studies, with an emphasis on three biodiversity dimensions (i.e., taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, and ecosystem diversity). Based on the findings, we then propose three research topics as future directions: (1) More direct and explicit studies on the effects of different dimensions of biodiversity on various ecosystem service types; (2) developing a biodiversity-based understanding of the formation of ecosystem services; (3) creation of science-based ecosystem management plans and policies that can maximize synergies between biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service enhancement. By conducting such research, we will be able to not only further understand the complex relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services but also better promote the concept of ecosystem services for more successful biodiversity conservation in the future.

The Functional Structure of Tropical Plant Communities and Soil Properties Enhance Ecosystem Functioning and Multifunctionality in Different Ecosystems in Ghana

Plant functional traits are useful in tracking changes in the environment, and play an important role in determining ecosystem functioning. The relationship between plant functional traits and ecosystem functioning remains unclear, although there is growing evidence on this relationship. In this study, we tested whether the functional structure of vegetation has significant effects on the provision of ecosystem services. We analysed plant trait composition (specific leaf area, leaf carbon and nitrogen ratio, isotopic carbon fraction, stem dry matter content, seed mass and plant height), soil parameters (nutrients, pH, bulk density) and proxies of ecosystem services (carbon stock, decomposition rate, invertebrate activity) in twenty-four plots in three tropical ecosystems (active restored and natural forests and an agroforestry system) in Ghana. For each plot, we measured above-ground biomass, decomposition rates of leaves and invertebrate activity as proxies for the provision of ecosystem services to evaluate (i) whether there were differences in functional composition and soil properties and their magnitude between ecosystem types. We further aimed to (ii) determine whether the functional structure and/or soil parameters drove ecosystem functions and multifunctionality in the three ecosystem types. For functional composition, both the leaf economic spectrum and seed mass dimension clearly separated the ecosystem types. The natural forest was more dominated by acquisitive plants than the other two ecosystem types, while the non-natural forests (agroforest and restored forest) showed higher variation in the functional space. The natural forest had higher values of soil properties than the restored forest and the agroforestry system, with the differences between the restored and agroforestry systems driven by bulk density. Levels of ecosystem service proxies and multifunctionality were positively related to the functional richness of forest plots and were mainly explained by the differences in site conditions. Our study demonstrated the effects of functional forest structure on ecosystem services in different forest ecosystems located in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana.

Integrating thermal tolerance, water balance and morphology: An experimental study on dung beetles

The impacts of extreme and rising mean temperatures due to climate change can pose significant physiological challenges for insects. An integrated approach that focuses on mechanisms of body temperature regulation, water balance and morphology may help to unravel the functional traits underpinning thermoregulation strategies and the most relevant trade-offs between temperature and water balance regulation. Here, we focused on four species of tunneler dung beetles as important providers of ecosystem services. In this experimental research, we first quantified two traits related to desiccation resistance and tolerance via experimental tests, and subsequently defined two levels of resistance and tolerance (i.e. low and high) according to significant differences among species. Second, we identified morphological traits correlated with water balance strategies, and we found that desiccation resistance and tolerance increased with small relative size of spiracles and wings. High levels of desiccation tolerance were also correlated with small body mass. Third, by integrating thermal tolerance with functional traits based on desiccation resistance and desiccation tolerance, we found that the species with the highest survival rates under elevated temperatures (Euoniticellus fulvus) was characterized by low desiccation resistance and high desiccation tolerance. Our results suggest shared physiological and morphological responses to temperature and desiccation, with potential conflicts between the need to regulate heat and water balance. They also highlighted the sensitivity of a large species such as Geotrupes stercorarius to warm and arid conditions with potential implications for its geographic distribution and the provisioning of ecosystem services under a climate change scenario.

Linking Taxonomic, Phylogenetic and Functional Plant Diversity with Ecosystem Services of Cliffs and Screes in Greece

Sparsely vegetated habitats of cliffs and screes act as refugia for many regional and local endemic specialized plant taxa most of which have evolved precisely for that type of habitat. The interplay between taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional plant diversity on rock and scree habitats of extreme environmental conditions, enlightens the relations of plant communities and ecosystems and facilitates management planning for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The identification of biodiversity patterns and hotspots (taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional) contributes to the integration of the ecosystem services (ES) approach for the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (MAES) implementation in Greece and the creation of thematic maps based on the MAES reporting format. The overlap among the protected areas’ network revealed that almost all areas of cliffs and screes of medium, high, and very high taxonomic and phylogenetic plant endemism are included in the Natura 2000 area network. The results of this study provide the baseline information for ES assessments at sparsely vegetated land of cliffs and screes. Our results contribute to the implementation of certain indicators of the national set of MAES indicators in Greece such as (a) floristic diversity and (b) microrefugia of endemic diversity and support of decision-making.

White paper on the alignment and interoperability between the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and EU infrastructures - The case of the European Environment Agency (EEA)

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure (RI) is presently in its preparatory phase. DiSSCo is developing a new distributed RI to operate as a one-stop-shop for the envisaged European Natural Science Collection (NSC) and all its derived information. Through mass digitisation, DiSSCo will transform the fragmented landscape of NSCs, including an estimated 1.5 billion specimens, into an integrated knowledge base that will provide interconnected evidence of the natural world. Data derived from European NSCs underpin countless discoveries and innovations, including tens of thousands of scholarly publications and official reports annually (supporting legislative and regulatory processes on sustainability, environmental change, land use, societal infrastructure, health, food, security, etc.); base-line biodiversity data; inventions and products essential to bio-economy; databases, maps and descriptions of scientific observations; educational material for students; and instructive and informative resources for the public. To expand the user community, DiSSCo will strengthen capacity building across Europe for maximum engagement of stakeholders in the biodiversity-related field and beyond, including industry and the private sector, but also policy-driving entities. Hence, it is opportune to reach out to relevant stakeholders in the European environmental policy domain represented by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The EEA aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. The EEA provides information through the European Environment Information and Observation System (Eionet). The aim of this white paper is to open the discussion between DiSSCo and the EEA and identify the common service interests that are relevant for the European environmental policy domain. The first section describes the significance of (digital) Natural Science Collections (NHCs). Section two describes the DiSSCo programme with all DiSSCo aligned projects. Section three provides background information on the EEA and the biodiversity infrastructures that are developed and maintained by the EEA. The fourth section illustrates a number of use cases where the DiSSCo consortium sees opportunities for interaction between the DiSSCo RI and the Eionet portal of the EEA. Opening the discussion with the EEA in this phase of maturity of DiSSCo will ensure that the infrastructural design of DiSSCo and the development of e-Services accommodate the present and future needs of the EEA and assure data interoperability between the two infrastructures.

The aim of this white paper is to present benefits from identifying the common service interests of DiSSCo and the EEA. A brief introduction to natural science collections as well as the two actors is given to facilitate the understanding of the needs and possibilities in the alignment of DiSSCo with the EEA.