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Throughout the last decades, the increasing pressure of anthropogenic (climate and land-use) changes has been a major impact on biodiversity in several regions and habitat types. These drivers have disturbed the timing of reproduction in animals and plants as well as the migration of animals resulting in changes in population size and species distribution. Our study analyses the impact of climate change in the spatial distribution of selected species, between historical period (1950–2018) and future period (2041–2070), in four case studies at a watershed level over the Atlantic region, highlighting the importance of integrating landscape trends to anticipate key biodiversity pattern responses. The results were compared to predicted future climate projections (2041–2070), based on two IPCC scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), using a 5-model ensemble developed under the EURO-CORDEX project. Further, complementary downscaling methodologies were applied, allowing the increase of the spatial resolution from ~12 km to ~1 km in all climate variables. Land cover maps were developed using the Forecasting Landscape Scenarios Model. We assessed the impact of projected climate change and land cover development on specific vulnerable species distribution for each case study. The results showed an overall temperature increase for all case studies and both representative concentration pathways scenarios and a shift in potential habitat area of species addressed to areas upstream of the catchments. These predictions have a strong importance in defining conservation strategies of these vulnerable species, and may overall bring guidelines for the management of Atlantic landscapes in response to climate change, namely as pertinent ecological indicators under realistic future changing regional scenarios.

Por su continuidad espacial y su relativa homogeneidad ecológica y biofísica, las ecorregiones son un nivel de organización apropiado para discutir y planificar iniciativas de conservación del ambiente a escala regional y nacional. Las interacciones complejas entre las características ecológicas de las ecorregiones, los cambios socioeconómicos locales y globales, y los cambios en el uso de la tierra ocasionan que las amenazas y la oportunidades para conservar dentro y entre ecorregiones se distribuyan de manera heterogénea. En este artículo realizamos un diagnóstico actualizado de las presiones de conservación asociadas al uso de la tierra en las distintas ecorregiones terrestres de la Argentina. Entendemos por presiones a las actividades antrópicas que modifican el estado de los recursos naturales e impactan sobre su funcionamiento. Luego de identificar las principales presiones por ecorregión realizamos un análisis de agrupamiento para identificar grupos de ecorregiones en función de la similitud de sus presiones. La ganadería comercial y la agricultura estuvieron dentro de las principales presiones asociadas al uso de la tierra en ocho y siete de las ecorregiones terrestres de la Argentina, respectivamente. Otras presiones de incidencia más específicas fueron muy relevantes en algunas ecorregiones, en especial en aquellas con limitantes para las actividades agropecuarias orientadas a los mercados globales. Identificamos cuatro grupos en función de la incidencia de las presiones asociadas al uso de la tierra: 1) Monte, Puna y Altos Andes; 2) Bosques Patagónicos; 3) Selva Paranaense y Selva de las Yungas, y 4) Campos y Malezales, Chaco Húmedo, Chaco Seco, Delta e Islas del Paraná, Espinal, Esteros del Iberá, Estepa Patagónica y Pampa. Este agrupamiento por presiones comunes de ecorregiones distantes en el espacio contribuiría a organizar geográficamente políticas de gestión de los recursos naturales integradas a nivel regional.

Grassland bird populations in the Mediterranean lowlands have declined dramatically over the past few decades. This decline is due to a combination of factors, including changes in land use and farming practices as well as the impacts of climate change. In particular, more intensive agricultural methods have played a significant role in this reduction. However, in the higher-altitude uplands of the region, traditional practices like pastoralism and rotational low-intensity farming are still common, and these areas continue to support substantial populations of several threatened grassland bird species. In this viewpoint, we discuss the challenges that the uplands are facing and suggest rethinking regional development to better balance the needs of people and nature.

Mediterranean mountain peatlands are unique ecosystems because of their distinct hydrology and environmental conditions, as well as being home to a vast array of rare and endemic species. Due to anthropogenic activities and ongoing climate change, mountain peatlands are one of the most endangered ecosystems in Mediterranean areas. Climate scenarios for the western Mediterranean area estimate a sharp decrease in annual precipitation and an upsurge in temperature, which may disrupt the structure and functioning of ground-water-dependent ecosystems. To predict how the environmental suitability of Mediterranean mountain peatlands would be impacted by climate-induced changes, a microscale climatic model was used to downscale 2 m hourly air temperature to a high spatial resolution of 100 m in protected area of North Portugal. The environmental suitability was assessed based on bioclimatic indices associated with mountain peatland indicator species. Climate change projections envisage a decline in the environmental suitability of Mediterranean mountain peatlands and their indicator species, which could compromise this relict ecosystem probability of occurrence. Specifically, environmental suitability was considered highly sensitive to increases in temperature, namely when coupled with decreases in precipitation, resulting in significant reshaping of potential evaporation, evapotranspiration, and soil water content of the areas where peatlands actually occur. Also, the importance of microclimatic information for detecting change in ecosystems that are more vulnerable to climate change and in defining the best management options and conservation priorities is highlighted. Considering their vital role in the conservation of biodiversity and provider of ecosystem services, actions to mitigate and restore Mediterranean mountain peatlands are urgent.

In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) encouraged the specialisation of agriculture and forestry systems by supporting schemes that promoted productivity, despite the socio-ecological changes’ detrimental effects on ecosystem services and biodiversity. In the case of mountain viticulture of southern Europe, the adoption of intensive management techniques triggered noticeable changes in farming systems, namely the removal of traditional stonewalls and semi-natural vegetation, partially compensated by eco schemes and agri-environment-climate measures. By combining fieldwork information with spatio-temporal modelling techniques, a novel hybrid framework is explained and implemented to predict the population trends of a critically endangered bird species in Portugal, the Black Wheatear (Oenanthe leucura), to the individual and/or combined effects of the removal of traditional stonewall terraced vineyards and the implementation of cover crops. The results obtained demonstrate the relevance of stonewall terraced vineyards (and the negative effects of their removal) for the conservation of Black Wheatear, namely during the breeding season when holes and crevices are used for nesting. Conversely, and in accordance with our simulations, the increase in the area occupied by vineyards with cover crops seems particularly detrimental for the species, by decreasing the quality of the feeding grounds. As cover crops, and possibly other eco schemes and agri-environment-climate measures, might not be the panacea for halting biodiversity loss in mountain viticulture, adaptation of measures to species’ ecological requirements is urgent for a successful EU biodiversity strategy for 2030.

Hiking is a natural exercise that has become one the most popular outdoor activities, promoting physical fitness and de-stress without large investments or special equipment. However, hiking has downsides, particularly in the areas in which it takes place. From soil compaction and erosion to disturbance and ecological impacts, mounting evidence shows that it is far from innocuous to ecosystems. Despite spanning several decades, research on the impacts of hiking on ecosystems and particularly on the pertinence of using ecological indicators is still scarce. This work reviews the published information conducted with invertebrates and, by doing so, offers insights to guide not only management actions but also further investigation in this scope. We address some of the current knowledge gaps and provide recommendations by focusing on ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) for their sensitivity to disturbance, representativeness but also due to their taxonomic and functional diversity. Due to the limited number of studies published so far, the classification of species based on their habitat preference, within the context of trail impacts, is non-consensual. Alternatively, such classification should derive from its respective study and avoid being generalized, or done with great caution. Additionally, sampling methods that distinguish mortality from behavioural changes were considered crucial to determine possible effects. Ultimately, the joint use of both vegetation and invertebrates, particularly ground beetles, was considered relevant to assess hiking trail ecological impacts.

Considering the present ecological crisis, land use-biodiversity relationships have become a major topic in landscape planning, ecosystem management and ecological restoration. In this scope, consistent patterns of outstanding biodiversity have been identified in agroforestry systems within diverse biogeographic regions and types of management. Empirical work has revealed that agroforestry higher structural complexity, when compared with current simplified agricultural systems, might be partially responsible for the observed patterns. The recently developed Habitat Amount Hypothesis predicts diversity for a local habitat patch, from the amount of the same habitat within the local landscape. We have expanded the previous hypothesis to the landscape level, computing the influence of the dominant land uses on the diversity of coexisting guilds. As a case study, we have considered archetypal landscapes dominated (or co-dominated) by crops or trees, which were compared using normalized diversities. The results obtained show that agroforestry systems substantially increase functional diversity and overall biodiversity within landscapes. We highlight that the normalized values should be parametrized to real conditions where the type of crop, tree and agroecological management will make a difference. Most importantly, our findings provide additional evidence that agroforestry has a critical role in enhancing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and, in this way, should be regarded as a priority measure in European Agri-environmental funding schemes.

The effects of climate change are increasingly noticed worldwide, and crops are likely to be impacted in direct and indirect ways. Thus, it is urgent to adopt pliable strategies to reduce and/or mitigate possible adverse effects to meet the growing demand for sustainable and resilient food production. Monoculture cropping is globally the most common production system. However, adaptation to ongoing climate change, namely, to more extreme environmental conditions, has renewed the interest in other practices such as agroforestry, agroecology, and permaculture. This article provides an overview of ecological and physiological interactions between trees and crops in Mediterranean agroforestry systems and compares them with those from monocultures. The advantages and disadvantages of both systems are explored. The added value of modeling in understanding the complexity of interactions within agroforestry systems, supporting decision-making under current and future weather conditions, is also pinpointed. Several interactions between trees and crops might occur in agroforestry systems, leading to mutual positive and/or negative effects on growth, physiology, and yield. In this sense, selecting the most suitable combination of tree/crop species in mixtures may be best be indicated by complementary traits, which are crucial to maximizing trade-offs, improving productivity, ecosystem services, and environmental sustainability.

Neotropical caves located in pristine ecosystems harbor high biodiversity but face functional shifts and degradation interlinked with aboveground changes. Cave-roosting bats have been proposed as integrity indicators of karst landscapes considering their sensitive to both the underground and aboveground characteristics and resources. In the present study, the selection of caves by bats in karst areas across a landscape gradient in the Brazilian Amazon was investigated. We envisioned that taxonomic and guild diversity should respond dissimilarly to disturbance at different scales, namely by a selective offsetting of the bat community. To test our hypothesis, we accordingly selected caves spanning a gradient of disturbance, located in old growth forests, secondary forests, forest fragments, agricultural landscapes, and pastures. Species and traits showing responses to the gradient of caves and aboveground ecosystems were identified. On the basis of patterns of occurrence, we determined those communities unique to or primarily associated with undisturbed caves located in pristine ecosystems and landscapes. Disturbed caves, which are generally located in areas of agriculture and pastures, were found to have detrimental effects on specialized species and functional guilds diversity. Our preliminary results reveal that bat communities are particularly sensitive to gradients of cave and ecosystem disturbance, and consequently might add ecological information to the currently used indicators for assessing the ecological status of landscapes in the Neotropics.

Sustainable management of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is a European Union objective supported on multifunctional agri-environment measures. The effectiveness of specific practices implemented to reverse declines in farmland biodiversity should be monitored using straightforward methodologies and indicators. This work outlines an innovative hybrid framework to predict the response of biodiversity indicators to farm management options. We exemplify the framework application, integrating monitoring, statistics and spatio-temporal modelling procedures with a case study using flying vertebrates’ patterns for indicating biodiversity trends. The indicators considered depict significant divergences within contrasting on-farm implemented environmental management options. In fact, while birds’ abundance was expected to increase within environmentally friendly options, bats passes showed fluctuating patterns. Overall, the framework and indicators selected were considered relevant for biodiversity assessments in vineyard landscapes. This approach also provides a promising baseline to support sustainable management practices and options for other agroecosystems, derived from ecological models with increased predictive power and intuitiveness to decision makers and environmental managers.