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Species differ in their biological susceptibility to extinction, but the set of traits determining susceptibility varies across taxa. It is yet unclear which patterns are common to all taxa, and which are taxon-specific, with conse-quences to conservation practice. In this study we analysed the generality of trait-based prediction of extinction risk across terrestrial (including freshwater) vertebrates, invertebrates and plants at a global scale. For each group, we selected five representative taxa and within each group we explored whether risk can be related to any of 10 potential predictors. We then synthesized outcomes across taxa using a meta-analytic approach. High habitat specificity was a consistent predictor across vertebrates, invertebrates and plants, being a universal predictor of risk. Slow life-history traits - large relative offspring size, low fecundity, long generation length -, and narrow altitudinal range were also found to be good predictors across most taxa, but their universality needs to be supported with additional data. Poor dispersal ability was a common predictor of extinction risk among invertebrate and plant taxa, but not consistently among vertebrates. The remaining traits (body size, micro -habitat verticality, trophic level, and diet breadth) were useful to predict extinction risk but only at lower tax-onomical levels. Our study shows that despite the idiosyncrasies among taxa, universal susceptibility to extinction exists and several traits might influence extinction risk for most taxa. Informing conservation prior-itization at lower taxonomic scales should however include taxon-specific trait-based predictors of extinction risk.

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. To associate specimens identified by molecular characters to other biological knowledge, we need reference sequences annotated by Linnaean taxonomy. In this study, we (1) report the creation of a comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes for the arthropods of an entire country (Finland), (2) publish this library, and (3) deliver a new identification tool for insects and spiders, as based on this resource. The reference library contains mtDNA COI barcodes for 11,275 (43%) of 26,437 arthropod species known from Finland, including 10,811 (45%) of 23,956 insect species. To quantify the improvement in identification accuracy enabled by the current reference library, we ran 1000 Finnish insect and spider species through the Barcode of Life Data system (BOLD) identification engine. Of these, 91% were correctly assigned to a unique species when compared to the new reference library alone, 85% were correctly identified when compared to BOLD with the new material included, and 75% with the new material excluded. To capitalize on this resource, we used the new reference material to train a probabilistic taxonomic assignment tool, FinPROTAX, scoring high success. For the full-length barcode region, the accuracy of taxonomic assignments at the level of classes, orders, families, subfamilies, tribes, genera, and species reached 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.8%, 99.7%, 99.4%, 96.8%, and 88.5%, respectively. The FinBOL arthropod reference library and FinPROTAX are available through the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (www.laji.fi) at https://laji.fi/en/theme/protax. Overall, the FinBOL investment represents a massive capacity-transfer from the taxonomic community of Finland to all sectors of society.

In an effort to characterise the various dimensions of activity within the biodiversity informatics landscape, we developed a framework to survey these dimensions for ten major organisations*1 relative to both their current activities and long-term strategic ambitions. This survey assessed the contact between these infrastructure organisations by capturing the breadth of activities for each infrastructure across five categories (data, standards, software, hardware and policy), for nine types of data (specimens, collection descriptions, opportunistic observations, systematic observations, taxonomies, traits, geological data, molecular data, and literature), and for seven phases of activity (creation, aggregation, access, annotation, interlinkage, analysis, and synthesis). This generated a dataset of 6,300 verified observations, which have been scored and validated by leading members of each infrastructure organisation. In this analysis of the resulting data, we address a set of high-level questions about the overall biodiversity informatics landscape, looking at the greatest gaps, overlap and possible rate-limiting steps. Across the infrastructure organisations, we also explore how far each is in relation to achieving its ambitions and the extent of its niche relative to other organisations. Our results show that when viewed by scope, most infrastructures occupy a relatively narrow niche in the overall landscape of activity, with the notable exception of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and possibly LifeWatch. Niches associated with molecular data and biological taxonomy are very well filled, suggesting there is still considerable room for growth in other areas, with the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (eLTER RI) showing the highest levels of difference between their current activities and stated ambitions, potentially reflecting the relative youth of these organisations. iNaturalist, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and Catalogue of Life all occupy narrow and tightly circumscribed niches. These organisations are also amongst the closest to achieving their stated ambitions within their respective areas of activity. The largest gaps in infrastructure activity relate to the development of hardware and standards, with many gaps set to be addressed if the stated ambitions of those surveyed come to fruition. Nevertheless, some gaps persist, outlining a potential role for this survey as a planning tool to help coordinate and align investment in future biodiversity informatics activities. GBIF and LifeWatch are the two infrastructures where there is the most similarity in ambition with DiSSCo, with the greatest overlap concentrated on activities related to data/content, specimen data and their shared ambition to interlink information. While overlap appears intense, the analysis is limited by the resolution of the survey framework and ignores existing collaborations between infrastructures. In addition to presenting the results of this survey, we outline our plans to publish this work and a proposal to develop the methodology as an interactive web-based tool. This would allow other projects and infrastructures to self-score their activities and visualise their niche within the current landscape, encouraging better global alignment of activities. For example, our results should make it easier for initiatives to strengthen collaboration and differentiate work when their activities overlap. Likewise, this approach would be useful for funding agencies when targeting gaps in the informatics landscape or increasing the technical maturity of certain critical activities, e.g., to improve immature data standards. While no framework is perfect, we hope to encourage a dialogue on the potential for taking an algorithmic approach to community alignment and see this as a means of strengthening community cooperation when addressing problems that require global cooperation.

Biodiversity informatics has advanced rapidly with the maturation of major biodiversity data infrastructures (BDDIs), such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility sharing unprecedented data volumes. Nevertheless, taxonomic, temporal and spatial data coverage remains unsatisfactory. With an increasing data need, the global BDDIs require continuous inflow from local data mobilisation, and national BDDIs are being developed around the world. The global BDDIs are specialised in certain data types or data life cycle stages which, despite possible merits, renders the BDDI landscape fragmented and complex. That this often is repeated at the national level creates counterproductive redundancy, complicates user services, and frustrates funders. Here, we present the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) as a model of an all-inclusive BDDI. It integrates relevant data types and phases of the data life cycle, manages them under one IT architecture, and distributes the data through one service portal under one brand. FinBIF has experienced diverse funder engagement and rapid user uptake. Therefore, we suggest the integrated and inclusive approach be adopted in national BDDI development.

The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) Research Infrastructure (Schulman et al. 2021) is a national service with a broad coverage of the components of biodiversity informatics (Bingham et al. 2017). Data flows are managed under a single information technology (IT) architecture. Services are available in a single, branded on-line portal. Data are collated from all relevant sources e.g., research institutes, scientific collections, public authorities and citizen science projects, whose data represent a major contribution. The challenge is to analyse, classify and share good quality data in a way that the user understands its utility. Need for quality data The philosophy of FinBIF is that all observation records are important, and that all data are assessed for quality and able to be annotated. The challenge is that, in practice, many users desire data with 100% reliability. In our experience, most user concerns about data quality are related to citizen science data. Researchers are usually able to manage raw data to serve their purposes. However, decision-making authorities often have less capacity to analyse the data and thus require data that can be used instantly. Therefore, we need tools to provide users the data that are the most relevant and reliable for their specific use. For all users, standardized metadata (information about datasets) are key, when the user has doubts about the fitness-for-use of a particular dataset. There is also a need to provide data in different formats to serve various users. Finally, the service has to be machine-actionable (using an application programming interface (API) and R-package) as well as human-accessible for viewing and downloading data. Quality assignment FinBIF data accuracy varies significantly within and between datasets, and observers. Two quality-based classifications suitable for filtering are therefore applied. The dataset origin filter is based on the quality of a whole dataset (e.g. citizen science project) and includes three broad classes assigned with an appropriate quality label: Datasets by Professionals, by Specialists and by Citizen Scientists. The observation reliability filter is based on a single observation and on annotations by FinBIF users. This classification includes Expert verified, Community verified, Unassessed (default for all records), Uncertain, and Erroneous. The dataset origin does not necessarily determine the quality of the individual records in it. Observations made by citizen scientists are often accurate, while there may be errors in the professionally collected data. Records are frequently subject to annotation, which raises their quality over time (e.g., iNaturalist). Naturally, evidence (e.g., media, detailed descriptions, specimens) is needed for reliable identification. Annotating data When observations are compiled at FinBIF’s portal (Laji.fi), they are initially “Unassessed” (unless they have otherwise been assessed at the original source). When annotating occurrences, volunteers can make various entries using the tools provided. The aim of the commentary is to improve the quality of the observation data. Annotators are divided into two categories with two different roles: As a basic user, anyone who has logged in at Laji.fi can make comments or tag observations for review by experts. Users defined as experts have wider rights than basic users and their comments carry more weight. The most desired actions of expert users are to classify observations into confidence levels or to give them new or refined identifications. As a basic user, anyone who has logged in at Laji.fi can make comments or tag observations for review by experts. Users defined as experts have wider rights than basic users and their comments carry more weight. The most desired actions of expert users are to classify observations into confidence levels or to give them new or refined identifications. Information about new comments passes to the observer if the observation is recorded by using the FinBIF Observation Management System “Notebook”. However, comments cannot yet be automatically forwarded e.g., to the primary data management systems at the original source. Annotations add extra indications of quality. They do not replace or delete the original information. Nevertheless, annotations can change a record’s taxonomic identification, and by default, a record will be handled based on its latest identification. R-package for researchers and Public Authority Portal (PAP) for decision makers FinBIF has produced an R programming language interface to its API, which makes the publicly available data in FinBIF accessible from within R. For authorities, the PAP offers direct access to all available species information to authorised users, including sensitive and restricted-use data.

The Paleontological Collection (PalCo) is one of partial collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus. General principles and guidelines for the collections are defined in the General Collection Policy of Luomus. The PalCo Policy is subordinate to the General Collection Policy of Luomus, clarifying its content with reference to the special characteristics of the paleontological collections. The PalCo includes fossil plant, invertebrate and vertebrate specimens worldwide in scope and from all geologic ages to support Finnish research and educational projects. The coverage emphasizes Paleozoic and Quaternary specimens from Finland, the Baltic countries and Scandinavia. The PalCo Policy defines the purpose of the collections, the objectives, the distribution of responsibilities for collection management and maintenance in the organisation, and the principles of collection accumulation, preservation, accessibility and use. Non

The collections policy of the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus is hierarchically structured. The general collections policy defines the overall principles and guidelines. The sub-collections policies, such as the Living collections policy, comply with and apply the general collections policy and specify its guidelines and instructions, taking the special nature of the sub-collections into account. The living plant collections policy guides the care of the collections in the botanic gardens and the seed bank, excluding DNA and tissue samples which are covered by a separate genomic resources policy. The purpose of the collections policy is to help guide the care of the garden collections and the processing of information relating to the collections, thereby providing the basis for developing the botanic gardens. Non

The herbarium collections are sub-collections of the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus that manages national natural history collections, as referred to in the Universities Act. The general collections policy defines the overall principles and guidelines concerning the collections practices. The sub-collections policies specify its guidelines and instructions, considering the special nature of the sub-collections. The policy for the botanical and mycological herbarium collections guides the activities related to all botanical, mycological and phycological collections in herbaria, hence excluding digital collections, DNA and tissue samples as well as living collections, which have separate policies. The herbarium collections policy defines and outlines the purpose of the collections as is to accrue and preserve natural specimens representing biodiversity for research and university-level teaching. The policy defines the objectives and content of related activities, the division of responsibilities for the administration and care of the collections within the organisation, and the general principles and practices for the acquisition, preservation, availability and use of the collections. Non

SummaryBiodiversity is eroding at unprecedented rates due to human activity1. Species’ trajectories towards extinction are shaped by multiple factors, including life-history traits2 as well as human pressures3. Previous studies linking these factors to extinction risk have been narrow in their taxonomic and geographic scope4, thus limiting the ability for identifying global predictors. We studied the relation between 12 traits and the extinction risk of almost 900 species representing 15 groups across the tree of life (vertebrates, invertebrates and plants) at a global scale. We show that threatened species share narrow habitat breadth, poor dispersal ability, low fecundity, small altitudinal range, and are affected by a large human footprint. Other traits either show contrasting responses among groups (body size, offspring size, and change in human footprint), or relations were found for only a limited number of taxa (generation length, diet breadth, microhabitat). Our study suggests that in the absence of data on the precise distribution and population trends of species, traits can be used as predictors of extinction risk and thus help guide future research, monitoring and conservation efforts.

The collection policy of the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus is hierarchically structured. General principles and guidelines are defined in the General Collections Policy. Subordinate to it, the collection policies for the individual sub-collections implement and specify these guidelines and instructions, considering the special nature of each sub-collection. The invertebrate collections policy in 2017 was the first sub-collection policy to observe this hierarchical structure, and was guided by the standards set by the European SYNTHESYS collections management self-assessment procedure. The invertebrate collections policy directs all activities related to the Luomus invertebrate collections (apart from DNA and tissue samples), which comprise the separately managed entomological collections (ca. 9 million specimens) and collections of other invertebrates (0.4 million). The policy defines the purpose of the collections, outlines the objectives and content of procedures and activities related to them, the division of responsibilities for the administration and care of the collections within the organisation, and the principles and practices for the acquisition, preservation, accessibility and use of the collections.

’Notebook’ is one of the primary data management systems of the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF). It is a web solution for recording opportunistic as well as sampling-event-based species observations. It is being used for systematic monitoring schemes, various citizen science projects, and platforms for species enthusiasts. Notebook's main software component is LajiForm, which is the engine that renders a given JSON Schema into a web form. LajiForm is a separate, reusable module that is fully independent from other FinBIF systems. Notebook as a whole, includes other features embedded in FinBIF, such as linking users' geographical data to observation documents, spreadsheet document importing and form templates. We will demonstrate how the Notebook system works as a whole and also focus on LajiForm's technical aspects. Fig. 1 All Notebook forms use FinBIF's ontological schema in JSON Schema format. Rendering user-friendly web forms based on a single schema is a difficult task, because the web form should be asking meaningful questions, instead of just rendering the schema fields according to the form description. We want to present questions in an interactive style. For instance, after drawing a geographical location on a map for a potential flying squirrel nesting tree, we would ask "did you see droppings at the nest?", and answering "yes" would update the document to include a flying squirrel taxon identification with fields "breeding" and "record basis" filled in but not rendered to the form. A simpler form engine without a user interface (UI) customization layer would just render the "taxon", "breeding" and "record basis" fields and the user would have no understanding why there are so many fields to answer and how they relate to their work or study. Some forms are complex, e.g., for experienced biology enthusiasts who need a form that is advanced, customizable, and compact. Some forms are simple, e.g., for elementary school children. To tackle these challenges, LajiForm uses a separate schema for UI that allows everything from simple customization like: defining widgets for fields (e.g., date widgets, taxon autocomplete widget, map widget), changing field order or customizing field labels; to more complex customization like transforming the schema object structure, defining conditions when certain fields are shown or if updating a field should have an effect on other fields. defining widgets for fields (e.g., date widgets, taxon autocomplete widget, map widget), changing field order or customizing field labels; to more complex customization like transforming the schema object structure, defining conditions when certain fields are shown or if updating a field should have an effect on other fields. All the functionality is split into a loosely coupled collection of components, which can be either used as standalone components or composed together in order to achieve more advanced customization. The programming philosophy has drawn inspiration from functional programming, which has been helpful in writing isolated, composable functionality. LajiForm is written with the JavaScript framework React. LajiForm is built on top of react-jsonschema-form (RJSF), which is an open source JSON schema web form library provided by Mozilla. RJSF handles only simple customization, but it is very flexible in design and allows us to build extensions with features that are more powerful. Some features and design proposals were submitted to Mozilla – FinBIF is the largest code contributor to RJSF outside of Mozilla, with a dozen pull requests merged.

The service model of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is being implemented in an increasing number of national biodiversity (BD) data services. While GBIF already shares >109 data points, national initiatives are an essential component: increase in GBIF-mediated data relies on national data mobilisation and GBIF is not optimised to support local use. The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF), initiated in 2012 and operational since late 2016, is one of the more recent examples of national BD research infrastructures (RIs) – and arguably among the most comprehensive. Here, we describe FinBIF’s development and service integration, and provide a model approach for the construction of all-inclusive national BD RIs. FinBIF integrates a wide array of BD RI approaches under the same umbrella. These include large-scale and multi-technology digitisation of natural history collections; building a national DNA barcode reference library and linking it to species occurrence data; citizen science platforms enabling recording, managing and sharing of observation data; management and sharing of restricted data among authorities; community-driven species identification support; an e-learning environment for species identification; and IUCN Red Listing (Fig. 1). FinBIF’s aims are to accelerate digitisation, mobilisation, and distribution of biodiversity data and to boost their use in research and education, environmental administration, and the private sector. The core functionalities of FinBIF were built in a 3.5-year project (01/2015–06/2018) by a consortium of four university-based natural history collection facilities led by the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus. Close to 30% of the total funding was granted through the Finnish Research Infrastructures programme (FIRI) governed by the national research council and based on scientific excellence. Government funds for productivity enhancement in state administration covered c.40 % of the development and the rest was self-financed by the implementing consortium of organisations that have both a research and an education mission. The cross-sectoral scope of FinBIF has led to rapid uptake and a broad user base of its functionalities and services. Not only researchers but also administrative authorities, various enterprises and a large number of private citizens show a significant interest in the RI (Table 1). FinBIF is now in its second construction cycle (2019–2022), funded through the FIRI programme and, thus, focused on researcher services. The work programme includes integration of tools for data management in ecological restoration and e-Lab tools for spatial analyses, morphometric analysis of 3D images, species identification from sound recordings, and metagenomics analyses.

The threat assessment of Finnish species was carried out during 2017–2018 for the third time using International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria (IUCN 2012a, IUCN 2012b, IUCN 2016). The Red List was published in March 2019 (Hyvärinen et al. 2019). In conjunction with the assessment of threatened species, 36,602 species or lower taxa were listed. The information was sufficient for assessment of 22,418 species. It was done by 18 expert groups of different organism groups. The process was coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute Syke and led by the steering group of the assessment from the Ministry of Environment. For the first time, the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility FinBIF offered a documentation tool and archive for the threat assessment. The assessment was based on the national checklist of Finnish species coordinated by FinBIF. Many of the expert groups are in active collaboration with FinBIF in maintaining FinBIF’s taxon database and in updating the checklists. Hence, there was a good foundation to build on in developing the cooperation further and deepening the integration of the Red Listing process into FinBIF’s IT infrastructure. The documentation tool of the assessment is implemented in the taxon database of FinBIF (Fig. 1). The Red List data of the 2010 (all species) and 2015 (birds and mammals) assessments are readily available in the tool. The assessor can therefore easily copy and confirm e.g. area of occupancy, extent of occurrence, generation length and habitat of a species, if there is no need for editing. The service offers the possibility to add notes to most of the fields separately and commenting on the assessment by other authorized users. The tool archives the history of all changes. In line with the IUCN instructions, the tool automatically chooses the criteria leading to the highest possible threat category of criteria A-E filled out for each species. However, the assessor confirms the final evaluation. Finally, in several fields, the tool automatically checks the validity of values entered, e.g. criteria, threat category, length of the observation period, causes of threat, and current threat factors. The tool includes necessary fields for back-casting the categories of previous assessments to count the Red List Index. There is also a possibility to add or choose references for the assessment of a certain species in the publications part of the taxon database. Due to linkage through the taxon database, the updated threat categories of each Finnish species are immediately available as additional information of each species introduced in FinBIF. Also for the first time, the results of the threat assessment can be examined online directly after its publication at the Red List online service through FinBIF: https://punainenkirja.laji.fi/en. The online service makes Red List categories and related criteria searchable. Data can be categorized also by habitat, causes of threat, or current threat factors. Due to the ability to conduct searches, the online service supplements the printed book (Hyvärinen et al. 2019), which includes extensive summaries for groups of organisms.

The Finnish Red Lists from 2000 and 2010 were used to calculate for the first time the national Red List Index for the order Lepidoptera and different Lepidoptera families with data from 2245 species. We grouped species according to their primary habitats and analysed each habitat's RLI as well. The overall RLI was significantly negative, reflecting the worsening of the group as a whole in the country. A significant negative trend was found for families Tortricidae, Gelechiidae and Hesperiidae and for coastal habitats. We also report that 76 Lepidoptera species newly established a population in Finland between 2000 and 2010, probably expanding northwards driven by climate warming.

Loss of biodiversity is a pressing global issue, hence it is vital to facilitate informed and effective conservation. As conservation mainly operates at the level of habitats, aiming for species of conservation interest, conservation and management require adequate ecological knowledge of prioritized species for the geographic and environmental setting considered. Our aim was to investigate if ecological documentation in national Red Lists could be combined and used to identify important forest habitats and ecological variables for red-listed forest species in Fennoscandia, and whether this knowledge could be arranged at different geographical scales and for various selections of species of conservation interest. We compiled the national Red Lists of Finland, Norway and Sweden and extracted ecological information for all red-listed forest species (n = 4830). We used a principal component analysis to investigate variation in distribution of species and their habitat associations and taxonomical groups, and to group species of similar associations. We further used the listed species in Sweden as an example, and compared the proportions of species associated to the ecological variables dead wood, living trees or merely the "forest floor and understory" a) at larger and smaller scale (Fennoscandia - county in Sweden), b) in regions with contrasting biomes (nemoral and boreal), and c) in two more limited selections of species of conservation interest; Fennoscandian and globally red-listed species also red-listed in Sweden. Ecological information could be extracted for 96% of the species, albeit with a low resolution; i.e. overall forest habitats, associated tree species, lifeforms and six other ecological variables selected based on their frequent appearance in the Red List documentation. Using this information, we identified five large-scale patterns for Fennoscandian red-listed species; the majority of red-listed species is associated with coniferous forest. The number of red-listed species associated with specific tree species was poorly correlated with the amount of each tree species in Fennoscandia. Dead wood was one of the most important habitat features in terms of number of associated red-listed species, and the proportion of species associated to dead wood was similar in coniferous, boreal and nemoral broad-leaved forests types. We demonstrate that ecological documentation in national Red Lists can be used to identify general ecological variables at varying geographical scales and for different selections of species, albeit not with sufficient resolution to provide detailed local conservation guidelines. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Our goal was to infer the phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of the genusWe obtained sequence data for five chloroplast markers from 214 species ofWe found that 22 of 27 accessions of sub-Saharan AfricanThe majority of sub-Saharan African

Ferns are the second largest group of vascular land plants after the angiosperms, but remain chronically underrepresented in studies of plant phylogeny, biogeography, physiology, and genomics. The genus Dryopteris, the woodferns, is a large group with a worldwide distribution, and recent research has made it one of the better understood fern genera and a potential model for understanding many aspects of fern biology and evolution. Here we review historical and current understanding of the genus, and outline promising avenues of future research in ferns for which Dryopteris is an ideal study system, particularly for research on polyploid complexes, biogeographic distributions, and physiological ecology.

Traditionally, ecologists and taxonomists have conducted mostly separated research. Ecologists have been using the well-known species groups as their model organisms for practical reasons, whereas taxonomists have focused on poorly known species groups. Extensive collaboration between these research fields has unfortunately been a rarity. We argue that increased collaboration between ecologists and taxonomists yields benefits through several pathways. Firstly, it improves the scientific quality of both disciplines through deeper insight on the study organisms and increased feasibility of the collected data. Secondly, it improves the prospects of the scientists involved and opens up potential funding sources, helping to solve the taxonomic impediment. Finally, improved collaboration could balance ecological research towards more species-rich, functionally important groups. This would increase the quality and effectiveness of nature conservation and management plans positively affecting the sustainability of environmental policy making. These obvious benefits should be swiftly acknowledged by research institutions, science leaders and funding bodies. They should actively promote for strong collaborative efforts from the present and recruited staff representing both disciplines.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Our goal was to infer the phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of the genus Dryopteris with a focus on taxa in sub-Saharan Africa and neighboring islands. In general, little is known about the relationships between African fern species and their congeners in other geographic regions, and our aim was to determine whether the sub-Saharan African species of Dryopteris are monophyletic and evolved within Africa or arrived there via repeated dispersals into Africa from other regions. METHODS: We obtained sequence data for five chloroplast markers from 214 species of Dryopteris and 18 outgroups. We performed phylogenetic and molecular dating analyses using a Bayesian relaxed clock method in BEAST with fossil and secondary calibration points and estimated ancestral ranges for the genus globally by comparing multiple models in BioGeoBEARS. KEY RESULTS: We found that 22 of 27 accessions of sub-Saharan African Dryopteris belong to a large clade of 31 accessions that also includes taxa from Indian and Atlantic Ocean islands. Additional accessions of taxa from our regions of interest have Asian, Hawaiian, European, or North American species as their closest relatives. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of sub-Saharan African Dryopteris species are descended from a shared common ancestor that dispersed to Africa from Asia approximately 10 Ma. There have been subsequent dispersal events from the African mainland to islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, including Madagascar. Several additional species are estimated to have descended from ancestors that reached Africa via separate events over the last roughly 20 million years.

Non

The taxonomic knowledge gap and lack of knowledge on species-level diversity has been a global concern within conservation biology through the recent two decades. As a national response, Finland has funded a Research Program of Poorly Known and Threatened Forest Species from the year 2003. The program is an essential part of the knowledge base applied in Finnish forest policy. The present paper evaluates the outcomes of the program, covering scientific publication, training, taxonomic coverage, increased knowledge on boreal forest biodiversity and awareness rising. The ongoing program has been funded by 6.5 million Euros to date including 59 projects. The program has produced 19 master’s theses and six doctoral theses. Due to their expertise the graduated biologists have been employed in environmental administration or become researchers. The program has produced 163 refereed scientific articles, 104 of which are recognized by the Web of Science; with an average impact factor of 1.81. The results of the program include 15 genera and 348 species new to science, and 60 genera and 1,664 species to Finland’s list of known species. Due to new knowledge gathered in the program 3,000–4,000 species could be included in the most recent National Red List assessment. The publishing of identification books on local language has proved as the most effective way of advancing general species knowledge among the public and end-users. The high number of new species to science from a biodiversity-poor boreal country describes the scale of the huge work still be done in describing the global species-level diversity. The program has achieved its goals in many ways, but the program leaves out a large part of the species that do not occur in forest biotopes. Moreover, the funding has decreased through the years despite the international goal of halting the world’s biodiversity loss has not been met.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index (RLI) is recognized as one of the key indicators of trends in the status of species. The red-list assessment done by Finnish authorities of species in Finland is taxonomically one of the most extensive national assessments. We used the Finnish Red Lists from 2000 and 2010 to calculate for the first time the national RLIs for 11 taxonomic groups at different trophic levels and with different life cycles. The red-list index is calculated on the basis of changes in red-list categories and indicates trends in the status of biological diversity of sets of species. The RLI value ranges from 0 to 1. The lower the value the faster the set of species is heading toward extinction. If the value is 1, all species in the set are least concern and if the value is 0, all species are (regionally) extinct. The overall RLI of Finnish species decreased. This means that, in Finland, these taxonomic groups were heading toward extinction faster in 2010 than in 2000. Of the analyzed groups of organisms, RLIs of 5 decreased and RLIs of 6 increased. At the national level, the RLIs and status trends varied markedly between species groups. Thus, we concluded that generalizations on the basis of RLIs of a few taxa only may yield a biased view of ongoing trends in the status of biological diversity at the species level. In addition, one overall RLI that includes many different species groups may also be misleading if variation in RLI among species groups is not considered and if RLI values are not presented separately for each group. Aplicacion del Indice de la Lista Roja a Nivel Nacional para Grupos de Especies Multiples Resumen El Indice de la Lista Roja (ILR) de la Union Internacional para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza (IUCN) es reconocido como uno de los indicadores clave de las tendencias en el estatus de las especies. La evaluacion de lista roja realizada por autoridades finlandesas con las especies en Finlandia es, taxonomicamente, una de las evaluaciones nacionales mas extensivas. Utilizamos las Listas Rojas Finlandesas de 2000 a 2010 para calcular, por primera vez, los ILR nacionales para 11 grupos taxonomicos en diferentes niveles troficos y con ciclos de vida diferentes. El indice de la lista roja se calcula con base en los cambios en las categorias de la lista roja e indica las tendencias en el estatus de biodiversidad de conjuntos de especies. El valor de ILR varia entre 0 y 1. A menor valor, mayor la velocidad con que el conjunto de especies va hacia la extincion. Si el valor es 1, todas las especies en el conjunto son de menor preocupacion y si el valor es 0, todas las especies estan extintas (regionalmente). El ILR general de especies finlandesas decrecio. Esto significa que, en Finlandia, estos grupos taxonomicos van rumbo a la extincion mas rapido en 2010 que en 2000. De los grupos de organismos analizados, los ILR de 5 disminuyeron y los ILR de 6 incrementaron. A nivel nacional, los ILR y las tendencias de estatus variaron marcadamente entre especies y grupos. Por lo tanto, concluimos que las generalizaciones con base en los ILR de solo unos cuantos taxa puede producir una vision sesgada de las tendencias en el estatus de la biodiversidad a nivel de especies. Adicionalmente, un ILR total que incluye muchos grupos diferentes de especies tambien puede ser enganoso si la variacion del ILR entre grupos de especies no es considerada y si los valores de ILR so se presentan por separado para cada grupo.

For the first time ever, the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Index for habitat types was calculated for an entire country, Finland. The RLIs were based on species threat assessments from 2000 and 2010 and included habitat definitions for all 10,131 species of 12 organism groups. The RLIs were bootstrapped to track statistically significant changes. The RLI changes of species grouped by habitats were negative for all habitat types except for forests and rural biotopes which showed a stable trend. Trends of beetles and true bugs were positive in rural and forest habitats. Other 16 observed trends of species group and habitat combinations were negative. Several trends observed were in accordance with studies focusing on particular taxa and habitats, and drivers for their change. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the RLI as a tool for observing habitat change based on species threat assessment data.

To test earlier hypotheses on the evolutionary origins of European polyploid Dryopteris, their phylogenetic rela- tionships are investigated using nuclear pgiC and plastid trnL-F sequence data. The nuclear pgiC region is for the first time used successfully in phylogenetic analyses of ferns, and is shown to provide appropriate variability to address species-level questions in Dryopteris. The trnL-F dataset is used to infer maternal relationships for the allopolyploid species and provides strong support for some of the smaller clades resolved by pgiC. Allopolyploid origins of Dryopteris carthusiana, D. cristata, and D. guanchica are supported and some, but not all, progenitors are indicated by the analyses. The results are in disagreement with the "D. semicristata" hypothesis proposed by several authors. The allopolyploid origin of D. crispifolia remained unresolved and allopolyploid origins of D. dilatata and D. filix-mas were unsupported. This study provides the first insight in the molecular phylogeny of the diploid D. fragrans, which shows major genetic variation within the only European population of the species.

The phylogenetic relationships of liverworts were reconstructed using the sequence data of four genome regions including rbcL, rps4 and trnL-F of the chloroplast and 26S large subunit ribosomal rRNA gene of the nucleus, and 90 characters of morphological, ultrastructural and developmental aspects. The taxa sampled consisted of 159 species including 135 liverworts (108 genera, 54 families and 29 suborders), 13 mosses, two hornworts, seven vascular plants and two charophyte algae. Analyses based on maximum parsimony using both direct optimization (POY) and static alignment (NONA), as well as Bayesian inference (MrBayes) were done. All the data sets were analyzed simultaneously. Our study confirms that liverworts compose a monophyletic group which consists of three classes. The class Treubiopsida including both Treubia and Haplomitrium is resolved as the earliest diverging liverwort lineage. Blasia and the complex thalloids are assigned to the Marchantiopsida, under which Blasiidae and Marchantiidae are divided. Marchantiidae include Sphaerocarpales and Marchantiales. The simple thalloid and leafy liverworts form the Jungermanniopsida, which is further divided to subclasses Pelliidae subclassis nov., Metzgeriidae and Jungermanniidae. Metzgeriidae here is defined to include only Metzgeriaceae, Aneuraceae and Vandiemeniaceae, and is the sister group to the leafy liverworts. The leafy liverworts Jungermanniidae include the orders Pleuroziales, Porellales and Jungermanniales. It is assumed that the Porellales and the Jungermanniales have split early, at least in the Jurassic period. In the Porellales, the diversification rate may have remained relatively constant for long periods of time but speeding up only recently within some of the families, associated with an explosive radiation of angiosperms. The Jungermanniales are most probably a recently diversified group which has attained the greatest profusion of structure and the most remarkable diversity of leaf development and protective devices for maturing sporophytes. A detailed classification scheme for liverworts is presented. © The Willi Hennig Society 2006.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Index (RLI) is recognized as one of the key indicators of trends in the status of species. The red-list assessment done by Finnish authorities of species in Finland is taxonomically one of the most extensive national assessments. We used the Finnish Red Lists from 2000 and 2010 to calculate for the first time the national RLIs for 11 taxonomic groups at different trophic levels and with different life cycles. The red-list index is calculated on the basis of changes in red-list categories and indicates trends in the status of biological diversity of sets of species. The RLI value ranges from 0 to 1. The lower the value the faster the set of species is heading toward extinction. If the value is 1, all species in the set are least concern and if the value is 0, all species are (regionally) extinct. The overall RLI of Finnish species decreased. This means that, in Finland, these taxonomic groups were heading toward extinction faster in 2010 than in 2000. Of the analyzed groups of organisms, RLIs of 5 decreased and RLIs of 6 increased. At the national level, the RLIs and status trends varied markedly between species groups. Thus, we concluded that generalizations on the basis of RLIs of a few taxa only may yield a biased view of ongoing trends in the status of biological diversity at the species level. In addition, one overall RLI that includes many different species groups may also be misleading if variation in RLI among species groups is not considered and if RLI values are not presented separately for each group.

Taxonomic relationships of the liverwort genus Herbertus in Asia were examined. In addition, the phylogeny of the family Herbertaceae and its close relatives was investigated and analyses conducted of higher level relationships within the entire liverwort phylum. Species of Herbertus show great plasticity in various morphological characters, resulted in a large number of described species. This study was the first comprehensive revision of Asian Herbertus, with 12 species recognized for the continent. Eleven names were reduced to synonymy under earlier described species, and one species was excluded from the genus. Herbertus buchii Juslén was described as a new species. Phylogenetic analyses based on both molecular and morphological characters resolved the families Vetaformaceae, Lepicoleaceae, and Herbertaceae (including Mastigophoraceae) as a monophyletic entity. This clade is among the most derived groups within the leafy liverworts and comprises mostly isophyllous plants, all of which have bracteolar antheridia. The relationships of Mastigophoraceae have formerly been controversial. My results confirm the view that this family is closely related to Herbertaceae, Lepicoleaceae, and Vetaformaceae. In the proposed new classification Mastigophoraceae is included in Herbertaceae. Phylogenetic relationships within the liverworts were reconstructed using both chloroplast and nuclear sequences as well as morphological characters. These analyses were the most comprehensive to date at the time of publication. Previously it was believed that liverworts had a common ancestor with an erect, radial gametophyte and a tetrahedral apical cell. The leafy liverworts were arranged based on the assumption that similar structures had repeatedly developed in many different suborders, with evolution proceeding from erect and isophyllous to creeping and anisophyllous plants. The complex thalloid liverworts were assumed to be the most derived group. By contrast, our studies resolved a clade comprising Treubia and Haplomitrium as the earliest extant liverwort lineage. According to our results the complex thalloids are also an early diverging lineage, and the simple thalloids, traditionally classified together, are a paraphyletic group. Within leafy liverworts, the hypothesis of repeated evolution from isophyllous to anisophyllous plants based on the assumption of a basal unresolved polytomy was rejected. Fundamentally, the leafy liverworts can be divided into three groups. In conflict with the earlier hypotheses, the isophyllous liverworts, including Herbertaceae, were resolved as derived lineages within the liverworts. Herbertaceae-heimo ja maksasammalten uusi luokittelu Maksasammalet ovat monien tutkimusten mukaan vanhin alkiollisten kasvien kehityslinja. Aiemmin ensimmäisten maksasammalten ajateltiin muistuttaneen nykyisiä Herbertaceae-heimoon kuuluvia pystyjä, lehdellisiä kasveja. Lehdellisten maksasammalten evoluution arveltiin toistuneen useissa ryhmissä samankaltaisena, eli edenneen pystyistä, varsi- ja vatsalehdiltään samankaltaisista kasveista kasvualustaansa myötäileviin, vatsalehdiltään erilaistuneisiin lajeihin. Sekovarrellisia maksasammalia pidettiin nuorempana kehityslinjana. Käytimme maksasammalten sukulaisuussuhteiden selvittämisessä sekä rakenteellisia että sekvenssitason tuntomerkkejä. Tutkimuksemme osoittavat, että maksasammalten varhaisimpia kehityslinjoja edustavat nykyisin elävien lajien joukossa Treubia- ja Haplomitrium -suvut sekä rakenteeltaan erilaistuneet sekovarrelliset maksasammalet. Lisäksi tutkimustemme perusteella voidaan todeta, että aiemmin yhtenäiseksi ryhmäksi oletettu, rakenteeltaan yksinkertaisten sekovarrellisten maksasammalten ryhmä ei ole luonnollinen. Osa näistä maksasammalista on läheisempää sukua lehdellisille maksasammalille kuin toisille aiemmin tähän ryhmään luetuille kasveille. Lehdelliset maksasammalet voidaan jakaa kolmeen pääryhmään. Myös näiden pääryhmien sisäinen luokittelu tarkentui. Aiempi käsitys eri ryhmissä useasti samankaltaisena toistuneesta evoluutiosta voidaan tutkimustulostemme perusteella kumota. Päinvastoin kuin aiemmin on ajateltu, Herbertaceae-heimo on myöhäisimpiä erilaistuneita kehityslinjoja maksasammalten joukossa. Esitimme myös uuden maksasammalten luokittelun, joka perustuu lajien fylogeniaan. Väitöskirjassani tutkin myös aasialaista Herbertus-maksasammalsuvun lajistoa, josta ei aiemmin ole tehty yksityiskohtaista selvitystä. Herbertus-suvun lajeja on poikkeuksellisen vaikea erottaa toisistaan koska niiden rakenteelliset piirteet näyttävät muuntelevan hyvin paljon ympäristöolosuhteiden mukaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa osoitin, että lajit voidaan kuitenkin selvästi erottaa toisistaan myös eräiden rakenteellisten tuntomerkkien perusteella. Aasiassa tavataan yhteensä 12 Herbertus-lajia. Herbertus buchiin Juslén kuvasin tieteelle uutena lajina, jonka nimesin arvostetun suomalaisen maksasammaltutkijan Hans Buchin (1883-1964) mukaan. Totesin myös 11 käytössä olleen nimen olevan jo aiemmin kuvattujen lajien synonyymeja ja yhden lajin kuuluvan kokonaan toiseen sukuun.