The origins of interactions between angiosperms and fruit‐eating seed dispersers have attracted much attention following a seminal paper on this topic byTiffney (1984). This review synthesizes evidence pertaining to key events during the evolution of angiosperm–frugivore interactions and suggests some implications of this evidence for interpretations of angiosperm–frugivore coevolution. The most important conclusions are: (i) the diversification of angiosperm seed size and fleshy fruits commenced around 80 million years ago (Mya). The diversity of seed sizes, fruit sizes and fruit types peaked in theEocene around 55 to 50 Mya. During this first phase of the interaction, angiosperms and animals evolving frugivory expanded into niche space not previously utilized by these groups, as frugivores and previously not existing fruit traits appeared. From theEocene until the present, angiosperm–frugivore interactions have occurred within a broad frame of existing niche space, as defined by fruit traits and frugivory, motivating a separation of the angiosperm–frugivore interactions into two phases, before and after the peak in the earlyEocene. (ii) The extinct multituberculates were probably the most important frugivores during the early radiation phase of angiosperm seeds and fleshy fruits. Primates and rodents are likely to have been important in the latter part of this first phase. (iii) Flying frugivores, birds and bats, evolved during the second phase, mainly during theOligocene andMiocene, thus exploiting an existing diversity of fleshy fruits. (iv) A drastic climate shift around theEocene–Oligocene boundary (around 34 Mya) resulted in more semi‐open woodland vegetation, creating patchily occurring food resources for frugivores. This promoted evolution of a ‘flying frugivore niche’ exploited by birds and bats. In particular, passerines became a dominant frugivore group worldwide. (v) Fleshy fruits evolved at numerous occasions in many angiosperm families, and many of the originations of fleshy fruits occurred well after the peak in the earlyEocene. (vi) During periods associated with environmental change altering coevolutionary networks and opening of niche space, reciprocal coevolution may result in strong directional selection formative for both fruit and frugivore evolution. Further evidence is needed to test this hypothesis. Based on the abundance of plant lineages with various forms of fleshy fruits, and the diversity of frugivores, it is suggested that periods of rapid coevolution in angiosperms and frugivores occurred numerous times during the 80 million years of angiosperm–frugivore evolution.

More and more ecologists have started to resurvey communities sampled in earlier decades to determine long-term shifts in community composition and infer the likely drivers of the ecological changes observed. However, to assess the relative importance of and interactions among multiple drivers, joint analyses of resurvey data from many regions spanning large environmental gradients are needed. In this article, we illustrate how combining resurvey data from multiple regions can increase the likelihood of driver orthogonality within the design and show that repeatedly surveying across multiple regions provides higher representativeness and comprehensiveness, allowing us to answer more completely a broader range of questions. We provide general guidelines to aid the implementation of multiregion resurvey databases. In so doing, we aim to encourage resurvey database development across other community types and biomes to advance global environmental change research.

A landscape perspective is generally recognized as essential for conservation biology. The main underlying reason is that species respond to features of the landscape at various spatial scales, for example habitat area, connectivity, and matrix habitats. However, there is also an “historical” component of a landscape perspective, which has not received similar attention. The underlying reasons for historical effects are that humans have influenced landscapes during several millennia and that species and communities may respond slowly to land use change. An historical perspective on landscapes also relates to how we perceive “natural” vs. “cultural” landscapes, and thus how conservation actions are motivated and valuated. We review studies from Sweden and the Baltic region in the context of an historical landscape perspective, focusing on semi-natural grasslands, i.e., grasslands formed by long-term human management for grazing and hay-making. Semi-natural grasslands are today a high concern for conservation. Historical effects are ubiquitous on species distributions and patterns of species richness, and have important implications for developing informed conservation programs in semi-natural grasslands, particularly with regard to assumptions of historical baselines, the choice of conservation targets, and insights on time-lags in the response of species to current landscape change.

The main paradigm for protection of biodiversity, focusing on maintaining or restoring conditions where humans leave no or little impact, risks overlooking anthropogenic landscapes harboring a rich native biodiversity. An example is northern European agricultural landscapes with traditionally managed semi-natural grasslands harboring an exceptional local richness of many taxa, such as plants, fungi and insects. During the last century these grasslands have declined by more than 95%, i.e. in the same magnitude as other, internationally more recognized declines of natural habitats. In this study, data from the Swedish Red List was used to calculate tentative extinction rates for vascular plants, insects (Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera) and fungi, given a scenario where such landscapes would vanish. Conservative estimates suggest that abandonment of traditional management in these landscapes would result in elevated extinction rates in all these taxa, between two and three orders of magnitude higher than global background extinction rates. It is suggested that the species richness in these landscapes reflects a species pool from Pleistocene herbivore-structured environments, which, after the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, was rescued by the introduction of pre-historic agriculture. Maintaining traditionally managed agricultural landscapes is of paramount importance to prevent species loss. There is no inherent conflict between preservation of anthropogenic landscapes and remaining ‘wild’ areas, but valuating also anthropogenic landscapes is essential for biodiversity conservation.

There is currently a growing concern that biocultural heritage is threatened in many landscapes. This paper focuses on biological cultural heritage, broadly meaning biological cultural traces that are considered as heritage, but leaving out other aspects of the biocultural heritage concept. An operational definition of biological cultural heritage (BCH) is suggested, based on niche construction theory: “biological manifestations of culture, reflecting indirect or intentional effects, or domesticated landscapes, resulting from historical human niche construction”. Some factors that influence recognition of BCH are discussed, using a comparison between Swedish open to semi-open vs. forested landscapes. While the former landscapes are generally associated with biological cultural values, BCH is generally over-looked in forests. Two main reasons for this are suggested: loss of cultural memory and a perception of forests as wilderness. A conclusion is that recognition of BCH is essential for guiding development of biological conservation programmes in forests, irrespective of whether the conservation goal is to focus on culturally impacted forests or to conserve what is considered as close to pristine forests. Furthermore, recognising BCH in forests will promote interest and learning of the history of forests and their values and will be informative for developing conservation programmes for all biota in forests, not only those that historically were favoured by culture. Hence, there is no inherent conflict between preserving relatively untouched forests and those with remaining traces of pre-industrial forest management. The recognition of BCH in forests will inspire and promote further integration of cultural and natural heritage research.

This introduction to the Special Issue summarizes the results of 14 scientific articles from the interdisciplinary research program Ekoklim at Stockholm University, Sweden. In this program, we investigate effects of changing climate and land use on landscape processes, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, and analyze issues related to adaptive governance in the face of climate and land-use change. We not only have a research focus on the 22 650 km² Norrström catchment surrounding lake Mälaren in south-central Sweden, but we also conduct research in other Swedish regions. The articles presented here show complex interactions between multiple drivers of change, as well as feedback processes at different spatiotemporal scales. Thus, the Ekoklim program highlights and deals with issues relevant for the future challenges society will face when land-use change interacts with climate change.