The Natura 2000 (N2K) protected area (PA) network is a crucial tool to limit biodiversity loss in Europe. Despite covering 18% of the European Union's (EU) land area, its effectiveness at conserving biodiversity across taxa and biogeographic regions remains uncertain. Testing this effectiveness is, however, difficult because it requires considering the nonrandom location of PAs, and many possible confounding factors. We used propensity score matching and accounted for the confounding effects of biogeographic regions, terrain ruggedness, and land cover to assess the effectiveness of N2K PAs on the distribution of 1769 species of conservation priority in the EU's Birds and Habitats Directives, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, arthropods, fishes, mollusks, and vascular and nonvascular plants. We compared alpha, beta, and gamma diversity between matched selections of protected and unprotected areas across EU's biogeographic regions with generalized linear models, generalized mixed models, and nonparametric tests for paired samples, respectively, for each taxonomic group and for the entire set of species. PAs in N2K hosted significantly more priority species than unprotected land, but this difference was not consistent across biogeographic regions or taxa. Total alpha diversity and alpha diversity of amphibians, arthropods, birds, mammals, and vascular plants were significantly higher inside PAs than outside, except in the Boreal biogeographical region. Beta diversity was in general significantly higher inside N2K PAs than outside. Similarly, gamma diversity had the highest values inside PAs, with some exceptions in Boreal and Atlantic regions. The planned expansion of the N2K network, as dictated by the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, should therefore target areas in the southern part of the Boreal region where species diversity of amphibians, arthropods, birds, mammals, and vascular plants is high and species are currently underrepresented in N2K.

The flora of the Canary Islands has been subject to botanical studies for more than 200 years. Several biodiversity databases are available for the archipelago. However, there are various drivers of change in real biodiversity and the knowledge about it constantly needs to be kept track of. Island floras are both: exposed to species loss and to species introductions, either through natural processes or by anthropogenic drivers. Additionally, the evolution of endemic plant species plays a substantial role. Endemic species are sensitive to population decline due to small population sizes and possible low competitiveness against incoming species. Additionally, there is continuous progress in systematics and taxonomy. Species names or their taxonomic attribution can be modified. Here, we check published plant lists for the Canary Islands and literature, and compile currently accepted taxa into an updated checklist. For this FloCan checklist, several sources were compiled, checked for completeness and quality, and their taxonomy was updated. We illustrate how far plant names are considered in regional or global databases. This work represents the current state of knowledge on Canary Island plant diversity, including introduced and recently described taxa. We provide a comprehensive and updated basis for biogeographical and macroecological studies. Particularly, the number of non-native species is being extended substantially. The adaptation to standard international nomenclature supports integration into large-scale studies.

Motivation: The subdivision of the Earth's terrestrial surface into different biomes, ecozones, bio‐climatic realms or other large ecological land units is an essential reference for global biogeographical and ecological studies. Various classification schemes exist. These differ significantly in terms of the considered criteria for classification and the underlying methodology of class assignments. Evident divergences between global biome concepts are elusive, weakening hereon based analyses and assumptions. Compilation and standardization are essential for obtaining a framework that enables the comparison of different products. To address this need, we created a catalogue of standardized categorial biome maps comprising 31 different global products based on various methodological approaches. These products were processed individually to facilitate their use in large‐scale biogeographical and ecological analyses.Main types of variables contained: We provide a unified RasterStack containing 31 terrestrial biome and land‐cover classifications in different layers. Additional ancillary and processing information is allocated.Spatial location and grain: Global, 10 km × 10 km grain size in equal‐area Mollweide projection.Major taxa and level of measurement: Biomes, ecozones, bio‐climatic zones, and ecological land units.Software format: GeoTiff.

Aim: The relation of plant dispersal syndromes with insular species richness patters remains one of the challenges in island biogeography, especially as people have affected species distribution patterns. This study disentangles how dispersal syndromes influence the relationship of richness with area and isolation while also accounting for the human impact on island biodiversity. It builds on the potential of islands at the mesoscale and of similar origin to contribute to the ongoing discussion in island biogeography on what determines species richness and filtering.Location: Denmark, 54 islands in the North and Baltic Sea.Taxon: Vascular plants, including pteridophytes.Methods: Generalized linear models (GLMs) and linear regressions are used to analyse how dispersal syndromes influence the relationships of species numbers with island area and isolation, as well as island inhabitation and human density, respectively.Results: Species numbers, seed mass and the proportion of zoochore and anemochore species are positively related to island area while the share of water‐dispersed species decreases with increasing area. Isolation is weakly related to mean seed mass but has no explaining power for species numbers and the presence of specific dispersal syndrome on the target islands. Species richness and seed mass were positively related to human presence.Main conclusions: Human impact for centuries has not overwritten the strong relationship of species richness with area on the Danish Islands but is affecting the shape of this relationship. Island area constitutes a strong filter for different dispersal syndromes and leads to the assumption that heavier and animal‐dispersed seeds are positively related to area due to the presence of more bird and mammal species. Human‐induced loss of isolation caused by ongoing traffic and the connection of landmasses by bridges and ferries may be a reason for the overall low explanatory power of island isolation.

More than 60% of the flora of the Galapagos Islands is introduced and some of these species have become invasive, severely altering ecosystems. An example of an affected ecosystem is the Scalesia forest, originally dominated by the endemic giant daisy tree Scalesia pedunculata (Asteraceae). The remnant patches of this unique forest are increasingly being invaded by introduced plants, mainly by Rubus niveus (blackberry, Rosaceae). To help large-scale restoration of this ecologically important forest, we seek to better understand the natural regeneration of S. pedunculata after invasive plant control. We monitored naturally recruited S. pedunculata saplings and young trees over five years in an area where invasive plant species are continuously being removed by manual means. We measured survival, height and growth of S. pedunculata saplings and young trees along permanent transects. Percent cover of surrounding plant species and of canopy shade directly above each S. pedunculata individual were determined, as well as distance to the next mature S. pedunculata tree. We identified potential factors influencing initial sapling survival and growth by applying generalized linear models. Results showed a rapid growth of saplings and young trees of up to 0.45 cm per day and a high mortality rate, as is typical for pioneer species like S. pedunculata. Sapling survival, growth and mortality seemed to be influenced by light availability, surrounding vegetation and distance to the next adult S. pedunculata tree. We concluded that natural regeneration of S. pedunculata was high only five months after the last herbicide application but that 95% of these recruits had died over the 5-year period. Further studies are needed to corroborate whether the number of surviving trees is sufficient to replace the aging adult trees and this way maintain remnants of the Scalesia forest. Urgent action is needed to help improve future restoration strategies to prevent further degradation of this rapidly shrinking threatened forest ecosystem.

The increasing similarity of plant species composition among distinct areas is leading to the homogenization of ecosystems globally. Human actions such as ecosystem modification, the introduction of non-native plant species and the extinction or extirpation of endemic and native plant species are considered the main drivers of this trend. However, little is known about when floristic homogenization began or about pre-human patterns of floristic similarity. Here we investigate vegetation trends during the past 5,000 years across the tropical, sub-tropical and warm temperate South Pacific using fossil pollen records from 15 sites on 13 islands within the biogeographical realm of Oceania. The site comparisons show that floristic homogenization has increased over the past 5,000 years. Pairwise Bray–Curtis similarity results also show that when two islands were settled by people in a given time interval, their floristic similarity is greater than when one or neither of the islands were settled. Importantly, higher elevation sites, which are less likely to have experienced human impacts, tended to show less floristic homogenization. While biotic homogenization is often referred to as a contemporary issue, we have identified a much earlier trend, likely driven by human colonization of the islands and subsequent impacts.