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Direct contact with nature is paramount in deepening children’s and teenagers’ interest in biodiversity. Learning materials chosen to convey information and engage participants during outings in nature-rich environments are varied and can support rich learning experiences. For this purpose, learning materials can be acquired \"off-the-shelf\" or developed for site-specific locations or projects. However, there is little guidance on potential techniques for those wishing to generate contextually relevant materials. With the view of responding to this challenge, we propose the cultural probes technique. We demonstrate that the technique, commonly used in qualitative research to generate novel insights in conversation with participants, can instigate innovative and thoughtful approaches to materials designed for children and teenagers to explore nature. We present a toolkit that draws on the literature on cultural probes, inquiry-based learning, and the value of sensory, emotional, and aesthetic experiences in environmental education for structuring interactions with participants. To test our approach, we applied a descriptive research design and mixed-methods approach for collecting questions from youths between the ages of 10 and 18, inspired by a nature walk and a set of exploratory tasks executed through the toolkit. Specifically, we tested our toolkit along a trail in the Nature Park of Terceira, situated in the Azores, a Portuguese volcanic archipelago in the North Atlantic. Here, we present and reflect on the data collected during one visit organized over two days with two groups of participants and one post-trail activity directed at both groups. Results demonstrate that the open-ended and playful nature of cultural probes offers a novel way to engage youths with nature-rich environments through questioning. This contribution further highlights the potential of cultural probes for instigating encounters that tap into the value of sensory, emotional, and aesthetic experience in nature, with positive outcomes for participants.

Hosted at the University of the Azores, the “Dalberto Teixeira Pombo” Collection (DTP) is an invaluable repository showcasing the diversity of arthropods from the Azores Archipelago, Portugal. This collection not only preserves a vital record of the region’s arthropological heritage but also underpins ongoing biodiversity research and conservation efforts. In this context, we are inaugurating a new series of Data Papers under the AZORES BIOTA Biodiversity Data Journal Collection. These papers will systematically document and analyze previously unidentified specimens derived from multiple past expeditions aimed at surveying and monitoring a range of habitats across the Azores Islands. By integrating historical collections with modern research methodologies, this initiative aspires to reveal previously hidden facets of the archipelago’s biodiversity and to inform future ecological, biogeographical and evolutionary studies, as well as conservation endeavours. This first manuscript targets the subterranean arthropod fauna. Collected primarily during intensive field expeditions between 1991 and 2010, subterranean samples from the archipelago’s diverse cave systems and mesovoid habitats form a vast assemblage of specimens — most of which remain unidentified — that illuminate the region’s hidden and understudied biodiversity. Notably, the only taxonomically resolved subset comprises the cave-adapted ground‐beetles of the genus Trechus , a group of paramount importance to the understanding of the evolution of Azorean subterranean adapted fauna. This study significantly contributes to addressing the Wallacean shortfall within the Azorean subterranean ecosystem by documenting novel range extensions for key endemic cave-adapted arthropods. Among the taxa recorded in previously uncharted locations are the centipede Lithobius obscurus azoreae Eason & Ashmole, 1992, the pseudoscorpion Pseudoblothrus vulcanus Mahnert, 1990, and several single-island endemic ground beetles of the genus Trechus , including Trechus terceiranus Machado, 1988 and Trechus picoensis Machado, 1988. These new distributional records enhance our understanding of species biogeography in the unique subterranean volcanic systems of the Azores and provide valuable insights into the connectivity and dispersal potential of troglobitic species in oceanic island settings. Furthermore, this research plays a crucial role in defining new priority areas for the conservation of Azorean cave-adapted arthropods. By refining knowledge on species distributions, it supports the development of targeted spatial conservation strategies aimed at mitigating habitat degradation and preserving the fragile subterranean biodiversity of the archipelago. The findings of this study contribute directly to future conservation planning, ensuring that appropriate protective measures are implemented to safeguard these highly specialized and often vulnerable cave ecosystems.

The aims of this study were to predict the potential distribution of two introduced Mustelidae, Mustela nivalis and M. putorius in the Azores archipelago (Portugal), and evaluate the relative contribution of environmental factors from native and introduced ranges to predict species distribution ranges in oceanic islands. We developed two sets of Species Distribution Models using MaxEnt and distribution data from the native and introduced ranges of the species to project their potential distribution in the archipelago. We found differences in the predicted distributions for the models based on introduced and on native occurrences for both species, with different most important variables being selected. Climatic variables were most important for the introduced range models, while other groups of variables (i.e., human-disturbance) were included in the native-based models. Most of the islands of the Azorean archipelago were predicted to have suitable habitat for both species, even when not yet occupied. Our results showed that predicting the invaded range based on introduced range environmental conditions predicted a narrower range. These results highlight the difficulty to transfer models from native to introduced ranges across taxonomically related species, making it difficult to predict future invasions and range expansion.

This manuscript is the first scientific publication of the project “BioBlitz Azores\". The project was launched in 2019 and had a second event in 2023 under the scope of the FCT-MACRISK project, surveying the historic public garden \"Jardim Duque da Terceira\", in the historical centre of Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island (Azores, Portugal). In addition to contributing directly to the knowledge of Azorean biota, BioBlitz Azores aims to engage the non-scientific community - including volunteers, amateur naturalists, students, teachers, families and other garden visitors - to foster a sense of community and raise awareness about Azorean biodiversity and its conservation. Under the scope of two BioBlitz events, the list of taxa of the historic garden of \"Jardim Duque da Terceira\" (Terceira, Azores, Portugal) was updated and presently includes 72 lichen species, 55 vascular plant species, 96 arthropod species, 14 bird species and three freshwater vertebrate species. In the realm of lichens, two species are new records for Portugal and Macaronesia, one species is a new record for the Azores and nine species are new records for Terceira Island. This is the first academic publication for 11 of the 12 lichen species. The survey of arthropods yielded an inventory encompassing a total of 96 taxa, with 78 of these identified to the species or subspecies level; amongst the identified taxa, three are endemic, 32 are native, but not endemic, one is of indeterminate origin and 42 are introduced. Notably, a single specimen of the rare endemic spider, Savigniorrhipis acoreensis Wunderlich, 1992 was observed for the first time at this low elevation (garden elevation: 29-60 m a.s.l.). The species is typically found in the canopies of endemic trees species in native forests at mid- to high elevations (500-1000 m a.s.l.) and its presence in the garden suggests a source-sink dynamic of this extremely dispersive species between native and anthropogenic habitats. Regarding vascular plants, 54 taxa were recorded in the garden, comprising one endemic, one native, three with indeterminate origin and 49 introduced ornamental species. Amongst birds, 14 taxa were registered, including seven Azorean endemic subspecies, two native species and four introduced taxa. Three freshwater vertebrate species were recorded during the survey, all of which are exotic species that have been introduced to the garden.

Globally, there is a concerning decline in many insect populations, and this trend likely extends to all arthropods, potentially impacting unique island biota. Native non-endemic and endemic species on islands are under threat due to habitat destruction, with the introduction of exotic, and potentially invasive, species, further contributing to this decline. While long-term studies of plants and vertebrate fauna are available, long-term arthropod datasets are limited, hindering comparisons with better-studied taxa. The Biodiversity of Arthropods of the Laurisilva of the Azores (BALA) project has allowed gathering comprehensive data since 1997 in the Azorean Islands (Portugal), using standardised sampling methods across islands. The dataset includes arthropod counts from epigean (pitfall traps) and canopy-dwelling (beating samples) communities, enriched with species information, biogeographic origins, and IUCN categories. Metadata associated with the sample protocol and events, like sample identifier, archive number, sampled tree species, and trap type are also recorded. The database is available in multiple formats, including Darwin Core, which facilitates the ecological analysis of pressing environmental concerns, such as arthropod population declines and biological invasions.

Phylogenetic relatedness is a key diversity measure for the analysis and understanding of how species and communities evolve across time and space. Understanding the nonrandom loss of species with respect to phylogeny is also essential for better-informed conservation decisions. However, several factors are known to influence phylogenetic reconstruction and, ultimately, phylogenetic diversity metrics. In this study, we empirically tested how some of these factors (topological constraint, taxon sampling, genetic markers and calibration) affect phylogenetic resolution and uncertainty. We built a densely sampled, species-level phylogenetic tree for spiders, combining Sanger sequencing of species from local communities of two biogeographical regions (Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia) with a taxon-rich backbone matrix of Genbank sequences and a topological constraint derived from recent phylogenomic studies. The resulting tree constitutes the most complete spider phylogeny to date, both in terms of terminals and background information, and may serve as a standard reference for the analysis of phylogenetic diversity patterns at the community level. We then used this tree to investigate how partial data affect phylogenetic reconstruction, phylogenetic diversity estimates and their rankings, and, ultimately, the ecological processes inferred for each community. We found that the incorporation of a single slowly evolving marker (28S) to the DNA barcode sequences from local communities, had the highest impact on tree topology, closely followed by the use of a backbone matrix. The increase in missing data resulting from combining partial sequences from local communities only had a moderate impact on the resulting trees, similar to the difference observed when using topological constraints. Our study further revealed substantial differences in both the phylogenetic structure and diversity rankings of the analyzed communities estimated from the different phylogenetic treatments, especially when using non-ultrametric trees (phylograms) instead of time-stamped trees (chronograms). Finally, we provide some recommendations on reconstructing phylogenetic trees to infer phylogenetic diversity within ecological studies.

Species abundance distributions (SAD) are central to the description of diversity and have played a major role in the development of theories of biodiversity and biogeography. However, most work on species abundance distributions has focused on one single spatial scale. Here we used data on arthropods to test predictions obtained with computer simulations on whether dispersal ability influences the rate of change of SADs as a function of sample size. To characterize the change of the shape of the SADs we use the moments of the distributions: the skewness and the raw moments. In agreement with computer simulations, low dispersal ability species generate a hump for intermediate abundance classes earlier than the distributions of high dispersal ability species. Importantly, when plotted as function of sample size, the raw moments of the SADs of arthropods have a power law pattern similar to that observed for the SAD of tropical tree species, thus we conjecture that this might be a general pattern in ecology. The existence of this pattern allows us to extrapolate the moments and thus reconstruct the SAD for larger sample sizes using a procedure borrowed from the field of image analysis based on scaled discrete Tchebichef moments and polynomials.

The development in recent years of new beta diversity analytical approaches highlighted valuable information on the different processes structuring ecological communities. A crucial development for the understanding of beta diversity patterns was also its differentiation in two components: species turnover and richness differences. In this study, we evaluate beta diversity patterns of ground beetles from 26 sites in Madeira Island distributed throughout Laurisilva--a relict forest restricted to the Macaronesian archipelagos. We assess how the two components of ground beetle beta diversity (β(repl)--species turnover and β(rich)--species richness differences) relate with differences in climate, geography, landscape composition matrix, woody plant species richness and soil characteristics and the relative importance of the effects of these variables at different spatial scales. We sampled 1025 specimens from 31 species, most of which are endemic to Madeira Island. A spatially explicit analysis was used to evaluate the contribution of pure environmental, pure spatial and environmental spatially structured effects on variation in ground beetle species richness and composition. Variation partitioning showed that 31.9% of species turnover (β(repl)) and 40.7% of species richness variation (β(rich)) could be explained by the environmental and spatial variables. However, different environmental variables controlled the two types of beta diversity: β(repl) was influenced by climate, disturbance and soil organic matter content whilst β(rich) was controlled by altitude and slope. Furthermore, spatial variables, represented through Moran's eigenvector maps, played a significant role in explaining both β(repl) and β(rich), suggesting that both dispersal ability and Madeira Island complex orography are crucial for the understanding of beta diversity patterns in this group of beetles.

Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences were analyzed from 162 wolves at 27 localities worldwide and from 140 domestic dogs representing 67 breeds. Sequences from both dogs and wolves showed considerable diversity and supported the hypothesis that wolves were the ancestors of dogs. Most dog sequences belonged to a divergent monophyletic clade sharing no sequences with wolves. The sequence divergence within this clade suggested that dogs originated more than 100,000 years before the present. Associations of dog haplotypes with other wolf lineages indicated episodes of admixture between wolves and dogs. Repeated genetic exchange between dog and wolf populations may have been an important source of variation for artificial selection.

Human activities drive ecological transformation, impacting island ecosystems from species diversity to ecological traits, mainly through habitat degradation and invasive species. Using two unique long‐term datasets we aim to evaluate whether species traits (body size, trophic level, dispersal capacity and habitat occupancy) can predict temporal variations in the abundance of endemic, indigenous (endemic and native non‐endemic) and exotic arthropods in the Azores Islands. We found that body size is crucial to predict arthropod abundance trends. Small‐bodied herbivorous arthropods showed a decrease in abundance, while large‐bodied indigenous arthropods increased in abundance, mainly in well‐preserved areas. Also, large‐bodied exotic arthropods increased in abundance across the entire archipelago. Moreover, endemic canopy dwellers increased in abundance, while endemic ground‐dwellers decreased in abundance. Simultaneously, exotic arthropods showed the opposite result, increasing in abundance in the ground while decreasing in abundance in the canopy. Finally, habitat influenced both endemic and exotic spider abundance trends. Endemic spiders that occupy solely natural habitats experienced a decline in abundance, while exotic spiders in the same habitats increased in abundance. Our study underscores the significance of arthropod species traits in predicting abundance changes in island ecosystems over time, as well as the importance of monitoring species communities. Conservation efforts must extend beyond endangered species to protect non‐threatened ones, given the increased extinction risk faced by even common species on islands. Monitoring and restoration programs are essential for preserving island ecosystems and safeguarding endemic arthropod populations.