Explore the vast range of titles available.

Soil microorganisms act as gatekeepers for soil–atmosphere carbon exchange by balancing the accumulation and release of soil organic matter. However, poor understanding of the mechanisms responsible hinders the development of effective land management strategies to enhance soil carbon storage. Here we empirically test the link between microbial ecophysiological traits and topsoil carbon content across geographically distributed soils and land use contrasts. We discovered distinct pH controls on microbial mechanisms of carbon accumulation. Land use intensification in low-pH soils that increased the pH above a threshold (~6.2) leads to carbon loss through increased decomposition, following alleviation of acid retardation of microbial growth. However, loss of carbon with intensification in near-neutral pH soils was linked to decreased microbial biomass and reduced growth efficiency that was, in turn, related to trade-offs with stress alleviation and resource acquisition. Thus, less-intensive management practices in near-neutral pH soils have more potential for carbon storage through increased microbial growth efficiency, whereas in acidic soils, microbial growth is a bigger constraint on decomposition rates. Land use intensification could modify microbial activity and thus ecosystem function. Here, Malik et al. sample microbes and carbon-related functions across a land use gradient, demonstrating that microbial biomass and carbon use efficiency are reduced in human-impacted near-neutral pH soils.

Alien insects represent one of the most species rich groups of organisms introduced to Europe, with some responsible for adverse social-economic, human-health, biodiversity and ecosystem impacts. The impacts of invasive alien species, especially on island ecosystems, have been a hot topic of research worldwide. Cyprus is a Mediterranean island at the biogeographic crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. This study presents the database of the alien insects of the island of Cyprus as a whole, created through an extensive review including grey literature and online sources. The Alien to Cyprus Entomofauna (ACE) triples the known number of alien insects and adds supplemental information to existing species. Data concerning a total of 349 alien insects are presented alongside an updated checklist and recommendations for informing management. The status of alien insects on the island, their origin, trophic guilds, establishment, pathways of introduction and impacts are discussed. Developing an alien species inventory for the island is challenging due to its geographic position and the increasing movement of people and goods leading to new species introductions. This publication constitutes an important first step towards providing information for effective actions to tackle invasive alien insects on Cyprus. The checklist and accompanying information can underpin understanding of the status and trends of alien species including providing information for risk assessments. ACE will continue to be maintained and updated as new records for Cyprus are made.

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a direct driver of global biodiversity loss, and can also affect societies, economies and human health. Maintaining up-to-date alien species inventories is important for informing policy and management decisions. Here we present the Cyprus Database of Alien Species (CyDAS), an openly accessible, online dataset providing informational resources on alien species on the island of Cyprus. The dataset (up to end of December 2023) includes information on 1,293 terrestrial, freshwater and marine introduced taxa, with species profiles being constantly updated to keep track of new arrivals. The CyDAS aims to catalogue and supplement our knowledge on the alien species of Cyprus; to help develop and enhance early warning and rapid response systems; to raise public awareness of the risks posed by the IAS subset; to strengthen and enhance engagement and public participation in surveys in the field of biological invasions; and to inform IAS policy. CyDAS is a free, online database and we would like to encourage other researchers and decision-makers to provide information on IAS.

Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major drivers of change that can negatively affect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services and human health; islands are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Horizon scanning can lead to prioritisation of IAS to inform decision-making and action; its scale and scope can vary depending on the need. We focussed on IAS likely to arrive, establish and affect biodiversity and human health on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The scope of the horizon scanning was the entire island of Cyprus. We used a two-step consensus-building process in which experts reviewed and scored lists of alien species on their likelihood of arrival, establishment and potential to affect biodiversity, ecosystems and/or human health in the next 10 years. We reviewed 225 alien species, considered to be currently absent on Cyprus, across taxa and environments. We agreed upon 100 species that constituted very high, high or medium biodiversity risk, often arriving through multiple pathways of introduction. The remaining 125 species were ranked as low risk. The potential impacts on human health were documented for all 225 species; 82 species were considered to have a potentially negative impact on human health ranging from nuisance to disease transmission. The scope of the horizon scanning was the entire island of Cyprus, but the thematic groups also considered the relevance of the top 100 species to the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, given their differing governance. This horizon scan provides the first systematic exercise to identify invasive alien species of potential concern to biodiversity and ecosystems but also human health within the Mediterranean region. The process and outcomes should provide other islands in the region and beyond with baseline data to improve IAS prioritisation and management.

For centuries, naturalists from the Global North have traveled southwards to collect specimens of species from regions where there were many. The legacy of this is that the large natural history collections and the biodiverse regions of the world are often distant from one another. The unique and often disappearing species and ecosystems in these regions need conservation, yet much of the data on this biodiversity resides in collections and with the experts that work in them, rather than in the countries where it is needed. In this poster we zoom in on Grand Cayman, a small island in the Caribbean, facing severe threats to its endemic biodiversity - from habitat loss to introduced species. More specifically we focus on the endemic blue iguana ( Cyclura lewisi ) and the invasive green iguana ( Iguana iguana ). Specimens from the Cayman Islands are dispersed over American and European natural history collections and give data on the species present, their abundances and the interactions among those species (e.g. their food plants and parasites). Such data can be used in risk assessments and conservation planning, and the specimens themselves can inform research, such as population genetics. While the Cayman Islands are small they provide an excellent case study of the issues of conservation, society, climate and other environmental change in the tropics. Islands are highly sensitive to environmental change, but the lessons learned from them can be extended to other areas, including continents. On this poster, we describe the From Blue Iguanas to Blue Vervain project (Fig. 1), which aims to connect the biodiverse Caribbean UK Overseas Territories of Montserrat and the Cayman Islands with natural science collections around the world. We aim to learn ways to address issues of access and benefit-sharing, particularly how residents of these biodiverse places can benefit from the data and research linked to specimens originating in their islands.

1. Biodiversity is changing at unprecedented rates, and it is increasingly important that these changes are quantified through monitoring programmes. Previous recommendations for developing or enhancing these programmes focus either on the end goals, that is the intended use of the data, or on how these goals are achieved, for example through volunteer involvement in citizen science, but not both. These recommendations are rarely prioritized. 2. We used a collaborative approach, involving 52 experts in biodiversity monitoring in the UK, to develop a list of attributes of relevance to any biodiversity monitoring programme and to order these attributes by their priority. We also ranked the attributes according to their importance in monitoring biodiversity in the UK. Experts involved included data users, funders, programme organizers and participants in data collection. They covered expertise in a wide range of taxa. 3. We developed a final list of 25 attributes of biodiversity monitoring schemes, ordered from the most elemental (those essential for monitoring schemes; e.g. articulate the objectives and gain sufficient participants) to the most aspirational (e.g. electronic data capture in the field, reporting change annually). This ordered list is a practical framework which can be used to support the development of monitoring programmes. 4. People's ranking of attributes revealed a difference between those who considered attributes with benefits to end users to be most important (e.g. people from governmental organizations) and those who considered attributes with greatest benefit to participants to be most important (e.g. people involved with volunteer biological recording schemes). This reveals a distinction between focussing on aims and the pragmatism in achieving those aims. 5. Synthesis and applications. The ordered list of attributes developed in this study will assist in prioritizing resources to develop biodiversity monitoring programmes (including citizen science). The potential conflict between end users of data and participants in data collection that we discovered should be addressed by involving the diversity of stakeholders at all stages of programme development. This will maximize the chance of successfully achieving the goals of biodiversity monitoring programmes.

QUESTIONS: What types of pre‐sowing disturbance are most suitable to establish specialist forbs of calcareous grassland at previously agriculturally improved restored sites? What impact does management regime have on post‐establishment abundance‐dynamics? LOCATION: Pegsdon Hills, Bedfordshire, UK. METHODS: We set up a 4‐yr experiment using a split‐plot design to combine pre‐sowing disturbance treatments at sub‐plot level (undisturbed control, glyphosate spraying, harrowing, and creation of ridge‐and‐furrow features) with three post‐establishment management regimes applied at main plot level in years 2–4, involving either summer cutting or summer cattle grazing, and presence or absence of spring sheep grazing, along with autumn cattle grazing in all regimes. After disturbance application, we sowed a seed mixture containing ten specialist species of calcareous grassland. Using quadrat‐based methods, we monitored first‐year establishment and subsequent dynamics, including reproductive status of species at quadrat level. Initial establishment and subsequent dynamics were analysed separately using LMM. RESULTS: Initial establishment of sown species was promoted both by harrowing and by ridge‐and‐furrow creation. While some species were about equally promoted by both, several other species benefited more strongly or exclusively from ridge‐and‐furrow creation. Effects of disturbance largely persisted in subsequent years, but for some species, different dynamics were observed for harrowed and ridge‐and‐furrow treatments. Thymus pulegioides and Hippocrepis comosa gradually achieved higher abundances in the ridge‐and‐furrow treatment, in which notable levels of bare ground persisted for much longer than in the harrowed treatment. In contrast, Filipendula vulgaris and Pimpinella saxifraga achieved higher abundance in the harrowed treatment. Sown species tended to reach reproductive stage faster in the ridge‐and‐furrow treatment than in the harrowed treatment. By the end of the study, management regimes had resulted in few effects on species dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Establishment of specialist species of calcareous grassland crucially depended on bare ground creation prior to sowing. Ridge‐and‐furrow creation resulted in more persistent reduction of competition than the standard practice of harrowing, provided more suitable conditions for low‐statured specialist species, and generally enabled faster transition of introduced specialist species to reproductive stage. Our results thus illustrate potential benefits of using more severe disturbance when introducing specialist species of calcareous grassland at restored sites.

Invasive non‐native species (INNS) are recognized as a major threat to island biodiversity, ecosystems, and economies globally. Preventing high‐risk INNS from being introduced is the most cost‐effective way to avoid their adverse impacts. We applied a horizon scanning approach to identify potentially INNS in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (OTs), ranging from Antarctica to the Caribbean, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. High‐risk species were identified according to their potential for arrival, establishment, and likely impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem function, economies, and human health. Across OTs, 231 taxa were included on high‐risk lists. The highest ranking species were the Asian green mussel (Perna viridis), little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), and mesquite tree (Prosopis juliflora). Shipping containers were identified as the introduction pathway associated with the most species. The shared high‐risk species and pathways identified provide a guide for other remote islands and archipelagos to focus ongoing biosecurity and surveillance aimed at preventing future incursions.

This research examines biodiversity specimens from two areas of the Caribbean to understand patterns of collection and the roles of the people involved. Using open data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Wikidata, we aimed to uncover geographic and historical trends in specimen use. This study aims to provide concrete evidence to guide collaboration between collection-holding institutions and the communities that need their resources most. We analysed biodiversity specimens from Montserrat and the Cayman Islands in three steps. First, we extracted specimen data from GBIF, disambiguated collector names, and linked them to unique biographical entries. Next, we connected collectors to their publications and specimens. Finally, we analysed the modern use of these specimens through citation data, mapping author affiliations and research themes. Specimens are predominantly housed in the Global North and were initially used by their collectors, whose focus was largely on taxonomy and biogeography. With digitisation, use of these collections remains concentrated in the Global North and covers a broader range of subjects, although Brazil and China stand out as significant users of digital collection data compared to other similar countries. The availability of open digital data from collections in the Global North has led to a substantial increase in the reuse of these data across biodiversity science. Nonetheless, most research using these data is still conducted in the Global North. For the non-monetary benefits of digitisation to extend to the countries of origin, capacity building in the Global South is crucial, Open Data alone are insufficient.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.Footnotes* http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13902532* http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14056058* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13825234* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13823446