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Accelerated global biodiversity loss critically threatens forest ecosystem multifunctionality and service provision. Understanding environmental drivers across taxonomic (TD), functional (FD), and phylogenetic (PD) biodiversity facets is essential for effective conservation. However, the multi-dimensional nature of biodiversity is difficult to assess, and many studies overlook the interplay between functional traits and evolutionary history within a community. Here, we use Hill numbers to integrate TD, FD, and PD across five ecologically distinct taxa (birds, butterflies, snails, vascular plants, and mosses) to better understand environmental factors driving forest biodiversity in Switzerland. We included micro- and macroclimatic conditions, soil properties, topography, and vegetation structure and diversity. Our results highlight the intricate, taxon-specific nature of environmental effects on biodiversity. Across taxa, vegetation structure and diversity, and climatic factors emerged as key drivers of biodiversity facets, while soil characteristics mostly influenced less-mobile taxa. Vegetation structure and diversity acted as strong ecological filters shaping species richness and traits, reflecting responsiveness to short-term dynamics like disturbance or management, but were weak predictors of PD. Conversely, more temporally stable abiotic factors such as climate and soil conditions were consistent drivers across all facets, highlighting their broad impact on biodiversity. We show that FD and PD metrics complement TD by revealing additional insights into ecosystem functionality and evolutionary history. Given the differential responses of biodiversity indicators to environmental drivers, especially climate, maintaining ecosystem functionality and resilience under climate change requires assessments that go beyond taxonomic diversity and include the functional and phylogenetic dimensions.

Vigués Jorba, J., Scherrer, D., Duchenne, F., Zellweger, F., Gossner, M. M., & Bollmann, K. (2025). Differential responses of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic multi-taxa diversity to environmental factors in temperate forest ecosystems. Ecological Indicators, 178, 113855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113855

99 Schweizer Bäche wurden anhand der beiden Bioindikatoren Fische und Makrozoobenthos untersucht. Die Mehrzahl der Bäche zeigt wesentliche Defizite beim ökologischen Zustand. So fehlen beispielsweise in über 70% der Gewässer ein Teil der pestizidempfindlichen Insektenlarven und andere Kleinlebewesen. Statistische Auswertungen deuten darauf hin, dass sich eine beeinträchtigte Ökomorphologie sowie ein grosser Anteil Ackerland, Obstkulturen und Reben im Einzugsgebiet besonders negativ auf das Vorkommen dieser empfindlichen Kleinlebewesen auswirken.

Ilg, C. & Alther, R. (2024). Ökologischer Zustand von Schweizer Bächen. Die meisten der untersuchten Bäche erfüllen ihre Rolle als Lebensraum für Tiere nur eingeschränkt, Aqua & Gas, 104(4), 46-52.

Forests are under pressure and going through rapid changes. However, current inventorying and monitoring (IM) programs are often either disjointed, too narrow in their scope and/or do not operate at fine enough temporal resolutions, which may hinder scientific understanding, the timely supply of information, fast decision making, and may result in the sub-optimal use of resources. For these reasons, there is an urgent need for Advanced Forest Inventorying and Monitoring (AIM) programs to (i) achieve expanded relevance (by augmenting data/information across ecosystem properties and trophic levels), (ii) have increased temporal resolution (by tailored data collection frequency), and (iii) make use of technological advances (by incorporating novel tools and technologies). The Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring for Swiss Forests (SwissAIM) initiative was launched in 2020 to address these needs. SwissAIM builds upon the foundation offered by the existing programs (e.g., national forest inventory, long-term forest ecosystem research, biodiversity monitoring). It aims to offer a collaborative and adaptive framework to enable integrated data collection, evaluation, interpretation, analysis, and modeling. Ideally, it will result in a more responsive system with respect to current and predicted biotic/abiotic stressors that will challenge Swiss forests. Developing such a system implies identifying the information needs of different stakeholders (e.g., science, policy, practice), related technical requirements, and governance frameworks. Here, we present (i) the main features of the SwissAIM initiative (vision, scientific questions and variables, governance and engagement), (ii) the main outcomes of the participatory design process (measurements, sampling, and plot design), (iii) the potential transferability of AIM initiatives outside Switzerland (timing, relevance, practicability), and (iv) the key messages that emerged (i.e., need for advancement, integration and transdisciplinarity, statistical underpinning). Since similar needs related to forest inventorying and monitoring are emerging throughout Europe and elsewhere, the objective of this opinion paper is to share our experience and promote a dialog with those interested in developing AIM initiatives in other countries and regions.

Ferretti, M., Fischer, C., Gessler, A. et al. (2024). Advancing forest inventorying and monitoring. Annals of Forest Science 81, 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-023-01220-9

Rising temperatures are leading to increased prevalence of warm-affinity species in ecosystems, known as thermophilisation. However, factors influencing variation in thermophilisation rates among taxa and ecosystems, particularly freshwater communities with high diversity and high population decline, remain unclear. We analysed compositional change over time in 7123 freshwater and 6201 terrestrial, mostly temperate communities from multiple taxonomic groups. Overall, temperature change was positively linked to thermophilisation in both realms. Extirpated species had lower thermal affinities in terrestrial communities but higher affinities in freshwater communities compared to those persisting over time. Temperature change’s impact on thermophilisation variedwith community body size, thermal niche breadth, species richness and baseline temperature; these interactive effects were idiosyncratic in the direction and magnitude of their impacts on thermophilisation, both across realms and taxonomic groups. While our findings emphasise the challenges in predicting the consequences of temperature change across communities, conservation strategies should consider these variable responses when attempting to mitigate climate-induced biodiversity loss.

Khaliq, I., Rixen, C., Zellweger, F. et al. (2024). Warming underpins community turnover in temperate freshwater and terrestrial communities. Nat Commun 15, 1921. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46282-z