Societal Impact Statement Global conservation efforts increasingly depend on digitised natural history collections, yet the benefits of this digital data are not equally shared. We analysed biodiversity specimens and citation data from Montserrat and the Cayman Islands to assess who collected these specimens, how they are used, and by whom. We found that despite increased accessibility, research using these data is still dominated by institutions in the Global North, with limited involvement or benefit for local communities. Our findings underscore the urgent need for investment in training, infrastructure, and equitable partnerships to ensure long‐term conservation capacity in biodiverse but under‐resourced regions. Summary 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, and Open Data alone are insufficient.

Carex dianae Steud. is an endemic sedge of St. Helena, an isolated island in the South Atlantic. Our study provides the first molecular sequence data for this taxon. We generated sequence data for plastid matK and trnK regions and nuclear internal transcribed spacer and external transcribed spacer regions to determine the placement of C. dianae in the broader Carex phylogeny. The placement of C. dianae falls within Carex sect. Spirostachyae Drejer, and it is sister to a clade including Carex clavata Thunb., Carex aethiopica Schkuhr (both from the Cape region of S. Africa), and Carex gunniana Boott (southern Australia). The existence of three divergent nucleotype groups and two plastotypes is revealed from genetic variation within C. dianae. The results suggest that the ancestor of C. dianae likely originated in the Cape region of South Africa, followed by transoceanic dispersal to St. Helena estimated at 4.4-4.9 million years ago, likely by a bird vector. The most divergent population is that on an isolated hill known as "The Barn", which may represent a distinct taxon. The existence of highly structured molecular variation within an island only 16 km long is discussed.

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 Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Peatland ecosystems are of global conservation and environmental importance storing globally significant amounts of ancient carbon, regulating regional temperatures and hydrological regimes, and supporting unique biodiversity. Livestock grazing, land-use change, drainage, nutrient and acid deposition, and wildfire threaten the composition and function of many peatlands including those in the uplands of the United Kingdom. Presently, little is known about either the short- or long-term effects of wildfires within these systems in the UK. Our study aimed to evaluate how plant communities respond to wildfires across a range of vegetation communities, soil types, and burn severities. We evaluated wildfire burn severity using the ground-based Composite Burn Index adapted for treeless peatlands. Using paired burned-unburned plots, we quantified differences in the abundance of plant families and functional groups, vegetation diversity, and community composition. Multivariate differences in composition between burned and unburned areas were used as an index of community resilience to fire. Plots in heathland communities with shallow organic soils burned at the highest severities and had the greatest reductions in plant diversity and richness. There were significant declines in plot-scale species richness and diversity with increasing burn severity. Graminoids were resilient to fire whilst Ericaceae tended to increase with higher severity. Bryophyte composition was substantially altered-pleurocarpous species declined and acrocarpous species increased with greater burn severity. Community resilience was related to ground layer burn severity with higher burn severity driving greater changes in communities. Wildfire effects on temperate peatlands are a function of fire weather and site environmental and ecological characteristics. Management policy should ensure that the risk of severe wildfires is mitigated to protect ecosystem function and biodiversity. This will require system-specific fire management prescriptions across the gradient of peatland soil and vegetation types.

Abstract 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.

Cattle grazing profoundly affects abiotic and biotic characteristics of ecosystems. While most research has been performed on grasslands, the effect of large managed ungulates on forest ecosystems has largely been neglected. Compared to a baseline seminatural state, we investigated how long-term cattle grazing of birch forest patches affected the abiotic state and the ecological community (microbes and invertebrates) of the soil subsystem. Grazing strongly modified the soil abiotic environment by increasing phosphorus content, pH, and bulk density, while reducing the C:N ratio. The reduced C:N ratio was strongly associated with a lower microbial biomass, mainly caused by a reduction of fungal biomass. This was linked to a decrease in fungivorous nematode abundance and the nematode channel index, indicating a relative uplift in the importance of the bacterial energy-channel in the nematode assemblages. Cattle grazing highly modified invertebrate community composition producing distinct assemblages from the seminatural situation. Richness and abundance of microarthropods was consistently reduced by grazing (excepting collembolan richness) and grazing-associated changes in soil pH, Olsen P, and reduced soil pore volume (bulk density) limiting niche space and refuge from physical disturbance. Anecic earthworm species predominated in grazed patches, but were absent from ungrazed forest, and may benefit from manure inputs, while their deep vertical burrowing behavior protects them from physical disturbance. Perturbation of birch forest habitat by long-term ungulate grazing profoundly modified soil biodiversity, either directly through increased physical disturbance and manure input or indirectly by modifying soil abiotic conditions. Comparative analyses revealed the ecosystem engineering potential of large ungulate grazers in forest systems through major shifts in the composition and structure of microbial and invertebrate assemblages, including the potential for reduced energy flow through the fungal decomposition pathway. The precise consequences for species trophic interactions and biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships remain to be established, however.

The world faces a sixth mass extinction, a crisis that will result in major losses of global biodiversity. Islands are at the coalface of this extinction crisis with higher extinction rates than continental areas, and increased threats from climate change. In small and fragmented populations of endangered species, genetic rescue has the potential to be a valuable tool for species conservation. Tools for the maintenance of genetic variation and hence the potential for adaptation to environmental change are critical for tackling the extinction crisis. We review the current literature on genetic rescue as a conservation tool in plants and assess the potential for genetic rescue in the highly endangered floras of the South Atlantic Islands. Several case studies of species likely to be good candidates for genetic rescue are highlighted. Genetic rescue is likely to result in a more comprehensive and informed conservation of the genetic variation in the endangered plants of the South Atlantic. This will be extremely useful when the potential for adaptation to environmental change needs to be maximized. Several knowledge gaps remain, a combined approach that measures both molecular and ecological traits in semi-controlled common garden trials is suggested and the role of ex situ institutions and botanic gardens is likely to be crucial to its success.

Ecosystems face multiple, potentially interacting, anthropogenic pressures that can modify biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Using a bryophyte–microarthropod microecosystem we tested the combined effects of habitat loss, episodic heat-shocks and an introduced non-native apex predator on ecosystem function (chlorophyll fluorescence as an indicator of photosystem II function) and microarthropod communities (abundance and body size). The photosynthetic function was degraded by the sequence of heat-shock episodes, but unaffected by microecosystem patch size or top-down pressure from the introduced predator. In small microecosystem patches without the non-native predator, Acari abundance decreased with heat-shock frequency, while Collembola abundance increased. These trends disappeared in larger microecosystem patches or when predators were introduced, although Acari abundance was lower in large patches that underwent heat-shocks and were exposed to the predator. Mean assemblage body length (Collembola) was reduced independently in small microecosystem patches and with greater heat-shock frequency. Our experimental simulation of episodic heatwaves, habitat loss and non-native predation pressure in microecosystems produced evidence of individual and potentially synergistic and antagonistic effects on ecosystem function and microarthropod communities. Such complex outcomes of interactions between multiple stressors need to be considered when assessing anthropogenic risks for biota and ecosystem functioning.

Motivation: Trait variation within species can reveal plastic and/or genetic responses to environmental gradients, and may indicate where local adaptation has occurred. Here, we present a dataset of rangewide variation in leaf traits from seven of the most ecologically and economically important tree species in Europe. Sample collection and trait assessment are embedded in the GenTree project (EU-Horizon 2020), which aims at characterizing the genetic and phenotypic variability of forest tree species to optimize the management and sustainable use of forest genetic resources. Our dataset captures substantial intra- and interspecific leaf phenotypic variability, and provides valuable information for studying the relationship between ecosystem func-tioning and trait variability of individuals, and the response and resilience of species to environmental changes. Main types of variable contained: We chose morphological and chemical characters linked to trade-offs between acquisition and conservation of resources and water use, namely specific leaf area, leaf size, carbon and nitrogen content and their ratio, and the isotopic signature of stable isotope 13C and 15N in leaves. Spatial location and grain: We surveyed between 18 and 22 populations per species, 141 in total, across Europe. Time period: Leaf sampling took place between 2016 and 2017. Major taxa and level of measurement: We sampled at least 25 individuals in each population, 3,569 trees in total, and measured traits in 35,755 leaves from seven European tree species, i.e. the conifers Picea abies, Pinus pinaster and Pinus sylvestris, and the broadleaves Betula pendula, Fagus sylvatica, Populus nigra and Quercus petraea. Software format: The data files are in ASCII text, tab delimited, not compressed.

Background: Progress in the field of evolutionary forest ecology has been hampered by the huge challenge of phenotyping trees across their ranges in their natural environments, and the limitation in high-resolution environmental information. Findings: The GenTree Platform contains phenotypic and environmental data from 4,959 trees from 12 ecologically and economically important European forest tree species: Abies alba Mill. (silver fir), Betula pendula Roth. (silver birch), Fagus sylvatica L. (European beech), Picea abies (L.) H. Karst (Norway spruce), Pinus cembra L. (Swiss stone pine), Pinus halepensis Mill. (Aleppo pine), Pinus nigra Arnold (European black pine), Pinus pinaster Aiton (maritime pine), Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine), Populus nigra L. (European black poplar), Taxus baccata L. (English yew), and Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. (sessile oak). Phenotypic (height, diameter at breast height, crown size, bark thickness, biomass, straightness, forking, branch angle, fructification), regeneration, environmental in situ measurements (soil depth, vegetation cover, competition indices), and environmental modeling data extracted by using bilinear interpolation accounting for surrounding conditions of each tree (precipitation, temperature, insolation, drought indices) were obtained from trees in 194 sites covering the species' geographic ranges and reflecting local environmental gradients. Conclusion: The GenTree Platform is a new resource for investigating ecological and evolutionary processes in forest trees. The coherent phenotyping and environmental characterization across 12 species in their European ranges allow for a wide range of analyses from forest ecologists, conservationists, and macro-ecologists. Also, the data here presented can be linked to the GenTree Dendroecological collection, the GenTree Leaf Trait collection, and the GenTree Genomic collection presented elsewhere, which together build the largest evolutionary forest ecology data collection available.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The future status of peatlands as carbon stores/sinks is uncertain given current and predicted environmental change. Several factors can affect the magnitude of the peatland carbon sink including disturbances such as wildfire. There is at present little evidence of how wildfire affects the emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) via perturbation to aerobic and anaerobic respiration. The greatest effects, which are likely to vary according to wildfire severity, would be expected in the immediate post-fire stages when little recovery has taken place. Here, we investigate five UK peatland wildfires (2011–2012) in the immediate post-wildfire period measuring CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes using static chambers. Fire severity was described using a modified form of the composite burn index. A hierarchical partitioning approach indicated time since fire was the most strongly associated variable that fluxes of both CO 2 , and CH 4 followed by soil temperature for CO 2 and fire severity for CH 4 . Using a liner mixed modelling approach to account for repeated measures; fire severity was a significant term for CH 4 and borderline significant for CO 2 . Mean fluxes of CH 4 were consistently lower on burnt sites. In contrast, data from a fire in the north of Scotland appeared to show the opposite relationship for CH 4 with higher fluxes on the burnt sites. These results suggest that wildfire can affect gaseous carbon fluxes, but the responses can be variable in both space and time and that disruption to anaerobic processes may be site and/or fire dependent.

We present an analysis of the invertebrates of St Helena using an invertebrate conservation evaluation framework, to review invertebrate data, highlight knowledge gaps and prioritise invertebrate conservation needs that perhaps could be applied to other regions of the world. St Helena's invertebrate fauna has 891 genera and 1133 species. The fauna has a high level of endemism with 450 species (equal to 96% of all native species) but the total species richness now comprises many introduced species (664) with 93 species in 24 orders that are entirely novel to St Helena. The elevation ranges of native species appear to be narrow, most being confined to higher elevations above 500m. St Helena has had a large number of probable extinction events; 30 insects, and 19 molluscs, and the threat of further extinctions remains high. The cumulative invertebrate extinctions on St Helena exceed the global background extinction rate on an island barely covering 122km(2). We present actions and timelines to focus invertebrate conservation on St Helena; taxonomy, ecology, long term monitoring and invasive species control are priority areas to reduce extinction risk.

Human societies depend on an Earth system that operates within a constrained range of nutrient availability, yet the recent trajectory of terrestrial nitrogen (N) availability is uncertain. Examining patterns of foliar N concentrations and isotope ratios (delta N-15) from more than 43,000 samples acquired over 37 years, here we show that foliar N concentration declined by 9% and foliar delta N-15 declined by 0.6-1.6 parts per thousand. Examining patterns across different climate spaces, foliar delta N-15 declined across the entire range of mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation tested. These results suggest declines in N supply relative to plant demand at the global scale. In all, there are now multiple lines of evidence of declining N availability in many unfertilized terrestrial ecosystems, including declines in delta N-15 of tree rings and leaves from herbarium samples over the past 75-150 years. These patterns are consistent with the proposed consequences of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and longer growing seasons. These declines will limit future terrestrial carbon uptake and increase nutritional stress for herbivores.

Taxonomy is a scientific discipline that has provided the universal naming and classification system of biodiversity for centuries and continues effectively to accommodate new knowledge. A recent publication by Garnett and Christidis [1] expressed concerns regarding the difficulty that taxonomic changes represent for conservation efforts and proposed the establishment of a system to govern taxonomic changes. Their proposal to “restrict the freedom of taxonomic action” through governing subcommittees that would “review taxonomic papers for compliance” and their assertion that “the scientific community’s failure to govern taxonomy threatens the effectiveness of global efforts to halt biodiversity loss, damages the credibility of science, and is expensive to society” are flawed in many respects. They also assert that the lack of governance of taxonomy damages conservation efforts, harms the credibility of science, and is costly to society. Despite its fairly recent release, Garnett and Christidis' proposition has already been rejected by a number of colleagues [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Herein, we contribute to the conversation between taxonomists and conservation biologists aiming to clarify some misunderstandings and issues in the proposition by Garnett and Christidis.

Calluna vulgaris-dominated habitats are valued for ecosystem services such as carbon storage and for their conservation importance. Climate and environmental change are altering their fire regimes. In particular, more frequent summer droughts will result in higher severity wildfires. This could alter the plant community composition of Calluna habitats and thereby influence ecosystem function. To study the effect of fire severity on community composition we used rain-out shelters to simulate drought prior to experimental burns at two Calluna-dominated sites, a raised bog and a heathland. We analysed species abundance in plots surveyed ca. 16 months after fire in relation to burn severity (indicated by fire-induced soil heating). We found that fire severity was an important control on community composition at both sites. Higher fire severity increased the abundance of ericoids, graminoids and acrocarpous mosses, and decreased the abundance of pleurocarpous mosses compared to lower severity fires. At the raised bog, the keystone species Sphagnum capillifolium and Eriophorum vaginatum showed no difference in regeneration with fire severity. Species and plant functional type beta-diversity increased following fire, and was similar in higher compared to lower severity burns. Our results further our understanding of the response of Calluna-dominated habitats to projected changes in fire regimes, and can assist land managers using prescribed fires in selecting burning conditions to achieve management objectives.

Abstract Although there is increasing evidence for a sixth mass extinction, relatively few plants have been officially declared extinct (<150 are categorized as Extinct on the IUCN Red List). The Red List, although the data are neither perfect nor comprehensive, is perhaps the most reliable indicator of extinction and extinction threat. Here, data collated from the Red List, of Extinct plant species and of Critically Endangered plant species with populations in decline, are examined to address three questions: (1) How do background, continental, and island plant extinction rates compare? (2) Are biological and physical island parameters associated with plant extinction? (3) Are any plant traits associated with extinction and if so do these differ between islands and continents? The background rate for plant extinction is estimated to be 0.05–0.13 E/MSY (extinctions per million species-years) and the Red List data are above these background rates and also above a higher extinction rate of 0.15 E/MSY. The data indicate that plant extinctions are dominated by insular species. The Red List extinction data are associated with lower competitive ability and lower climate change velocities, and anthropogenic factors. Analyses using only Critically Endangered species whose populations are in decline (arguably the species most at risk of extinction in the near future) largely mirrors this pattern and suggests that drivers of plant extinction may have an inertia that could last well into the future.

Abstract We report results from a long‐term experiment in which additional nitrogen has been deposited on a peat bog in central Scotland for over 14 years, in three different forms: as ammonia (NH3) gas, as ammonium () solution, or as nitrate () solution. The automated experiment was designed to apply nitrogen in such a way that mimics real‐world nitrogen deposition. Background nitrogen deposition at the site was 0.8 g N m−2 year−1). Observations of cover for 46 species were made. We analysed the change in six common species in relation to nitrogen dose and form. The responses differed among species and nitrogen forms, but five out of the six species declined, and NH3 produced the biggest change in cover per unit of nitrogen addition. The exception was the graminoid sedge Eriophorum vaginatum, which increased dramatically in the NH3 treatment. Multivariate analyses identified responses to nitrogen dose across treatments which were consistent with the univariate results. We surmised that the larger experimental response to nitrogen observed in the NH3 treatment (cf. the and treatments) was because of the higher nitrogen concentrations at the vegetation surface produced by dry deposition. and were sprayed in solution, but much of this will enter the peat porewater, and be further diluted. Because NH3 deposits directly to the leaf, it stays contained within the small volume of water on and in the leaf, producing a high internal concentration of nitrogen ions. Synthesis. Consistent trends with nitrogen were discernible across species. All species showed a decline with NH3 treatment, except for Eriophorum vaginatum which increased. In the absence of phosphorous and potassium (PK), all species declined with and , except for Calluna vulgaris and Hypnum jutlandicum. The effect of PK was not consistent across species. Per unit of nitrogen deposited, NH3 generally had a larger impact on vegetation composition than or . However, the actual deposition rate of NH3 on UK peat bogs is lower than the other forms. In the case of the most common species of the peat‐forming genus Sphagnum, we estimate that deposition has the largest impact, followed by and NH3.