Urbanisation influences bat communities, yet the impacts in small settlements, particularly those that occur in mountain regions, remain poorly understood. We investigated how a human-modified mountain landscape influences bat species richness and activity along an urbanisation gradient in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Passive acoustic surveys across 32 sites recorded bat activity from 2019–2023. Environmental variables quantifying urban characteristics, habitat composition and configuration were measured at different spatial scales. We used generalised linear models and mixed models to assess the impact of settlement- and landscape-scale variables on bat species richness and activity. Bat activity and community composition did not differ significantly between villages, cities, or industrial sites, although species richness was significantly higher at villages compared to industrial sites. Small woody vegetation and proximity to forests positively influenced total bat activity, feeding activity, and Pipistrellus pipistrellus activity, whereas the number of forest patches surrounding settlements showed a negative correlation with total bat activity. At the species level, P. pipistrellus indicated a negative association with artificial light and larger forests surrounding settlements, while Pipistrellus kuhlii/P. nathusii showed a positive association with the presence of major rivers. Small settlements in mountain landscapes appear important but overlooked habitats for bat communities. Nevertheless, even highly urbanised areas, such as cities and industrial sites can support bat communities in mountain landscapes by providing settlement-scale vegetation and heterogeneous forest structure at the surrounding landscape-scale.

Agriculture has played a pivotal role in shaping European mountain biodiversity. Traditional practices, characterized by low intensity and crop mosaics, have historically created complex, heterogeneous landscapes that supported a high biodiversity level. Agricultural intensification has turned these traditional crop systems into artificial habitats, leading to increased field sizes, habitat fragmentation, and decrease of habitat heterogeneity, contributing to the current farmland biodiversity crisis. We investigated the direct and indirect ecological drivers of bird communities in cultivated landscapes within the Alps. We aimed to disentangle the effects of biotic/abiotic factors on birds in permanent and annual crops (vineyards, apple orchards, arable lands). Using piecewise structural equation models, we analyzed bird indices and indicator species to explore the direct, indirect, and total effects of most relevant drivers, highlighting possible patterns due to degradation induced by intensification. Natural/near-natural habitats and compositional habitat heterogeneity positively influenced species richness and functional diversity. Conversely, structural habitat heterogeneity often had negative effects on bird communities. Topo-climatic variables were also relevant, with elevation promoting functional diversity and species richness, while steeper slopes increased near-natural habitats within the landscapes, indirectly supporting communities and species. These results highlighted the importance of maintaining and enhancing natural/near-natural habitats, usually removed by intensification processes, within intensively cultivated landscapes to support biodiversity. Landscape-scale conservation strategies that consider both direct and indirect ecological drivers are needed to effectively manage and conserve bird communities in the Alps under the pressures imposed by modern agriculture.

Changes in agricultural land use and farming practices have been recognized as significant drivers of biodiversity loss, especially when they involve intensive monoculture, excessive pesticide use, overgrazing by livestock, and habitat destruction. These practices not only reduce plant and insect diversity but also impact vertebrates, including bats. We investigated the effect of natural structural elements and intensity of agricultural practices on bat richness and activity across open mountain agricultural areas. The variables considered included the total area of natural structural elements (e.g., hedgerows, trees), the management intensity index, manure hill presence, grazing pressure, and mowing frequency. We recorded bat activity at 47 sites using passive acoustic monitoring, and classified bat species into foraging guilds based on their foraging strategies. We analyzed data using generalized linear mixed models and linear models, respectively, to assess the activity of foraging guilds and species richness in relation to agricultural intensity and landscape variables. We found that natural structural elements positively influenced bat diversity, particularly short-range echolocators and low foragers. Grazing and mowing practices showed mixed impacts on bat diversity, while the presence of manure hills displayed a negative correlation with most bat guilds. This study underscores the need for nuanced approaches to agricultural management that consider the complex effects on bat species diversity. It highlights the importance of maintaining natural structural elements and promoting extensive grazing and mowing practices. These findings contribute to a holistic understanding of how agricultural practices and natural structural elements can alter bat populations’ activity, ultimately affecting the overall biodiversity in mountain agricultural landscapes.

Healthy diets are a lever for improving human health and the sustainability of the food system. They are part of the European Green Deal, together with the aim of shortening food supply chains. This study aims to explore the impact of a shift towards healthy diets on the potential for regional food production and the achievement of selected European Green Deal targets by 2030 in the European Alpine Space. We first identify and compare the amounts of plant and animal raw products required for current and healthy food consumption based on national dietary guidelines, test their level of uncertainty and compare them to the EAT Lancet healthy reference diet. We develop three scenarios and assess their land use and environmental impacts: (a) a baseline scenario for 2030 with current dietary patterns, (b) a 2030 scenario with current dietary patterns, but assuming implementation of Green Deal land use policy measures, and (c) a 2030 scenario assuming healthy diets and implementation of Green Deal land use policy measures. The results suggest that healthy diets could reduce the land footprint by more than 45 % by reducing the need for cropland and grassland, freeing up space for other uses. In combination with land use policies, they could also reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions (-45 %), eutrophication emissions (-42 %), freshwater withdrawals (-33 %), and food waste footprint (-38 %), while increasing food waste (+21 %) and carbon stock (+18 %). This study highlights the importance of coordinated policy action to achieve the environmental objectives of the European Green Deal.

Mountain regions face unique challenges in managing water resources due to their complex topography, diverse climates and their role as water towers for the surrounding lowlands. Here, we present a spatially explicit, annual water balance dataset for the Upper Adige catchment in South Tyrol (Italy), covering the period from 1993 to 2022. The dataset is based on a distributed modelling approach and includes very high-resolution precipitation, evapotranspiration and land use data to compute the annual water balance. It captures both long-term trends and extreme conditions, taking into account gradients in terrain, slope and elevation using local correction factors. Modelled results are validated using stream gauge measurements from nine watersheds, achieving a correlation of over 0.9. This dataset provides a valuable resource for eco-hydrological studies and water resource management in alpine regions, offering detailed insights into the spatial variability and distribution of water availability.

AbstractThe sustainability of the food system needs to be improved, including shortening supply chains and promoting the consumption of regional food. Here, we explore the current potential for regional food self-sufficiency in the European Alpine space by calculating the current regional food/feed energy balance, deriving the regional per capita land footprint based on current food/feed consumption rates, and modelling the current potential for regional food/feed self-sufficiency. We show that 59% of the 560 Pcal of energy currently available in the study area comes from domestic production, and almost 60% of the energy is used for livestock consumption, with high regional variability. The resulting land footprints range from 2301 to 2975 m2 cap−1 y−1. Taking into account changes in cropping patterns, partial intensification, but no expansion of agricultural land, the European Alpine space could produce 89% of its current food demand domestically, with high regional variability due to population density, availability of agricultural land, crop yields, climatic conditions and dietary habits. These findings highlight the potential and limitations of regional mountain food systems and call for new strategies to improve sustainability. Reducing the current high consumption of animal products would reduce the land footprint and increase the potential for food self-sufficiency.

While application of salt for de-icing purposes has been extensively studied in urban areas of North America, little attention has been paid to it in Europe, particularly in mountain areas. Here, after assessment of baseline salinity, and through applying different approaches (i.e., univariate statistical techniques, Multivariate Regression Trees, multivariate regressions), we investigated the potential changes in water chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure caused by the application of de-icing salt over an entire winter season, in a mountain catchment located in the Italian Alps (N 46 degrees, E 11 degrees). Concurrently, we tested and compared the application of three different benthic macroinvertebrate indices used to assess salinisation impacts. Overall, we identified a constant level of baseline salinity across a 13-year period, accompanied by a strong seasonality factor. Despite an application rate comparable to those of large North American cities, macroinvertebrate communities showed little evidence of change. However, chemical ions whose concentrations are known to be influenced by de-icing salt (e.g., Na+, Cl-) were identified as the structuring drivers of the macroinvertebrate communities, thus suggesting that the studied riverine environment show a high potential for change in relation to salinity. In conclusion, we caution against the simple evaluation of application rates to assess the risk/level of salinisation within a catchment, and encourage further specific analysis and study of salinisation in mountain areas: they appear as sensitive habitats to potential variations in salinity, and stressors such as increased urbanisation and climate change will further exacerbate the risk of increasing salinisation in mountain freshwaters.

Over centuries, European vintners have developed profound knowledge about grapes, environment, and techniques that yields the most distinguishable wines. In many regions, this knowledge is reflected in the system of wine geographical indications (GI), but climate change is challenging this historical union. Here, we present the first climate change vulnerability assessment of 1174 wine GIs across Europe and propose climate-resilient development pathways using an ensemble of biophysical and socioeconomic indicators. Results indicate that wine regions in Southern Europe are among the most vulnerable, with high levels also found in Eastern Europe. Vulnerability is driven by the rigidity of the GI system, which restricts the exploitation of suitable bioclimatic conditions and existing grape cultivar diversity, as well as contextual deficiencies, such as limited socioeconomic resources. Building a climate-resilient wine sector will require rethinking the GI system by allowing innovation to compensate for the negative effects of climate change.

Mountain forests play an essential role in protecting people and infrastructure from natural hazards. However, forests are currently experiencing an increasing rate of natural disturbances (including windthrows, bark beetle outbreaks and forest fires) that may jeopardize their capacity to provide this ecosystem service in the future. Here, we mapped the risk to forests' protective service across the European Alps by integrating the risk components of hazard (in this case, the probability of a disturbance occurring), exposure (the proportion of forests that protect people or infrastructure), and vulnerability (the probability that the forests lose their protective structure after a disturbance). We combined satellite-based data on forest disturbances from 1986 to 2020 with data on key forest structural characteristics (cover and height) from spaceborne lidar (GEDI), and used ensemble models to predict disturbance probabilities and post-disturbance forest structure based on topographic and climatic predictors. Wind and bark beetles are dominant natural disturbance agents in the Alps, with a mean annual probability of occurrence of 0.05%, while forest fires were less likely (mean annual probability <0.01%), except in the south-western Alps. After a disturbance, over 40% of forests maintained their protective structure, highlighting the important role of residual living or dead trees. Within 30 years after wind and bark beetle disturbance, 61% of forests were likely to either maintain or recover their protective structure. Vulnerability to fires was higher, with 51% of forest still lacking sufficient protective structure 30 years after fire. Fire vulnerability was especially pronounced at dry sites, which also had a high fire hazard. Combining hazard and vulnerability with the exposure of protective forests we identified 186 Alpine municipalities with a high risk to protective forests due to wind and bark beetles, and 117 with a high fire risk. Mapping the disturbance risk to ecosystem services can help identify priority areas for increasing preparedness and managing forests towards lower susceptibility under an intensifying disturbance regime.

Amidst the global decline in biodiversity, there are growing calls for more ambitious conservation targets and practices, including a renewed focus on protecting and restoring natural processes. However, little is known about suitable areas for process-oriented conservation and its different strategies. In this paper, we identify priority areas for process-oriented conservation following an ecoregion-based approach. Using the Alpine Space programme area as a pilot study area, a Wilderness Quality Index is calculated and mapped based on spatial indicators reflecting variations in naturalness, human impact, remoteness, and ruggedness. To identify priority areas for process-oriented conservation, the 10% of areas with the highest wilderness quality are identified for each ecoregion (‘ecoregional approach’) and compared with the identification of the 10% wildest areas of the entire study area (‘conventional approach’). The results show significant differences in priority areas between the two approaches, with those identified by the ecoregional approach being of lower wilderness quality, more dispersed across the study region and different elevation classes, and smaller in size. The ecoregional approach results in a greater coverage of ecosystem- and species-level diversity, yet it highlights a greater need for complementing the protection of wilderness in less modified regions with rewilding initiatives and the expansion of the protected area network in ecoregions with significant human activity. Based on these findings, we discuss the potentials and challenges that an ecoregion-based identification of priority areas brings for biodiversity conservation, protection and restoration practice, and local communities. The ecoregion-based approach and the findings of this study can inform initiatives under the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, in particular the target to ‘strictly protect’ 10% of the EU’s land and sea.

Spatially and thematically detailed land use maps are of special importance to study and manage populated mountain regions. Due to the complex terrain, high elevational gradients as well as differences in land demand, these regions are characterized by a high density of different land uses that form heterogeneous landscapes. Here, we present a new highly detailed land use/landcover map for the areas included in the European Strategy for the Alpine Region. The map has a spatial resolution of up to 5 m and a temporal extent from 2015 to 2020. It was created by aggregating 15 high-resolution layers resulting in 65 land use/cover classes. The overall map accuracy was assessed at 88.8%. The large number of land use classes and the high spatial resolution allow an easy customization of the map for research and management purposes, making it useable by a broad audience for various applications. Our map shows that by combining theme specific “high-resolution” land use products to build a comprehensive land use/land cover map, a high thematic and spatial detail can be achieved.

Mountain landscapes that are managed to provide several ecosystem services (ES) have the potential to sustain high levels of biodiversity while also meeting multiple human needs. The promotion of multifunctional landscapes has become an important policy target in land management and has gained research traction under the definition of ES‐multifunctionality. However, scale dynamics and patterns of ES‐multifunctionality remain poorly understood and are rarely integrated into land management and policy recommendations. To address this gap, we used two diversity indices to quantify ES‐multifunctionality based on 11 ES indicators at different spatial scales in a case‐study region in the European Alps. The approach used captures the diversity of ES provided at patch and landscape levels ( α ‐multifunctionality) as well as unique ES contributions of ecosystems to the regional ES diversity ( β ‐multifunctionality). Results show that ES‐multifunctionality generally decreases from low to high land use intensities and increases from high to low elevations. While forest‐dominated landscapes are hotspots of ES diversity, the more specialized ES supply in landscapes above the tree line and on valley floors enhances regional ES‐multifunctionality. This study highlights how understanding ES‐multifunctionality and its incorporation into policy and landscape management requires adopting a multi‐scale approach. Patch‐scale analyses are necessary to identify the environmental characteristics underpinning ES‐multifunctionality with a fine level of detail. However, looking at the distribution of ES at landscape and regional scales uncovers the benefits originating from interacting ecosystems, and can support the identification of areas that should be protected, restored, or sustainably managed.

Despite very limited in their extension - about 1% of the total surface of our planet - freshwater habitats greatly contribute to the biodiversity of Earth, since 10% of the known species and 33% of the vertebrates inhabit freshwaters. However, continuous monitoring of habitats and biodiversity - not only aquatic - is considered as a complex task due to the long-term perspective these monitoring programs should have, and the connected required financial needs. Here, within the framework of a regional-scale program of biodiversity monitoring started in the mountainous region of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen (Italy) - including terrestrial and aquatic habitats - we present a dataset covering the first year of the fieldwork campaign aiming at sampling and identifying the benthic macroinvertebrates inhabiting the running-waters of the region. First, we developed a GIS model with the aim of classifying all the running-waters of the region on the base of their water origin, elevation, mean discharge, slope, and geology of the catchment. After having identified a final set of 12 different stream types, 10 sampling points per each type were selected throughout the region, 2 of which - defined as "reference points" - were scheduled to be sampled each year, in order to keep a "year-by-year" temporal resolution in addition to a long-term one. Thus, every year, 48 points are sampled: 24 "reference points" (2 sites x 12 stream types), and 24 additional sites whose re-sampling is scheduled to happen every 4 years. In summary, in a 4 year-period all the 120 sites are sampled, and the same sampling campaign is planned to be repeated every 4 years, in order to build an ecological time series in a long-term perspective. At each site, we collect benthic macroinvertebrates through a kick-net sampler (mesh size 500 µm), following a detailed protocol involving, among other aspects, characterization and quantification of the habitats present in the stretch selected for the sampling, as well as measurement of the water velocity associated to each habitat. The benthic samples are then sorted in the lab - with no application of sub-sampling - and identified mostly to family or genus level using appropriate literature. In addition, at each site, water samples are collected and analyzed within the same day, through a spectrophotometer, looking for a set of chemical species of nitrogen and phosphorous.

Increasing anthropogenic pressures such as pollution, climate change or invasive species can have multiple impacts on ecosystems and the services (ES) they provide. To address the potential effects on ES provision, we propose a geospatial framework to identify and analyze the cumulative effects on terrestrial and freshwater ES. The framework includs an impact chain analysis based on ten pressures grouped into six categories (pollution, climate change, land-use change, overexploitation, land fragmentation, invasive species) and their single or multiple effects on five key ES of the Alpine environment (recreation, forest protection, CO2 sequestration, habitat maintenance, grassland biomass). Results show that the areas most affected by cumulative effects were located in major urban centers, in the Po Valley, Germany, Slovenia, and in coastal areas of the Adriatic Sea. The spatial coincidence analysis of pressure P-ES on IUCN protected sites showed that protection categories IV and V mostly had high P/high ES scores. Our approach will help in management and planning for mountain conservation aimed at reducing multi-pressure occurrences in transboundary environments. The framework can be used to identify areas with the highest ES provision, characterize areas with high stress from anthropogenic pressures, and examine the effects of pressures on protected areas.

Abstract Cultural Ecosystem Services (CESs), such as aesthetic and recreational enjoyment, as well as sense of place and cultural heritage, play an outstanding role in the contribution of landscapes to human well‐being. Scientists, however, still often struggle to understand how landscape characteristics contribute to deliver these intangible benefits, largely because it is hard to navigate how people value nature, and because there is a lack in methods that accommodate both comprehensive and time‐efficient evaluations. Recent advances in technology and the proliferation of new data sources, such as social media data, open promising alternatives to traditional, resource‐intensive methods, facilitating the understanding of the multiple relationships between people and nature. Here, we examine a user‐friendly artificial intelligence (AI)‐based approach for inferring visual‐sensory landscape values from Flickr data, combining computer vision with text mining. We show it is possible to automatically relate photographers' preferences in capturing landscape elements to a set of CESs (aesthetic value, outdoor recreation, cultural heritage, symbolic species) with reasonable accuracy, using the semantic content provided by approximately 640,000 artificially generated tags of photographs taken in the UNESCO world heritage site ‘The Dolomites’ (Italy). We used the geographic information in the data to demonstrate that these preferences can be further linked to different natural and human variables and be used to spatially predict CES patterns. Over 90% of photograph tags could be linked to four CES categories with reasonable confidence (accuracy ration ∼ 80%). The Dolomites are highly appreciated for its aesthetic value (66% of images classified to that category) and vast cultural heritage (13%), followed by its outdoor recreation opportunities (11%) and symbolic species (10%). CES benefiting hotspots were found in areas with high tourism development and close to residential areas, and could largely be explained by a combination of environmental (e.g. landscape composition) and infrastructural (e.g. accessibility) variables. We conclude that online available AI technology and social media data can effectively be used to support rapid, flexible and transferrable CES assessments. Our work can provide a reference for innovative adaptive management approaches that can harness emerging technologies to gain insights into human–nature relationships and to sustainably manage our environment. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

In the European Alps, due to the current changes in land use driven by different social and economic factors, grasslands and pastures are being increasingly replaced by forests. Whereas many studies have focused on the impacts of urbanisation and intensive agricultural activities, no study has evaluated the effects of changes among types of natural to semi-natural land cover in the Alps with a focus on lotic environments. Here, combining taxonomic and functional approaches, we show the effects of four different alpine land cover types (rocks, grasslands, coniferous forests, valley bottom pastures) on stream benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Irrespective of elevation, grasslands and pastures exhibited unpredicted similarity in terms of the composition of the macroinvertebrate assemblages and hosted the highest diversity of benthic organisms, whereas in each of the other land cover types, the density and diversity of the faunal assemblages showed distinct and characteristic values. When analysing the functional diversity decomposed to richness, evenness, and divergence components, grasslands and pastures again showed a similar trend, being characterised by high levels of resource exploitation and niche differentiation, with the potential to host additional organisms. However, as expected, differences driven by land cover type and elevation emerged when examining the single functional traits, since elevation played a major role in terms of the distribution of traits conferring resistance and resilience. Our results demonstrate that land cover type is a prominent factor influencing the taxonomic and functional variety of stream benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Moreover, alpine grasslands contained an unexpected diversity of aquatic insects, as previously assessed for other organisms (e.g. plants and snails). Overall, our study highlights the importance of the preservation of the diversity of habitats in the alpine region, with a special focus needed for valuable semi-natural landscapes, such as grasslands and pastures, particularly in a time of increasing intensification and abandonment of lands in the alpine context.

Multifunctional landscapes optimise the benefits for stakeholders by providing multiple demanded ecosystem services (ESs) within the same area. Although previous studies have indicated human-induced trajectories of landscape pattern and ESs supply in the European Alps, relationships between these aspects and the implications for landscape multifunctionality are little studied. In this case study in the Austrian Alps, we revealed significant changes in landscape pattern, a significant decline in provisioning ESs and an increase in cultural and regulating ESs between 1860 and 2015. Overall, multifunctionality (i.e., the sum of ESs) decreased from 1860 to the middle of the twentieth century and increased afterwards. These changes in multifunctionality can be explained by climate-and human-induced changes in landscape composition, particularly by an increase in the diversity of land use/land cover (LULC) types and a decrease in glacier and unused grassland areas. Landscape composition has been altered by inhabitants as economic focus shifted from agriculture to tourism. Our findings improve the understanding of interlinkages between changes in socioeconomic characteristics, LULC, landscape patterns and multiple ESs. Moreover, we indicate the importance of low-intensity agricultural activities and landscape pro-tection to enhance multifunctionality in tourism-oriented land use systems.