The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity set the agenda for global aspirations and action to reverse biodiversity loss. The GBF includes an explicit goal for maintaining and restoring biodiversity, encompassing ecosystems, species and genetic diversity (goal A), targets for ecosystem protection and restoration and headline indicators to track progress and guide action 1 . One of the headline indicators is the Red List of Ecosystems 2 , the global standard for ecosystem risk assessment. The Red List of Ecosystems provides a systematic framework for collating, analysing and synthesizing data on ecosystems, including their distribution, integrity and risk of collapse 3 . Here, we examine how it can contribute to implementing the GBF, as well as monitoring progress. We find that the Red List of Ecosystems provides common theory and practical data, while fostering collaboration, cross-sector cooperation and knowledge sharing, with important roles in 16 of the 23 targets. In particular, ecosystem maps, descriptions and risk categories are key to spatial planning for halting loss, restoration and protection (targets 1, 2 and 3). The Red List of Ecosystems is therefore well-placed to aid Parties to the GBF as they assess, plan and act to achieve the targets and goals. We outline future work to further strengthen this potential and improve biodiversity outcomes, including expanding spatial coverage of Red List of Ecosystems assessments and partnerships between practitioners, policy-makers and scientists.

A central goal of molecular studies on ancient lake faunas is to resolve the origin and phylogeny of their strikingly diverse endemic species flocks. Another equally intriguing goal is to understand the integrity of individual morphologically diagnosed species, which should help to perceive the nature and speed of the speciation process, and the true biological species diversity. In the uniquely diverse Lake Baikal amphipod crustaceans, molecular data from shallow-water species have often disclosed their cryptic subdivision into geographically segregated genetic lineages, but the evidence so far is mainly based on mitochondrial DNA. We now present a lake-wide parallel survey of both mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear genetic structuring in the common shoreline amphipod Eulimnogammarus verrucosus, known to comprise three deep, parapatric mtDNA lineages. Allele frequencies of seven nuclear allozyme loci divide the data into three main groups whose distributions exactly match the distributions of the main mitochondrial lineages S, W, and E and involve a further division of the W cluster into two subgroups. The inter-group differences involve one to four diagnostic loci and additional group-specific alleles. The transition zones are either abrupt (1 km), occur over a long segment of uninhabitable shoreline, or may be gradual with non-coincident clinal change at different loci. Mitochondrial variation is hierarchically structured, each main lineage further subdivided into 2–4 parapatric sublineages or phylogroups, and patterns of further local segregation are seen in some of them. Despite the recurring observations of cryptic diversity in Baikalian amphipods, the geographical subdivisions and clade depths do not match in different taxa, defying a common explanation for the diversification in environmental history.

This report is a partial translation of the final report in Finnish on threatened habitat types (Threatened habitat types in Finland 2018, Part II: Descriptions of habitat types, The Finnish Enviro ...

David A. Keith, Jose R. Ferrer, Emily Nicholson, Melanie J. Bishop, Beth A. Polidoro, Eva RamirezLlodra, Mark G. Tozer, Jeanne L. Nel, Ralph Mac Nally, Edward J. Gregr, Kate E. Watermeyer, Franz Essl, Don Faber-Langendoen, Janet Franklin, Caroline E. R. Lehmann, Andres Etter, Dirk J. Roux, Jonathan S. Stark, Jessica A. Rowland, Neil A. Brummitt, Ulla C. Fernandez-Arcaya, Iain M. Suthers, Susan K. Wiser, Ian Donohue, Leland J. Jackson, R. Toby Pennington, Nathalie Pettorelli, Angela Andrade, Tytti Kontula, Arild Lindgaard, Teemu Tahvanainan, Aleks Terauds, Oscar Venter, James E. M. Watson, Michael A Chadwick, Nicholas J. Murray, Justin Moat, Patricio Pliscoff, Irene Zager, Richard T. Kingsford

In 2014, the International Union for Conservation of Nature adopted the Red List of Ecosystems (IUCN RLE) criteria as the global standard for assessing risks to terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. Identifying and quantifying the impacts of biodiversity assessments on the status of nature is key to justifying continued investment in assessments and enabling strategic planning to maximize future impact. In this policy perspective, we use an established impact evaluation framework to identify the impacts of the IUCN RLE since its inception. To date, 1,397 ecosystem units in 100 countries have been assessed following the IUCN RLE protocol. Systematic assessments are complete or underway in more than 25 countries and two continental regions (the Americas and Europe). Countries with established ecosystem red lists have already used them to inform legislation, land-use planning, protected area expansion, monitoring and reporting, and ecosystem management. IUCN RLE indices based on systematic assessments have high potential to inform global biodiversity reporting for the Aichi Targets and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Expanding the coverage of IUCN RLE assessments, building capacity to undertake them, and establishing stronger policy instruments to manage red-listed ecosystems will be key to maximizing conservation impacts over the coming decades.

Ihmiskuntana hyvinvointimme on täysin riippuvaista luonnon monimuotoisuudesta – lukemattomista muista lajeista ja niiden elinympäristöistä. Elämän yhteenkietoutuneisuus ja sen arvo itsessään vaatii meiltä kohtuullisuutta luonnonvarojen hyödyntämisessä. Perimmäinen syy niin monimuotoisuuden ehtymiselle kuin ilmastonmuutokselle on elämäntapamme, joka kannustaa kasvavaan kulutukseen, jota globaalisti kasvava väestö edelleen ruokkii1 . Suomi on sitoutunut tavoitteeseen pysäyttää monimuotoisuuden köyhtyminen vuoteen 2020 mennessä. On selvää, että tämä tavoite karkaa käsistämme, aivan kuten se teki vuonna 2010. Suomessa elinympäristöjen tila on heikentynyt keskimäärin 60 prosenttia verrattuna luonnontilaan2 , lähes puolet Suomen luontotyypeistä on uhanalaisia3 ja Suomen lajien uhanalaisuus on viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana lisääntynyt entisestään4 . Uhanalaisuuden syyt täytyy ymmärtää, jotta voimme tehdä tarpeelliset poliittiset päätökset monimuotoisuuskadon pysäyttämiseksi. Suurimmat uhanalaistumista aiheuttavat toiminnat niin Suomessa kuin muuallakin maailmassa tyydyttävät kasvavaa kulutustamme ja liittyvät pääsääntöisesti metsä- ja maatalouden harjoittamiseen sekä infrastruktuurien rakentamiseen Elonkirjon ehtyminen ja ilmastonmuutos ovat läheisessä vuorovaikutuksessa keskenään; monet päätökset voivat auttaa sekä monimuotoisuutta että ilmastonmuutoksen torjuntaa ja siihen sopeutumista. Monimuotoisuuden suojeleminen vaatii kuitenkin myös erillisiä toimenpiteitä. Suuret ihmiskunnan tulevaisuuteen vaikuttavat päätökset tarvitsevat tuekseen monialaista yhteistyötä eri alojen tutkijoiden ja sidosryhmien edustajien välillä, mutta erityisesti tarvitaan parlamentaarisesti sovittuja, pitkäkestoisia päätöksiä luonnon monimuotoisuuden turvaamiseksi. Tässä julkaisussa riippumattomat tutkijat ja asiantuntijat tarjoavat suosituksia päätöksistä jotka auttavat jos luonnon monimuotoisuuden taantumista halutaan hillitä.

Consistent information on threatened habitat types is needed for land use planning and for prioritizing conservation, management, and restoration actions. However, detailed background data for assessing extinction risks of habitat types exists only in few countries. We present a new, flexible procedure for assigning habitat types into Red List Categories similar to those used for species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The procedure allows variation in the character or scale of assessment units and it is applicable even with incomplete data. The assessment protocol consists of two primary criteria: the change in the quantity and the change in the quality of the habitat type. The criteria are analyzed by expert groups with a transparent and repeatable stepwise procedure. The quantitative and qualitative changes in habitat types over the last 50 years serve as a starting point for the assessment, and the status is adjusted by assessing sub-criteria that address earlier changes, predicted future change, and the overall commonness or rarity of the habitat type. We also report the main results of the first assessment of threatened habitat types in Finland, and illustrate the application of the criteria by two case studies.

From morphogical and molecular data we reconsider the systematic composition of the Lake Baikal amphipod genus Babr Kamaltynov & Vainola (Pallaseidae), until recently part of Pallasea Bate. The morphology of Babr is relatively uniform, but both allozyme and mitochondrial DNA data recognize a deep split into two lineages (Nei's D = 1.1, uncorrected COI sequence divergence 17 %). These correspond with the two species B. baikali (Stebbing) and B. nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky), which both are found to be widespread throughout the lake but show different depth preferences. We found no support for the third proposed taxon B. inermis (Sowinsky), and consider it a synonym of B. baikali. Revised morphological diagnoses for the genus and the two species are presented, including new morphological characters. In terms of mtDNA, B. baikali is further subdivided into clearly separate geographical lineages, for which no morphological correspondence was however established.

From morphogical and molecular data we reconsider the systematic composition of the Lake Baikal amphipod genusBabr Kamaltynov & Väinölä (Pallaseidae), until recently part of Pallasea Bate. The morphology of Babr is relativelyuniform, but both allozyme and mitochondrial DNA data recognize a deep split into two lineages (Nei's D = 1.1,uncorrected COI sequence divergence 17 %). These correspond with the two species B. baikali (Stebbing) andB. nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky), which both are found to be widespread throughout the lake but show different depthpreferences. We found no support for the third proposed taxon B. inermis (Sowinsky), and consider it a synonym ofB. baikali. Revised morphological diagnoses for the genus and the two species are presented, including newmorphological characters. In terms of mtDNA, B. baikali is further subdivided into clearly separate geographical lineages, for which no morphological correspondence was however established.

From morphogical and molecular data we reconsider the systematic composition of the Lake Baikal amphipod genus Babr Kamaltynov & Vainola (Pallaseidae), until recently part of Pallasea Bate. The morphology of Babr is relatively uniform, but both allozyme and mitochondrial DNA data recognize a deep split into two lineages (Nei's D = 1.1, uncorrected COI sequence divergence 17 %). These correspond with the two species B. baikali (Stebbing) and B. nigromaculatus (Dorogostaisky), which both are found to be widespread throughout the lake but show different depth preferences. We found no support for the third proposed taxon B. inermis (Sowinsky), and consider it a synonym of B. baikali. Revised morphological diagnoses for the genus and the two species are presented, including new morphological characters. In terms of mtDNA, B. baikali is further subdivided into clearly separate geographical lineages, for which no morphological correspondence was however established.

The effects of land-use history on plant species richness were studied in mesic semi-natural grasslands in SW Finland. Using generalized additive models, we studied the total number of species, number of species of dry and mesic grasslands and number of rare species of dry and mesic grasslands of 162 grazed or abandoned grassland patches. We studied only grasslands that had remained totally or mostly treeless despite of abandonment. Increase of solar radiation was positively correlated with all three richness variables. Increasing cover of trees had a negative effect on the total species richness and that of rare grassland species. Total species richness and richness of grassland species declined with increasing time after abandonment, but richness of rare species did not show a similar response. The results emphasize the importance of high solar radiation, grazing and tow cover of trees for plant species richness in mesic semi-natural grasslands in northern Europe. According to our results the increase in the cover of trees after the end of grazing may be more detrimental to grassland plants than the lack of grazing per se. (c) 2004 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Northern Europe was postglacially colonized from different directions by distinct phylogeographical lineages of the bullhead Cottus gobio L. (Pisces: Scorpaeniformes). These lineages have then come into contact in coastal habitats of the currently brackish Baltic Sea and in the freshwaters north of it. We studied the patterns of intergradation in the contact zones in four morphometric and six molecular characters. In the north, intergradation between the western (W) and eastern (E) bullhead lineages is found both among rivers (west-to-east) and along individual rivers (south-to-north). The locations of the transition zones probably relate to the timing of the initial contact, subsequent Baltic shoreline displacement (i.e. emergence of the lower river reaches), and dispersal barriers caused by variations of coastal salinity. The transitions (clines) in different characters are, however, not geographically coincident. Mitochondrial DNA clines are generally found upstream and to the east of the other transitions, and GPI-1 allozyme clines are mostly shifted downstream in the rivers, and west of the other transitions on the broader scale of the Baltic Sea. The location of the mtDNA clines may best reflect the initial contact between lineages, and the displacement of the other clines could result from dispersal being overall asymmetric (predominantly downstream) and sex-biased (stronger in males). Alternatively, the non-coincidence might reflect selection against deleterious cytonuclear character combinations. No clear evidence of reproductive incompatibility between the lineages was seen in local population structures; no remaining genetic correlations were observed locally among traits. In another transition area, a coastal transect in southern Finland, clinal patterns similar to those in the northern contact zone were recorded, but the population compositions could not be explained by simple in situ mixing of any of the putatively pure, invading refugial lineages. Probably, the bullhead stocks that initially came into contact in this southern study area already represented mixtures of the invading lineages. (C) 2004 The Linnean Society

The thesis is based on the following articles and manuscripts, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals: II Kontula T & Väinölä R (2003) Molecular and morphological analysis of secondary contact zones of Cottus gobio in Fennoscandia: geographical discord-ance of character transitions. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, in press. III Kontula T & Väinölä R (2003) Comparative phylogeography of freshwater cottid fishes: continent-scale versus European affinities in the Cottus poecilopus and C. gobio complexes. Submitted. IV Kontula T & Väinölä R (2003) Relationships of Palearctic and Nearctic 'glacial relict' Myoxocephalus sculpins from mitochondrial DNA data. Molecular Ecology , in press. V Kontula T, Kirilchik SV & Väinölä R (2003) Endemic diversification of the mono-phyletic cottoid fish species flock in Lake Baikal explored with mtDNA sequencing. 1 Phylogeography and evolution of freshwater cottid fishes

The relationships among Myoxocephalus quadricornis complex fish from Arctic coastal waters and from 'glacial relict' populations in Nearctic and Palearctic postglacial lakes were assessed using mtDNA sequence data (1978 bp). A principal phylogeographical split separated the North American continental deepwater sculpin (M. q. thompsonii) from a lineage of the Arctic marine and North European landlocked populations of the fourhorn sculpin (M. q. quadricornis). The North American continental invasion took place several glaciation cycles ago in the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene (0.9% sequence divergence); the divergence of the European and Arctic populations was somewhat later (0.5% divergence). The Nearctic-Palearctic freshwater vicariance in Myoxocephalus, however, appears clearly younger than in similarly distributed 'glacial relict' crustacean taxa; the phylogeographical structure is more similar to that in other northern Holarctic freshwater fish complexes.

In the ancient Lake Baikal in East Siberia, cottoid fishes have diversified into an endemic flock of 33 species. From an ancestral shallow-water, benthic life-style, Baikalian cottoids have shifted to deep-water life in environments even below 1500 m, and also colonized the pelagic habitat. We examined phylogenetic relationships among 22 Baikalian and 10 extra-Baikalian cottoid taxa using a total of 2822 bp of mitochondrial DNA sequence, from complete sequences of ATPase 8 and 6 and cytochrome b genes and the control region. Unlike in earlier studies, we found strong support for a monophyly of the whole endemic Baikalian cottoid diversity. The Baikalian clade, currently assigned to three families and 12 genera, appears to be nested within the Holarctic freshwater genus Cottus. In the molecular phylogeny, all but one of the current Baikalian genera formed well-supported monophyletic groups. However, the topology was inconsistent with the present morphology-based familial subdivision; particularly in positioning the genus Batrachocottus of Cottidae within Abyssocottidae. The branching order of the Baikalian genera could not be resolved completely, however; short basal branches indicate rapid diversification early in the history of the species flock. Using synonymous divergence rates from other fish species for calibration, the diversification of the Baikalian cottoids seems to have started in the Pliocene or early Pleistocene.

Three major phylogeographic lineages of the cottid fish Cottus gobio (bullhead) were identified in northern Europe from mitochondrial DNA sequences and allozyme data. The largely separate freshwater distributions of the lineages demonstrate distinct postglacial colonization histories. West of the Baltic Sea, Swedish lakes were invaded from the southwest (Germany). Another, eastern lineage has colonized the inland waters northeast and east of the Baltic, from refugia in northwest Russia; this lineage comprises a distinct subgroup found only from Estonia. The third lineage, found south and southeast of the Baltic, probably descended from rivers draining to the Black Sea from the north (e.g. Dnepr). In coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and in near‐coast inland waters, the lineages are now found intermixed in various combinations. The alternating fresh‐ and saltwater phases of the Baltic basin have variously enabled and disabled the use of coastal waters as colonization routes. Hypotheses on the chronology of dispersal and lineage mixing can be based on the distribution of the marker genes and the palæohydrographical record. The diversity of the Fennoscandian bullhead thus comprises anciently diverged (probably mid‐Pleistocene) refugial lineages that in their freshwater range constitute distinct evolutionarily significant units. The thorough mixing of the various genomic origins in and around the Baltic, however, refutes the controversial view of distinct species status for the western and eastern (‘ Cottus koshewnikowi ’) bullheads. The postglacial contact of the lineages has created new diversity that cannot be interpreted in a conventional hierarchical framework of taxonomic or conservation units.