Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110689

Authors: Lyes Rahmani Abdelmalek Benaradj Radia Bouarroudj Soraya Kadri Wided Ratiba Biara Nassira Messafri

Research at the interface of biodiversity conservation, urban forestry, and urban green space spans ecology, forestry, landscape planning, environmental management, and public health, making its intellectual structure difficult to apprehend through narrative review alone. This study maps a corpus of 3747 documents published from 2006 to 17 August 2026, retrieved from the OpenAlex API on 13 October 2026 after integrity checking and deduplication. Performance analysis, country-level collaboration networks, lexical co-occurrence on titles and abstracts (abstract coverage 82.6% after supplementation), strategic mapping, thematic evolution, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling were computed with scripts released with the article; stochastic community partitions were evaluated over 200 seeded runs. Across the complete years 2006–2025, retrieved annual output increased at a compound annual rate of 15.89%. The corpus spans 1316 journals and affiliations in 124 countries. China leads publication output, whereas Germany and the USA occupy the strongest brokerage positions in the collaboration network. Author-derived text resolves six lexical clusters (modularity = 0.442), in which health and planning vocabulary joins climate and green-infrastructure terms and carbon vocabulary joins tree and plant species, and co-citation of the 200 most cited references identifies six communities (modularity = 0.507). More than half of the corpus (54.9%) enters only through green-space terms, and removing these documents changes the lexical partition substantially; a replica of a prior green-space mapping shows that urban-forestry terms distinguish the corpus. The mapped literature is increasingly connected to climate, health, and planning agendas.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110688

Authors: Cahit Çeçen Veysel Sonay Mehmet Maruf Balos Musa Geçit Yavuz Bülent Köse

Fritillaria mardinensis Balos, C. Çeçen, Köse & Sonay sp. nov. (Liliaceae) is described as a new species from Mardin Province, southeastern Türkiye. It is morphologically similar to F. armena and F. zagrica but differs from the related species F. armena and F. zagrica by its longer stem structure, yellowish hairy/striped mosaic pattern at the tepal tips, linear nectary structure, and capsule morphology containing longitudinally dark green striped, winged seeds. Diagnostic characters, description, detailed illustration, geographical distribution, conservation assessment, observations and taxonomic comments regarding the new species are given. ITS sequence data are compatible with the placement of the species in Fritillaria but are uninformative at the species level, as F. mardinensis falls in an unresolved polytomy with F. armena and other congeners; its delimitation therefore rests on morphology.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110686

Authors: Anna A. Bannikova Elena V. Leveshchina Georgy I. Shenbrot Alexandra A. Lisenkova Andrey S. Stukalov Enkhbat Undrakhbayar Barbora Č. Bolfíková İslam Gündüz Vladimir S. Lebedev

The long-eared hedgehog, Hemiechinus auritus, has the broadest distribution among Erinaceidae, yet its intraspecific taxonomy remains contentious, with three to six subspecies recognized. We examined the phylogeographic structure of the species across nearly its entire distribution range using two mitochondrial genes (cytb, COI) for 153 specimens from 103 localities, complemented by complete mitogenomes for seven individuals. Phylogenetic reconstructions recovered five deeply divergent, well-supported mitochondrial lineages (p-distances 2–4%): Northern, Eastern, Transcaucasian, South-western and Southern. The Southern lineage, which includes specimens from the type locality of H. a. megalotis, was recovered as the basal branch, whereas the Northern and Eastern lineages formed a derived clade. Demographic analyses indicated recent postglacial expansion in the Northern and Eastern lineages, but not in the Southern and South-western lineages. Species distribution modelling reconstructed Pleistocene range fragmentation during glacial maxima, with divergence among lineages dated to the late Middle and Late Pleistocene. The mitochondrial lineages are partly congruent with the main morphological subspecies, although the status of H. a. megalotis and H. collaris requires further scrutiny. Our results indicate that H. auritus may represent a complex of several divergent lineages, whose evolutionary independence and taxonomic status should be tested with nuclear genomic data.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110687

Authors: Swagata Chakraborty Sándor Kocsubé Shruti Anand Tirpude Balázs Domonkos Péter Alfonz Kedves Zoltán Kónya Zoltán Bratek

The truffle genus Genea plays an important role as an ectomycorrhizal fungus, yet its taxonomy, evolutionary relationships, and ecological behaviour remain poorly understood globally. This study describes Genea budensis sp. nov. and reports G. arenaria and G. zamorana for the first time from Hungary, based on morphological examination and phylogenetic analyses of ITS and LSU sequences. The new species Genea budensis sp. nov., found in the Buda Mountains in Hungary, is characterized by a warty, scale-covered surface peridium; spores ornamented with dense, cone-shaped projections, with some of them being blunt-tipped or bud-like in form. This discovery also marks the first documented occurrence of both Genea zamorana and G. arenaria within Hungary. These findings expand the documented diversity and geographic distribution of Genea in Hungary and provide additional morphological and molecular data for future taxonomic studies of the genus.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110685

Authors: Francesco Tiralongo Andrea Bonifazi

Conspicuous tropical fishes are readily detected by sea users, but repeated sightings and uncertain identifications can distort occurrence histories. We reviewed source-traceable Mediterranean records of Paracanthurus hepatus and Heniochus intermedius through 1 October 2026 and documented two additional video observations: P. hepatus at Cap Dramont, France, on 10 September 2024, and Heniochus cf. intermedius near Sorrento, Italy, on 23 June 2026. Five P. hepatus observation episodes represent at least four individuals. The French observation was approximately 79 m from the site of a fish removed in July and 0.92 km from another individual last observed five days earlier; it may represent the latter fish after displacement or an additional individual. The reconciled Heniochus chronology contains 27 reported occurrence entries across 11 countries: 14 retained as H. intermedius and 13 as H. cf. intermedius. Aquarium release is the leading hypothesis for P. hepatus, whereas Suez Canal dispersal is plausible for H. intermedius; individual pathways remain unverified. Source reconciliation and conservative identification improve citizen-science contributions to Mediterranean biodiversity monitoring.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110684

Authors: Renato Mamede

Marine benthic ecosystems comprise diverse communities living on or within the seafloor, spanning habitats from coastal environments to the deep ocean [...]

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110683

Authors: Zheng Li Qingyi Wang Wanli Ma Wendi Yang Xiaofeng Luan

Wild bird trade poses a persistent threat to global biodiversity, highlighting the importance of long-term market monitoring for detecting changes in trade patterns and informing conservation and management. However, systematic assessments of long-term changes in physical bird markets at the city scale remain limited. Based on long-term surveys conducted in major physical bird markets in Beijing, China, from 2014 to 2026, we characterized the species composition and recorded numbers of wild birds, the representation of protected species, and their temporal variation. In total, 217 wild bird species and 29,803 individuals were recorded. Records were strongly concentrated taxonomically, with Passeriformes accounting for 89.4% of recorded species and 99.5% of recorded individuals. Twenty-eight species listed under China’s National Key Protected Wild Animals or in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices were recorded, accounting for 12.9% of all recorded species and 35.7% of all recorded individuals. Seasonal patterns differed between species richness and individual records: spring had the highest cumulative number of recorded species (166 species, 76.5% of all recorded species), whereas autumn had the highest mean number of individuals recorded per survey (260.34 individuals per survey). Interannually, the number of wild birds observable in physical bird markets showed an overall declining trend. Overall, this study documents the long-term composition and temporal dynamics of wild bird records in physical bird markets in Beijing, providing a baseline for city-scale monitoring of wild bird trade and supporting the regulation of high-priority species and broader wild bird conservation and management.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110682

Authors: Hwan Joon Park Seongjun Kim Chang Woo Lee Jung Eun Hwang Hyeong Bin Park Young-Joong Kim Yubin Lee

Cliff habitats support distinctive plant communities, yet the vegetation characteristics associated with the natural occurrence of Dendrobium moniliforme remain poorly understood. This study characterized plant communities associated with the occurrence of D. moniliforme on a coastal cliff of Seonyudo Island, Republic of Korea, using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based vegetation surveys. A total of 56 plots, comprising 13 occurrence and 43 absence plots, were surveyed, and plant diversity, taxonomic composition, and life-form composition were compared between the two groups. Species richness was significantly lower in occurrence plots, whereas Shannon diversity was significantly higher. Plant community composition differed significantly between occurrence and absence plots (PERMANOVA, R2 = 0.075, p = 0.0005), with several species contributing to the observed compositional differences. Life-form composition also differed significantly between the two groups (PERMANOVA, R2 = 0.045, p = 0.028), with occurrence plots tending to show greater relative cover of chamaephytes, hemicryptophytes, geophytes, and epiphytes. These findings suggest that, within the studied coastal cliff, the occurrence of D. moniliforme is associated with differences in surrounding vegetation composition rather than simply greater species richness, providing site-specific baseline information for habitat characterization and conservation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110681

Authors: Voichita Timis Timis Gansac Lucian Dinca Remus Gabriel Cheregi Laura Melinda Derecichei Petrică Tudor Moțiu Cristinel Constandache Gabriel Murariu

The genus Acer comprises more than 110 tree and shrub species distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and represents an important component of temperate forest ecosystems. This review evaluates biodiversity patterns, ecological functions, environmental pressures, and conservation approaches associated with Acer forests. A systematic literature search conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases on 20 January 2026, without publication-year restrictions. After screening and eligibility assessment, 688 publications were included and analyzed using bibliometric methods and qualitative thematic synthesis. The literature increased substantially over the last four decades, with climate change, biodiversity conservation, forest dynamics, and sustainable management among the principal research themes. The selected studies covered species and genetic diversity, forest composition and dynamics, associated plant, fungal, and animal communities, environmental change, and conservation and management. Native Acer forests were frequently associated with structurally complex habitats, diverse understory communities, nutrient cycling, and multiple ecosystem functions, whereas habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, atmospheric pollution, and biological invasions were identified as major pressures. Introduced species, particularly Acer negundo, were also frequently examined in relation to impacts on native biodiversity. Important research gaps concerned poorly studied endemic species, long-term monitoring, multitrophic interactions, and the effectiveness of conservation measures under environmental change. Future research should integrate ecological, genetic, physiological, and remote-sensing approaches to support evidence-based conservation and sustainable management of Acer forests. This review provides a systematic and bibliometric synthesis of the indexed English-language literature retrieved using the specified search strategy and identifies major research patterns, evidence gaps, and conservation priorities relevant to Acer forests biodiversity under environmental change.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110680

Authors: Ying Liu Yongzhen Wang Jialong Ren Xiuzhen Zhao Qiyue Yang Jiliang Liu Weidong Xin Chengchen Pan

Picea crassifolia forests are a key plant resource protected within the Qilian Mountain National Park and also constitute a vital component of the regional ecological barrier. While extensive research has examined variation in vegetation and soil conditions along elevational gradients in forests, an understanding of how soil fauna diversity changes with elevation remains limited. Predatory soil macrofauna play a critical role in the soil fauna food webs of alpine ecosystems, and shifts in their diversity along elevational gradients are important for ecosystem stability and functioning. In this study, we assessed changes in predatory arthropod communities along an elevational gradient in a P. crassifolia forest in the Qilian Mountains. We found that community composition varied distinctly with elevation, with average dissimilarity increasing progressively at higher altitudes. Predatory arthropod abundance followed a unimodal pattern along the elevational gradients, whereas diversity indices showed an opposing trend. The abundance of Lithobiidae and Thomisidae increased notably at the upper tree line, in contrast to declines observed in Linyphiidae, Staphylinidae, and two carabid beetle species (Carabus sewertzowi and Poecilus singularis). Predatory arthropod assemblage varied significantly with elevation, particularly at the tree line, primarily driven by herbaceous coverage, tree density, and total nitrogen, which together explained 50.9% of the variation. In short, the tree lines of P. crassifolia forests were key regions for predatory arthropods, with the upper tree line exerting a greater influence than the lower tree line.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110679

Authors: Haijun Yi Cuicui Jiao

Alpine grassland ecosystems are increasingly exposed to global change and human activities, yet their long-term resilience dynamics, stagewise shifts, and nonlinear driver associations remain unclear in northwestern Sichuan, China. We estimated a grassland resilience index (RI) for 1985–2020 using a first-order autoregressive model within centered five-year moving windows. Inputs comprised monthly normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), temperature, and precipitation data for 1983–2022. Exploratory change-pattern analysis, nested group cross-validation, Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), and accumulated local effects (ALE) characterized temporal changes and predictor associations. Regional RI declined significantly under autocorrelation-adjusted inference. Exploratory classification assigned 54.01% of grassland to linear or candidate turning patterns; 75.56% of candidate turning areas showed increase-to-decrease patterns. Random forest achieved a mean outer-test R2 of 0.36 ± 0.02, decreasing to 0.24 ± 0.05 under 100 km spatial-block validation and 0.11 ± 0.02 without Year. Year accounted for 48.68% of full-model SHAP importance. Among the seven ecological predictors, temperature–energy factors contributed 51.96%, exceeding moisture-related factors (35.51%). However, this dominance was not robust to excluding Year (driver-rank Spearman ρ = −0.29). ALE revealed asymmetric temperature associations, whereas grazing responses varied across periods. These results indicate limited predictive power of ecological predictors alone and Year-sensitive driver attribution.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110678

Authors: Hatice Gözel

Documenting underexplored local fruit germplasms is essential for biodiversity conservation and establishing baseline records of genetic resources naturally persisting in dryland environments. This study presents a baseline morpho-pomological and stage-dependent phytochemical characterization of ‘Adıyaman Keten İnciri’ (Ficus carica L.), an autochthonous fig landrace naturally growing under rainfed semi-arid conditions surrounding the Ancient City of Perre in Adıyaman, Türkiye. Pomological evaluations revealed remarkable fruit dimensions and weight, characterized by a fully filled internal cavity and structural skin thickness that enhance mechanical resistance during handling. Phytochemical profiling via High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) demonstrated significant maturity-dependent metabolic transitions. Unripe green fruits accumulated higher levels of total phenolics, total anthocyanins, antioxidant activity, and individual bioactive compounds such as myricetin. Conversely, fruit maturation triggered a marked accumulation of primary sugars (predominantly glucose and fructose) and organic acids (mainly malic acid), alongside increased levels of catechin and pelargonidin-3-glucoside. Furthermore, while local field observations indicate main-crop fruit production in orchards without systematic caprification, controlled pollinator-exclusion (bagging) trials and long-term yield monitoring remain necessary to formally validate its parthenocarpic capacity and agronomic stability. Overall, while future controlled stress experiments are required to elucidate specific physiological stress-tolerance mechanisms, ‘Adıyaman Keten İnciri’ represents a valuable local genetic asset for in situ germplasm conservation and baseline breeding evaluations.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110676

Authors: Le Luo Ovindu Hewage Wenhua Lu Dege Zheng Xiangfu Liu Rekhani Hansika Perera Martin Muthee Gakuubi Sajad Ali Baggya Sharmali Karunarathna Samantha C. Karunarathna Kalani Kanchana Hapuarachchi

The genus Laetiporus, commonly referred to as “chicken of the woods,” includes conspicuous polypores known for their vivid coloration, predominantly saprotrophic lifestyle, and growing importance as edible, medicinal, and industrial fungi. This review synthesizes current knowledge on Laetiporus, covering its taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology, chemistry, biological activity, and current and emerging industrial applications. We examine taxonomic and phylogenetic developments, emphasizing species delimitation, distribution patterns, cryptic diversity, and regionally endemic lineages that shape ecological roles and metabolite profiles. The review evaluates the genus’s chemical diversity, including polysaccharides (β-glucans), triterpenoids, sterols, phenolic compounds, pigments, and other specialized metabolites. Available data linking these compounds to demonstrated biological activities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, antitumor, and enzyme-inhibitory effects are assessed, with consideration of the strengths and limitations of current experimental methodologies. Recent advances in cultivation, including substrate optimization, biomass production, and process-scale development, are discussed in relation to applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, enzyme production, and mycomaterials. Safety and toxicology are critically assessed, including reports of adverse reactions and allergenicity, with recommendations for standardized toxicological testing and quality control. Major knowledge gaps are identified, such as limited genomic and transcriptomic resources, poorly characterized biosynthetic pathways, non-standardized bioactivity assays, insufficient toxicological data, and emerging regulatory challenges. Addressing these gaps through integrated approaches in taxonomy, omics, chemistry, toxicology, and biotechnology positions Laetiporus as a model polypore for the development of innovative food, health, and industrial bioproducts.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110677

Authors: Punnat Changsalak Stephen Elliott Pimonrat Tiansawat

Management of forest restoration relies on early tree-performance data from labour-intensive ground surveys. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer a labour-saving alternative. However, the factors affecting when planted saplings first become detectable in UAV imagery are poorly understood. We investigated how sapling size, species and season affect UAV monitoring of a tropical forest-restoration trial on a limestone quarry. Using an off-the-shelf RGB quadcopter flying 10 m above ground, we compared sapling detectability and size in UAV imagery with ground measurements, over the first year after planting. One year after planting, 85% of live saplings were detected in UAV orthomosaics. However, generalised linear mixed models of detectability in 3D models, accounting for season and species, predicted high detectability for most species only at 2 m tall. For detectable saplings, mean 3D model heights matched ground data (mean difference −2.0 cm, 95% CI −5.5 to 1.5 cm, after one year), but individual measurements were imprecise. Sapling detectability was lowest in the dry-season surveys, consistent with leaf loss in deciduous species. However, leaf condition was not recorded, and seasonal effects could not be separated from survey-specific factors. Orthomosaics may support sapling counts by the second rainy season, but height measurement from 3D models may require saplings to reach 2 m tall or taller, which few saplings had reached during the study. Further testing in more complex environments is recommended.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110675

Authors: Yi Zhou Zhaoyin Wang Mengzhen Xu Sabrina Yanan Jiang Bangjie Sun

Artificial aquatic habitats including reservoirs, reclamation waters and constructed wetlands undergo dynamic ecological development, marked by continuous community turnover, trophic reorganisation and shifts in ecosystem function. Meanwhile, traditional biodiversity monitoring methods rely on morphological taxonomic surveys and microscopic identification. They are highly time-consuming, labor-intensive, and strongly dependent on taxonomic expertise. These approaches struggle to capture continuous community dynamics across multiple trophic groups and underestimate cryptic and small-sized benthic organisms. Environmental DNA detects DNA fragments released by organisms into the environment, supporting high-throughput and non-invasive surveys of biological communities. This review synthesizes representative published studies concerning eDNA applications in artificial aquatic habitats. We summarise the strengths of eDNA for biodiversity monitoring, and identify practical obstacles specific to engineered aquatic systems, including sampling bias and data correction. We further propose targeted future research prospects in artificial habitat ecological evaluation and restoration management. This review demonstrates that eDNA is a powerful tool for evaluating constructed aquatic ecosystems and highlights future opportunities via multi-technology integration to promote sustainable ecological infrastructure design.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110674

Authors: Chao Song Yang-Jing Peng Qiang Hao Dong-Huan Liu Fei-Fei Li

Protected areas (PAs) are core regions for biodiversity conservation in China, yet they are under severe threat from invasive alien species (IAS). To evaluate the current status of surveys and monitoring of invasive alien plants (IAPs) in China’s PAs, this study systematically analyzed literature related to IAPs in China’s PAs over the past 25 years (2000–2025). The results reveal significant gaps in the published survey and monitoring record, as follows: (1) According to published literature, only 205 out of 6736 PAs (3.04%) have been documented as having conducted IAP surveys, indicating a severe gap in published survey coverage, and the number of recorded IAPs (270) accounts for 67.0% of the national total (403); (2) The spatial distribution of surveys is concentrated mainly in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Pearl River Delta regions; (3) The taxonomic composition of surveyed IAPs largely reflects the dominance of Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae in China’s overall IAPs (22.22%, 11.11%, and 8.89%, respectively). To address these problems, this paper proposes a systematic scientific construction path: improve top-level design by revising regulations and issuing specialized technical standards to clarify responsibilities; establish a systematic survey and monitoring system by conducting comprehensive censuses and dynamic monitoring while enhancing interregional collaboration; and optimize resource allocation and prevention strategies by implementing differentiated measures such as “One zone, one policy” and “Epicenter priority” strategies based on PA functional zonation and IAS distribution characteristics. This study aims to provide a scientific basis for improving the effectiveness of IAS prevention and control in China’s PAs.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110673

Authors: Anna B. Dilman Kirill V. Minin

Sea stars of the family Pterasteridae (Asteroidea: Velatida) are among the characteristic deep-sea echinoderm taxa. The family includes eight extant genera, of which the genus Hymenaster is the most diverse (52 species) and widely distributed. However, its taxonomic diversity remains insufficiently studied, owing to the fragility of the specimens and poorly understood diagnostic characters. In this study, we describe four new Hymenaster species from the abyssal and hadal North Pacific using morphological and molecular data. The updated number of Hymenaster species known from the North Pacific is fourteen. Molecular analyses place the four new species in three different phylogenetic lineages. A concatenated dataset comprising three mitochondrial and one nuclear marker is used to provide a preliminary phylogeny of the family Pterasteridae, the first to include all but one extant genus. Phylogenetic reconstructions recover the genus Myxaster (Myxasteridae) within Pterasteridae, thus confirming the paraphyletic status of the family. The two most diverse pterasterid genera, Hymenaster and Pteraster, are also recovered as paraphyletic. The molecular data indicate that some morphological characters traditionally used to distinguish pterasterid genera may be homoplastic and highlight the need to identify additional characters that would better align taxonomy with molecular phylogeny.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110672

Authors: Lin Xu Aiai Ma Wenbo Zhou Xinqi Hu Yuhang Zhang Yunxi Liang Zhenshan Liu Xiaofang Luo Penghui Guo

A Gram-negative motile strain, designated a22-2T, was isolated from a nodule of Hedysarum multijugum grown in sandy soil in Northwest China. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence showed that the strain was closely related to Rhizobium tumefaciens (98.37%), R. arsenijevicii (98.37%), R. radiobacter (98.22%), R. nepotum (98.1%) and R. vaccinii (98.17%). Phylogenetic analysis based on the protein-coding genes recA, glnA and atpD suggested that the strain a22-2T represents a distinctly delineated species of the genus Rhizobium, with sequence similarities less than 78.8% (recA), 89.4% (glnA) and 89.2% (atpD) with the defined reference species of Rhizobiaceae. The DNA–DNA relatedness with the most closely related reference strains was below 48%. The genome sequence of the isolate was determined. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) between the a22-2T genome and the most closely related type strain, Rhizobium selenitireducens ATCC BAA-1503, was 78.5%, and genomic phylogeny based on at least 100 core genes supported that strain a22-2T was a novel branch within the Rhizobium cluster. Its G+C content was 61.74%. The strain a22-2T could grow at temperatures between 20 and 40 °C (optimum, 28 °C) and at pH between 5.0 and 10.0 (optimum, pH 6.0–7.0). The cells contained ubiquinone Q-10 as the sole respiratory quinone and had 18:1 ω7c (43.8%) as the major cellular fatty acid. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic properties, the strain a22-2T represents a novel species of the genus Rhizobium, for which the name Rhizobium zhangyense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Rhizobium zhangyense sp. nov. is a22-2T (=CGMCC 1.15517T = NBRC 112336T). Note: The genome record is automatically labelled as ‘Agrobacterium sp.’ by NCBI based on sequence similarity; in the present polyphasic study, strain a22-2T is assigned to the genus Rhizobium as discussed below.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110671

Authors: Pablo Valladares-Faúndez Pablo Franco León Marco Navarro Alejandro Laspiur Cristián S. Abdala Damien Esquerré

We describe a new species of lizard of the genus Liolaemus from southern Peru, previously assigned to or confused with L. poconchilensis. The new species belongs to the L. reichei clade of the L. montanus group and is characterized by a “phrynosaurian” morphotype, sexual dimorphism, and the presence of conspicuous blue scales on the flanks. It differs from L. poconchilensis and other geographically and phylogenetically related species by a unique combination of morphometric and meristic characters, including snout–vent length, tail length, number of temporal scales, number of infralabials, and number of scales around the midbody. Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic analyses support its recognition as an independent evolutionary lineage, recovered in a clade separate from L. poconchilensis. Genetic divergence between L. poconchilensis and the new species ranges from 10.24% to 12.47%, with a mean of 11.28%. The new species inhabits the hyperarid Pacific desert of southern Peru, between 699 and 939 m a.s.l., in an area with sparse vegetation and strong environmental aridity. Its apparently restricted distribution, together with observed habitat loss and increasing anthropogenic disturbance, suggests that this species may be highly threatened. Therefore, we preliminarily recommend its classification as Critically Endangered under IUCN criteria.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110670

Authors: Yuhua Ma Weijie Tong Yichen Fan Tingting Shen Pingping Xu Cheng Huang Xinzhu Li Xiaowan Geng Fasih Ullah Haider Xu Li Wei Wang Zhen Wu

This study investigates the effects of stand age on understory plant diversity in Pinus massoniana plantations recovering from fire disturbance, aiming to provide scientific references for urban ecological restoration and forest management. Three stand ages (15, 30, and 60 years) of P. massoniana plantations in Huangfushan National Forest Park, Chuzhou City, China, were selected as research objects. By combining α and β diversity indices with analyses of edaphic factors from different soil layers, we examined understory plant diversity and its influencing factors across different stand ages. Stand age significantly shaped shrub and herb richness and Shannon–Wiener diversity, which peaked in 15-year-old stands. Symplocos tanakana dominated the shrub layer throughout succession, while the herb layer shifted from single- to multi-species dominance; the Godron structural stability index increased with stand age. Soil C, N, and organic matter responded to stand age, soil layer, and their interaction, whereas pH and bulk density showed partial responses. Understory diversity was negatively correlated with 0–10 cm soil C and organic matter, and herb diversity was positively correlated with 20–30 cm soil N. Herb-layer composition was significantly associated with shallow-soil pH, bulk density, and C/N ratio, whereas no soil drivers were detected for the shrub layer. In summary, this study systematically reveals the synergistic evolution of understory plant diversity and soil characteristics in P. massoniana plantations at different stand age stages, providing an important basis for scientific management and sustainable development of plantations.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110669

Authors: Mingxia Fu Haipeng Zheng Xuelian Zhang Feng Zhou Cheng Qi Wenfeng Ma Congjun Zheng Jincheng Shi Leni Fan Xinqiang Song Xi Yang Ke He

Human activities, together with associated livestock and domestic dog activity, can alter resource use and behavioural decisions in small- and medium-sized carnivores. However, long-term evidence at a common landscape scale remains limited regarding whether different disturbance sources drive the temporal and spatial responses of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) in multifunctional national parks. Using camera-trap data collected in the Yingjing section of Giant Panda National Park from October 2017 to April 2024, we examined leopard cat activity rhythms, potential habitat distribution, and the spatiotemporal relationships between leopard cats and broadly defined anthropogenic disturbance. The study area included 474 effective camera-trap stations and accumulated 283,279 camera-trap days. In total, 687 independent leopard cat detections were recorded at 181 stations. Leopard cats were predominantly nocturnal, with the highest daily activity occurring between 02:00 and 06:00, while annual activity was mainly concentrated from May to November. Comparing leopard cat activity patterns between disturbed and undisturbed sites revealed a high temporal overlap (Δ4 = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.84–0.97), with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (P = 0.763). The conditional two- species occupancy model likewise detected no spatial association between leopard cats and humans (SIF = 1.00). In contrast, distance to settlements, distance to water sources, and elevation were the main predictors of potential leopard cat habitat, contributing 29.67%, 24.18%, and 19.04%, respectively. Potentially suitable habitat covered 328.03 km2, accounting for 39.60% of the Yingjing section. These results indicate that leopard cats showed no clear overall avoidance under the current anthropogenic disturbance conditions, although their habitat distribution was closely associated with distance from human settlements. Because the current definition of anthropogenic disturbance combines records of humans, livestock, and domestic dogs, future analyses should distinguish among multiple disturbance sources at the camera station–year–season scale to identify differentiated spatiotemporal responses that may be obscured by aggregated analyses.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110668

Authors: Rajan Prasad Paudel Rabin Kadariya Ajay Karki Rabin Bahadur K.C Arjun Thapa Chiranjibi Prasad Pokheral Toshio Tsubota

The sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) is both ecologically important and among the most feared wildlife species in southern Nepal. Despite this, long-term patterns of human–sloth bear conflict have not been well documented. This study assessed the annual, seasonal, and spatial patterns of human casualties resulting from sloth bear encounters in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Verified incident records from 1999 to 2025, along with household surveys of 100 households, were used to describe trends and patterns in human-sloth bear interactions. Over 27 years, 196 human casualties were recorded, including one fatality. Annual casualties ranged from 1 to 29 and demonstrated a significant downward trend according to the Mann–Kendall test. Negative binomial regression, accounting for overdispersion, estimated an annual decline of 4.47% (p = 0.0012). Casualties were unevenly distributed seasonally, with winter (36%) and spring (32%) accounting for most casualties. Spatially, conflicts were recorded in 15 of 22 buffer zone user committees, with more than half occurring in the southwestern sector, particularly in the Madi Valley. Household surveys indicated that most encounters involved forest- and agriculture-dependent communities and frequently occurred while people were walking or undertaking forest activities. Most human sloth bear conflict incidents involved single bears, although mother–cub groups accounted for 31% of encounters. Despite the declining long-term trend, conflict remains spatially and seasonally concentrated. These findings provide a baseline for targeted conflict prevention, community safety measures, and long-term sloth bear conservation in Nepal.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110667

Authors: Yusuf Hüseyinoğlu Emrah Kılıç Ayşegül Kılıç Sinan Atak Emel Bahçeci

The Pyraloidea are among the largest superfamilies of Lepidoptera, yet their distribution in the eastern Mediterranean is documented unevenly. Light-trapping was carried out on 54 nights between 2008 and 2024 at 45 localities in the districts of Erdemli and Mezitli, Mersin Province, southern Türkiye, along an elevational gradient from 150 to 1800 m a.s.l. The survey yielded 492 occurrence records of 1330 specimens belonging to 161 species in 91 genera, 129 of them identified with confidence and 32 provisionally; the Pyralidae are represented by 78 species and the Crambidae by 83, and the largest subfamilies are the Phycitinae (61 species), the Crambinae (23) and the Spilomelinae (22). Seventy-seven species are reported for the first time from Mersin Province, as assessed against the national catalogue, the nineteenth-century records of Staudinger, two annotated lists for the district of Anamur, an unpublished doctoral thesis on the region and the applied entomological literature; seven further species recorded from the province by Staudinger were not found. Checking the nomenclature species by species against the Global Information System on Pyraloidea altered 28 entries relative to the source material, including five changes in generic placement and one synonymy. Sample-based rarefaction and the Chao2 estimator indicate that only about three-quarters of the pyraloid fauna likely to be present has been recorded, and the distributional patterns are therefore regarded as provisional. Species composition tended to become more dissimilar with increasing elevational distance between sampling events (Spearman ρ = 0.187, p < 0.001), independently of season, and most of the dissimilarity (94%) was attributable to species replacement rather than to nestedness; no significant relationship between elevation and species richness per night was found. Neither district contains a protected area. The occurrence data are published in Darwin Core format.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110666

Authors: Iskander Isgandarov Zhanar Abilda Dias Daurov Zagipa Sapakhova Maxat Toishimanov Malika Shamekova

Irrigation relieves water limitation in dryland soils and may shift soil microbes from stress tolerance towards resource acquisition. Field tests are scarce and often confound irrigation with site. In this exploratory study, we compared twelve long-read nanopore metagenomes from six spatially matched pairs of irrigated and rainfed fields in the East Kazakhstan Region, with one composite sample per field, and tested irrigation within pairs. With six pairs, the design can detect only large effects. Sequencing was shallow (0.16–2.19 Gb per soil) and read accuracy modest (median Q17). We detected no large or consistent community-wide shift: site explained 50–52% of compositional variance and irrigation 8–10%, close to the 8% expected by chance. A reference-free comparison agreed; equal-depth Aitchison tests hint at a weak log-ratio shift. Trait-level signals were consistent in direction but failed multiple-testing correction. The desiccation-tolerant genus Rubrobacter was 2- to 40-fold less abundant in the irrigated field of five of six pairs, and polysaccharide-degradation genes were 26% more abundant under irrigation, whereas compatible-solute genes did not differ. Most reads (64–80%) could not be placed against reference genomes. These results identify Rubrobacter depletion and greater polysaccharide-degradation potential as hypotheses to test in larger, crop-balanced studies with measured soil properties.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110665

Authors: Bing-Bing Xie Hui-Ling Tang Xiang-Qiang He Jin-Rong Gu Wen-Ling Wang Shao-Ji Hu

Butterflies are sensitive to environmental changes and serve as ideal indicators for monitoring terrestrial ecosystems. Yulong Snow Mountain, located in a global biodiversity hotspot, serves as both a nature reserve and a famous tourist attraction, providing a unique setting to investigate the association between human activity and biodiversity. The present study conducted surveys along five independent transects with varying elevations and disturbance intensities from June to September in two consecutive years (2024 and 2025). A total of 1570 individuals were recorded, belonging to 75 species, 51 genera, and 5 families. Species accumulation curves indicated a total sampling coverage of 96.8%. Community structure showed a certain degree of spatiotemporal variation. The lowest-disturbance forest habitat harboured the highest diversity. In contrast, the agricultural (Xiaheishui) habitat showed the highest dominance index, with Celastrina oreas accounting for 69.65% of individuals. Genus and species richness declined progressively during our survey months, while abundance peaked in July. The differences in butterfly communities across the five transects suggest that anthropogenic activities may affect species assemblages. This study provides preliminary evidence of the association between human activities and butterfly diversity in the tourist area of Yulong Snow Mountain, providing a scientific basis for future conservation and tourism development in this montane protected area.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110664

Authors: Kechao Huang Shihong Lü Longwu Zhou Zhongfeng Zhang Shuhui Tan Qiumei Teng

Isolated trees in karst rocky desertification areas act as resource islands and create fine-scale microhabitat gradients, yet the response of soil microbial communities to these fine-scale gradients has not been measured in karst systems. We sampled surface soil around seven isolated trees (which included both naturally remnant and replanted individuals) at three canopy positions—under-canopy (IT1), canopy edge (IT2), and outside the canopy (IT3)—and analyzed bacterial, fungal, and Actinomycetota communities by 16S rRNA gene and ITS sequencing. Soil organic carbon and total nitrogen declined significantly from IT1 to IT3, whereas pH and the mineral elements (TP, TK, Ca, Mg) showed no significant positional differences. At the family level, microbial α-diversity did not differ among positions. The dominant taxa were broadly shared across the three positions, and the compositional differences that did occur were concentrated in a small number of families. Position effects on community composition were moderate for bacteria and Actinomycetota and weaker for fungi, while the measured soil properties explained only a small part of the family-level variation, leaving most of it unexplained. These results indicate that isolated trees generated a clear SOC and TN gradient but did not drive a comparable reorganization of the soil microbial community, and the dominant assemblages remained largely similar across the three positions. The data therefore do not support a single dominant environmental driver or pronounced niche differentiation. For vegetation restoration in karst rocky desertification areas, these findings suggest that retaining isolated trees can help maintain particular microhabitat-associated microbial taxa and preserve the compositional distinctiveness of canopy-edge and under-canopy microsites. Such retention alone, however, is unlikely to produce a broad shift in overall microbial diversity.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110663

Authors: Ruifeng Zhu Haipeng Zheng Xuelian Zhang Zhiyi Zhao Yueming Zheng Fan Leni Feng Zhou Cheng Qi Wenfeng Ma Congjun Zheng Jincheng Shi Weimiao Zhuang Ke He

Sympatric species may share a landscape while differing in their environmental associations and daily activity. We examined these dimensions in golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) and Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) using 110 field-informed analytical units derived from 118 physical camera stations in Lushan County, Sichuan Province, China. Across 35,529 effective camera-days and an analytical-unit elevational range of 1395–2771 m, we recorded 20 independent unit-level camera-detection events of golden snub-nosed monkeys at 12 units and 1681 events of Tibetan macaques at 94 units. Ten golden snub-nosed monkey-positive units also recorded Tibetan macaques, but overall unit-level similarity was low because Tibetan macaque detections were more widespread. After adjustment for camera-days, golden snub-nosed monkey unit-level detection was positively associated with elevation (OR = 2.007, 95% CI = 1.051–3.833), whereas Tibetan macaques showed a negative estimated association with an interval including one (OR = 0.516, 95% CI = 0.256–1.041). Both species were predominantly diurnal and showed substantial diel activity overlap (Δ1 = 0.908, 95% CI = 0.696–0.923). Frequent unit-level co-use and substantial diel overlap therefore coexisted with contrasting estimated elevational associations, indicating that shared detections in one ecological dimension need not imply similar patterns in another.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110662

Authors: Yinyin Feng Shuo Sun Fei Miao Xiao Li Yuanjin Liu Shaochun Xu

Seagrass restoration seeks to recover vegetation, benthic biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning, but these components may recover at different rates. This critical narrative review synthesizes literature identified through 15 September 2026 on canopy-associated and sediment-dwelling fauna, relevant microbial interactions, habitat comparisons, experiments, restoration monitoring, and molecular surveys. Targeted searches and reference checking informed a thematic synthesis, supplemented by descriptive re-expression of published summary estimates and recovery observations. Evidence is dominated by temperate eelgrass and macrofaunal studies, with limited coverage of tropical systems and meiofauna. Seagrass meadows often support greater faunal abundance and diversity than unvegetated sediments, although responses vary with taxa, environmental context, spatial scale, and reference habitat. Some restored meadows rapidly attain community composition and functional traits resembling natural references, but other attributes remain distinct, persistence is uncertain, and no universal recovery timeline is supported. Similarity in community traits does not demonstrate recovery of grazing, secondary production, or nutrient exchange, which require process-specific evidence; carbon storage should be evaluated separately using measurements of carbon stocks and, where relevant, accumulation rates. Environmental DNA broadens detection but is constrained by transport, taxonomic assignment, and sampling completeness. We propose a recovery-assessment framework integrating habitat condition, taxonomic and functional community attributes, directly measured processes, appropriate references, uncertainty, and long-term monitoring. Conservation should preserve complementary meadow habitats and interactions with demonstrated ecological benefits.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110661

Authors: Anna Maria Mannino Giuliana Marletta Donatella Serio

Non-indigenous species (NIS) pose a severe threat to Mediterranean biodiversity, health, and economy. Although marine protected areas (MPAs) are key conservation tools, they remain vulnerable to biological invasions, whose impacts are still poorly understood. This study provides an updated literature-based overview of non-indigenous macroalgae in Italian MPAs and adjacent non-protected areas. For this analysis, we used a dataset derived from the inventory of Wesselmann, updated with the most recent scientific literature up to 2026. In particular, we consulted the library of the Laboratory of Phycology at the University of Catania, and the browsers Google Scholar and PubMed. Overall, non-protected areas accounted for a higher number of records (1001) than MPAs (280). Among the protected areas, the highest numbers of non-indigenous macroalgal records were observed in the MPA Secche della Meloria (48 records), the MPA Isole Pelagie (42 records), and the Tuscan Archipelago National Park (42 records). In terms of species richness, the MPAs harboring the highest number of non-indigenous taxa were the Tuscan Archipelago National Park (15 taxa), followed by MPA Isole Ciclopi (14 taxa), MPA Isole Egadi (12 taxa), and the MPAs Isole Pelagie and Isole Tremiti (both with 10 non-indigenous macroalgal taxa). Notably, data remain lacking for many regions and MPAs; the observed differences in records and species numbers among MPAs are essentially linked to their geographical location, accessibility, and varying degrees of scientific interest or sampling effort. To address these gaps, future efforts must prioritize early detection and regular monitoring of non-indigenous macroalgae across all areas, particularly within MPAs.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110660

Authors: Giovanna O. Reis Exequiel R. González Paula B. Araujo Giovanna M. Cardoso Daniela S. Castiglioni Águeda V. Isa-Miranda Marcela Peralta Aurora Marrón-Becerra Andrew G. Cannizzaro Cecilia S. R. Sobral Alessandra A. P. Bueno

Hyalella Smith, 1874, is a diverse and ecologically important genus of freshwater amphipods widely distributed throughout the Americas, occurring from temperate North America to southern South America. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge of Hyalella, integrating historical developments in its study with advances in taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, ecology, reproductive and population biology, and molecular research. Despite substantial progress in recent decades and an accelerating rate of species descriptions, several regions of the Americas remain poorly sampled, while cryptic diversity, unresolved species complexes, and limited molecular information continue to challenge estimates of the actual diversity and evolutionary history of the genus. Future research should prioritize integrative taxonomy combining morphological and molecular evidence, expanded geographic and habitat-based sampling, phylogenomic approaches, standardized genetic reference libraries, ecological and physiological studies, and the application of emerging tools such as environmental DNA and species distribution modelling. By integrating more than a century of research, this review identifies major advances and persistent knowledge gaps and provides a framework for future studies aimed at understanding the diversity, evolution, ecology, and conservation of one of the most distinctive freshwater amphipod radiations in the Americas.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110659

Authors: Chiara Manfrin Marco Restaino Monica Caramia Nicola Bressi Giulio Pasinetti Piero G. Giulianini Alberto Pallavicini Massimo Zanetti

Subterranean environments are characterised by high spatial fragmentation and limited connectivity, which can strongly influence genetic structure and species distributions in troglobitic organisms. Here, we investigated the occurrence and spatial distribution of Proteus scopolii and P. xanthostictus within the Italian sector of the Classical Karst, the only Italian area where the two species naturally coexist. Species distributions were assessed using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) marker, combined with morphological traits and the Scaled Mass Index (SMI), in individuals collected from multiple caves along the hydrological gradient of the Classical Karst. Results revealed sympatric occurrence of the two species, with a clear upstream–downstream distributional gradient. A sharp transition was detected between the Trebiciano and Luftloch caves, approximately 1 km apart, suggesting the presence of hydrogeological barriers limiting species distribution. Further downstream, in the Reka–Timavo and Soča–Isonzo aquifer systems, only P. scopolii was detected. This study represents the largest sampling effort to date across olm populations at their westernmost natural range, highlighting the role of subterranean hydrological structure and local barriers in shaping species distributions and genetic patterns, and underscoring the ecological complexity and conservation importance of karst aquifers.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110658

Authors: Halicia Celeste Matheus Lima David Sousa Fernanda Gonçalves de Sousa Luan Gabriel Araújo Goebel Geovana Linhares de Oliveira Gabriela Ribeiro Gonçalves Ana Cristina Mendes-Oliveira

Our objective was to evaluate the effects of converting Amazonian forest into oil palm plantations on the taxonomic and functional diversity of non-flying small mammal assemblages, and to identify the habitat and landscape variables shaping patterns of richness, composition, and abundance. Using pitfall and live traps in native forest and oil palm plantation areas, we recorded 201 individuals across 25 species. Richness and functional diversity indices did not differ between habitats; however, abundance was higher and evenness lower in oil palm plantations. Species composition differed between habitats, driven by species turnover, indicating that assemblages in oil palm plantations constitute a distinct set of species rather than a subset of the forest community. Canopy openness and understory density were the environmental determinants of abundance and composition, respectively. Our results show that oil palm monoculture reshapes small mammal communities through compositional turnover and shifts in dominance, favoring disturbance-tolerant generalists over forest specialists, without causing significant losses in richness or functional diversity, a pattern consistent with functional redundancy. Conserving and ecologically connecting the “Legal Reserve” forest fragments distributed across this landscape is essential to sustain disturbance-sensitive, forest-structure-dependent species that do not find suitable conditions within oil palm plantations.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110657

Authors: Linas Balčiauskas Andrius Kučas Laima Balčiauskienė

We assessed the temporal changes in the richness and diversity of wild mammal roadkill by analysing officially recorded wildlife–vehicle collision data from Lithuania between 2002 and 2025. We calculated annual taxon richness, abundance-sensitive diversity, and community composition from a species frequency matrix. To account for significant variations in annual sample size, diversity was standardised using individual-based rarefaction to 218 registered individuals, employing Hill numbers (q = 0, 1, and 2). Observed richness increased from seven taxa in 2002 to 18 in 2023, while the number of registered individuals increased markedly, particularly after 2013. Rarefied richness also exhibited a significant positive temporal trend, suggesting that the rise in recorded richness was not solely due to an expanding sample size. In contrast, rarefied Shannon and inverse Simpson diversity declined, indicating increasing dominance by a smaller number of abundant taxa. The proportion of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) records increased from 72.1% in 2002–2009 to 83.7% in 2018–2025, which contributed significantly to temporal community restructuring. These results demonstrate long-term changes in the recorded wild mammal roadkill assemblage while highlighting the need to account for reporting and detection processes when interpreting administrative roadkill data.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110656

Authors: Andra Oros

Marine zooplankton (ZPK) connect basal pelagic compartments with fish and can mediate trace metal (TM) exposure through dissolved, dietary and particle-associated pathways. Their role in Black Sea (BS) metal cycling, ecological effects and food-web transfer remains poorly understood. This critical narrative review drawns on global TM–ZPK research to identify mechanisms and methods relevant to the BS and translates them into six benchmarks: chemical bioavailability and upstream pathways; uptake and retention; biological resolution; trophic transfer; environmental modifiers; and functional or community-level effects. Black Sea studies identified through a structured regional search were assessed against these benchmarks, and were classified as supported, partly supported, suggestive or untested. Global evidence shows that total TM concentrations in water or bulk plankton cannot elucidate exposure routes, internally retained burdens, ecological effects or trophic transfer. In the BS, although metal fractionation, particle pathways and ZPK ecology are relatively well documented, only a few heterogeneous studies confirm the occurrence of TM in pooled zooplankton. Available metal fractions have not been linked directly to ZPK uptake. The contribution of dissolved and dietary exposure, taxon- and trait-specific accumulation and elimination remain unresolved, whileZPK-mediated trophic transfer is only suggestive. Relevant environmental gradients and functional assays are available, but metal-by-environment interactions and links between internal burdens and population- or community-level effects remain untested. The central regional gap is the lack of matched studies linking bioavailable TM fractions, burdens in individual ZPK taxa, functional effects and transfer to predators. Global research indicates that coordinated sampling of connected compartmentsoffers the clearest path toward ecologically relevant BS pollution monitoring, biodiversity assessment and food-web evaluation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110655

Authors: Yishan Yang Chenghao Zhu Ayinuer Aini Yingying Wu Hui Zhang Rong Zou Yunsheng Jiang Xiao Wei Jianmin Tang Wenbin Guan

Malania oleifera, the sole species of its genus, is an endangered tree endemic to the karst regions of China and a valuable woody oil crop. However, deep seed dormancy and slow germination severely limit its propagation and utilization. In this study, freshly harvested mature seeds of M. oleifera were soaked in gibberellic acid (GA3) solutions at different concentrations. Germination traits and physiological and biochemical parameters were assessed, and transcriptome sequencing was performed to investigate the mechanisms underlying GA3-promoted seed germination. Soaking seeds in GA3 for 24 h significantly promoted germination in a concentration-dependent manner. The strongest response occurred at 600 mg·L−1 GA3, with germination potential and germination percentage reaching 34.2% and 60.0%, respectively. The beneficial effect declined at 800 mg·L−1. Treatment with 600 mg·L−1 GA3 significantly increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) content, indicating that an appropriate GA3 concentration helped maintain redox balance during germination. Transcriptome analysis identified 7548 and 3571 differentially expressed genes in UT_vs_W24 and W24_vs_GA24, respectively. These results indicated that water soaking initiated germination-related transcriptional changes that were further modified by GA3 treatment. Functional enrichment analysis showed that transcriptional changes induced by water soaking mainly involved carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, secondary metabolism, and responses to stimuli, whereas GA3 treatment further modulated redox processes, defense responses, plant hormone signal transduction, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Reconstruction of the plant hormone and MAPK signaling pathways showed that GA3 markedly affected the expression of genes involved in gibberellin, abscisic acid, auxin, and brassinosteroid signaling. GA3 also regulated the MKK–MPK cascade and downstream transcription factors, including WRKYs. Together, these findings characterize the physiological responses of M. oleifera seeds to GA3 and reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying GA3-promoted germination, providing a basis for improving the propagation efficiency of this valuable species.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110654

Authors: Feiyun Tu Yaqin Qiao Wenxuan Liu Yang Yang

The Hainan gymnure (Neohylomys hainanensis) is the only erinaceid endemic to Hainan Island and is classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). However, its genetic structure, diversity, and demographic history remain poorly understood. We analyzed mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cyt b) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences from 38 individuals, and nuclear apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and growth hormone receptor (GHR) sequences from 37 individuals, sampled from ten localities across Hainan Island. The mitochondrial markers exhibited high haplotype diversity but low nucleotide diversity, while nuclear genes were nearly invariant. The pairwise fixation index (FST) values between northern and southern groups showed low to moderate differentiation. Interpopulation genetic distances were extremely small (0.002–0.005), based on the four well-sampled localities, and most pairwise FST values among the four well-sampled populations were low to moderate. Haplotype networks based on COI revealed extensive haplotype sharing between northern and southern groups, whereas the concatenated COI + Cyt b network showed geographic sorting of haplotypes with no shared haplotypes between groups, indicating weak but detectable maternal structure. Mismatch distribution and neutrality tests for both COI and Cyt b were consistent with a population expansion event, with the expansion time estimated from Cyt b, dating to approximately 101.2 thousand years ago (kya); however, this demographic estimate should be considered exploratory. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) further attributed the overwhelming majority of genetic variation (88.57–96.77%) to within-population differences rather than to divergence among localities. Overall, N. hainanensis exhibits moderate genetic diversity and low to moderate genetic differentiation. Mitochondrial markers revealed weak but detectable north–south differentiation, whereas the concatenated phylogenetic tree showed no clear geographic clustering, likely due to insufficient phylogenetic signal. The overall phylogeographic structure therefore remains weak and incompletely resolved. Conservation should prioritize habitat connectivity in the central mountainous region and long-term population monitoring.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110653

Authors: Lin Gou Shang Shi Rong Zou Chenghao Zhu Shengfeng Chai Ling Liu Xiao Wei Limei Gao

To examine differences in resource use and functional traits between the narrow-ranged Camellia longzhouensis and its widespread congener Camellia gigantocarpa, we compared their light and CO2 responses, leaf anatomy, stomatal traits, photosynthetic pigments, and trait correlations under common nursery conditions. In both species, net photosynthetic rate increased rapidly with increasing irradiance and then gradually approached a plateau. The maximum net photosynthetic rate of C. gigantocarpa was significantly higher and was 4.10 times that of C. longzhouensis, whereas apparent quantum yield, light saturation point, light compensation point, and dark respiration rate did not differ significantly between the two species. As intercellular CO2 concentration increased, net photosynthetic rate increased and then gradually leveled off in both species. Initial carboxylation efficiency was significantly higher in C. gigantocarpa, whereas the other CO2-response parameters showed no significant differences between species. Leaf thickness and lower epidermal thickness were similar between species, but C. gigantocarpa had a thicker upper epidermis and palisade tissue and a higher palisade-to-spongy tissue thickness ratio, whereas C. longzhouensis had thicker spongy tissue and higher stomatal density. Stomatal length, width, and area did not differ significantly between species. C. gigantocarpa had significantly higher chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoid contents, as well as a higher chlorophyll a-to-b ratio, whereas the ratio of carotenoids to total chlorophyll did not differ significantly between species. Trait correlations indicated coordinated variation among photosynthetic performance, leaf anatomy, stomatal characteristics, and photosynthetic pigments. Overall, the two species exhibited distinct combinations of leaf structural and photosynthetic functional traits under common nursery conditions, providing baseline ecophysiological information on their resource-use differences and for germplasm conservation of C. longzhouensis.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110652

Authors: Ethan Poorbaugh Scott Carr Haaven Rentfro Renfang S. Taylor

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding provides a non-invasive approach for describing fish-associated molecular diversity in freshwater ecosystems. We analyzed one composite water sample from each of four Indiana locations: White River upstream (WR UP), White River downstream (WR DN), Shadyside Lake (SS Lake), and Trail Creek, using MiFish mitochondrial 12S rRNA sequencing. A total of 81 fish-associated exact sequence variants (ESVs) were retained for analysis after excluding non-fish assignments and a positive control. Observed ESV richness was highest in WR DN (56), followed by WR UP (27), SS Lake (22), and Trail Creek (5). Shannon diversity was likewise highest in WR DN (H′ = 2.27) and lowest in Trail Creek (H′ = 0.78). Twenty-one fish-associated ESVs were shared between the White River samples, which also showed the lowest Bray–Curtis dissimilarity (0.204) among site pairs. Processed fish-assigned read totals varied markedly (322–23,127), limiting direct richness comparisons, especially for Trail Creek. These findings provide a descriptive baseline of fish-associated eDNA assemblages but do not establish differences in fish abundance or replicated site-level biodiversity.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110651

Authors: Julien Touroult

Opportunistic citizen-science records provide unprecedented volumes of biodiversity data, but uneven sampling effort and observer behavior complicate comparative inference. We evaluated a simple standardization framework based on fixed sampling depth, repeated resampling, observer profiling and limits on individual contributor influence, using iNaturalist Coleoptera records from France. S200, defined here as the mean number of distinct species represented in repeated standardized samples of 200 eligible observations, strongly reduced dependence on record volume (Pearson r = 0.847 for raw richness versus 0.206 after final standardization) while recovering expected geographical gradients. Incidence-based turnover (Simpson dissimilarity, βsim) was more sensitive to standardization: raw and final matrices remained correlated (r = 0.699), but pairwise relationships were appreciably reshaped. By contrast, regional structure based on relative recording frequencies (Bray–Curtis) was already pronounced in unstandardized data and increased only moderately after standardization (ANOSIM R = 0.714 to 0.777). Spatial patterns were broadly consistent across contrasting observer profiles and replicated in an independent French photographic dataset (cross-platform r = 0.701 for S200 and 0.851 for βsim).These results show that different biodiversity dimensions respond differently to opportunistic sampling: standardized observed richness requires strong standardization, incidence-based turnover remains sensitive to sample construction, whereas broad quantitative compositional structure can be comparatively robust. These metrics characterize the component of beetle diversity observable and identifiable under the specified sampling rules; they should not be interpreted as estimates of true departmental species richness.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110650

Authors: Jhoe Reyes Marlies Monnens Laura Vanstraelen Yander L. Diez Philippe E. H. Jouk Nathalie J. P. Revis Ernest Schockaert Patrick Reygel Tom Artois

We present a taxonomic revision, including phylogenetic analyses of the schizorhynch taxon Baltoplana Karling, 1949 (Cheliplanidae). We describe seven new species and provide new morphological data for two known species. Species are mainly distinguished by the morphology and degree of sclerotisation of the male copulatory organ. Three new species are from Australia (B. bipartita n. sp., B. quadricirrata n. sp., and B. tricirrata n. sp.), one from the western Mediterranean (B. galerita n. sp.), two from Brazil (B. pseudovalkanovi n. sp. and B. brusai n. sp.), and one from the USA (B. floridana n. sp.). The phylogenetic analysis is based on published and newly obtained 18S and 28S rDNA sequences from six species of the related taxon Cheliplana and two of Baltoplana, confirming the monophyly of Cheliplanidae. Baltoplana, as currently circumscribed, was strongly rejected as monophyletic. The monophyletic status of the genus Cheliplana remains uncertain: the species included here form a clade, but with support below the thresholds applied in this study. We also present a partial mitogenome of B. valkanovi comprising four protein-coding genes and three tRNAs, and provide an identification key.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110649

Authors: Natalia Vladimirova Alexey Tupikin Marsel Kabilov Tatiana Novgorodova

Oribatid mites are highly sensitive bioindicators and are among the most promising groups of soil microarthropods for ecosystem monitoring. However, their taxonomic identification using morphological methods is labor-intensive and time-consuming. We tested COI metabarcoding as an alternative to the traditional approach and assessed whether it could complement morphological assessment of oribatid mites in monitoring Arctic ecosystems. In northwest Russia, Oribatida were found to be effective bioindicators. All the Oribatida indicators studied (population density, relative abundance in the soil microarthropod community, number and occurrence of species/OTUs, Shannon (H) and Simpson (1–D) indices, and dominance structure) appeared to be sensitive to anthropogenic impact and strongly related to the degree of human disturbance. Morphological analysis and DNA metabarcoding generally revealed concordant spatial patterns in oribatid community indicators, although the absolute values of some indicators differed. Combining DNA metabarcoding to characterize oribatid mite diversity and dominance structure with morphological methods to estimate population density and relative abundance within soil microarthropod communities may provide complementary information for assessing ecosystem disturbance and improve the accuracy of assessments of the degree of negative anthropogenic impact.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18110648

Authors: Zhuang Niu Yanlong He Siyang Chen Le Wang Bangping Deng Cheng Zhang Jiaxing Cao Mianhao Song Shouhai Liu Yutao Qin Dingtian Fu Huanhong Ji Wei Xiong

The Changjiang Estuary is a major hotspot for harmful algal blooms (HABs) in China. Metabarcoding analysis was conducted during four seasonal cruises (March, August, October 2025, and January 2026) at 14 stations to reveal the composition, dynamics, and environmental drivers of harmful algal bloom species in this region. A total of 63 HAB species were detected, with diatoms dominating year-round but dinoflagellates increasing markedly from spring (21.6%) to summer and autumn (34.8–44.6%). Salinity emerged as the primary factor structuring spatial patterns: the euryhaline diatom Skeletonema costatum dominated low-salinity nearshore waters, whereas diverse dinoflagellates, including Karlodinium veneficum, Prorocentrum micans, Heterocapsa rotundata, and Alexandrium catenella, prevailed offshore. Seasonally, the diatom-to-dinoflagellate ratio declined from 10.6 in spring to 1.6 in autumn, coinciding with rising temperature and declining N:P ratios. Notably, most high-abundance dinoflagellates are mixotrophic, a trait that likely confers competitive advantages. Our findings demonstrated that HAB species dynamics were shaped by the interplay between salinity-driven habitat filtering and trophic functional traits, advocating for the inclusion of mixotrophy as a key criterion in future HAB monitoring and early warning frameworks. Future monitoring would benefit from integrating these molecular trends with classical quantitative methods for validation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100647

Authors: Yu-Min Ju Po-Hsun Kuo Kui-Ching Hsu Sheng-Tai Hsiao

To understand the spatial and seasonal variations of fish communities in Taiwanese estuaries, this study collected environmental DNA (eDNA) water samples and assessed environmental parameters from four estuaries in northeastern, southeastern, northwestern, and southwestern Taiwan between February and December 2023. The 12S rRNA genetic marker was used as a mini-barcode to detect fish compositions in 16 samples. Assessment of environmental parameters revealed that (1) there were significant differences between estuaries but no differences between seasons; (2) the northwestern estuary exhibited the greatest seasonal variation; and (3) the greatest spatial variation was exhibited in summer. Fish community analysis revealed that (1) fish diversity was highest in the northeastern estuary and lowest in the southeastern estuary; (2) fish compositions significantly differed among the estuaries; (3) fish compositions in the southeastern estuary exhibited the greatest seasonal variation, and those in the northeastern estuary exhibited the smallest seasonal variation; (4) fish compositions in winter slightly differed from those in the other seasons; and (5) invasive fish species were present in all estuaries. In summary, the fish compositions in Taiwanese estuaries were influenced by local environmental variables and ocean currents.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100646

Authors: Yong Sung Kwon Jong-Hyun Kang

Coastal wetlands can serve different ecological functions across the non-breeding season, so a fixed midwinter survey period may not fully represent seasonal bird use. We evaluated how much information from an extended October–March window was captured by the December–January standard window at the Janghang coast, Republic of Korea, using monthly surveys across nine fixed sections over five wintering seasons (30 surveys). We compared species richness, community composition, species-level non-detection, threatened-species representation, and peak observed counts. The standard window recorded 67–77 species per winter versus 84–95 in the extended window, with a pooled observed representativeness of 78.33%. At a common sample coverage of 0.9850, estimated species richness was 94.00 versus 111.41 species (descriptive coverage-standardized representativeness, 84.37%; no formal test). PERMANOVA indicated an association between survey period and community composition (R2 = 0.145, p = 0.004), although dispersion differed and ANOSIM showed little separation between periods. Twenty-six species were never detected during December–January, including several threatened species, and the standard-window maximum matched the extended-window maximum in 30.18% of species–wintering-season combinations. These results suggest that standardized midwinter surveys remain useful for long-term comparison, while surveys outside the core midwinter period may provide complementary information on seasonal occurrence, community variation, and conservation-priority species.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100645

Authors: Matthew R. Rowley Samuel K. Lumor Brenden M. Orocu Mark C. Belk

Biological specimens collected and deposited in museum collections are a valuable resource for ecological and evolutionary research and species conservation, especially in species-rich but poorly documented tropical areas. The utility of these collected specimens for basic science and conservation is greatly enhanced by combined digital collections of all available specimens, including date of collection and georeferenced location data. In this paper, we introduce a publicly available, digitized, and georeferenced dataset of freshwater fishes of Ghana aggregated from eleven different research institutions and museums. The dataset contains 2696 total collection records representing 23,001 individuals, 224 species, and 38 families of freshwater fishes in Ghana. This dataset is characterized by extreme taxonomic, spatial, and temporal disparities in collection records. In spite of these disparities, analysis of the dataset can yield important immediate contributions to the conservation of freshwater fishes in Ghana. We suggest methods to efficiently augment these valuable data, and we anticipate that this dataset will be a valuable resource for scientific research and conservation efforts in Ghana and other parts of West Africa.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100644

Authors: Elena V. Zhuykova Victor A. Mukhin

One of the unresolved issues in modern fungal molecular systematics is the lack of criteria for distinguishing intraspecific from interspecific variability of genetic markers. This paper discusses the results of an analysis of 69 original ITS sequences obtained from fungi collected in the Altai, the Urals, and northern Kazakhstan regions, and 42 sequences retrieved from GenBank and UNITE, belonging to two cryptic, sympatric polypore species: Fomes fomentarius (L.) Fr. and Fomes inzengae (Ces. & De Not.) Cooke. The sequences were divided into geographic groups reflecting a wide range of climatic conditions (from subarctic to subtropical) and geographic distances between sampling locations. Both species are characterized by low intragroup nucleotide diversity of ITS sequences and high nucleotide similarity, indicating low individual variability. A high, nearly complete identity in the ITS region of rDNA is also characteristic at the intergroup level, expressed in very low nucleotide divergence and high nucleotide similarity of ITS sequences from different geographic groups. The fixation index, calculated from the ratio of nucleotide diversity to divergence of ITS sequences, indicates a complete absence of genetic differentiation between local populations of F. inzengae and moderate differentiation in F. fomentarius. However, between populations of these two species, even in areas of their joint distribution, complete or very high genetic isolation occurs, confirming the validity of dividing F. fomentarius sensu lato into two cryptic sympatric species—F. fomentarius and F. inzengae.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100643

Authors: John R. Wallace Martin B. Berg Richard W. Merritt

Estimates of total diversity within the Class Insecta have ranged from 5 [...]

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100642

Authors: Mohamed Dakki Said El Falah Ibrahim Makrane Ismail Mansouri

Mediterranean floodplain wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems, yet they are increasingly threatened by agricultural intensification and hydrological modifications. In North Africa, most of these wetlands have been converted to agricultural lands using an extensive ‘drainage–irrigation’ process that has irreversibly degraded them. This study documents this loss through the illustrative example of the Gharb Plain in the northwest of Morocco. The agricultural development process of this plain, initiated in 1927 and only recently completed, is documented by both historical maps and remote sensing data, which we combined to reconstruct the simultaneous wetland decline and agriculture extension. The results reveal a dramatic decline in marshland ecosystems, covering about 88% of the original marshlands in less than one cycle. Several wetlands, including large ones, have entirely disappeared, particularly within the Sebou and Baht river floodplains. To ensure their human occupation, the drainage process and river canalization have been supported by a large program of dam construction upstream of the Gharb Plain. The wetland loss estimate highlights the substantial ecological costs of agricultural intensification and underscores the need for integrated management strategies balancing food production and patrimony conservation. Future research should focus on wetland restoration, ecosystem service assessment, and climate-resilient water management in Mediterranean floodplains.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100641

Authors: Nehemiah M. Rindoria Wilmien J. Luus-Powell Iva Přikrylová

Polyopisthocotylans of the Diplozoidae are hematophagous gill parasites of freshwater cyprinoids; however, their diversity in East African river systems remains poorly characterised. In this study, we describe Paradiplozoon gladysae n. sp., a novel diplozoid recovered from the gills of an endemic cyprinid Labeo victorianus Boulenger in the River Nyando, a tributary of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. An integrated approach combining light and scanning electron microscopy and molecular characterisation of ITS2 rDNA was used to examine the collected species. In general, P. gladysae n. sp. is distinguished from congeners by its small clamps and the unique morphology of its median plate. Molecular analysis of the ITS2 region of rDNA confirmed the genetic distinctiveness of the new species and placed the species within the highly supported clade of African species formed by P. koubkovae Řehulková, Nejat, Benovics, 2023; P. ichthyoxanthon Avenant-Oldewage, van Vuren, Mashego, 2013; and P. vaalense Dos Santos, van Vuren, Avenant-Oldewage, 2013, with P. vaalense being the closest sister taxon to the newly determined species. However, the analysis revealed a clear distinction, with a 39 bp difference and an uncorrected genetic p-distance of 6.8% between P. gladysae n. sp. and P. vaalense. The discovery of P. gladysae n. sp. adds to the growing diversity of diplozoid polyopisthocotylans in East Africa and highlights the River Nyando as an important but understudied hotspot for freshwater parasite biodiversity.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100640

Authors: Zuzanna Marynkiewicz Magdalena Remisiewicz

Climate change shifts bird migration timing, but its influence on medium-distance migrants is understudied. We investigated how temperatures across Europe influence the dunnock’s spring passage timing, using daily standardised ringing data from spring migration (26 March–16 May) at Hel Peninsula (N Poland, Baltic coast) over 1965–2025. We determined multi-year trends in the dates of the beginning (10% of passage = p10), median (p50), end (p90), and migration duration (MD = p90–p10) of dunnocks. We also tested the effects of temperatures, averaged for months of breeding (two parts: May–June, July–August), wintering (November–February), autumn (September–October) and spring (March–May) migrations, in four regions of Europe, on the dates of these percentiles during 1965–2025, using multiple linear regression. All phases of passage advanced by 5–8 days; MD remained stable over the 61 years. All phases were early with warm springs in central and southern Europe; p10 and p50 were delayed after warm winters. The p10 was early after warm summers in northern Europe. This shows that climate warming in Europe benefits dunnocks, but their decline across Europe suggests that habitat changes and extreme weather counteract these benefits. Understanding these trade-offs for medium-distance migrants is crucial for their conservation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100639

Authors: Min Zhang Zhaoning Tian Hao Li

Infaunal organisms may be less exposed to predation and physical disturbance than epifaunal organisms, potentially affecting lineage survival and diversification. We compare 188,883 fossil occurrences of 4735 marine benthic genera in five classes that include both infaunal and epifaunal forms. Boundary-crosser estimates show lower mean extinction rates for infaunal genera than for epifaunal genera within each of the Ordovician–Permian (O–P) and Triassic–Quaternary (T–Q) intervals. Mean net-diversification contrasts are positive in both intervals, and nominal statistical support is only available for the younger interval. Direct comparison shows no significant between-interval difference in extinction, origination or net-diversification contrasts. Reduced extinction supplies the positive contribution to the mean net-diversification contrast, while lower mean origination partially offsets this benefit. Temperature–extinction and CO2–extinction correlations change from positive in the older period to negative in the younger period; the CO2 pattern is more consistent across temporal aggregations. In the younger interval, a higher CO2 is associated with a weaker relative infaunal extinction advantage at both 5 and 10 Myr resolutions. Lower adjusted infaunal extinction odds also occur during the end-Ordovician, Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) and Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) crises; no significant differences are detected for the other three focal crises. The protective direction is maintained in all 10 occurrence-age randomisations for these three events and after excluding hard-substrate borers, whereas between-event heterogeneity is more sensitive to age uncertainty. Survival buffering is not significantly associated with changes in origination or net diversification after the six crises. Together, these results identify reduced extinction as the primary demographic advantage of infaunal life in the studied intervals and crises.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100638

Authors: Tao Pan Xingzhu Ma Daoxu Dong Qijin Kang Fu Li

Denitrification is a major pathway of reactive nitrogen loss from cold-temperate farmland, but how mineral N form and rate interact with temperature to shape the nirS-type denitrifying bacterial community under straw addition is poorly resolved. Maize straw was sealed in mesh bags and buried at a fixed depth in a composite farmland soil from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, and incubated for 240 d through constant-temperature phases of 5, 20, 15 and −15 °C (60 d each). Five treatments were compared: straw without mineral N (CK), straw plus full- or half-rate ammonium sulfate (A1, A2), and straw plus full- or half-rate potassium nitrate (B1, B2). The nirS-type community, soil chemical properties, and potential enzyme activities were measured at the end of each phase. Community structure differed primarily among the sequential incubation phases. Phase labels the constant-temperature sequence and is not separated from incubation time, straw decomposition or preceding thermal history. Richness of the DNA-detected library was lowest after the 5 °C phase and higher later in the sequence, as was the number of ASVs shared by all treatments. Shannon and Simpson diversities differed among treatments only after the 5 °C phase, when A1 was lower than CK, A2, B1 and B2. Community composition differed among treatments after the 5 °C phase (p = 0.042), the 15 °C phase (p = 0.001) and the −15 °C phase (p = 0.001), but not after the 20 °C phase (p = 0.060). Rhodanobacter accounted for most nirS reads in most samples, but its relative abundance was lower, and that of Herbaspirillum and other Burkholderiales higher, under A2 after the 5 °C phase. These are proportional changes in the sequenced library, not measured changes in gene copies or activity. Soil properties showed significant phase × treatment interactions. Redundancy analysis described covariation between community structure and invertase and N-related variables after the 20, 15 and −15 °C phases, but not after the 5 °C phase. Mineral N was associated with changes in nirS-type community structure after the 5, 15 and −15 °C phases, but not after the 20 °C phase. Full-rate ammonium sulfate was associated with lower nirS evenness only after the 5 °C phase; reduced ammonium and nitrate additions were associated with phase-dependent shifts in relative abundance. Denitrification potential and N2O were not measured, so these compositional shifts cannot be read as a change in denitrification rate or N loss. Whether matching N form and rate to the early and sub-zero phases would alter field N loss is a hypothesis for trials that measure application timing, crop N uptake and gaseous losses.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100637

Authors: Qingxue Leng Weishen Yao Min Liu Zijun Xu Yang Huang Jun Mu

Filter-feeding bivalves can reshape particle-associated microbial communities, yet differences between depuration biodeposits and shell-associated particulates remain unclear. We compared Ruditapes philippinarum and Paratapes undulatus using a paired 2 × 2 design (host species × sample type) and PacBio full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. R. philippinarum-associated samples showed higher Shannon diversity than P. undulatus-associated samples, whereas Chao1 richness differences were not significant after multiple-comparison correction. Genus-level NMDS clearly separated the four groups (stress = 0.011). In repeated-measures PERMANOVA of ASV-level Bray–Curtis dissimilarities, host species accounted for 56.1% of the observed variation, sample type for 13.7%, and their interaction for 17.1%. However, none reached statistical significance under the constrained exact permutation scheme (p = 0.100, 0.0625, and 0.100, respectively). Multivariate dispersion differed among groups (p = 0.012), with the greatest dispersion in R. philippinarum depuration biodeposits. R. philippinarum-associated communities exhibited broader multi-genus assemblages, whereas P. undulatus depuration biodeposits contained prominent Fusibacter and Culicoidibacter, and its shell-wash particulates were dominated by Arcobacter. These findings provide a microbial community baseline to guide future investigations into extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production and the mechanisms underlying bioflocculation in bivalve-associated particulate systems.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100636

Authors: Boming Zheng Dandan Cai Ziqiang Li Xinhua Qi

Wildlife damage can impose both material and non-monetary burdens on residents living near protected areas. Although associations between perceived wildlife damage and conservation attitudes are well documented, less is known about whether threat- and fairness-based appraisals provide distinct information beyond perceived damage itself. Using a non-probability survey of 513 residents across 20 villages in and around the Wuyishan City section of Wuyishan National Park, southeastern China, we examined associations among tangible and intangible damage perceptions, risk perception, relative deprivation, and wildlife conservation attitudes (overall stated support for protecting locally common damage-causing wildlife). Risk perception represented a threat-based appraisal, whereas relative deprivation represented a fairness-based appraisal reflecting perceived unfair disadvantage in conservation burdens and recognition relative to others. Latent structural and interaction models were further used to examine whether these associations varied with compensation evaluation and community participation. Both tangible and intangible damage perceptions were positively associated with risk perception and relative deprivation. In turn, both appraisals were negatively associated with wildlife conservation attitudes, and each retained a distinct association with attitudes when modeled jointly. Tangible damage perception also retained a significant negative direct association with conservation attitudes, whereas the corresponding direct association for intangible damage perception was nonsignificant. All four indirect associations through risk perception and relative deprivation were negative. The association between tangible damage perception and relative deprivation was weaker at higher compensation evaluation, whereas the association between intangible damage perception and risk perception was weaker at higher community participation. The corresponding negative conditional indirect associations were also smaller in magnitude. Distinguishing threat- from fairness-based appraisals may help clarify the potentially complementary roles of compensation procedures and community participation in national park governance. Given the cross-sectional design, the estimated indirect associations should be interpreted as statistical pathways rather than evidence of temporal or causal mediation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100635

Authors: Il Ryong Kim Da Young Lee Hyeong Cheol Park

Subalpine conifer forests in South Korea are increasingly exposed to climate-related stress, yet simple and repeatable field criteria for describing tree decline remain limited. Here, we propose a field-based scoring framework for assessing observed decline status in three subalpine conifer species: Abies koreana, Abies nephrolepis, and Picea jezoensis. Field surveys were conducted in major subalpine regions, and nine visually observable tree-condition indicators were recorded from pre-classified healthy and decline-affected populations. Among the evaluated indicators, vigor, crown form, branch dieback, and resin secretion showed the clearest and most consistent differences between the pre-classified groups. Finally, these four indicators were used to calculate a core decline-condition score on a five-point scale, with higher scores indicating more severe observed decline symptoms. The score showed internal consistency with the field classification of the surveyed populations. Thus, the proposed framework provides a practical starting point for rapid field screening and future integration with physiological or molecular indicators of stress responses in subalpine conifers.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100634

Authors: Jiankang Guo Yanting Zhang Wei Yan

Urban biodiversity monitoring increasingly combines field surveys with automated technologies, but species detected by only one approach may represent ecologically structured subsets rather than random omissions. We integrated 2025 bird records from monthly observer-based transect surveys, autonomous acoustic monitoring, and infrared camera traps in Shanghai Botanical Garden, China. Annual presence–absence data were analyzed without comparing absolute monitoring efficiency. Manual surveys detected 112 wild bird species and multi-source automated monitoring detected 101; 83 species were shared, 29 were manual-only, and 18 were automated-only, yielding 130 species in total (Jaccard = 0.638). In a multivariable logistic model with joint detection as the outcome, resident status was positively associated with joint detection (adjusted OR = 7.76, 95% CI = 1.71–35.19, p = 0.008), whereas regional rarity in Shanghai was negatively associated with joint detection (adjusted OR = 0.287, 95% CI = 0.113–0.728, p = 0.009). These associations show that method-exclusive detections under the 2025 protocols were non-random with respect to residency and regional commonness, although unequal temporal coverage limits causal interpretation. Periodic observer-based surveys, continuous acoustic monitoring, image-based evidence, and expert validation provide complementary components of long-term urban bird monitoring.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100633

Authors: Milena Tocheva Giancarlo Statti Elisaveta Kozhuharova Ekaterina Kozuharova

Worldwide, three-quarters of food crops and approximately 85% of medicinal plant species depend on insect pollination for successful reproduction, seed set, and genetic diversity. Amidst an ongoing global biodiversity crisis, the pollinator decline is well-documented worldwide. Networks of mutualistic relationships between plants and their pollinators are among the most important forces generating and maintaining biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. The richer a network is in components, the greater its stability. However, these networks are affected by anthropogenic pressures. This narrative review summarizes evidence from laboratory, field, and landscape-scale studies regarding contemporary pollinator-mediated hazards with focus kept mainly on wild bees. We examine how intensive agriculture, synthetic pesticides (such as neonicotinoids and glyphosate), and habitat fragmentation act in tandem to disrupt plant–pollinator mutualistic networks. Additionally, we provide a critical, up-to-date assessment of the impacts of management-dependent ecological effects of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic parks. Furthermore, we address the limitations of managed honeybees in compensating for wild pollinator loss, particularly for specialized interactions like floral sonication (buzz pollination). Big apiaries can cause a decline in wild bees’ populations due to niche overlaps and competition for food resources and pathogen transition from honeybees to wild bees. Moving beyond purely ecological parameters, this paper incorporates human-dimension frameworks, exploring how public attitudes, farmer motivations, and media literacy serve as vital enablers in translating credible scientific information into sustained conservation behaviors.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100632

Authors: Guillermo Blanco Javier Sanz Pablo Monroy Arnau Guardia Óscar Frías Iñigo Palacios-Martínez

Avian brood parasites occasionally interact with alternative hosts, providing valuable insights into their behavioral flexibility under atypical environmental conditions. The great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) typically targets medium-sized tree-nesting corvids in wooded landscapes. Here, we report records of great spotted cuckoo parasitism on the red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), a cavity-nesting species foraging in open montane, coastal and pseudo-steppe landscapes that has recently adopted anthropogenic structures for nesting in farmland. Across these treeless environments, where primary cuckoo hosts are scarce or absent, we recorded a parasitism event using an artificial nesting site inside an abandoned rural building in Los Monegros (Ebro Valley, northwestern Spain) that resulted in the successful fledging of three great spotted cuckoo chicks. These observations illustrate a striking sequential behavioral cascade of innovations where the parasite successfully tracked a host’s novel nesting shift in artificial structures, enriching our understanding of the ecological breadth and behavioral adaptability of avian brood parasites.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100631

Authors: Yasin Uçarlı

The Anatolian chamois (Rupicapra r. asiatica) has a restricted distribution, and population-specific demographic information remains limited. This study assessed temporal population patterns and long-term viability of the Anatolian chamois population in the Altıparmak Game Reserve, northeastern Türkiye. Annual observations were conducted at fixed vantage points during the mating season from 2019 to 2025. The mean annual observed count was 322.3 ± 18.7 individuals, with an ecological density of 1.7 ± 0.1 individuals/100 ha. Adult females constituted 38.1%, adult males 29.4%, kids 22.2%, and individuals of unknown sex or age 10.3% of observations. Mean annual population growth and apparent survival were 1.0 ± 0.1 and 0.8 ± 0.1, respectively. Mean productivity was 0.58 ± 0.05 kids per adult female, and the adult sex ratio was 0.78 ± 0.13 adult males per adult female. No significant temporal trend was detected in annual observed counts during 2019–2025 (p = 0.902). Population viability analysis evaluated hypothetical extreme-winter scenarios occurring every 5, 10, 20, and 50 years over 100 years. Population persistence decreased with increasing winter frequency, with the five-year scenario resulting in a survival probability of 80%. Sensitivity analysis indicated that adult female survival was an influential demographic parameter in long-term projections. These findings provide demographic information for the monitored population and indicate that long-term persistence may be sensitive to the assumed frequency of extreme-winter events.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100630

Authors: Océane Beaufort Mark E. Bond Michael R. Heithaus Philip Matich Karl Questel

Coastal elasmobranchs play key functional roles in Caribbean reef ecosystems, yet their populations have declined markedly across the region. To address major knowledge gaps in the French West Indies (FWI), we characterised recorded coastal elasmobranch assemblages in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin using two independent observational datasets analysed separately: 1243 baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS) deployments conducted between 2016 and 2024 and 14,998 dives reported through the INA SCUBA citizen-science programme between 2019 and 2024. Sampling completeness, alpha and beta diversity, dominance patterns and species-specific encounter rates were assessed within each dataset. Across both datasets, 11 taxa were recorded: ten by BRUVS and five by INA SCUBA, with four shared between methods. In both datasets, Saint-Barthélemy had the highest mean richness and diversity with frequent detections of reef-associated sharks, whereas Saint-Martin showed an intermediate pattern. Guadeloupe and Martinique had lower sample-level richness and recorded assemblages dominated by a limited number of taxa, particularly the southern stingray, while reef-associated sharks were rare or not detected. BRUVS and INA SCUBA provided distinct but partly overlapping observational coverage; however, unequal sampling effort, site selection, temporal coverage, and species-specific detectability limit inter-island inference. These results provide a regional baseline for continued monitoring and for testing the ecological and anthropogenic factors that may underlie the observed spatial patterns.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100629

Authors: Kunlun Liang Li Wang Xiaoyun Yang Mingyan Wang Xiaoning Liu Yanyan Pei Lili Nian

The efficacy of microbial inoculants in enhancing plant drought tolerance is context-dependent, varying with drought severity and the dynamic interactions within the plant–soil microbe system. We conducted a two-factor pot experiment using Achnatherum splendens under three moisture regimes (well-watered (control), moderate drought, and severe drought) and four inoculation treatments (sterile inoculum (control), Bacillus subtilis (BS), arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and their co-inoculation (MIX)). The resulting 12 treatment combinations were each replicated four times. Drought stress significantly reduced both shoot and root biomass, disrupted redox homeostasis by altering antioxidant enzyme activities and osmolyte accumulation, and induced pronounced shifts in rhizosphere microbial community composition and structure. Microbial inoculation modified osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant enzyme activity, with effects varying in magnitude and direction across moisture regimes and physiological indicators, and was generally associated with elevated soil nutrient availability and extracellular enzyme activities, though the magnitude of these effects was modulated by moisture regime. The MIX treatment showed the strongest positive responses for a subset of plant physiological and soil biochemical indicators. Bacterial and fungal co-occurrence networks exhibited divergent structural responses to inoculation and drought, with network complexity (e.g., connectivity and modularity) differentially shaped by both factors. Mantel tests and partial least squares path modeling revealed that under well-watered and moderate drought conditions, soil physicochemical properties were the primary drivers of microbial alpha and beta diversity; in contrast, under severe drought, osmotic adjustment emerged as the dominant physiological determinant of biomass maintenance. Collectively, these results reveal that the functional outcomes of microbial inoculation are contingent upon abiotic context, particularly drought intensity. This study provides a mechanistic basis and preliminary empirical evidence for subsequent field validation and further development of moisture-matched microbial intervention strategies for the ecological restoration of drought-vulnerable A. splendens ecosystems.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100628

Authors: David C. Culver Tanja Pipan Louis Deharveng

The geographic pattern of the number of species in functional or phyletic groups is simultaneously highly derivative and fundamental to our understanding of community ecology [...]

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100627

Authors: Victor Santos-Linares Jehoshua Macedo-Bedoya Marcel La Rosa-Sánchez Ricardo Franco Morales Yakov Quinteros-Gómez Raphael Baca-Cuicapusa Doris Gómez-Ticerán Enoc Jara-Peña

The tropical Andes are a global biodiversity hotspot, yet extensive areas of the Peruvian western slope, such as the district of Sumbilca (Huaral province, Lima), remain floristically understudied despite mounting pressure from agricultural expansion, overgrazing, and seasonal burning. This study aimed to determine floristic diversity and assess the conservation status of vascular plants along a 2400–4000 m altitudinal gradient in Sumbilca. Between July 2024 and June 2025, qualitative walking surveys were conducted across four altitudinal zones (Z1–Z4), and species richness, family composition, floristic similarity (Jaccard dissimilarity, hierarchical clustering), and conservation status (IUCN Red List and Peruvian Supreme Decree N.° 043-2006-AG) were analyzed. A total of 202 species, 140 genera, and 62 families were recorded, dominated by Asteraceae, Poaceae, Solanaceae, and Fabaceae, with herbs as the predominant growth habit (66.3%). Species richness peaked in Z2–Z3 (85 and 84 species) and declined sharply in Z4 (38 species), which was also the most floristically distinct zone. Twenty-one endemic species and 42 species with recognized conservation status were documented, including five nationally threatened taxa, along with several new records for Huaral province. These findings indicate that Sumbilca harbors considerable, previously undocumented floristic and conservation value, and provide an essential baseline for future ecological monitoring and management along the western Andean slope.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100626

Authors: Kyungeun Lee Seungbum Hong

National occurrence databases combine sources with different objectives and spatiotemporal coverage, complicating the interpretation of changes in recorded locations. We evaluated the sensitivity of species-level shifts in mean recorded latitude and DEM-derived elevation to analytical specifications in an integrated South Korean vascular-plant database of 1,351,189 records, using 1980–2023 records for period-specific analyses. Empirical sensitivity comparisons were combined with controlled simulations of known centroid displacement. The primary analysis retained 1281 species and yielded across-species median shifts of +0.171° latitude and −102.7 m elevation. Aggregate estimates were similar before and after spatial thinning and record-count balancing. Positive latitude medians persisted under most specifications, but not under every spatial-support definition. Elevation estimates were more sensitive to temporal weighting and source composition: annual equal weighting reduced the median shift to −17.1 m, and omitting National Park records reversed its sign. In simulations, subtracting an assemblage-derived footprint markedly reduced recovery of imposed displacement. The empirical analyses characterize directional occurrence-centroid patterns and their sensitivity, rather than establish biological movement. Footprint subtraction cannot be assumed to recover unbiased change, and consistency across specifications does not demonstrate the absence of residual sampling bias.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100625

Authors: Baokang Xing Rui Yan Haoze Wang Yilong Luo Tianyu Zhang Yunlong Liu Ming Liu

Currently, the degradation of global ecosystem services and the decline in biodiversity are pressing issues, and the conflict between ecological conservation and economic development in old industrial bases is intensifying. This study takes Liaoning Province, which exhibits a distinct ecological gradient, as its research area. By constructing a three-tier nested framework at the grid, county, and city levels, and combining spatial autocorrelation, GWR, SOM, and XGBoost-SHAP models, we assess the spatial differentiation, trade-offs and synergies, and multi-scale driving associations of five core ecosystem services. The results indicate that: ① ecosystem services exhibit a pattern characterized by “mountains in the east, water in the west, and a granary in the center, Wet mountains in the east, dry hills in the west, granary plains in the central region” with the intensity of spatial aggregation decreasing as the scale increases; ② food provisioning and regulating support services remain in a trade-off relationship, and service bundles shift from locally fine-grained differentiation to city-level functional aggregation; ③ riving associations exhibit significant scale-dependent differentiation, with factors exhibiting nonlinear thresholds and interactions. This study establishes a multi-scale analytical framework for ecosystem services in old industrial bases, providing a foundation for regional ecological restoration and coordinated development.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100624

Authors: Patrícia Sarai da Silva Sergio Makrakis Lucileine de Assumpção Rafael Cezar Cavaretto Mayara Pereira Neves João Henrique Pinheiro Dias Hubert Keckeis Maristela Cavicchioli Makrakis

Empirical evidence integrating multiple biological levels on freshwater biodiversity persistence in regulated river basins remains scarce for Neotropical systems. We evaluated fish assemblage structure, reproductive strategies, and life-cycle support for migratory species across lotic and lentic habitats in three tributaries of the Porto Primavera Reservoir, Upper Paraná basin, Brazil, over a 12-year monitoring period (2007–2018), encompassing 104 species and a Life-cycle Support Index (LSI) based on occurrence of eggs, larvae, juveniles, and adults. Marginal lagoons functioned as biodiversity hotspots, with higher richness and diversity than river channels; reproductive guilds were habitat-partitioned, with opportunistic and parental-care strategists in lentic environments and periodic/migratory strategists in lotic habitats. Tributary identity was the strongest predictor of assemblage composition: the Aguapeí River, partially protected, showed the highest LSI values, whereas the Verde River provided the strongest evidence of reproduction for conservation-priority taxa, including the critically endangered Brycon orbignyanus, whose adults occurred exclusively there, and the vulnerable Pseudoplatystoma corruscans, for which adults, eggs, and larvae co-occurred. Three proposed hydropower developments on the Verde River would fragment a 200-km free-flowing stretch, threatening these conditions. Undammed tributaries are irreplaceable for freshwater biodiversity and should be recognized as conservation priorities in hydropower licensing and basin governance.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100623

Authors: Paiboon Panase Kanyanat Soontornprasit Siriluck Tuncharoen Korntip Kannika Anusorn Kornnak Chompoonuch Chaotalay Niti Iamchuen Tew Hongthong Dutrudi Panprommin

Freshwater crabs are important biological resources in northern Thailand, yet their diversity remains poorly documented in many areas. This study investigated freshwater crab diversity in Ban Tham Subdistrict, Dok Khamtai District, Phayao Province, using morphological examination and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) DNA barcoding. A total of 69 specimens were assigned to four taxa. Indochinamon bhumibol and Sayamia bangkokensis were identified to species level, whereas two unidentified taxa were provisionally designated Potamidae sp. 1 and Potamidae sp. 2. Genetic diversity varied among taxa, with Potamidae sp. 2 showing the highest haplotype and nucleotide diversity, whereas S. bangkokensis showed no haplotype variation. Pairwise K2P distances revealed substantially greater divergence among taxa than within taxa. Phylogenetic analysis resolved the four taxa into distinct clades, while Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) recovered four molecular operational taxonomic units in the initial partition, corresponding to the four taxa. These results support the genetic distinctiveness of Potamidae sp. 1 and Potamidae sp. 2, although their species identities remain unresolved. Further taxonomic and molecular studies are required to clarify their identities. These findings provide baseline information for the conservation and sustainable management of freshwater crab resources in the study area.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100622

Authors: Abdulwakeel Ayokun-nun Ajao Yusuf Ola Mukaila Sekinat Okikiola Azeez Dorcas Oluwayemisi Olaniyan Ojo Michael Oseni Adekunle David Micah Lotanna Micah Nneji Segun Olayinka Oladipo Adeola Ayoola Emmanuel C. Chukwuma Oyetola Oyebanji

Global biodiversity is declining, while tropical regions remain disproportionately understudied despite their richness. Nigeria exemplifies one of Africa’s complex and rich ecological zones, yet it remains poorly represented by molecular data, despite the availability of advanced techniques such as DNA barcoding. Here, we assess the current state of DNA barcoding in Nigeria and how well these efforts capture the national biological diversity. Nigeria currently has 7424 specimens and 7581 sequences in the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD), representing 1433 species—figures that fall short of the country’s expected biodiversity and remain lower than those reported for several other African nations. Five standard DNA barcodes were associated with samples collected in Nigeria, including plastid matK, rbcL, and trnL; mitochondrial COI; and nuclear ITS. Our bibliographic appraisal identified only 47 publications employing DNA barcoding on samples from Nigeria, showing distinct taxonomic biases: 31 studies on Animalia (primarily fishes), followed by 7 on Plantae, 3 on Fungi, and 3 on Protista. Major drawbacks include inadequate sequencing infrastructure, limited expertise, low-quality data, insufficient funding, poor policy integration, incomplete documentation of sample provenance, publication outside globally indexed journals and unresolved issues under the Nagoya Protocol. We conclude that advancing DNA barcoding efforts requires addressing these gaps and establishing a national barcode database supported by regional molecular biodiversity centers that curate the repository to improve biodiversity discoverability in global analyses.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100621

Authors: V. Florence Sperring Nick Bradsworth Justin A. Welbergen Jessica W. Zhou Amy Tipton Mayuri Kotian Mark Holdsworth Nicholas A. Macgregor Rohan H. Clarke

Catching birds is a common and well-established practice that is valuable for research, management, conservation and animal welfare. The most appropriate technique varies among species, and some taxa, including owls, can be particularly challenging to capture. Here, we describe the methods used to capture three small Ninox species and provide transferable lessons to guide the successful capture of other small forest owls. Between 2019 and 2026, we successfully developed capture methods for three small Ninox species, the Norfolk Island morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata), the Tasmanian boobook (N. leucopsis), and the Christmas Island hawk-owl (N. natalis). Hand-nets or mist-nets were successfully used for each species, with thermal scopes, bright narrow-beam headtorches, call broadcast and model decoys proving valuable in different study systems. Our observations indicate that the most appropriate technique for catching small hawk-owls is context-dependent, with successful capture relying on matching the technique to the ecology, behaviour and habitat of the target species. Careful interpretation of behavioural cues and the strategic use of supporting technologies further improve capture success.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100620

Authors: Natalia Kuczyńska-Kippen Anna Kozak

Urban ponds are increasingly recognised as important refuges for freshwater biodiversity within human-dominated landscapes. However, phytoplankton and zooplankton are often studied separately, leaving unresolved whether different plankton components provide a consistent picture of biodiversity responses to urban pressure. We investigated both plankton groups in 15 small urban ponds in Poznań (western Poland) differing in the degree of human impact. We compared community structure, species richness, abundance, indicator taxa, and relationships with trophic state. A total of 339 phytoplankton and 148 zooplankton taxa were recorded, including 99 rotifers, 35 cladocerans, and 14 copepods. Zooplankton responded strongly to human impact, with significantly lower species richness in more strongly impacted ponds than in less disturbed ponds. This difference was also reflected in cumulative richness, which reached 128 taxa in only seven less disturbed ponds compared with 91 taxa in eight human-impacted ponds. In contrast, phytoplankton richness did not differ between pond categories, although its abundance was significantly higher in more strongly impacted ponds. Increasing trophic state was associated with lower zooplankton richness but higher abundance of both zooplankton and phytoplankton. Notably, corresponding biodiversity metrics of phytoplankton and zooplankton were not significantly related, indicating that the two groups conveyed largely independent ecological information. Community composition analyses further revealed contrasting responses: the degree of human impact significantly explained zooplankton composition, whereas none of the tested environmental variables significantly explained phytoplankton composition. Several eutrophic rotifer taxa, including Brachionus angularis, Anuraeopsis fissa, and Keratella tecta, were associated with anthropogenically influenced ponds, while fourteen indicator species characterised less disturbed ponds. Our results show that the ecological picture of an urban pond depends partly on which plankton component is examined. Despite sharing the same ponds and environmental setting, phytoplankton and zooplankton conveyed contrasting and largely independent biodiversity signals. Zooplankton provided a clearer signal of local anthropogenic disturbance, whereas phytoplankton responses were expressed mainly through changes in abundance and trophic-state-related patterns. Thus, relying on a single plankton group may provide only a partial assessment of biodiversity responses to urban pressure. Integrating phytoplankton and zooplankton can provide a more complete ecological assessment, while the high taxonomic richness recorded particularly in less disturbed ponds reinforces the biodiversity value of small urban waters.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100619

Authors: You-Yin Ye Shuang-En Yu Jian-Jia Wang Peng Xiang Tian-Hao Gu Wei Wang Bing-Peng Xing Jia-Guang Xiao Xin-Qing Zheng

Coralline algae are important calcifying red algae that contribute substantially to marine ecosystem structure and biogenic reef formation. However, their species diversity and geographic distribution in China remain poorly documented due to their extensive calcification, morphological convergence, and ongoing revisions of taxonomic frameworks. In this study, we reviewed published Chinese and English literature from 1980 to 2026 using Web of Science and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), with the literature search completed on 2 July 2026. By integrating species records, taxonomic revisions, and regional distribution data, we assessed the diversity and spatial distribution patterns of coralline algae in China. Historical records were revised by incorporating updated taxonomic information, including corrections of synonyms and taxonomic changes, resulting in an updated and verifiable checklist of accepted species. Our results showed that 109 coralline algal species, belonging to 30 genera, 8 families, and 3 orders, are currently recorded in China. Among these taxa, Corallinales contains the highest species diversity, Corallinaceae represents the most species-rich family, and Jania is the most species-rich genus. Taiwan, Hainan, and Sansha exhibit relatively high species richness, whereas differences among regions may be associated with variations in survey intensity. Spearman correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between regional publication numbers and recorded species richness, suggesting that current understanding of coralline algal diversity in China remains influenced by sampling effort. This study provides an updated assessment of coralline algal diversity and spatial distribution patterns in China, establishing baseline information for future taxonomic research, biodiversity assessments, and conservation efforts.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100618

Authors: Taihun Kim Anna B. Jöst Sun Kyeong Choi Jaeseok Chung Jaehyun Kim Garance Perrois Leonard Pons Taeho H. Kim Han Jun Kim Byeongsu Song Kihwan Lee Seonggil Go Kyungman Kwon Young Baek Son

At Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, hard coral communities consisting of Alveopora, Montipora, and Psammocora represent some of the northernmost photosymbiotic Scleractinia in the Northwest Pacific. Here, we document taxon-specific, depth-specific bleaching conditions observed during the 2024 marine heatwave associated with the Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event. Alveopora japonica and Montipora showed pronounced bleaching at shallower depths, whereas Psammocora appeared comparatively less affected. A follow-up survey two months later documented mortality, particularly among A. japonica colonies. These observations highlight heterogeneous bleaching responses among taxa and depths in a high-latitude marginal coral communities near the poleward distributional limit of photosymbiotic scleractinian corals. The depth-related pattern observed in A. japonica raises the hypothesis of possible bathymetric redistribution, although quantitative long-term observations are required to determine whether this represents a persistent shift.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100616

Authors: Lucas Baptista Duarte Lizandra Jaqueline Robe Francine Cenzi de Ré Maríndia Deprá Jean Lucas Poppe Marco Silva Gottschalk

Sampling design strongly influences which components of biodiversity are recovered in regional inventories. We evaluated a spatially extensive snapshot survey of Drosophilidae assemblages in southern Brazil and compared it with temporally repeated datasets from the same broad region. The survey comprised 40 sampling events across 35 sites in the Pampa–Atlantic Forest transition, using banana-baited traps exposed for 72 h. We quantified Hill-number diversity, sample coverage, accumulation curves, dominance, rarity, exotic taxa, spatial structure, beta-diversity components, and standardized comparisons with four published temporal surveys. The survey recorded 16,030 individuals and 66 taxa, with high sample coverage, but richness continued to accumulate, indicating that rare or spatially restricted taxa were still being added. Assemblages were strongly dominated by a few taxa, especially Drosophila simulans, D. immigrans, and the D. willistoni subgroup. Exotic taxa represented 10.6% of taxa but 62.1% of captured individuals. Biome identity did not define sharply separated assemblages; instead, spatial structure was better expressed by geographic gradients, distance decay, and high beta diversity dominated by turnover. The spatial snapshot survey recovered the largest regional taxon pool at full effort, but not the highest richness when datasets were compared using 12 sampling events. Spatial snapshot and temporal surveys therefore provide complementary perspectives on drosophilid diversity.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100617

Authors: Ha-Rim Lee Yeonju Son Yeong-Bin Cha Su-Young Jung

Fully mycoheterotrophic orchids provide a powerful system for examining plastome degradation following the loss of dependence on photosynthesis. Here, we assembled and characterized the complete plastome of Neottia kiusiana and compared its structure, gene content, inverted-repeat boundaries, and phylogenetic position with those of ten congeners. The N. kiusiana plastome is 87,068 bp long, comprising a 34,673-bp large single-copy region, a 5523-bp small single-copy region, and two 23,436-bp inverted repeats. Among 76 plastid protein-coding loci examined, only 24 remain intact, whereas 14 are pseudogenized and 38 are absent. Losses are concentrated in photosynthesis-related functions, while degradation also extends to ATP synthase, plastid-encoded RNA polymerase, and several ribosomal protein genes. Comparisons among Neottia species reveal substantial lineage-specific differences in plastome size, gene retention, pseudogene persistence, and inverted-repeat structure. A maximum-likelihood analysis of 22 plastid protein-coding genes strongly supports N. kiusiana as sister to N. nidus-avis. These results place N. kiusiana among the most strongly reduced Neottia plastomes and support a model in which trophic transition is associated with functionally biased but lineage-specific plastome degradation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100615

Authors: Ruijun Liu Wensheng Wu Hengchuang Gao Ziyu Lin Qianran Hong Pumo Cai

Zeugodacus (Bactrocera) tau (Walker) (Z. tau) is an economically important tephritid pest in Asia. We modelled its climate-associated habitat suitability in China under current and future scenarios using an optimized MaxEnt model, global occurrence records, and WorldClim variables. The most influential predictors were precipitation of the warmest quarter (Bio18), precipitation of the wettest month (Bio13), annual mean temperature (Bio1), mean diurnal temperature range (Bio2), and temperature seasonality (Bio4). Under current climatic conditions, the suitable habitats of Z. tau in China were widely distributed across South China, Central China, East China, and Southwest China, with a total area of 272.08 × 104 km2, accounting for 28.34% of the national land area. Future projections indicated a redistribution of suitability classes rather than a uniform range expansion: moderate-suitability habitat generally increased, whereas high-suitability habitat decreased or fluctuated, and the centroid of suitable habitats generally shifted northwestward and northeastward, with slight fluctuations across different periods. These projections suggest that climate change may alter the spatial pattern of climate-associated habitat suitability for Z. tau in China, providing a basis for prioritizing surveillance and quarantine efforts in areas showing increased future suitability.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100614

Authors: Neslihan Ölmez Barış Sarı Nilgün Aydın Mete Cihan Mesut Erdi Işık Burak Büyükbaki

This study aimed to determine ectoparasite diversity and document host–ectoparasite associations in wild birds and mammals admitted to the Kafkas University Wildlife Conservation, Rescue, Rehabilitation, Application and Research Center in northeastern Türkiye. A total of 300 wild animals (187 birds and 113 mammals) were systematically examined, and collected ectoparasites were identified morphologically using relevant taxonomic keys. Ectoparasites were detected in 51 animals (17.0%; 95% CI: 13.2–21.7%), comprising 40 birds (21.4%) and 11 mammals (9.7%) from 19 host species. Morphological examination identified 24 ectoparasite taxa belonging to five major groups: Phthiraptera, Siphonaptera, Ixodida, Mesostigmata, and Diptera. Phthiraptera showed the greatest taxonomic diversity, with 13 taxa, followed by Ixodida with six taxa. Mixed infestations were recorded in 10 animals, representing 19.6% of infested hosts and 3.3% of all animals examined. Noteworthy host associations included Colpocephalum turbinatum on the rock pigeon (Columba livia) and Crataerina pallida on the common swift (Apus apus). These findings expand current knowledge of the ectoparasite fauna and host associations of wild animals in Türkiye and highlight the value of wildlife rehabilitation centres as surveillance points for ectoparasite diversity and wildlife health.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100613

Authors: Shynar Durmekbayeva Sansyzbay Memeshov Gulmira Kyzdarbekova Yerlan Zhumay Gulzhaina Onerkhan Gulsara Smailova Botagoz Sharipova Gulnaz Rakymzhan

Local floristic inventories provide baseline data for biodiversity monitoring and conservation in protected areas. This study presents an annotated checklist of vascular plants in the Arykbalyk Branch of Kokshetau State National Natural Park, Kazakhstan, and characterizes their taxonomic composition, life forms, ecological affinities, and practical significance. Route-based surveys conducted in 2025–2026 covered the principal habitats of four forestry units. Floristic relationships were assessed using Jaccard dissimilarities, average-linkage hierarchical clustering, and species intersections. The inventory documented 184 vascular plant species belonging to 135 genera, 46 families, and 24 orders at surveyed localities within the branch. These included 172 native species, 11 alien species (6.0%), and one species recorded only as planted. General analyses were restricted to the native component. Asteraceae was the most species-rich native family, comprising 31 species (18.0%). Perennials accounted for 84.9% of native species, and hemicryptophytes represented 61.0%. Mesophytes and xeromesophytes together comprised 64.5% of the native component. Medicinal plants constituted the largest documented practical-use category, with 93 native species (54.1%). Seven species listed in the national Red Data Book were recorded, along with an additional locality of Hemipilia cucullata. Fifty-two native species occurred in all four forestry-unit lists. Leikovskoye and Nizhne-Burlukskoye showed the greatest floristic similarity, whereas Karauyltobe had the most distinct native species composition. These descriptive findings provide a baseline for further floristic inventories and targeted monitoring of native species of conservation concern and alien plants.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100612

Authors: Ning Qiu Wenjing Li

Surviving ancient paintings themed on fish constitute a type of documentary source that has not yet been fully exploited in ichthyological research. In this study, 101 Chinese paintings dating back to the Song–Qing dynasties were examined. Fish depicted in these paintings were taxonomically identified, and an Index of Relative Commonness (IRC) was developed to quantify the commonness of each genus-level statistical unit across dynastic painting corpora. Across all artworks, 39 statistical units (including 38 genera and goldfish) belonging to 23 families and 9 orders were identified, with 268 cumulative occurrence counts recorded. At the ordinal, familial, and generic taxonomic ranks, Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae, and Siniperca represented the most frequently occurring statistical units, respectively. Based on quantitative IRC analysis, the detected statistical units were classified into four occurrence groups, including 2 common, 14 frequent, 15 occasional, and 8 rare units within paintings. At the dynastic level, 10 Song-dynasty paintings produced 49 valid fish occurrence counts covering 22 statistical units; 15 Yuan-dynasty paintings yielded 52 counts across 23 statistical units; 19 Ming-dynasty paintings generated 77 counts representing 27 statistical units; and 57 Qing-dynasty paintings returned 90 counts for 21 statistical units. Historical shifts in the stylistic traditions of Chinese fish paintings and the influences of these stylistic changes on the taxonomic composition and numerical distribution of depicted fish taxa were further investigated. The results of this study complement textual historical records and offer a new complementary resource for modern research on fish biogeography.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100611

Authors: Seungbum Hong Kyungeun Lee

Historical occurrence records combine floristic patterns with uneven survey histories. We analyzed 69,707 vascular-plant records representing 2209 standardized taxa from limestone-bearing areas of South Korea in 10 km × 10 km grids. Observed richness correlated strongly with record count across 129 recorded grids (Spearman ρ = 0.996). Among 66 grids with at least 100 records, expected richness in 100 records had little monotonic association with record count (ρ = 0.021), but closely tracked record-frequency diversity (Hurlbert PIE; ρ = 0.992). Observed and standardized richness ranks shared one top-10 grid. Primary 100-record Sørensen dissimilarity had a median of 0.892 and geographic-distance correlation of 0.352. Standardized geographic and composite PCA environmental-distance coefficients were 0.338 and 0.044 (R2 = 0.127), remaining similar after accounting for record counts and source composition. In separate geography-adjusted models, elevation distance was associated with dissimilarity (β = 0.362; exploratory), indicating dependence on environmental-distance definition. Excluding cultivation-flagged taxa preserved dissimilarity ranks (ρ = 0.993). Separate conservation-attribute and alien-occurrence indices identified provisional candidate groups whose membership frequencies depended on resampling cutoffs. These records support descriptive regional comparisons and survey targeting, while recording processes constrain ecological interpretation.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100610

Authors: Wilbert Andrés Pérez-Pech Abril Anguas-Escalante Alberto de Jesús-Navarrete

Marine tardigrade ecology is traditionally studied using species-based metrics. Due to the taxonomic impediment prevalent within the phylum, ecological research on these organisms remains relatively underdeveloped. Therefore, exploring new methodological approaches is necessary to help mitigate this limitation and advance studies in marine ecology. In this work, we employed the FD index to measure functional diversity as an alternative to ecological studies. We proposed a categorization of four selected morphological traits that reflect adaptations to the tardigrade environment (Body shape, Foot structure, Sensory organ Leg IV, and Cuticle). The FD index was applied to seven cases of study available in the literature, and the results were correlated with their respective richness, Shannon–Wiener diversity, and Pielou evenness; finally, a linear regression (OLS) was applied with richness and the FD index. A total of 100 taxa were coded with the four traits selected; the FD index ranged from 0 to 4.47. We found significant positive relationships between the FD index and both species richness (0.72 to 0.91, p < 0.05 and Shannon–Wiener diversity (0.69 to 0.86, p < 0.05). The OLS showed that a unit of the FD index corresponds to a mean of three species richness. We conclude that the functional diversity metric is an alternative for evaluating diversity in marine tardigrade communities and a way to measure species richness indirectly.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100609

Authors: Dongyang Fang Xinyang Zhao Jingyan Liu Haopeng Qin Wei Wang Siyuan Wang Yali Li

Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. is a valuable perennial medicinal legume with multiple pharmacological activities. G. uralensis from the Ordos Plateau is widely recognized for its high quality, with flavonoids serving as its primary bioactive components. However, substantial variation exists among cultivated populations in terms of quality, which limit the sustainable utilization of this medicinal plant. In this study, root tissues, rhizosphere soil, and bulk soil samples were collected from three wild (W1–W3) and two cultivated (C1–C2) populations of G. uralensis across the Ordos Plateau. Flavonoid metabolomics and fungal community analyses were integrated to investigate the relationship between rhizosphere fungi and flavonoid accumulation. The results showed that the cultivated C1 group exhibited higher liquiritin content and greater rhizosphere fungal diversity, suggesting that wild origin does not necessarily guarantee higher medicinal quality in G. uralensis. Thirteen differentially abundant fungal genera were significantly associated with flavonoid accumulation. Correlation analysis identified genus-specific associations between Alfaria, Alternaria, Botryotrichum, Fusarium, and Pseudogymnoascus and metabolites involved in the liquiritin biosynthetic pathway. These results revealed associations between the relative abundances of selected rhizosphere fungal genera and the contents of specific flavonoid metabolites in G. uralensis, and identified key fungal communities. This study provides candidate fungal taxa and testable hypotheses for future studies on the associations between rhizosphere fungi and flavonoid metabolism in G. uralensis.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100608

Authors: Daniil Iliashevich Nighat Perveen Sabir Bin Muzaffar Tean Zaheer Yassir Sulieman Olivier Andre Sparagano Arve Lee Willingham

The genus Trypanosoma includes several protozoans that cause infections of both medical and veterinary importance. Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, and human American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, are neglected tropical diseases that affect millions of residents of Africa and Latin America as well as of other parts of the world including West Asia. A multitude of trypanosomes, such as Trypanosoma evansi, Trypanosoma vivax, and Trypanosoma congolense, are pathogenic for various classes of vertebrates, from fish to mammals. The aim of this systematic review is to provide information on the epidemiology and distribution of Trypanosoma spp. in 18 countries of West Asia whereby published information was retrieved from 75 scientific papers published in the period 1971–2024. We found 25 Trypanosoma spp. of both known and yet unknown pathogenicity reported from 13 countries in the region: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates. No case of human trypanosomiasis has been published thus far from these countries. Nearly 80% (61 out of 75) of all the available publications were dedicated to the investigation of Trypanosoma spp. in mammals, primarily livestock (camels and cattle in particular) and pets. Trypanosoma evansi can be considered the most widely studied pathogenic microorganism within the genus Trypanosoma in the region, with 46 papers devoted to this pathogen. Notably, 60% of the screened publications emanated from just two countries, namely Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The reported diversity of trypanosomes highlights the complexity of their transmission and host interactions in the region, with important implications for animal and human health and food security, underscoring the need for coordinated One Health surveillance and interventions.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100607

Authors: José L. Tella Cristina B. Sánchez-Prieto Pedro Romero-Vidal Guillermo Blanco Fernando Hiraldo

Identifying seed dispersal mechanisms is key to understanding plant responses to global change and, ultimately, ecosystem resilience. New World Oropendolas (Icteridae) are widespread frugivorous birds traditionally regarded as seed dispersers through endozoochory, acting as gulpers by swallowing whole fruits and as mashers when biting into large fruits with pulp, and later defecating viable seeds. Here, we provide photographic evidence that Crested Oropendolas (Psarocolius decumanus) also disperse whole fruits through stomatochory by transporting them in their bills. We observed individuals removing fruits from oil palms (Elaeis guineensis), carrying them in flight, and subsequently consuming the pulp while holding the fruit against branches with their feet. Previously, we also observed Montezuma Oropendolas (Psarocolius montezuma) carrying fruits of three plant species in flight. In all cases, the plants produced large fruits and seeds whose dispersal by endozoochory would be constrained by their size. These observations reveal a previously overlooked dispersal mechanism in a widespread group of Neotropical frugivores and suggest that the role of Oropendolas in seed dispersal may be broader than previously recognized.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100606

Authors: Hwasu Lee Jangsoo Kim

Managing wintering sites for migratory birds requires an understanding of group-specific space use and its temporal variation, in addition to population-level distributions. We compared spatial overlap, the environmental characteristics of used locations, and within-winter changes between Family and Non-family units of White-naped Cranes (Grus vipio) wintering at Junam Reservoir. We analyzed 1022 observation-location records collected through weekly surveys from December to February over three winters (2014/15–2016/17). Kernel density estimation, weighted by the number of individuals in each observation unit, was used to estimate utilization distributions, and Bhattacharyya’s affinity (BA) was used to quantify their overlap. Principal component analysis and weighted linear models were used to compare the multivariate environmental characteristics of used locations, while generalized additive models assessed weekly changes by unit type. Core-use areas of Family units were dispersed across multiple agricultural fields outside the managed area, whereas those of Non-family units were concentrated within the managed area and adjacent fields. BA ranged from 0.171 to 0.467 for the 95% utilization distributions and from 0.000 to 0.166 for the 50% core utilization distributions, indicating lower core-area overlap. Overlap between the 95% utilization distributions decreased from early to late winter. The unit types also differed in multivariate environmental characteristics: Non-family units used locations closer to the roosting area and farther from major anthropogenic features than Family units. Environmental characteristics of locations used by Family units remained comparatively stable throughout winter, whereas those of Non-family units showed greater weekly variation. Around midwinter, compared with Family units, Non-family units generally used locations closer to the roosting area and farther from major anthropogenic features, with higher relative managed-area proximity index values. These findings show that core-use areas and within-winter changes differ between unit types within the same wintering population, suggesting that high use intensity within the managed area alone may not adequately reflect the space use of all unit types. Wintering-site management should therefore consider both the managed area and peripheral agricultural fields used by Family units, with continued monitoring of group-specific space-use changes to refine the spatial extent of management.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100605

Authors: Antonios M. Loulakis Ioannis A. Chasourakis Ioannis E. Zografakis Dimitrios Kollaros Emmanouil M. Kabourakis

Ant diversity and community structure in Greek olive orchards are under-researched, with only one study conducted to date, despite the extensive area occupied by olive orchards and their agronomic, ecological, and socioeconomic importance. In this study, we provide the first data on both ant assemblages and functional groups in Greek olive orchards. The study was designed to capture variation in ant diversity associated with management systems (MS) and agroecological zones (AZ). Ants were collected monthly for two consecutive years, using pitfall traps from 16 olive orchards, eight of which implemented Green Infrastructure (GI). A total of 32 ant species belonging to 12 genera and seven functional groups were recorded. Opportunists (OPP) and Generalised Myrmicinae (GM) were the dominant functional groups. Organic green-infrastructure-enhanced orchards had statistically significantly higher exponential Shannon diversity than conventional orchards, whereas ant worker captures, species richness, sample-based γ-diversity, species composition, and the proportions of major functional groups did not differ between management systems. Agroecological zone significantly affected ant worker captures and species composition, with higher captures recorded in hilly than in plain olive orchards. In contrast, sample-based γ-diversity, species richness and effective Shannon diversity did not differ between zones. Strong interannual variation was observed, with both ant worker captures and species richness being significantly higher in the second sampling year, while effective Shannon diversity remained stable between years. Overall, olive orchards support diverse and functionally complex ant communities, including both widespread and endemic species. These findings highlight the dual role of olive orchards as productive agricultural systems and reservoirs of biodiversity. The adoption of Green Infrastructure, together with low-intensity management and the maintenance of habitat heterogeneity, could further enhance the role of olive orchards in supporting biodiversity and ecological processes across the landscape.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100604

Authors: Jiamin Shen Xiaoping Sun Jing Wang Enyu Li Luoyu Wang Yinlong Zhang Mingchang Cao Yu Shen

Urban biodiversity planning depends on whether terrestrial and aquatic habitats retain the same species or make non-redundant contributions to the observed species pool. We surveyed 14 urban parks and four transects nested within two wetlands in Huai’an, eastern China, during two rounds. The audited counts comprised 2085 individual records and 58 species. Observed richness was higher on the sampled wetland transects (median 21.5 versus 16.0 species), but limited independent wetland replication precluded a general habitat-effect claim. Parks and wetlands each contained 43 species, with 28 shared and 15 recorded exclusively in each habitat class. Across 14 park–wetland pairs of pooled landscape units, mean Sørensen dissimilarity was 0.457, partitioned into turnover of 0.353 and nestedness-resultant dissimilarity of 0.104; turnover accounted for 77.3% of the summed dissimilarity. A classification of all 58 species using AVONET showed that 11 of the 15 wetland-only records had a wetland habitat affiliation, whereas eight park-only records were associated with forest or woodland and four with shrubland. These are global species-level traits, not evidence of local habitat specialization. Environmental correlations remained exploratory and did not survive within-family false-discovery-rate adjustment in the primary rank-based analyses. The results support observed compositional complementarity within the sampled landscape, while imperfect detection, two survey rounds, unmatched habitat area and only two wetland systems limit generalization. Conservation should retain both terrestrial green spaces and heterogeneous wetland habitats, with attention to habitat quality and hydrological structure.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100603

Authors: Andrea P. Loayza Britt N. Wallberg Fermín M. Alfaro Patricio de Los Ríos-Escalante Jorge Pérez-Schultheiss Jaime Pizarro-Araya

Dryland agroecosystems can sustain soil arthropod communities, yet their detritivore faunas remain poorly documented in hyperarid regions. Terrestrial isopods (Crustacea: Isopoda: Oniscidea) are important macrodetritivores whose assemblages in northern Chile remain largely unknown. Using standardized pitfall trapping, we characterized the isopod assemblage of five olive (Olea europaea) groves differing in age, structure, and irrigation in the Huasco Valley, southern Atacama Desert. We collected 14,128 individuals belonging to four oniscidean taxa in three families: Armadillidium vulgare, Porcellio laevis, Porcellionides cf. sexfasciatus, and Benthanoides sp. The first three are introduced Palearctic species, whereas Benthanoides is a native Neotropical genus. Together, Benthanoides sp. and P. laevis accounted for 91.3% of captures. Observed taxon richness differed by only one taxon among groves, whereas total activity-density varied nearly 20-fold and dominance structure differed markedly. Benthanoides sp. dominated the young grove and P. laevis the intermediate grove, while the two centennial groves supported the most balanced assemblages. Overall, native and introduced taxa contributed almost equally to total captures (46.7% and 53.3%, respectively). Because grove age, structure, and irrigation covary, and each combination of characteristics was represented by only one or two groves, these among-grove patterns should be interpreted descriptively. These findings provide the first taxonomically resolved baseline for Oniscidea in Atacama olive agroecosystems and show that cultivated groves can support a native detritivore at high activity-density alongside introduced synanthropes.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100602

Authors: Jun-Da Chen Mei-Chen Yu Xu Zhang Gao-Xing Dai Zong-Zhi Li Yan Wang Zhao-Ling Zhu Jian-Ping Wu Zhen-Sheng Liu Li-Wei Teng

We report an adult male Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis repeatedly observed at Jiamusi University, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China (130°22′02″ E, 46°46′56″ N). Clear photographs documented diagnostic external characters, and fecal samples collected from the same campus area were independently assigned to H. inermis by mitochondrial 16S rRNA sequencing. The locality lies approximately 208 km north of the Wuchang record in terms of latitudinal displacement and represents the northernmost currently confirmed occurrence of the species in its native Northeast Asian range. Repeated use of a university campus with regular pedestrian and vehicle activity suggests apparent tolerance of routine human presence within a human-modified setting, although the observations do not demonstrate urban adaptation, local population establishment, or the provenance of the individual.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100601

Authors: Yun-Chao Yu Jin-Hua Wu Gui-Yun Huang Di Wu Xiang Zhou Yang Xi Rong-Bin Tang Gan-Ju Xiang

Insects are sensitive indicators of environmental change, but their responses to large hydropower landscapes remain insufficiently understood because dam areas combine hydrological regulation, shoreline modification, artificial surfaces, vegetation management, and local microclimatic change. This study investigated insect diversity (species richness, inverse Simpson index and exponential Shannon index) across seven survey sites in the Three Gorges Dam area during May, August, and October in 2022 and 2023. Field surveys were combined with environmental, landscape, and vegetation variables to examine associations between compound habitat conditions and insect assemblages. The results showed that insect diversity displayed remarkable seasonal variation, with the highest values (species richness: 16.14, inverse Simpson index: 11.69, exponential Shannon index: 13.57) in August and the lowest values in May (species richness: 5.43, inv Simpson index: 2.35, exponential Shannon index: 3.07), consistent with the plant growing season. Artificial building area proportion was negatively associated with observed species richness across the seven survey sites, whereas no clear association was detected for inverse Simpson or exponential Shannon diversity. Vegetation mixed-effects models indicated positive associations between NDVI and insect diversity after accounting for month, year, and repeated observations within sites. Other site-level environmental correlations were treated as exploratory because of the limited number of independent sites. These findings suggest that insect diversity in dam landscapes is associated with built-surface cover, seasonal vegetation dynamics, and local habitat conditions. Integrating insect surveys with remote-sensing indicators may support biodiversity monitoring and ecological management in large hydropower regions.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100597

Authors: David J. Juszkiewicz Michel Pichon Zoe T. Richards

Corals of the genus Porites Link, 1807 are often considered difficult to identify to species level, largely due to their complex and historically unstable taxonomy. Much of this uncertainty stems from a long history of inconsistent species descriptions and revisions, which have blurred diagnostic boundaries between taxa. This is compounded by their very small corallite size, which limits the resolution of traditional morphological approaches and has historically precluded detailed morphometric comparisons. Together, these factors have resulted in persistent taxonomic ambiguity within the genus, making species-level identification challenging using morphology alone. Here, we take a two-phase approach to synthesising the taxonomic history of ecologically important massive species within the genus by revisiting original descriptions and reimaging type material to provide more consistent interpretations of morphological features and distinguishing characters between species. We focus on ten massive-forming species from the Indo-Pacific and provide the most comprehensive review of the full nomenclatural history of these species, along with the wider genus itself. We find that at least 22 characters are diagnostically informative for species-level discrimination within the type material examined, although their diagnostic value varies among species and character combinations. Importantly, wall architecture is one of the most useful characters, broadly separating the species into two groups: those with perforate (blistered) walls and those with reticulate walls. However, operationalising Porites taxonomy to robustly resolve species boundaries and refine estimates of species richness beyond type localities will require well-replicated integrative studies that combine molecular evolutionary evidence with ecological and reproductive traits at both regional and transoceanic scales. By building on the legacy of earlier systematists, this work fills a key knowledge gap and provides a robust morphological foundation for advancing Porites taxonomy, supporting more accurate species discovery and identification into the future.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100600

Authors: Zhendong Hong Yu Xi Anqi Zhu Zaihui Yu Jianjian Hao Fangming Wang Chenhui Wei Chen He Lin Zhang Gangjun Liu Fangmin Liu

Wetland restoration has become increasingly important for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem-function recovery, and climate resilience. However, global restoration evidence remains fragmented across geographical regions, wetland systems, restoration approaches, and ecological response domains, limiting the identification of broadly transferable restoration principles. This review conducted a systematic mapping review of global wetland ecological restoration research published between 2000 and 2024 by integrating evidence mapping, bibliometric analysis, and ecological interpretation of representative restoration studies. The global literature expanded substantially during the study period, but the evidence base remained unevenly distributed among regions, institutions, and wetland contexts. Differences among research participation, research leadership, and study locations indicated that patterns of scientific output were shaped not only by wetland distribution and restoration needs but also by research capacity, monitoring infrastructure, and institutional networks. Thematic development revealed a transition from intervention-oriented studies focusing on hydrological modification, habitat reconstruction, and pollution control toward broader consideration of biodiversity recovery, ecosystem functions, carbon dynamics, microbial processes, and nature-based solutions. Across wetland systems, restoration pathways varied according to ecological processes and degradation contexts, but common challenges emerged regarding the translation of structural improvements into durable ecological recovery. Improvements in habitat structure, vegetation, hydrological conditions, or physicochemical indicators did not necessarily indicate equivalent recovery of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, or resilience. These findings highlight the need for long-term, multidimensional restoration assessment, stronger evidence generation in underrepresented regions, and adaptive approaches that integrate ecological processes, monitoring, and local contexts to support durable wetland recovery.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100599

Authors: Marco Bertoli Paolo Pastorino Davide Lesa Emanuele Bianco Davide Stocco Elena Francescatto Irene Cecchia Elisabetta Pizzul

Among salmonids, the marble trout Salmo marmoratus is endemic to the Adriatic River Basin of northern Italy and the Adriatic River system of the Western Balkans. It is an iconic fish of angling and conservation interest but, despite this, the species is heavily threatened by habitat loss, river fragmentation, water pollution, overfishing, water diversion and hybridization with the brown trout Salmo trutta. The marble trout is therefore listed in the Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC (Annex II) and reported as ‘Critically Endangered’ in the Red List of the Italian Vertebrates, but a progressive restriction of the original distribution area occurred since the second half of the past century. Due to these reasons, many conservation projects have been raised in recent years. In the present study, we report early results of a new conservation project about marble trout, carried out in several watercourses of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Northeastern Italy), where the species is still present with representative densities. The main aim of the study was to highlight the main hydromorphological features favorable to support the marble trout populations within the investigated watercourses. Electrofishing sampling activities were carried out in 2025 within eight watercourses, while main mesohabitats and substrate types were recorded. Our observations suggest that the presence of different types of refugia appeared to play a pivotal role to support well-structured trout populations: the presence of a combination of shallow margin areas, rocks and woody debris may serve as key nursery zone whereas canopy shade, eroded banks, and boulders within main mesohabitats likely function as preferred sheltering spots for adult specimens. Conservation projects have a pivotal importance, and proper ecological analyses could provide useful information for management programs. In this context, environmental restoration activities, including the placement of rocks, large boulders and large trunks within the riverbed areas, may represent a viable, low-cost strategy to enhance habitat availability for the species.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100598

Authors: Yingdan Zhang Mei Chen Shengyue Sun Zhenghua He Tiantian Tang

Biological invasions driven by climate change and human activities pose a serious threat to biodiversity and ecosystem stability in global biodiversity hotspot regions. Lantana camara is a globally recognized aggressive invasive plant that has rapidly spread in southwest China and caused significant ecological risks. To clarify its potential geographic distribution, key driving factors, and future invasion dynamics under climate change, this study applied an MaxEnt model with feature-class optimization, integrating occurrence points, bioclimatic variables, topographic data, and the human footprint index to simulate habitat suitability in southwest China for the current period (1970–2000) and the future (2050s and 2070s) under three shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5). The results show that the current high-suitability area for L. camara is 1.21 × 104 km2, mainly distributed in central Yunnan and the Chengdu Plain. Human activity (human footprint index, 52.3%) is the dominant driver, and the mean temperature of the coldest month (28.5%) is the primary natural limiting factor. Future suitable areas exhibit a remarkable scenario-dependent nonlinear response. By the 2070s, the high-suitability area expands most sharply under SSP2-4.5 (3.27 × 104 km2, an increase of about 170%), revealing that moderate warming facilitates northward expansion. Under SSP5-8.5, the high-suitability area contracts compared with the 2050s, indicating that extreme high temperatures restrain optimal habitats. Spatially, L. camara displays a “retreat south, advance north” pattern under high-emission scenarios, with its distribution centroid continuously shifting northeast, reflecting climate-driven niche changes. This study verifies that the invasion risk of L. camara does not rise linearly with climate warming. Moderate warming boosts its spread, whereas extreme warming reshapes its distribution, offering a scientific basis for risk assessment, early warning, and targeted control strategies against L. camara invasion in southwest China and worldwide.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100594

Authors: Muammer Kırıcı

Climate change is rapidly altering aquatic ecosystems through rising temperatures, ocean acidification, hypoxia, ultraviolet radiation, salinity fluctuations, and interacting environmental stressors. These changes impose substantial physiological challenges on aquatic organisms, with oxidative stress representing an important mechanistic pathway linking environmental disturbances to biological responses across multiple levels of organization. This review synthesizes current evidence on oxidative stress responses associated with climate change-related environmental stressors across aquatic taxa, including fish, aquatic invertebrates, corals, phytoplankton, macroalgae, amphibians, and polar and deep-sea organisms. We examine the mechanisms underlying reactive oxygen species production, disruption of antioxidant defenses, and oxidative damage, while critically evaluating biochemical, molecular, and omics-based biomarkers for environmental stress assessment. Particular emphasis is placed on how oxidative stress may translate from cellular and organismal responses into changes in growth, reproduction, behavior, survival, species distributions, population dynamics, community structure, biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience. We also highlight limitations of current biomarker approaches, including species-specific variability, methodological inconsistencies, and difficulties in extrapolating laboratory findings to natural ecosystems. Future research should prioritize integrated multi-biomarker and multi-stressor approaches, long-term ecological monitoring, standardized protocols, and the integration of omics, environmental DNA, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence. Overall, oxidative stress biomarkers provide complementary tools for assessing climate-change impacts on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100596

Authors: Luis Marcial Garat Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche Marianella Talevi

Sexual dimorphism is a major source of intraspecific variation that might complicate the taxonomic interpretation of fossil penguins, potentially leading to an overestimation of species diversity when sex-related morphological variation is misinterpreted as taxonomic differences. Bone histology and microanatomy provide an independent line of evidence for sexual differentiation, as they preserve records of physiological processes associated with skeletal development and reproduction. In this study, we analysed the osteohistology and microanatomy of 37 thin sections from appendicular elements of Eocene Antarctic penguins from Marambio (Seymour) Island, including Delphinornis, Marambiornis, Anthropornis, Palaeeudyptes, Archaeospheniscus, Notodyptes, and undetermined specimens. The histological observations focused on bone matrix organisation across tissue regions, vascularisation, secondary remodelling, medullary microstructure, and the condition of the inner circumferential layer (ICL), particularly in the hindlimbs, to assess its possible significance for sex determination. No evidence of medullary bone was identified in any specimen, probably reflecting the transient nature and low preservation potential of this reproductive tissue. However, variation in ICL development and remodelling revealed three microstructural states associated with the reproductive cycle in extant penguins. Remodelled ICLs, interpreted as evidence of females that had completed at least one reproductive cycle, were identified in Delphinornis arctowskii, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi and Palaeeudyptes gunnari. The presence of an unremodelled ICL, as observed in Anthropornis grandis, does not allow reliable sex determination because it may correspond either to males or to females outside the oviposition period. Likewise, the lack of ICL in Delphinornis larseni and Palaeeudyptes klekowskii could indicate that they are females. Comparisons among skeletal elements further indicate that hindlimbs preserve more informative histological signals than forelimbs, whose microanatomy is more strongly modified by biomechanical adaptations related to wing-propelled diving. These findings show that osteohistological and microanatomical evidence can substantially improve the recognition of sex-related variation in fossil penguins, providing a framework for interpreting morphological diversity. Incorporating these criteria into systematic studies may reduce taxonomic bias and refine the delineation of fossil species within Sphenisciformes.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100595

Authors: Anatoliy Raiymbek Kurmanbayeva Meruyert Talshen Darbayeva Dameli Uteulieva Svetlana Bokhorova Adil Kusmangazinov Dina Karabalayeva Bagdagul Alzhanova

Populus × canescens (Aiton) Sm. is a natural hybrid between Populus alba L. and Populus tremula L., but its genetic diversity and population structure in Western Kazakhstan remain poorly characterized. Here, we investigated 12 individuals representing five geographically separated populations in the West Kazakhstan Region using chloroplast matK and rbcL sequences. The concatenated 1318 bp dataset was analyzed to assess genetic diversity, haplotype relationships, population differentiation, demographic history, and phylogenetic relationships. Seven haplotypes were identified, with relatively high haplotype diversity but low nucleotide diversity. The predominant haplotype was shared among four populations, whereas several population-specific haplotypes were detected. Pairwise nucleotide divergence ranged from 0.000635 to 0.002096, with the highest value observed between Pop4 and Pop5. Significant negative Tajima’s D and Fu and Li’s statistics were detected; however, the predominantly unimodal mismatch distribution was interpreted cautiously because the low nucleotide diversity and limited sample size reduced its sensitivity for demographic inference. Therefore, the observed pattern should not be considered conclusive evidence of demographic expansion. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis revealed heterogeneous placement of P. × canescens individuals relative to P. alba and P. tremula. These findings provide the first molecular baseline for P. × canescens in Western Kazakhstan and contribute to understanding its chloroplast genetic diversity, population structure, and evolutionary relationships.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100593

Authors: Andrew Mashintonio Gregory Setliff

As anthropogenic pressures on global biodiversity continue to rise, it is imperative that action is taken to protect species threatened with extinction. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List is a tool that can be used to prioritize conservation action, but only 8% of all species have been assessed for extinction risk. More species must be added to the Red List; however, the lack of published studies on many species can make it difficult to perform an initial assessment. Here, we discuss the use of open observational datasets to improve initial Red List assessments by making more accurate distribution maps. We also provide a list of databases spanning a range of taxonomic groups and geographic locations that can be used by Red List assessors, as well as a comparison of their strengths and weaknesses. Some advantages of using this data include improved distribution mapping and the identification of areas that may require more systematic sampling. Some limitations of this data include the potential for sampling bias to affect spatial metrics and the presence of taxonomic and spatiotemporal errors.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100592

Authors: Yuhang Liu Ping Guan Meini Shao Shuai Wang Gue Liu Ming Guan Houyi Liu Jin Bai Yuan Yang Xiaolei Li Chenyang Xue Bo Qu

Predicting the potential climatic suitability of invasive plants under global warming is essential for understanding invasion mechanisms and developing targeted management and control strategies. Here, we used MaxEnt and biomod2 (incorporating 10 individual algorithm models) to project potential suitable habitats for two invasive Xanthium species, Xanthium chinense and Xanthium orientale, across China. Projections were run for baseline climate conditions and two future time windows (2040–2060 and 2080–2100) across four Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios: SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5. Under baseline climate conditions, the random-forest model predicted that X. orientale possessed the largest suitable habitat area, reaching 22.79 × 105 km2, whereas the MaxEnt model estimated the suitable-habitat area of X. chinense at 17.56 × 105 km2. Under all future climate scenarios, both species exhibit northward range expansion into higher-latitude regions of China. Under high-emission scenarios (SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5), suitable habitat for X. chinense is projected to increase across North and Northeast China, whereas X. orientale shows range gains in Northwest and Northeast China. Temperature seasonality, mean temperature of the driest quarter, and population density were identified as the key environmental drivers shaping the distribution of X. orientale. Rising temperatures are expected to render high-latitude provinces such as Jilin and Heilongjiang climatically suitable for the species. Conversely, the extreme heat and humidity in southern China may constrain its suitable range by impairing growth and reproductive output. For X. chinense, annual precipitation, precipitation seasonality, mean minimum temperature in June, and population density serve as the primary environmental drivers of its distribution. Mirroring the pattern seen in X. orientale, high-latitude areas of China are projected to become core suitable habitats for X. chinense under future climates. X. chinense frequently co-occurs with X. orientale, a pattern that suggests both taxa are strongly influenced by human activity and are capable of sustaining stable populations in economically developed areas. Overall, climate warming is projected to expand the total suitable habitat for both invasive Xanthium species, with high-latitude regions in northern China emerging as newly suitable areas. This shift could amplify competitive pressure on native plant communities in these high-latitude regions.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100591

Authors: Min Xu Haomiao Tao Jinglan Ye Yong Zhang Weizheng Li Siyu Jiang Huihui Zhang

Wetlands support biodiversity and hydrological regulation; bird communities are sensitive indicators of environmental change. However, evidence linking bird-community patterns to restoration remains limited in the lower Yangtze floodplain wetlands. We aimed to characterize bird-community composition and spatiotemporal diversity in Longpao Yangtze Wetland and examine their association with restoration history. We conducted monthly surveys from November 2024 to September 2025 using line transects, point observations, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) monitoring. Combined records described species composition, standardized field records provided diversity indices, and historical records showed interannual patterns. We recorded 197 species in the combined inventory, including 5 Class I and 30 Class II nationally protected species; standardized surveys recorded 144 species. Winter migrants and Palearctic species were the largest residency and zoogeographical groups, respectively. Diversity was highest in spring and lowest in autumn, although autumn included one survey. Heterogeneous transects YX6 and YX3 had higher diversity. Recorded richness increased from 59 species (2019) to 197 (2025), coinciding with restoration. Longpao Wetland supports diverse birds of conservation concern, emphasizing the value of heterogeneous habitats. Unequal seasonal effort and inconsistent historical methods preclude causal inference. Future research should use standardized long-term monitoring and quantitative habitat analyses to guide hydrological management, habitat enhancement, and community co-management.

Diversity doi: 10.3390/d18100590

Authors: Maria J. Willemes Gabriella A. Leal Claudia S. Karez Fernando C. Moraes Rodrigo Mariath Rodrigo T. Carvalho Paulo S. Salomon Alex C. Bastos Guilherme H. Pereira-Filho Ricardo G. Bahia Leonardo T. Salgado

Marginal Southwestern Atlantic reefs, such as the Abrolhos reefs (Brazil), occur under conditions including high sedimentation, turbid waters, and elevated nutrient inputs, while also being exposed to local and climate-related stressors. Long-term standardized assessments of net calcium carbonate (CaCO3) accretion on settlement substrates remain scarce for marginal reefs. Here, we assessed annual net CaCO3 accretion and early successional community dynamics from 2012 to 2023 using standardized Calcification Accretion Unit (CAU) tiles deployed at two reef sites in the Abrolhos Bank, Brazil: Pedra de Leste (PL), located in the nearshore reef arc, and Parcel dos Abrolhos (PA), located in the offshore reef arc. Mean net CaCO3 accretion was 329 ± 94 g m−2 yr−1, reaching a maximum in 2019−2020 (433 ± 82 g m−2 yr−1) and declining in 2022-2023 (255 ± 75 g m−2 yr−1). At PA, net CaCO3 accretion in 2022−2023 was 52% lower than the decadal mean. The relative cover of calcifying and non-calcifying functional groups also varied through time at both study sites. At PL, non-calcifying cover reached 36% in 2017−2018 and 50% in 2022−2023, driven mainly by algal turfs and ascidians, while CCA cover declined. In 2022−2023, this shift coincided with a marked reduction in net carbonate accretion. In contrast, crustose coralline algae (CCA) dominated CAU tile communities at PL in 2019−2020 and coincided with the highest net carbonate accretion observed at that site. These patterns indicate that variation in early successional community composition, particularly in the relative abundance of CCA and turf algae, was associated with temporal variation in net CaCO3 accretion on settlement tiles. The recent decline observed in PA highlights the value of continued long-term monitoring to determine whether similar changes are reflected in established reef communities.