A conceptual framework for the spatial analysis of functional trait diversity

Functional trait diversity is a popular tool in modern ecology, mainly used to infer assembly processes and ecosystem functioning. Patterns of functional trait diversity are shaped by ecological processes such as environmental filtering, species interactions and dispersal that are inherently spatial, and different processes may operate at different spatial scales. Adding a spatial dimension to the analysis of functional trait diversity may thus increase our ability to infer community assembly processes and to predict change in assembly processes following disturbance or land‐use change. Richness, evenness and divergence of functional traits are commonly used indices of functional trait diversity that are known to respond differently to large‐scale filters related to environmental heterogeneity and dispersal and fine‐scale filters related to species interactions (competition). Recent developments in spatial statistics make it possible to separately quantify large‐scale patterns (variation in local means) and fine‐scale patterns (variation around local means) by decomposing overall spatial autocorrelation quantified by Moran's coefficient into its positive and negative components using Moran eigenvector maps (MEM). We thus propose to identify the spatial signature of multiple ecological processes that are potentially acting at different spatial scales by contrasting positive and negative components of spatial autocorrelation for each of the three indices of functional trait diversity. We illustrate this approach with a case study from riparian plant communities, where we test the effects of disturbance on spatial patterns of functional trait diversity. The fine‐scale pattern of all three indices was increased in the disturbed versus control habitat, suggesting an increase in local scale competition and an overall increase in unexplained variance in the post‐disturbance versus control community. Further research using simulation modeling should focus on establishing the proposed link between community assembly rules and spatial patterns of functional trait diversity to maximize our ability to infer multiple processes from spatial community structure.     

Thermodynamic and metabolic effects on the scaling of production and population energy use

Ecosystem properties result in part from the characteristics of individual organisms. How these individual traits scale to impact ecosystem‐level processes is currently unclear. Because metabolism is a fundamental process underlying many individual‐ and population‐level variables, it provides a mechanism for linking individual characteristics with large‐scale processes. Here we use metabolism and ecosystem thermodynamics to scale from physiology to individual biomass production and population‐level energy use. Temperature‐corrected rates of individual‐level biomass production show the same body‐size dependence across a wide range of aerobic eukaryotes, from unicellular organisms to mammals and vascular plants. Population‐level energy use for both mammals and plants are strongly influenced by both metabolism and thermodynamic constraints on energy exchange between trophic levels. Our results show that because metabolism is a fundamental trait of organisms, it not only provides a link between individual‐ and ecosystem‐level processes, but can also highlight other important factors constraining ecological structure and dynamics.     

Using learning networks to understand complex systems: a case study of biological,geophysical and social research in the Amazon

Developing high‐quality scientific research will be most effective if research communities with diverse skills and interests are able to share information and knowledge, are aware of the major challenges across disciplines, and can exploit economies of scale to provide robust answers and better inform policy. We evaluate opportunities and challenges facing the development of a more interactive research environment by developing an interdisciplinary synthesis of research on a single geographic region. We focus on the Amazon as it is of enormous regional and global environmental importance and faces a highly uncertain future. To take stock of existing knowledge and provide a framework for analysis we present a set of mini‐reviews from fourteen different areas of research, encompassing taxonomy, biodiversity, biogeography, vegetation dynamics, landscape ecology, earth‐atmosphere interactions, ecosystem processes, fire, deforestation dynamics, hydrology, hunting, conservation planning, livelihoods, and payments for ecosystem services. Each review highlights the current state of knowledge and identifies research priorities, including major challenges and opportunities. We show that while substantial progress is being made across many areas of scientific research, our understanding of specific issues is often dependent on knowledge from other disciplines. Accelerating the acquisition of reliable and contextualized knowledge about the fate of complex pristine and modified ecosystems is partly dependent on our ability to exploit economies of scale in shared resources and technical expertise, recognise and make explicit interconnections and feedbacks among sub‐disciplines, increase the temporal and spatial scale of existing studies, and improve the dissemination of scientific findings to policy makers and society at large. Enhancing interaction among research efforts is vital if we are to make the most of limited funds and overcome the challenges posed by addressing large‐scale interdisciplinary questions. Bringing together a diverse scientific community with a single geographic focus can help increase awareness of research questions both within and among disciplines, and reveal the opportunities that may exist for advancing acquisition of reliable knowledge. This approach could be useful for a variety of globally important scientific questions.     

Modeling and predicting the growth of the mussel,Mytilus edulis: implications for planning of aquaculture and eutrophication mitigation

The increased pressure on the marine ecosystems highlights the need for policies and integrated approaches for sustainable management of coastal areas. Spatial planning based on geographic information of human activities, ecological structures and functions, and their associated goods and services is a fundamental component in this context. Here, we evaluate the potential of predictive modeling to provide spatial data on one ecosystem function, mussel growth for use in such processes. We developed a methodology based on statistical modeling, spatial prediction, and mapping for the relative growth of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. We evaluated the performance of different modeling techniques and classification schemes using empirical measurements of growth from 144 sampling sites and data on biological, chemical, and physical predictors. Following comparisons of the different techniques and schemes, we developed random forest models to predict growth along the Swedish west coast. Implemented into GIS the best model produced in this study predicts that low, intermediate, and high growth rates can be expected in 53%, 32%, and 15% of modeled area, respectively. The results of this study also suggest that the nature and quality of predictor data hold the key to improving the predictive power of models. On a more general note, this study exemplifies a feasible approach based on measuring, modeling, and mapping for obtaining scientifically based spatial information on ecosystem functions and services affected by a complex set of factors. Such information is fundamental for maritime spatial planning and ecosystem‐based management and its importance is likely to increase in the future. Because of its close link to nutrient assimilation and production yield, site‐specific information of soft tissue growth such as the map of predicted growth rate developed in this study can be used as a tool for optimizing actions aimed at mitigating eutrophication and aquaculture operations and in maritime spatial planning processes of coastal areas.     

Recovering endangered species and restoring ecosystems: conservation planning for the twenty-first century in the United States

The Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, is one of the most significant pieces of conservation legislation ever passed in the United States. The passage of this act spawned the creation of the Endangered Species Program of the US. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Under the Act, the USFWS has responsibility for implementing many provisions of the Act: listings, consultations, enforcement of prohibitions and recovery planning. Recovering threatened and endangered species, as well as other declining species yet to be listed, is accomplished through many of the activities that occur under the auspices of the Act, not only through the formal recovery planning process. The Act is fundamentally an instrument for ecosystem conservation, although this aspect of the Act is often over-looked. Planning and implementing an ecosystem approach to conservation activities is a priority for the USFWS, not only for threatened and endangered species but for all wildlife. The recent emphasis on regional habitat conservation planning and the development of regional and multi-species recovery plans are indicative of the priority placed on sound ecosystem conservation planning. All of these processes are implemented with the participation of the potentially affected communities and state wildlife management agencies through a public review process. State conservation agencies are part of the process through a special grant programme.     

The challenges that spatial context present for synthesizing community ecology across scales

Accurately characterizing spatial patterns on landscapes is necessary to understand the processes that generate biodiversity, a problem that has applications in ecological theory, conservation planning, ecosystem restoration, and ecosystem management. However, the measurement of biodiversity patterns and the ecological and evolutionary processes that underlie those patterns is highly dependent on the study unit size, boundary placement, and number of observations. These issues, together known as the modifiable areal unit problem, are well known in geography. These factors limit the degree to which results from different metacommunity and macro‐ecological studies can be compared to draw new inferences, and yet these types of comparisons are widespread in community ecology. Using aquatic community datasets, we demonstrate that spatial context drives analytical results when landscapes are sub‐divided. Next, we present a framework for using resampling and neighborhood smoothing to standardize datasets to allow for inferential comparisons. We then provide examples for how addressing these issues enhances our ability to understand the processes shaping ecological communities at landscape scales and allows for informative meta‐analytical synthesis. We conclude by calling for greater recognition of issues derived from the modifiable areal unit problem in community ecology, discuss implications of the problem for interpreting the existing literature, and identify tools and approaches for future research.     

Monitoring and evaluating large-scale, ‘open-ended’ habitat creation projects: A journey rather than a destination

Ecological restoration frequently involves setting fixed species or habitat targets to be achieved by prescribed restoration activities or through natural processes. Where no reference systems exist for defining outcomes or where restoration is planned on a large spatial scale, a more ‘open-ended’ approach to defining outcomes may be appropriate. Such approaches require changes to the definition of goals and the design of monitoring and evaluation activities. We suggest that in open-ended projects restoration goals should be framed in terms of promoting natural processes, mobile landscape mosaics and improved ecosystem services. Monitoring can then focus on the biophysical processes that underpin the development of habitat mosaics and the provision of ecosystem services, on the way habitat mosaics change through time and on species that can indicate the changing landscape attributes of connectivity and scale. Stakeholder response should be monitored since an open-ended restoration approach is unusual and can encounter institutional and societal constraints. Evaluation should focus on reporting changing restoration impacts and benefits rather than on achieving a pre-defined concept of ecological success.     

Landscape evaluation for ecosystem planning

Landscape evaluation is important in the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development. The objective of this paper is to review and explore methods for evaluation of landscapes for ecosystem planning. Ecosystem planning is the process of land use decision-making that considers organisms and processes that characterize the ecosystem as a whole. Risk assessments, precautionary principles, adaptive management and scenario approaches are adopted to cope with the uncertainty of nature, which is an obstacle in ecosystem planning. Special attention is needed in the analysis of status and troubleshooting in the planning scheme, which is a selection of the appropriate approach and model to find problems in the present situation. There are two approaches to set targets in ecosystem planning, the species approach and the ecosystem approach. The species approach aims to protect particular species, and the ecosystem approach aims to protect total ecosystems including the species. In Europe, ecotope or biotope mapping has been developed in ecosystem planning. An ecotope is often identified by vegetation that represents a group of wildlife, but many species require combinations of different ecotopes. Landscapes have come to be recognized as a unit for ecosystem planning. Potential assessment is a method to estimate a potential of a local space or a landscape to realize an ecosystem or species habitat, and this method has been used in HEP and GAP analysis in the USA and Ecological Networks in Europe. Some examples of ecosystem planning of national and regional scales in Japan are introduced.     

Hyporheic rehabilitation in rivers: restoring vertical connectivity

1. The hyporheic zone below the channel and banks of many rivers where surface water and ground water exchanges plays a crucial functional role in the biogeochemical transformation of water, mediated by active microbial biofilms. This zone also harbours assemblages of invertebrates that graze biofilms, contribute to secondary production, and can alter the porosity of the hyporheic zone through their movement or burrowing activities. 2. Many human activities cause interstitial sedimentation or disrupt surface–groundwater hydrological linkages, impacting upon ecological processes in the hyporheic zone. However, strategies for river rehabilitation seldom explicitly consider the hyporheic zone or seek to restore lost vertical linkages with groundwater. Instead, restoration goals target surface, riparian or floodplain features even though current river ecosystem theory emphasises the three dimensions of hydrological connectivity. To guide effective, holistic river restoration, scientists and managers therefore need information on the mechanisms by which energy and material are transferred in the hyporheic zone and which ecosystem services are thus provided. 3. Other gaps in our understanding of hyporheic zone rehabilitation include recruitment processes of the hyporheos and the relative importance of groups of hyporheic invertebrates in rivers differing in substratum size, disturbance frequency and groundwater linkages. Carefully designed experiments that assess responses to hyporheic rehabilitation strategies will provide valuable data at varying scales (e.g. distribution of hyporheic habitat types at the reach scale) for management as well as providing insights into the mechanisms controlling hyporheic invertebrate assemblages and ecological processes. Fully successful river rehabilitation must include restoration of vertical linkages between the river and its shallow groundwater aquifers.     

Tri‐trophic interactions: bridging species,communities and ecosystems

A vast body of research demonstrates that many ecological and evolutionary processes can only be understood from a tri‐trophic viewpoint, that is, one that moves beyond the pairwise interactions of neighbouring trophic levels to consider the emergent features of interactions among multiple trophic levels. Despite its unifying potential, tri‐trophic research has been fragmented, following two distinct paths. One has focused on the population biology and evolutionary ecology of simple food chains of interacting species. The other has focused on bottom‐up and top‐down controls over the distribution of biomass across trophic levels and other ecosystem‐level variables. Here, we propose pathways to bridge these two long‐standing perspectives. We argue that an expanded theory of tri‐trophic interactions (TTIs) can unify our understanding of biological processes across scales and levels of organisation, ranging from species evolution and pairwise interactions to community structure and ecosystem function. To do so requires addressing how community structure and ecosystem function arise as emergent properties of component TTIs, and, in turn, how species traits and TTIs are shaped by the ecosystem processes and the abiotic environment in which they are embedded. We conclude that novel insights will come from applying tri‐trophic theory systematically across all levels of biological organisation.     

Restoration,soil organisms,and soil processes: emerging approaches

Better understanding of the connection between aboveground plant communities and belowground soil organisms and processes has led to an explosion in recent research on the applications of this link to the field of ecological restoration. Research is only beginning to have the capacity to link soil organisms and specific ecosystem functions. Establishing general ecological principles of the role microbial communities have during ecological restoration is also still in its infancy. As such, the literature is at a critical point to generate a Special Feature that brings together novel approaches of linking soil and restoration to promote more regular inclusion and consideration of soil organisms and soil‐based processes in ecological restoration. In this special feature, we bring together nine research articles from different ecosystems that study the relationship between restoration activities, soil microbial communities, and soil properties. From these research articles, we describe two primary themes: (1) research on the impacts of ecosystem‐specific restoration activities on soil organisms and processes and (2) research testing methods of soil manipulation to improve restoration outcomes. We hope to inspire readers and restoration practitioners to consider soil microbes and soil processes in their research, restoration projects, and world views.     

可持续景观规划——融合景观可持续性研究与地理设计

人类活动对景观的影响遍及世界各个角落,其广度、强度、频度不断增大。为了改变生态环境在人类社会经济增长压力下的不可持续状态,景观需要科学合理的设计与管理。可持续景观规划是在景观尺度上,在可持续性科学的指导下,平衡生态系统服务的供需关系,将生态、社会、经济活动过程反映到空间优化上,不断提高人类福祉的规划过程。为了能够实践该规划思路,在景观可持续性研究与地理设计融合的概念框架基础上,提出可持续景观规划的八个步骤,在问题诊断与目标设定、多源数据组织与管理、尺度匹配与多尺度分析、景观格局过程分析和可持续性评估、生态系统服务与景观格局关系模拟、情景分析与方案评估、地理设计平台搭建、可视化与人机互动等关键步骤中,融入了强-弱可持续性、多尺度分析、生态系统服务、可持续性指标、大数据应用,以及文化和地方感。研究提出的可持续性景观规划步骤与实现路径体现了多学科交叉、实时评估反馈、信息技术应用、利益相关者参与的特点,可被用于旨在提高人类福祉的多尺度空间优化和可持续景观设计。     

Community structure – Ecosystem function relationships in the Congo Basin methane cycle depend on the physiological scale of function

Belowground ecosystem processes can be highly variable and difficult to predict using microbial community data. Here, we argue that this stems from at least three issues: (a) complex covariance structure of samples (with environmental conditions or spatial proximity) can make distinguishing biotic drivers a challenge; (b) communities can control ecosystem processes through multiple mechanisms, making the identification of these controls a challenge; and (c) ecosystem function assessments can be broad in physiological scale, encapsulating multiple processes with unique microbially mediated controls. We test these assertions using methane (CH₄)‐cycling processes in soil samples collected along a wetland‐to‐upland habitat gradient in the Congo Basin. We perform our measurements of function under controlled laboratory conditions and statistically control for environmental covariates to aid in identifying biotic drivers. We divide measurements of microbial communities into four attributes (abundance, activity, composition, and diversity) that represent different forms of community control. Lastly, our process measurements differ in physiological scale, including broader processes (gross methanogenesis and methanotrophy) that involve more mediating groups, to finer processes (hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and high‐affinity CH₄ oxidation) with fewer mediating groups. We observed that finer scale processes can be more readily predicted from microbial community structure than broader scale processes. In addition, the nature of those relationships differed, with broad processes limited by abundance while fine‐scale processes were associated with diversity and composition. These findings demonstrate the importance of carefully defining the physiological scale of ecosystem function and performing community measurements that represent the range of possible controls on ecosystem processes.     

Coordinated approaches to quantify long‐term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change

Many serious ecosystem consequences of climate change will take decades or even centuries to emerge. Long‐term ecological responses to global change are strongly regulated by slow processes, such as changes in species composition, carbon dynamics in soil and by long‐lived plants, and accumulation of nutrient capitals. Understanding and predicting these processes require experiments on decadal time scales. But decadal experiments by themselves may not be adequate because many of the slow processes have characteristic time scales much longer than experiments can be maintained. This article promotes a coordinated approach that combines long‐term, large‐scale global change experiments with process studies and modeling. Long‐term global change manipulative experiments, especially in high‐priority ecosystems such as tropical forests and high‐latitude regions, are essential to maximize information gain concerning future states of the earth system. The long‐term experiments should be conducted in tandem with complementary process studies, such as those using model ecosystems, species replacements, laboratory incubations, isotope tracers, and greenhouse facilities. Models are essential to assimilate data from long‐term experiments and process studies together with information from long‐term observations, surveys, and space‐for‐time studies along environmental and biological gradients. Future research programs with coordinated long‐term experiments, process studies, and modeling have the potential to be the most effective strategy to gain the best information on long‐term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change.     

Towards a Conceptual Framework for Restoration Ecology

Heightening human impacts on the Earth result in widespread losses of production and conservation values and make large-scale ecosystem restoration increasingly urgent. Tackling this problem requires the development of general guiding principles for restoration so that we can move away from the ad hoc, site- and situation-specific approach that now prevails. A continuum of restoration efforts can be recognized, ranging from restoration of localized highly degraded sites to restoration of entire landscapes for production and/or conservation reasons. We emphasize the importance of developing restoration methodologies that are applicable at the landscape scale. Key processes in restoration include identifying and dealing with the processes leading to degradation in the first place, determining realistic goals and measures of success, developing methods for implementing the goals and incorporating them into land-management and planning strategies, and monitoring the restoration and assessing its success. Few of these procedures are currently incorporated in many restoration projects. The concept that many ecosystems are likely to exist in alternative stable states, depending on their history, is relevant to the setting of restoration goals. A range of measures, such as those being developed to measure ecosystem health, could be used to develop “scorecards” for restoration efforts. Generalizable guidelines for restoration on individual sites could be based on the concepts of designed disturbance, controlled colonization, and controlled species performance. Fewer explicit guidelines are available at the landscape scale, beyond nonquantitative generalities about size and connectivity. Development of these guidelines is an important priority so that urgent large-scale restoration can be planned and implemented effectively.     

On the identification of the most suitable traits for plant functional trait analyses

Within the past few years plant functional trait analyses have been widely applied to learn more about the processes and patterns of ecosystem development in response to environmental changes. These approaches are based on the assumption that plants with similar ecologically relevant trait attributes respond to environmental changes in comparable ways. Several methods have been described on how to analyse a priori defined trait sets with respect to environment. Irrespective of the statistical methods used to contrast ecosystem responses and environmental conditions, each functional trait approach depends strongly on the initial trait set. In nearly all recent studies on functional trait analysis a test, if a trait is responsible, is applied independently from the core analysis. In the current study we present a method that extracts those traits from a wider set of traits which are optimal for describing the ecosystem response to a given environmental gradient. This was done by the use of iterative three‐table ordination techniques with each possible trait combination. We further concentrated on the effect of the inclusion of too many traits in such analyses. As examples the method was applied to three long term studies on abandoned arable fields. The approach was validated by comparing the results with literature‐knowledge on arable field succession. Although the trait pre‐selection was only based on a statistical procedure, our method was able to identify all relevant processes of ecosystem responses. All three sites show comparable ecosystem responses; the importance of the competitive ability of plants was highlighted. We further demonstrated that the use of too many traits results in an over‐fitting of the trait‐environment model. The presented method of iterative RLQ‐analyses is adequate to identify responding traits to environmental changes: the discovered processes of successional development of abandoned arable fields are consistent with our knowledge from the literature.     

资源生态化利用中的生物加工过程

自然的生态系统目前正受到现代生产方式的严重挑战,其结果造成能源短缺,资源匮乏,环境污染等问题,对人类生存构成危机。人类需要一种遵循地球生态系统规律的,自然与社会环境协调发展的生态化超现代化生产方式。其核心技术是资源生态化利用。对资源生态化系统中宏观的、介观的和微观的化学和生化过程问题进行初步探讨：宏观尺度上的生态平衡、物质与能量的循环转化,介观尺度上物种进化、繁殖与死亡,生物食物铁的形成,微观尺度上生物体内代谢过程中的物质转化与传递等。资源利用生态化的基础是生物加工过程,因此实现资源生态化利用不仅要效法自然的生态系统,还要注重现代工程技术、现代生物技术在生态化系统应用中理论和技术的创新。合理利用生物加工过程可以解决人类面临的资源、能源、环境与健康等重大问题,并实现可持续发展。     

Cold air drainage flows subsidize montane valley ecosystem productivity

In mountainous areas, cold air drainage from high to low elevations has pronounced effects on local temperature, which is a critical driver of many ecosystem processes, including carbon uptake and storage. Here, we leverage new approaches for interpreting ecosystem carbon flux observations in complex terrain to quantify the links between macro‐climate condition, drainage flows, local microclimate, and ecosystem carbon cycling in a southern Appalachian valley. Data from multiple long‐running climate stations and multiple eddy covariance flux towers are combined with simple models for ecosystem carbon fluxes. We show that cold air drainage into the valley suppresses local temperature by several degrees at night and for several hours before and after sunset, leading to reductions in growing season respiration on the order of ~8%. As a result, we estimate that drainage flows increase growing season and annual net carbon uptake in the valley by >10% and >15%, respectively, via effects on microclimate that are not be adequately represented in regional‐ and global‐scale terrestrial ecosystem models. Analyses driven by chamber‐based estimates of soil and plant respiration reveal cold air drainage effects on ecosystem respiration are dominated by reductions to the respiration of aboveground biomass. We further show that cold air drainage proceeds more readily when cloud cover and humidity are low, resulting in the greatest enhancements to net carbon uptake in the valley under clear, cloud‐free (i.e., drought‐like) conditions. This is a counterintuitive result that is neither observed nor predicted outside of the valley, where nocturnal temperature and respiration increase during dry periods. This result should motivate efforts to explore how topographic flows may buffer eco‐physiological processes from macroscale climate change.     

Toward an integrated ecosystem perspective of invasive species impacts

Progress in the study of ecosystem impacts of invasive species can be facilitated by moving from the evaluation of invasive species impacts on particular processes to the analysis of their overall effects on ecosystem functioning. Here we propose an integrative ecosystem-based approach to the analysis of invasive species impacts that is based on an understanding of the general mechanistic links between biotic factors, abiotic factors, and processes in ecosystems. Two general kinds of biotic mediation – direct and indirect – and two general mechanisms of invasive species impact – assimilatory–dissimilatory (uptake and release of energy and materials) and physical ecosystem engineering (physical environmental modification by organisms) – are most relevant. By combining the biotic mediation pathways and the general mechanisms, four general situations emerge that characterize a great many of the impacts invasive species can have on ecosystem processes. We propose ways to integrate these distinctive impacts into general mechanistic representations that link ecosystem processes with changes in biotic and abiotic states (changes in structure, composition, amount, process rates, etc.). In turn, these help generate predictions about the interplay of invasive species and other drivers of ecosystem processes that are of particular relevance to ecosystems where invasive species co-occur with other anthropogenic impacts.     

Challenges and solutions for networking knowledge holders and better informing decision-making on biodiversity and ecosystem services

How to effectively inform decision-making on biodiversity and ecosystem services has been under continuous debate in Europe and globally since the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in 1992. On the global level the Intergovernmental science–policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services was installed in 2012 to address this need. Yet, biodiversity and ecosystem services management have to be addressed on multiple levels, across biophysical as well as administrative scales. Also, the knowledge needed to address them has to be brought together from science, management practices and other knowledge domains to become relevant and it must be delivered in ways relevant for policies beyond the environmental sector. This Special Issue brings together papers that analyse the challenges arising from this context. Most of them are based on the EU-funded project KNEU that aimed at developing a new, integrative approach to activate knowledge holders and bring them together for targeted knowledge synthesis activities. The papers address the potential functions, structures and processes of such activities in a joint framework, the Network of Knowledge. Practical aspects are addressed via a number of trial assessments carried out in the project. All in all, they showcase new ways of knowledge synthesis that have the potential to complement and strengthen existing ones across scales and sectors, thus supporting an improved management of biodiversity and ecosystem services.