Motivation The database initiated by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) is one of the few globally implemented standardized vegetation surveys in mountains. The focus is on collecting plant species occurrences at 5‐year intervals along and adjacent to mountain roads spanning elevational gradients, with the goal of providing critical information about the ongoing spread of non‐native plants and the potential impacts...

Glacier retreat is transforming high‐mountain and polar landscapes, replacing ice with vast, newly exposed terrains where soil development and ecological succession start. Although ecosystems developing in deglaciated terrains are often viewed as starting from scratch, glaciers host diverse communities whose links with emerging soils remain unquantified. Using environmental DNA metabarcoding, we provide the first multi‐taxa as...

Protected areas are generally designed to conserve biodiversity. However, how much they also contribute to maintaining ecosystem functions that plant diversity supports has rarely been tested explicitly, often because of the lack of historical ecosystem function data. We used a trait‐based approach to reconstruct past ecosystem functioning and examine its change over the last 15 years in protected and unprotected coastal dune...

Biological invasions are a well-documented driver of marine biodiversity change, yet quantitative frameworks to classify invasion stages and guide management remain limited. In the Adriatic Sea, the Atlantic blue crab ( Callinectes sapidus ) is an invasive alien species (IAS) which is widely distributed, reportedly altering ecosystem function and impacting local socio-ecological wellbeing. In response to these challenges, this...