Aim Estimate the Darwinian shortfall (i.e., the lack of knowledge about phylogenetic relationships) of bees worldwide, as well as identify their drivers. Location Global. Taxon Bees (Hymenoptera, Anthophila). Methods We built phylogenies for over 12,000 bee species, combining the most comprehensive phylogeny and an algorithm with random solutions to insert missing lineages. The Darwinian shortfall was quantified as the Phyloge...

Aim Climate warming is increasingly associated with shifts in community composition, yet the pace and drivers of these changes remain unclear. Location Germany. Time Period 2005–2024. Major Taxa Studied Birds. Methods Using structured time‐series data from a large, countrywide Common Bird Monitoring scheme, we quantified community‐level thermophilisation, that is, the shift in community composition toward warm‐affinity species...

Aim Recently published population trends of breeding birds in Germany are analysed in order to identify significant explanatory variables. In addition to a long‐term trend (1860–1910 to 2022), population trends over recent 12, 24 and 42‐year periods are examined. Location Germany. Taxon Birds. Methods As the trends are ordinal response variables, cumulative logit models are applied to investigate the influence of different spe...

Aim Understanding the evolutionary history and phylogeographic patterns of plants is essential for gaining insights into how climatic and geological processes have influenced current floral biodiversity. An east–west‐oriented arid belt, roughly spanning 30° N–45° N across East Asia, has persisted since the Paleogene and may have acted as a long‐standing dispersal barrier between the northern and southern floras of the region....

Aim By moving beyond traditional biome‐centric approaches to sample continuously across a massive ecotone, we investigate how species richness, community composition, and dominance of woody plants change across a strong longitudinal precipitation gradient and identify thresholds in water availability that drive shifts in community assembly between tropical dry forests and rainforests. Location A longitudinal precipitation grad...

Aim Understanding global patterns in plant invasions is critical for improving our understanding of plant biogeography and for informing conservation strategies. However, the bioregional structure of invasive angiosperms remains unresolved globally. Here, we delineate global bioregions of invasive angiosperms and assess how these regions differ in species traits and reported human uses. Location Global. Major Taxon Studied Inv...

Aim The Southeastern European Mountain System (SEEMS) is a well‐known glacial refugium for European fauna. Bridging the Mediterranean and Caucasus biodiversity hotspots, it is a melting point for diverse faunal elements, but also a center of origin and subsequent dispersal of a unique component of European biodiversity. Here, we tested the hypothesis of the Southeastern European origin of the agelenid spider genera Inermocoelo...

Aim Interspecific patterns of Bergmann's rule may be concealed by species extinctions within clades. We evaluate whether incorporating extinct species and paleoenvironmental information improves the detection of Bergmann's rule in the family Canidae, and test whether temperature and net primary productivity (NPP) explain interspecific variation in canids' body mass. Location Global. Time Period Neogene to present. Taxon Canida...

Aim To assess phylogeographic structure, phylogenetic diversity and historical diversification processes in ammotrechid camel spiders from the Baja California Peninsula. Location Baja California Sur, Mexico. Time Period Miocene to Pleistocene. Major Taxa Studied Ammotrechid camel spiders (Solifugae: Ammotrechidae). Methods We conducted the first phylogeographic analysis of Baja California Sur ammotrechid camel spiders using mi...

Aim We aim to reconstruct the phylogeographical history of Musa acuminata subsp. banksii across New Guinea and Australia and to test whether its occurrence in Australia results from ancient natural dispersal or recent human‐mediated translocation. Location New Guinea and northern Australia (Sahul Shelf). Taxon M. acuminata subsp. banksii (F.Muell.) N.W.Simmonds (Musaceae). Methods We generated genome‐wide single nucleotide pol...

Aim Human impacts are increasingly recognized as drivers of biogeographic patterns, yet it remains unclear whether they match or potentially surpass climate in shaping species distributions. Here we aim to investigate the relative importance of anthropogenic versus climatic factors in determining mammalian distributions. Location North America. Taxon Mammal. Methods We modelled the relationship between the contemporary (1990–2...

Aim Rapid climate change is reshaping Arctic ecosystems and altering species' breeding distributions. We assessed climate‐driven breeding range shifts of Arctic birds and examined how functional traits, including morphology, habitat breadth, and thermal niche breadth, influence these shifts. Location European and North American Arctic. Taxon Arctic‐breeding bird species in the orders Anseriformes, Charadriiformes and Passerifo...

Aim We evaluate the phylogenetic relationships and taxonomic validity of Atlantic species of Labrisomus , identifying the lineages currently assigned to L. nuchipinnis , and assessing the role of biogeographic barriers in shaping the evolutionary history and geographic distribution of the genus. Location Atlantic Ocean. Taxon Labrisomus . Methods We assembled an extensive mitochondrial and nuclear DNA dataset of Atlantic speci...

Aim To quantify temporal (Middle Holocene, historical and future) and spatial changes in habitat suitability for marine species in two South American Large Marine Ecosystems, and to evaluate the ecological consistency of long‐term Species Distribution Model projections using archaeological records as independent evidence of past species occurrences. Location Humboldt Current and Patagonian Shelf Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs)....

Aim Identifying climate refugia is essential for effective biodiversity conservation under ongoing climate change, especially for amphibians that are highly sensitive to temperature and humidity variations and face increasing threats from global warming. This study focuses on the genus Amolops , aiming to reconstruct its historical biogeography, evaluate its vulnerability to past, present, and future climate change, and identi...

Aim Theories on ecological stability lack the long‐term observational data necessary to comprehend the dynamics of durable and complex ecosystems like forests; consequently, the influence of biodiversity on ecosystem stability remains predominantly unexplained. This study examines the mechanisms of forest community and tree population change using long‐term palaeoecological data, evaluates responses to diverse effects, assesse...

Aim To test how environmental filtering and dispersal jointly shape large‐scale biogeographic patterns of dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in pelagic ocean basins, while evaluating morphometric variability as environmental proxies. Location Pelagic regions of the Indian Ocean, encompassing the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Equatorial Indian Ocean, and South Tropical Indian Ocean (up to 30°S latitude). Time Period Recent (surface...

Aim To characterise the evolution of climatic niches during the diversification of the Phyllotis darwini species group, in order to assess the extent to which divergences involved in radiation were associated with patterns of conservatism or divergence of climatic niches, and whether the differentiation found among climatic niches correlated with species' phylogenetic relationships. Location South‐central Andes, surrounding lo...

Aim Morphological abnormalities may reduce fitness in wild animals, making them ecologically relevant for conservation efforts. Anomalies, such as a bifurcation or a trifurcation of a regenerated gecko tail, can change locomotion, social signalling, and predator evasion, with potential effects on survival and reproductive success. Even though rare, these abnormalities raise important questions about their potential association...

Aim Dramatic Quaternary climate fluctuations impacted the evolutionary history and contemporary biogeography of many residents of the Great Basin Desert of western North America. This study investigates the historical biogeographic processes that shaped the contemporary distribution of genetic variation in a polytypic group of specialized butterflies that are residents of unique dune and playa habitats. Many of the subspecies...

Aim Island archipelagos and montane regions of East and Southeast Asia represent some of the world's most biodiverse yet poorly understood biogeographic systems. Whether regional diversity accumulates primarily through in situ speciation, dispersal‐mediated range shifts, or some combination of these processes remains unclear. Using Sinomicrurus coralsnakes as a model system, we aim to understand how geographic ranges have shif...

Aim Combining camera trap data from multiple surveys has the potential to address large‐scale ecological and conservation questions. But individual surveys can differ substantially in study design and, at the large scale, these surveys typically do not constitute a spatially representative sample. Here, we use camera trap data from Snapshot USA and Snapshot Europe, two near‐continental collaborative initiatives, to explore how...

Aim The oriental plane tree is a Tertiary relict species with a fragmented range across southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, forming a key component of riparian forest vegetation. Despite its ecological and cultural importance, the evolutionary history of this tree species has remained unclear, particularly regarding the relative contributions of ancient and more recent climatic events to its present distribution. Locati...

Aim Understanding whether invasive species retain or shift their ecological niches has relied on scalar overlap metrics that quantify the magnitude of niche change but not its structure. Here, we test whether biological invasions involve a reorganisation of the environmental axes along which native and invasive ranges are differentiated, and whether the dominant axis of this reorganisation is associated with invasion pathway t...

Aim Investigate patterns of population genetic structure in Southwestern Atlantic marine fishes and evaluate how geographic range, habitat diversity, and evolutionary history shape population connectivity. Location Southwestern Atlantic, including the Caribbean, Brazilian coast, and Patagonian region, between 0°59′ N and 40°16′ S. Period Studies published between 1980 and 2023. Main Taxa Studied With 84 species of marine, reef...