Tag: biodiversity

Ocean species discovered! Researchers team up to describe 14 new marine animals

Coordinated by the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, the publication series aimed at speeding up the process of describing new species.

Earth’s vast oceanic biodiversity remains largely unexplored, with only a fraction of an estimated two million total living marine species formally named and described. A significant challenge is the protracted delay, often spanning decades, between the initial discovery of a new species and its official publication.

Ocean Species Discoveries was established to address this critical gap, offering a high-quality, data-rich publication platform specifically tailored for concise marine invertebrate species descriptions. This revolutionary approach can significantly accelerate the timeline for new species descriptions, a vital advantage given the escalating threat of human-driven biodiversity loss, which risks species becoming extinct before scientists even know they exist.

The race to discover biodiversity: 11 new marine species and a new platform for rapid species description

The initiative is coordinated by the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance (SOSA), a project of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt aimed at facilitating global collaboration, offering technical support for species documentation, and promoting efficient taxonomic publishing.

The second major collection in the Ocean Species Discoveries had over 20 researchers working together to describe 14 new marine invertebrate species and two new genera from all over the world, including worms, mollusks, and crustaceans. They published their research in a scientific paper in Biodiversity Data Journal, a year after the project’s pilot publication.

“Our shared vision is making taxonomy faster, more efficient, more accessible and more visible,” the team said in their paper.

The newly established Discovery Laboratory at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt proved critical help in describing most of the new species. The Laboratory offers access to integrative research methods such as light and electron microscopy, confocal imaging, molecular barcoding, and micro-CT scanning, making it easy for researchers to produce the high-quality data necessary for robust species descriptions.

The animals studied in this project come from ocean depths ranging from 1 to over 6,000 meters. The deepest-living animal the researchers explored is Veleropilina gretchenae, a new species of mollusk that was recovered from the Aleutian Trench at a depth of 6,465 meters. It is one of the first species in the class Monoplacophora to have a high-quality genome published directly from the holotype specimen.

Close-up of a smooth, pale blue clam shell with concentric ridges on a dark background.
Veleropilina gretchenae.

A landmark achievement in this collection is the anatomical description of the carnivorous bivalve Myonera aleutiana, which represents only the second bivalve species documented in detail using solely non-invasive micro-CT scanning. The process generated over 2,000 tomographic images, providing unprecedented clarity on the bivalve’s internal tissues and soft-body parts. This is the first study to offer detailed anatomy information on any Myonera species.

Close-up of a pale, ridged seashell with a rounded shape against a black background.
Myonera aleutiana.

Its description also marks a new depth record: it was found at depths of 5,170–5,280 meters, about 800 meters deeper than any other documented Myonera individual.

One of the newly described species honours Johanna Rebecca Senckenberg (1716–1743), a naturalist and benefactor who supported science and medicine, which contributed to the forming of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. The amphipod Apotectonia senckenbergae was discovered in a mussel bed at the Galápagos Rift hydrothermal vent fields at a depth of 2,602 meters.

Apotectonia senckenbergae.
Line drawing of a stylized, detailed isopod.
Zeaione everta.

Some of the deep-sea inhabitants have curious appearances: the parasitic isopod Zeaione everta exhibits distinctive protuberances on the female’s back that resemble popped kernels of popcorn. The genus name, which derives from the corn genus Zea, reflects this resemblance. Found in the Australian intertidal zone, this species also represents a new genus.

The paper also sheds more light on known deep-sea species such as the tusk shell Laevidentalium wiesei, found at depths of more than 5,000 meters. The researchers found out it was carrying its own secret hitchhiker, a sea anemone attached to the shell’s anterior (concave) side. This is the first time an interaction of this kind is reported in the genus Laevidentalium.

Four elongated shells displayed against a black background.
Laevidentalium wiesei.

Research article:

(SOSA) SOSA, Andrade LF, Boyko CB, Brandt A, Buge B, Dávila Jiménez Y, Henseler M, Hernández Alcántara P, Jóźwiak P, Knauber H, Marcondes Machado F, Martínez-Muñoz CA, Momtazi F, Nakadera Y, Qiu J-W, Riehl T, Rouse GW, Sigwart JD, Sirenko B, Souza-Filho JF, Steger J, Stępień A, Tilic E, Trautwein B, Vončina K, Williams JD, Zhang J (2025) Ocean Species Discoveries 13–27 — Taxonomic contributions to the diversity of Polychaeta, Mollusca and Crustacea. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e160349. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e160349

Unknown snails and digital data

New research found Vietnam’s Cuc Phuong National Park is one of the most species-rich tropical forests for terrestrial gastropods studied to date.

Scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, as part of an international research team, studied the land snail and slug fauna in northern Vietnam’s Cuc Phuong National Park. The now published findings document an enormous diversity of different gastropod species. Many of them are still undescribed. The collected material, along with the corresponding, digitally accessible data, forms an important basis for further research on the region’s biodiversity.

Lush, green mountains shrouded in mist, in a dense tropical forest.
A view of Cuc Phuong National Park. Photo credit: MfN_B.Schurian.

There is still much to discover in Vietnam’s tropical forests. Cuc Phuong National Park is located in the north of the country, southwest of the capital Ha Noi. In 2019, an international research team, including scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, conducted a biodiversity survey of various organism groups in the national park, which is characterised by densely forested limestone hills. The inventory, carried out as part of the German-Vietnamese research and training project VIETBIO, also included the study of the national park’s land snails and slugs. A detailed analysis of this gastropod survey has now been published in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

A group of hikers ascends a steep, lush, green hillside, surrounded by dense vegetation and carrying various gear.
Researchers doing fieldwork at Cuc Phuong National Park. Photo credit: MfN_B.Schurian.

The publication shows that a total of 116 gastropod species from 23 families were recorded during the survey in the national park. These include millimetre-sized species to fist-sized ones, such with flat, round, or elongated shells, as well as slugs and semi-slugs. “Of the species found, we were unable to assign 47 to any known species; most of them are likely yet undescribed,” explains the study’s lead author, snail researcher Parm von Oheimb from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

A variety of snail shells against a black background.

In their publication, the authors of the study also summarise previous research on the national park’s land gastropods. On this basis, they could now determine the total number of species recorded from the park at 159. “Many of the snails inhabiting the protected area are only found in this part of northern Vietnam and nowhere else,” adds Katharina von Oheimb, also a snail researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. “The comparison with other regions shows that Cuc Phuong National Park is one of the most species-rich tropical forests for terrestrial gastropods studied to date.”

A close-up of a white snail with a pale yellow-green shell, gliding over a green leaf against a dark background.
Amphidromus roseolabiatus. Photo credit: Katharina C. M. von Oheimb

During the almost two weeks of field research, an extensive collection of empty shells and alcohol-preserved specimens has been built up, which allows for further scientific study in future. The collection has been divided and is stored at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources in Ha Noi. Furthermore, for the long-term preservation of tissue samples, for example for molecular genetic studies, corresponding material has been deposited in the tissue collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

A close-up of a brown slug with a textured body, resting on a stone surface with a blurred dark background.
An Atopos species. Photo credit: Katharina C. M. von Oheimb

Detailed collection data, for instance on preservation, identification, sampling locality, and habitat, have been made available in digital and machine-readable format with the publication and are intended to facilitate future research with the material. These also include photographs of live animals taken on location. Moreover, the publication contains numerous photos of the new collection material, including for the first time such created with the DORA station, which was developed in recent years to digitise the mollusc collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

A close-up of a lab setup featuring two trays with shells, under a Zeiss camera lens.
The DORA station. Photo credit: Katharina C. M. von Oheimb

The data now published reveal different distribution patterns for the snails and slugs within the national park, which together contribute to the high total number of species. Parm von Oheimb explains: “Not all species are found at the same localities in the park. Some are only present in certain areas and do not co-occur with particular other species. And even species with overlapping distribution areas often inhabit different microhabitats, they are for example rock specialists or ground dwellers.”

Ganesella procera. Photo credit: Katharina C. M. von Oheimb

The snails were sometimes found in large numbers in the national park. The limestone provides the animals with the calcium they need to build their shells. However, by no means were all gastropod species common. From a significant number, only a few individuals could be found, and from about 15% of the species, only a single specimen each.

Dioryx messageri. Photo credit: Katharina C. M. von Oheimb

Since many snail and slug species in the national park are apparently rare or unevenly distributed, the researchers assume that part of the biodiversity has not been documented in surveys so far. Taking into account the results of a previous survey of the snail fauna as well as their own data, they were able to make a statistical estimate of the total number of gastropod species in the national park. According to this, at least about 184 species of land snails and slugs are expected in the park. This estimate exceeds the total number of currently known species considerably and underlines once again the region’s high biodiversity. Protected areas such as Cuc Phuong National Park are of great importance for its conservation.

Research article:

Oheimb, P.V. von; Sulikowska-Drozd, A.; Dinh, T.D.; Lentge-Maaß, N.; Do, T.V. & Oheimb, K.C.M. von (2025): Terrestrial Mollusca of Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam – Results from the 2019 VIETBIO inventory work. Biodiversity Data Journal, 13, e163277. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e163277

Press release originally published by Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Republished with permission.

A forgotten spider rediscovered after 48 Years: First record of Gnaphosa jodhpurensis in Iraq and the Middle East

Important scientific discoveries are still waiting — sometimes, right beneath our feet.

Guest blog post by Dr. Azhar M. Al-Khazali (University of Sumer, Iraq) & Tuqa A. A. Al-Mshrfawy

For nearly half a century, the ground spider Gnaphosa jodhpurensis was known only from India and China, with a doubtful mention from Pakistan. Since its original description in 1977, no photographs, morphological illustrations, or detailed documentation of this elusive species had ever been published again — until now.

Photos of two spiders displayed side by side: A) dorsal view of a reddish-brown spider with a green abdomen; B) underside view showing similar coloration and structure.
Female Gnaphosa jodhpurensis. A. Dorsal view. B. Ventral view

During a biodiversity survey in southern Iraq, as part of the MSc research of my student Tuqa A. A. Al-Mshrfawy at the University of Sumer, we made an unexpected discovery. In the semi-desert landscapes of Dhi Qar Province, we collected several specimens of a ground spider that looked remarkably unfamiliar. Careful morphological examination and DNA barcoding confirmed what we could hardly believe: it was Gnaphosa jodhpurensis — a species never before recorded from Iraq, nor from any country in the entire Middle East region.

Map of Asia highlighting China, India, Pakistan, and Iraq, with geographical outlines and key locations marked.
Known distribution records of Gnaphosa jodhpurensis. Squares = previous records; circles = new records from Iraq.

Our study, now published in the journal Check List, officially reports the first record of G. jodhpurensis from Iraq and the Middle East, extending its known range by thousands of kilometers westward. The paper also provides the first-ever photographic documentation and detailed morphological description of this species since it was discovered 48 years ago.

Gnaphosa jodhpurensis, female. A. Prosoma, dorsal view. B. Same, ventral view. C. Chelicerae and mouth parts, ventral view. D. Ocular region, anterodorsal view.

This finding highlights not only the hidden biodiversity of Iraq, but also the potential for new discoveries even under modest research conditions. Despite the limited laboratory facilities and financial constraints, our determination to explore Iraq’s arachnid fauna has led to multiple scientific contributions and international publications over recent years.

We hope our work will inspire other researchers across the region to investigate the unique ecosystems of the Middle East and to recognize that important scientific discoveries are still waiting — sometimes, right beneath our feet.

Research article:

Al-Mshrfawy TAA, Al-Khazali AM (2025) First record of Gnaphosa jodhpurensis Tikader & Gajbe, 1977 (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) from Iraq and the Middle East. Check List 21(5): 902-908. https://doi.org/10.15560/21.5.902

Grassland butterflies: important indicators of the state of nature

With the Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany, UFZ scientists are providing important input for the implementation of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.

One of the goals of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which came into force in 2024, is to halt species loss and preserve important ecosystem services provided by agricultural landscapes.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), in collaboration with the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (SDEI), have now calculated the Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany – an indicator of the state of biodiversity proposed in the EU regulation.

The results, published in the open-access journal Nature Conservation, show a negative trend, especially in recent years. For their calculations, the researchers were able to draw on 4 million observation data collected at the UFZ over the last 20 years as part of the ‘Butterfly Monitoring Germany’ programme.

Orange butterfly on a leaf.
Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas), a species for which the index shows a positive trend.
©Werner Messerschmid.

Agricultural landscapes are among the most degraded habitats worldwide. Their restoration is one of the key measures for halting global biodiversity loss and preserving important ecosystem services.

“The Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), which came into force in 2024, is an essential instrument for achieving the restoration targets set for the European Union,” says Prof. Josef Settele, agroecologist at the UFZ. The objectives also include increasing biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems (Article 11 of the NRR), taking into account climate change, the needs of rural areas and sustainable agricultural production. To implement the overall objectives, EU Member States are required to develop national restoration plans and implement concrete measures in terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine habitats.

The extent to which the specific measures are effective and the ecosystems develop positively will be determined using indicators. For agricultural landscapes, these are (a) the grassland butterfly index, (b) the stock of organic carbon in cropland mineral soils, and (c) the share of agricultural land with high diversity landscape features. For at least two of these three indicators, the EU regulation calls for an upward trend towards a satisfactory level by 2030. Since natural conditions vary across EU countries and there is a wide range of different land management practices, Josef Settele argues that all EU countries should start by recording all three indicators so that none of them is prematurely dropped.

With the ‘Grassland Butterfly Index’, a research team led by the UFZ has now calculated one of the three indicators for Germany for the first time and published the results in the journal Nature Conservation. The data for this analysis comes from Butterfly Monitoring Germany (Tagfalter-Monitoring Deutschland – TMD), a long-term programme coordinated by the UFZ and the Society for Butterfly Conservation (GfS). Every week during the summer, volunteers count butterflies at fixed locations using a standardised European method.

“Since the TMD was launched in 2005, this has resulted in around four million data records being collected, which provide information on the development of butterfly populations in Germany,” explains one of the co-authors of the publication, biologist Elisabeth Kühn, who coordinates the German Butterfly Monitoring programme at the UFZ.

What does the index show for Germany?

The ‘Grassland Butterfly Index’ tracks the development of populations of 15 butterfly species from 2006 to 2023 that are considered typical inhabitants of various grassland biotopes.

Of the 15 indicator species, four are increasing (green), five are declining (red) and no significant trend could be identified for six species (grey). ©UFZ.

“Four species have increased, five species show a declining trend. For six species, the trend is uncertain, which is probably due to insufficient data and large differences between the locations where they were found,” says the study’s lead author, bioinformatician Alexander Harpke. In the first decade of the period analysed (2006 to 2016), the index for Germany as a whole shows a slightly positive trend – which does not rule out the possibility that this may vary greatly for individual species.

However, if we look only at recent years (2016 to 2023), the index shows a significant decline overall. This mainly affects specialised species such as the Small Blue (Cupido minimus) or the Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages); generalists such as the Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) or the Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) are hardly affected.

These results show that the trend for grassland butterflies in Germany during the comparison period corresponds to the trend at European level, which was last determined by Butterfly Conservation Europe in 2025 for all 27 member states.

A brown butterfly.
Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages), a species that declined in Germany between 2006 and 2023. ©Erk Dallmeyer.

Butterflies as indicators

Butterflies are known to be sensitive to changes in their environment. Land use plays a decisive role in this. “The loss and fragmentation of habitats have a proven negative effect on the long-term survival of butterfly populations. Intensive mowing, nitrogen inputs and pesticides contribute to a deterioration in habitat quality or increased mortality. Species that depend on specific habitats, such as nutrient-poor grasslands, also suffer from a lack of use, e.g. through grazing or mowing,” explains Prof. Thomas Schmitt from the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute (SDEI) in Müncheberg, who is also co-author of the study.

In addition to land use, climate change is increasingly contributing to changes in butterfly fauna. Higher temperatures favour the spread of heat-loving or tolerant species, while species adapted to cooler conditions are in decline.

These dependencies of butterflies on land use and climate change make them excellent indicators of the state of our ecosystems. In addition, they are easy to record – especially by qualified volunteers. Together, these two factors have provided an invaluable database for butterfly monitoring in Germany, which scientists are now evaluating to calculate trends and indicators for reporting under European environmental legislation.

“The significance and representativeness of the indicator could be further increased if government programmes such as Habitats Directive monitoring or nationwide insect monitoring were integrated into the analysis,” says UFZ biologist and co-author of the publication Dr Martin Musche. The same would apply if data from neighbouring countries were included.

The work on this publication was funded by the UFZ and the GfS, as well as by the National Monitoring Centre for Biodiversity and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) as part of the FAMos project, with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).


Publication:

Harpke A, Kühn E, Schmitt T, Settele J, Musche M (2025) The Grassland Butterfly Index for Germany. Nature Conservation 59: 315–334. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.59.162812

Further Information

Follow Nature Conservation on Bluesky and Facebook.

Hornet invaders: British public urged to report yellow-legged bee killers

Originating from Asia, invasive yellow-legged hornets have spread across western Europe, threatening bee populations.

Researchers have emphasised the vital role of public reporting in controlling the invasive yellow-legged hornet (also known as the Asian hornet) in Great Britain.

Indigenous to Southeast Asia, the hornet (scientific name: Vespa velutina nigrithorax) was first detected in France in 2004 and has since rapidly spread across western Europe, including Great Britain.

Tracking an invasion – a single Asian hornet sparked the ongoing spread across Europe

This species poses a serious danger to native pollinators, especially honeybees (Apis mellifera), which lack natural defenses against the hornet’s predation. The hornet’s arrival threatens both biodiversity and the beekeeping industry, with intense predation leading to depleted colony reserves and deaths.

A new research paper published in the open-access journal NeoBiota presents a simulation model that predicts the hornet’s dispersal and gauges how long official nest-detection efforts could remain effective before being overwhelmed. The model considers natural dispersal, genetic factors such as the production of diploid (and therefore infertile) males and the realistic distribution of public observers in the landscape.

Without public reporting, the study found that hornet populations in Britain could become unmanageable within 3–7 years of undetected spread, overwhelming resources for nest detection and destruction. However, when public and beekeeper reports are incorporated, control efforts can remain effective for at least 10 years, with this window extending based on reporting rates and observer density.

Three maps of Great Britain showing a decreasing density of hornet sightings correlating with increasing public reports.
Mean density of undetected nests (per km2), estimated at year six for scenarios involving two incursions per year. A) Average density in scenarios where control is absent B) Under the lowest national reporting probability C) Under the highest national reporting probability. Each scenario was estimated across all 100 simulations.

Proximity to populated areas greatly increases the likelihood of successful nest discovery and destruction as they are much better protected due to frequent sightings and reports. Conversely, nests in remote or sparsely populated zones pose a greater risk of escaping detection and fueling further invasion.

Public awareness campaigns, online reporting tools, and targeted outreach to beekeepers have proved highly effective. For instance, in 2023, nearly 21,000 public reports led to 72 nests being destroyed. Now researchers call for continued improvement of such engagement strategies, especially in vulnerable low-density regions.

Do think you’ve seen a yellow-legged hornet in Great Britain? Report it here.

Original source

Warren DA, Budgey R, Semmence N, Jones EP, Jones B (2025) Public reporting is essential for controlling the invasive yellow-legged hornet: a novel model simulating the spread of Vespa velutina nigrithorax and timescales for control in Great Britain. NeoBiota 101: 25-44. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.101.148570

New agamid lizard described from China

At 6–7 cm long with a wheat-coloured tongue and distinct markings, it’s the 47th Diploderma species recorded in China.

Researchers from China just described a new species of mountain lizard from the upper Dadu River Valley in the Hengduan mountains of Sichuan Province.

Since 2018, the research team conducted numerous surveys in the upper reaches of the Dadu River. There, they encountered a lizard species that showed unique characteristics not previously observed among known Diploderma species in the region. Through molecular biological analyses and morphological studies, they confirmed that this was indeed a previously unrecognized species and gave it the name Diploderma bifluviale, referencing the location where it was found: the confluence of two rivers, Chuosijia and Jiaomuzu.

A photo of a brown lizard with intricate patterns scurrying over rocky terrain, near green plant shoots.

Diploderma bifluviale is the 47th species of Diplodermain China. The genus Diplodermais distributed across East Asia and the northern part of the Indochinese Peninsula.

With a length of 6-7 cm, D. bifluviale has many distinctive features, such as its wheat-coloured tongue and unique coloration. Unlike its closest relatives, it lives in semi-arid shrublands in warm-dry valleys at elevations of 2,100 to 2,500 m, residing in arid shrublands with small leaves and scattered rock piles.

A camouflaged lizard rests on a rocky, sandy surface.

“This discovery highlights the understudied biodiversity of the upper Dadu River,” the researchers say in their paper, which was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Research article:

Liu F, Wu Y, Zhang J, Yang G, Liu S, Chen X, Chang J, Xie Q, Cai B (2025) A new species of Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 (Squamata, Agamidae) discovered in the upper Dadu River valley of the Hengduan Mountains, Sichuan, China. ZooKeys 1251: 17-38. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1251.153705

Image credit: Bo Cai

Scientists call for a global alliance to place biodiversity at the heart of the UN Pact for the Future

A new white paper delivers a clear message: protecting biodiversity is not just an environmental issue. It is essential for food security, public health, climate stability, and the global economy.

A new white paper: “From Knowledge to Solutions: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs”, published in the open-science scholarly journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), brings together leading voices from Europe’s biodiversity and data science communities to deliver a clear message: protecting biodiversity is not just an environmental issue. It is essential for food security, public health, climate stability, and the global economy. 

The authors make a call for a decisive shift: from fragmented initiatives to a holistic, global approach to biodiversity research and policy, already demonstrated during a workshop at the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Science Summit (UNGA79). A key part of this transformation concerns the role of research infrastructures in connecting science, technology, and policy: from vast biodiversity collections and genomic observatories, to ecosystem “digital twins” powered by supercomputers.

Behind the paper are a network of legal entities based in Europe and holding global interests, which includes biodiversity, ecology, and engineering communities, coordinated by the LifeWatch European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). 

With their combined expertise and through European initiatives, such as Research Infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the Digital Twin projects and academic publishers, these communities provide a basis for collaboration in strategically contributing to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) targets.

Biodiversity needs to be placed at the centre of the upcoming 2026 UN Summit of the Future and become a core pillar of the agenda after the 2030 deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

The UN Pact for the Future should include biodiversity as a core pillar: “not only of environmental sustainability, but of equity, security, and intergenerational justice”.  

urges the team.

To do this, the authors propose the establishment of a global alliance that will strategically integrate biodiversity conservation into the core priorities of the UN Summit of the Future and the post-SDG agenda.

This alliance is meant to join the voices of researchers, policymakers, indigenous knowledge holders, civil society, and industry to ensure that biodiversity underpins peace, prosperity, and justice as a universal enabler.

The white paper also demonstrates how the research infrastructures collectively contribute to the seven Strategic Considerations of the K-M GBF, outlined here in brief and further detailed in the full publication:

  1. Contribution and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Ensuring fair recognition and sharing of benefits with indigenous peoples and local communities, thus integrating their knowledge into biodiversity science.
  2. Collective efforts towards the targets of the K-M GBF: Coordinating biodiversity monitoring, databases, and digital infrastructures to track progress towards global conservation targets.
  3. Fulfilment of the three principal objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its protocols: Studying or supporting the study of all aspects of biodiversity; and providing public and streamlined access to biodiversity information.
  4. Implementation through science, technology, and innovation: Developing and offering technologically advanced and novel solutions for research, data sharing and management to various users; and promoting open science by publishing research findings and increasingly sharing more facets of the research process.
  5. Ecosystem approach: Developing and implementing technologies that enable a cross-domain, multidisciplinary approach to studying biodiversity and ecosystems; and using holistic, cross-disciplinary methods to understand and predict biodiversity and environmental dynamics.
  6. Cooperation synergies: Collaborating with organisations responsible for implementing the CBD, policy agents, international research projects; and participating in international forums and social, scientific and technical initiatives.
  7. Biodiversity and health linkages: Demonstrating how healthy ecosystems support human health, food security, and resilience to pandemics by supporting interdisciplinary research through bringing together knowledge and data and uncovering links and interactions between humans and the environment.

“With the UN’s ‘Pact for the Future’ currently being shaped, we see a unique opportunity to anchor biodiversity as a unifying thread across global goals that will transform how societies respond to the intertwined crises of climate change, nature loss, and pollution,” say the authors.

The white paper is the latest contribution to the LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes open-science collection meant to provide a one-stop access point to the most important deliverables by the European biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure, which is currently undergoing a significant upgrade as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders.

***

Original source:

Arvanitidis C, Barov B, Gonzalez Ferreiro M, Zuquim G, Kirrane D, Huertas Olivares C, Drago F, Pade N, Basset A, Deneudt K, Koureas D, Manola N, Mietchen D, Casino A, Penev L, Ioannidis Y (2025) From Knowledge to Solutions: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs. Research Ideas and Outcomes 11: e168765. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.11.e168765

This publication is part of a collection:

LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes Edited by Christos Arvanitidis, Cristina Huertas, Alberto Basset, Peter van Tienderen, Cristina Di Muri, Vasilis Gerovasileiou, Ana Mellado

***

About the contributing organisations:

LifeWatch ERIC 

Europe’s biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure. LifeWatch ERIC provides access to biodiversity and ecosystem data, services and other research products: its virtual workbenches and digital twins for biodiversity science enable researchers worldwide to analyse biodiversity patterns, processes, and changes in ecosystems, and derive evidence-based knowledge for science and policy. 

CSC – IT Center for Science

CSC hosts one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers (LUMI), pioneering biodiversity digital twins and climate models. CSC provides critical support for data-intensive projects that link computing, AI, and environmental science.

EGI Federation 

A federation of hundreds of data centres providing global-scale computing, AI, and data services. EGI enables large-scale analysis of biodiversity and environmental data from sensors and satellites, supporting international collaboration.

VLIZ – Flanders Marine Institute

A hub for marine research, coordinating Europe’s Digital Twin of the Ocean and global biodiversity data systems, such as WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species). VLIZ drives blue innovation and ocean data integration.

The European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC)

Europe’s infrastructure for marine biology, offering access to organisms, labs, and genomic observatories. EMBRC connects over 70 institutes across 10 countries, supporting research “from genes to ecosystems.”

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

The largest initiative to digitise and unify Europe’s natural science collections into a single, FAIR-data-based infrastructure. DiSSCo makes museum collections globally accessible, boosting taxonomic, ecological, and environmental research.

OpenAIRE 

A European e-Infrastructure dedicated to building a globally connected, interoperable, and sustainable open research ecosystem, with Open Science at its core. By offering a suite of services covering the entire research lifecycle, guidelines, and practices that support the adoption of Open Access and FAIR data principles across its network of National Open Access Desks in 34 countries, OpenAIRE supports local researchers, funders, and policymakers in aligning with European and global open science policies.

Pensoft 

Founded in 1992 “by scientists, for scientists”, the academic open-access publishing company is well known worldwide for its novel cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials. Through its Research and Technical Development department, the company is involved in various research and technology projects. Pensoft coordinated the EU project BiCIKL (2021-2024), which established a new community of Research Infrastructures and users of FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

The world’s largest computing society, established to foster ethical and responsible innovation. ACM brings global expertise in computing and AI to biodiversity research and policy.

Athena Research Centre

A leading ICT and AI research institute advancing digital infrastructures and open science platforms. Athena connects computing innovation with biodiversity, humanities, and societal challenges.

The bee’s knees: a new, non-lethal way to study pollinator networks

Guest blog post by Alexander Edwards, lead author of the paper ‘Case study of non-lethal sampling for plant-pollinator networks via barcoding and metabarcoding on bumble bees in Germany‘ published in Metabarcoding and Metagenomics.

“Who are you and what have you done?”

That’s not just a question for crime shows. It’s also exactly what we want to ask every pollinating insect we catch. Who are you – which species? And what have you done – which flowers have you visited, carrying pollen from one to the next? And these questions are important!

Do you like chocolate? Or maybe coffee? How about apples, strawberries, or cherries? All of them need insect pollinators. Unfortunately, many insects are in decline, threatening the stability of ecosystems. Studying them is more important than ever. Traditionally, researchers relied on field observations of foraging behaviour. But these are time-consuming and can never capture the full picture. That’s why many groups now use genetic approaches, studying the pollen carried by insects. This method is called pollen-metabarcoding, where a short genetic sequence from a specific region (in our case, ITS2) can identify the plant species that pollen belongs to.

There’s just one catch: collecting pollen often means killing the insect. Lethal sampling does have its merits – the preserved specimen can be used to answer other questions in the future, for example. But in our case, it felt counterintuitive. We want to study species that might already be endangered, and killing them could worsen their situation. So we had to find another way.

A man crouching in a field sampling a bee specimen.
In the field, we found queen-marker cages easy to use and really helpful to get
the genetic material we need for our analyses. Credit: Willi Müller.

Enter: the queen-marker cage. This tool – borrowed from beekeepers – is a plastic tube with a mesh at one end and a plunger at the other. We used it to capture a bumble bee, immobilize it, and remove its pollen. The mesh is also large enough to clip one of the bee’s feet – in insects, this part is called the tarsus. That may sound harsh, but it doesn’t significantly affect the animal. During our collection, we observed those five-footed bumble bees visiting flowers and gathering pollen in the days after release, with no difference to their six-footed counterparts.

A bee in a cage trap with a mesh top, beneath a pair of scissors.
The mesh of the queen-marker cage is just big enough for a fine pair of scissors
to fit through the holes and allow for precise clipping of the bumble bee’s tarsus, here
Bombus lucorum agg.

But why take a bee’s foot in the first place? Many animal groups include cryptic species – species that look almost identical, even to experts. Bumble bees are no exception. The only reliable way to tell these look-alike species apart is through DNA barcoding, often using the COI gene. A single clipped foot provides just enough tissue to barcode the bee itself, in addition to analyzing the pollen it carried.

Of course, the work doesn’t end in the field. Once we had the samples, the real detective work started in the lab. And as everyone with hay fever knows: pollen gets everywhere. To avoid contamination, we processed everything in a special clean lab, wearing full-body protective suits. It may seem over the top, but when you’re working with invisible grains of pollen, even the smallest contamination can skew the results.

A man in protective clothing working in a lab.
As pollen is everywhere, we had to use a special clean lab with the
corresponding attire.

And in the end, it worked! Our results matched expectations: we detected a cryptic species (fittingly named Bombus cryptarum), we saw that the longest flowers were visited only by bumble bees with the longest tongues, and the pollen we identified came from plants flowering at our study sites during collection.

Now we have a simple and non-lethal way to gather the genetic material needed to identify pollinators and the flowers they visit, answering ‘Who are you, and what have you done?’ – without adding pressure to vulnerable insect populations.

Bees on purple flowers.
Studying pollination helps us understand and protect ecosystems. Bombus
lucorum agg. and Apis mellifera on Phacelia tanacetifolia. Credit: Anna Wurster.

Orignal source

Edwards A, Gemeinholzer B (2025) Case study of non-lethal sampling for plant-pollinator networks via barcoding and metabarcoding on bumble bees in Germany. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 9: e141904. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.9.141904

Follow Metabarcoding and Metagenomics on Bluesky and Facebook.

Pensoft to co-host a session on knowledge transfer & continuity at Living Data 2025

Pensoft is a co-organiser of a four-hour session, titled: “Long Live Biodiversity Data: Knowledge Transfer and Continuity across Research Projects”. 

In October 2025, four major institutions in the biodiversity research landscape: TDWG, GBIF, OBIS and GEO BON, will come together as the organisers of the Living Data 2025 conference. 

The event is set to be among one of the most crucial international gatherings of the year for experts and stakeholders in the field of biodiversity data. Set to take place in the Colombian capital of Bogotá between 21st and 24th, Living Data 2025 will centre around four core themes:

  • Open data
  • Data integration
  • Biodiversity data application
  • Community engagement and capacity-building

As an academic publisher with experience and commitment to all these thematic areas, Pensoft will participate in the event in the capacity of an exhibitor and an award sponsor, as well as a symposium host. 

The conference delegates will have the chance to learn more about the publisher, its exclusively open-access scholarly portfolio and participation at various international scientific projects when they visit the company’s branded stand. 

During the event, the scientific publisher and technology provider will also present the Pensoft Award for the Best Student Oral Presentation, which grants the winner a free publication in an open-access, peer-reviewed journal from our portfolio. 

Crucially, Pensoft’s involvement in the Living Data 2025 programme also includes a dedicated four-hour session titled “Long Live Biodiversity Data: Knowledge Transfer and Continuity across Research Projects”. 

The symposium will be jointly co-organised by Pensoft, LifeWatch ERIC and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre. As the title suggests, the session will focus on the longevity of scientific outputs as they are generated, shared and re-used across disciplines, organisations and initiatives. In this context, tools, information hubs and workflows enabling exchanges that truly consolidate the global biodiversity data space over time will be showcased.

In a broader sense, the session will also seek to demonstrate how targeted communication can help transform science results into actionable knowledge by raising awareness among agenda-setters. This will speak to the potential of a multi-level approach to information sharing to bridge the gap between science and policy in relation to increasingly ambitious global environmental objectives.

Multiple projects affiliated with Pensoft will be represented in these deliberations, in order to share a diverse array of relevant insights:

The symposium will be divided into two sessions:

  • 22 October (Wednesday): 10:45 AM – 12:45 PM (UTC/GMT-5)
  • 23 October (Thursday): 10:45 AM to 12:45 PM (UTC/GMT-5)

You can find out more about Living Data, including the details on registering for an in-person or virtual attendance, on the conference’s website. Our session is listed on this page under ID number 6788879.

As an additional note, the organisers of the conference have launched a call for extended abstracts for all speakers at Living Data 2025 that will remain open until 1st October 2025. The participants who opt to publish their conference abstracts in the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal will enjoy permanent and far-reaching accessibility and discoverability for their conference contributions.

The TDWG network, who launched BISS as their official scholarly outlet in 2017 in collaboration with long-time partner Pensoft, have posted a list of the advantages for submitting an extended abstract, even though they have already had their abstracts accepted by the Living Data 2025 organisers. Amongst the reaslons are many perks typically associated with a conventional research article, such as DOI registration, indexation at dozens of scientific databases, embedded media, tables and supplementary materials, and usage metrics.

Til moth do us part: new species marks 42 years of marriage

“It is without a doubt the prettiest species I have encountered in my long scientific career,” said Huemer, who named the moth after his wife.

European Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are generally considered well-known and thoroughly researched. Nevertheless, researchers discover new species every year; most of which are inconspicuous, so-called ‘cryptic’ species, previously overlooked.

Colourful species, on the other hand, have been largely catalogued in Europe as they attract a lot of attention, which made the surprise and delight at the discovery of an extraordinarily striking, and previously unnamed, moth all the greater.

Moth specimen.
Ingrid-Maria’s carcina (Carcina ingridmariae). Credit: Peter Huemer/Ferdinandeum.

A newly discovered, pink species has now been named Carcina ingridmariae by Peter Huemer, a scientist at the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinanduem (Innsbruck, Austria). Huemer published his discovery in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology.

According to current knowledge, the moth is widespread in the eastern Mediterranean region: distributed from Croatia across large parts of Greece and Cyprus to Turkey. However, more detailed studies on its distribution are still pending.

Seemingly unmistakable

Ingrid-Maria’s carcina belongs to a species-poor group of butterflies. In Europe, there is only one other species of the same genus, the oak carcina (Carcina quercana).

Moth on a leaf.
The oak carcina (Carcina quercana). Credit: mazzeip via iNaturalist.

This widespread moth was described as early as 1775 by the famous naturalist Johann Christian Fabricius based on specimens from Saxony, and is distributed from North Africa across large parts of Europe to the Balkans.

Due to its unusual colour, the species has always been considered unmistakable. In fact, it is so popular even among amateur researchers that it adorns the cover of an important British identification book.

But, hiding in plain sight, was a second species, mistaken for the oak carcina for more than 100 years.

As a result of its apparent unmistakability, Carcina ingridmariae was always misidentified and was first published – incorrectly – as the oak wood carcina from Crete in 1916.

Mountain landscape.
Habitat of Carcina ingridmariae in north Cyprus (eastern part of Five Finger Mountains near Kantara). Credit: Peter Huemer/Ferdinandeum.

It was only the introduction of new molecular identification methods that put researchers at the Ferdinandeum on the trail of the nameless moth. DNA barcodes, also known as genetic fingerprints, showed huge differences of more than 6% between the two species.

Subsequent morphological examination of the sexual organs led to the famous “wow” effect. And, upon closer inspection, the two species could not be confused at all, despite the confusingly similar external appearance of the species: namely, a wingspan of about 2 centimeters, a pink base colour with yellow spots, and strikingly long antennae.

A special gift for a 42nd wedding anniversary

Peter Huemer has described more than 200 species from Europe in 35 years, but is particularly enthusiastic about this new species. He said: “It is without doubt the prettiest species I have encountered in my long scientific career, even though it was still unnamed.”

It was therefore obvious to Huemer that he should dedicate the new species to his wife, Ingrid Maria, on their 42nd wedding anniversary. The researcher justifies this choice of name above all with his wife’s decades of support for his work.

Original source

Huemer P (2025) The supposedly unmistakable mistaken: Carcina ingridmariae sp. nov., a surprising example of overlooked diversity from Europe and the Near East (Lepidoptera, Peleopodidae). Alpine Entomology 9: 51-63. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.9.158239

Follow Alpine Entomology on Bluesky and Facebook.