Biodiversity Monitoring in Switzerland: Current State and Insights into Plant-Pollinator Interactions

Abstract

Switzerland's biodiversity is systematically surveyed by an array of programs, each designed to cover distinct facets of biodiversity across spatial scales as well as policy evaluation needs.

Although each initiative has discrete aims, collectively, they form a complementary set of programs that collect data, when analyzed in combination, offer significant added value to document and understand biodiversity trends. One of these programs is the Swiss Biodiversity Monitoring (BDM) which focuses on the collection of data on common and widespread species, thereby illuminating developments in the normal landscapes outside protected areas. Special attention is paid to vascular plants and butterflies, which are recorded on the same study plots. Since the start of the program in the early 2000s, an increase in common species diversity has been observed for both groups. While a large portion of this increase can be attributed to climate change, other factors such as agricultural promotion measures contributed as well. However, only a subset of species benefited from these changes, and over time, species communities of both plants and butterflies became more homogeneous, indicating biotic homogenization. It is likely that these changes also impacted plant-pollinator interactions. For example, the overall increase in plant species richness was mostly driven by wind-pollinated species. In contrast, species with complex flowers, which are essential for specialized groups of flower-visiting insects profited less. The presentation will end with a look forward, identifying current gaps in the Swiss monitoring system and discussing approaches to address these gaps.

Jérôme Frei

Jérôme Frei is a scientific employee at the Federal Office for the Environment in the division Biodiversity and Landscape (section biodiversity policy) where he is responsible for the major national monitoring and evaluation biodiversity programs of Switzerland (BDM, WBS, ALL-EMA and MHB). His tasks include promoting collaboration and coordination between the different programs. He promotes research work on biodiversity data and facilitates the communication of results of the different monitoring and evaluation programs to policy-makers and decision-makers. He holds a PhD in biology and a master in sustainable development. Previously, he worked at the Federal Office for Agriculture where he we was in charge for the agri-environmental monitoring and was involved in the development of agrienvironemntal schemes to promote biodiversity in farmland.

Tobias Roth

My research is centred on using data from large-scale field surveys such as the Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland, to better understand how biodiversity responds to global change such as nitrogen deposition, land-use, or climate-change. I focus on the human-dominated landscapes in Switzerland and aim to provide information that can be used in biodiversity conservation.