The concept of green infrastructure has been recently taken up by the European Commission for ensuring the provision of ecosystem services (ESS). It aims at the supply of multiple ESS in a given landscape, however, the effects of a full suite of management options on multiple ESS and landscape multifunctionality have rarely been assessed. In this paper we use European floodplain landscapes as example to develop an expert based qualitative conceptual model for the assessment of impacts of landscape scale interventions on multifunctionality. European floodplain landscapes are particularly useful Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Floodplain ecosystems are biodiversity hotspots and supply multiple ecosystem services. At the same time they are often prone to human pressures that increasingly impact their intactness. Multifunctional floodplain management can be defined as a management approach aimed at a balanced supply of multiple ecosystem services that serve the needs of Communicated by Barbara Livoreil. This is part of the special issue on Networking Biodiversity Knowledge. the local residents, but also those of off-site populations that are directly or indirectly impacted by floodplain management and policies. Multifunctional floodplain management has been recently proposed as a key concept to reconcile biodiversity and ecosystem services with the various human pressures and their driving forces. In this paper we present biophysics and management history of floodplains and review recent multifunctional management approaches and evidence for their biodiversity effects for the six European countries Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary and the Ukraine. Multifunctional use of floodplains is an increasingly important strategy in some countries, for instance in the Netherlands and Hungary, and management of floodplains goes hand in hand with sustainable economic activities resulting in flood safety and biodiversity conservation. As a result, biodiversity is increasing in some of the areas where multifunctional floodplain management approaches are implemented. We conclude that for efficient use of management resources and ecosystem services, consensual solutions need to be realized and biodiversity needs to be mainstreamed into management activities to maximize ecosystem service provision and potential human benefits. Multifunctionality is more successful where a broad range of stakeholders with diverse expertise and interests are involved in all stages of planning and implementation. Electronic supplementary material

Background: Floodplains are among the most diverse, dynamic, productive and populated but also the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. Threats are mainly related to human activities that alter the landscape and disrupt fluvial processes to obtain benefits related to multiple ecosystem services (ESS). Floodplain management therefore requires close coordination among interest groups with competing claims and poses multi-dimensional challenges to policy-makers and project managers. The European Commission proposed in its recent Biodiversity Strategy to maintain and enhance European ecosystems and their services by establishing green infrastructure (GI). GI is assumed to provide multiple ecosystem functions and services including the conservation of biodiversity in the same spatial area. However, evidence for biodiversity benefits of multifunctional floodplain management is scattered and has not been synthesised. Methods/design: This protocol specifies the methods for conducting a systematic review to answer the following policy-relevant questions: a) what is the impact of floodplain management measures on biodiversity; b) how does the impact vary according to the level of multifunctionality of the measures; c) is there a difference in the biodiversity impact of floodplain management across taxa; d) what is the effect of the time since implementation on the impact of the most important measures; and e) are there any other factors that significantly modify the biodiversity impact of floodplain management measures? Within this systematic review we will assess multifunctionality in terms of ESS that are affected by an implemented intervention. Biodiversity indicators included in this systematic review will be related to the diversity, richness and abundance of species, other taxa or functional groups. We will consider if organisms are typical for and native to natural floodplain ecosystems. Specific inclusion criteria have been developed and the wide range of quality of primary literature will be evaluated with a tailor-made system for assessing susceptibility to bias and the reliability of the studies. The review is intended to bridge the science-policy interface and will provide a useful synthesis of knowledge for decision-makers at all governance levels.

Global warming has been strongly accelerating in the last decades. Climate models tell us that this trend will continue in the future, accompanied by a marked decline in precipitation in Southern Europe, whereas the Alps will likely receive more winter and less summer precipitation. Climate factors and additionally nitrogen deposition and land-use changes have been identified as global change factors posing threats on high-mountain biodiversity, ecosystem stability and services. On the other hand, the characteristic micro-topographic variability of high mountain ecosystems may buffer them against global change impacts. Monitoring data from European mountain peaks show that changes in biodiversity patterns are closely related to rising temperatures. However, the effects of climate change on plant biodiversity differ significantly between temperate and Mediterranean biomes with species richness increases synchronously with warming in the former and richness decreases in the latter. The MediAlps project aimed at disentangling anthropogenic and natural factors underlying differential changes in plant species composition and richness observed on mountain summits in the European Alps and the Mediterranean biome at the local and regional spatial scale. Changes in plant species richness and composition and present land-use impact based on systematic field observations were recorded on long-term monitoring plots on 23 summits. Soil temperature, water potential and local dry nitrogen deposition were measured in situ. Topographic parameters were recorded with photogrammetric methods. At the regional level, climate data and regional nitrogen deposition data from online resources (CHELSA, EMEP) were used and past land-use impact was assessed via guideline-aided semi-structured interviews. (Generalized) linear mixed-effects models and structural equation models (SEM) were employed to assess the impact of these drivers on biodiversity changes. Furthermore, spatio-temporal analyses based on satellite images were conducted. Climate change is and will probably continue to be the main driver of plant biodiversity, species composition and their changes on mountain summits in both biomes. However, there are biomespecific differences with precipitation playing an important role in the Mediterranean biome in addition to temperature, which clearly is the most important single factor in the temperate biome. These changes will likely lead to a further thermophilisation in both biomes. The upwards movement of species from lower elevations will likely also result in a biotic homogenization of the vegetation, exacerbated by the decline of high-elevation endemic species. Species richness will likely continue to increase in the temperate biome until the "pay-off" of extinction debts or threshold effects of population size on extinction risks set in. With decreasing precipitation species richness in the Mediterranean biome will probably decline in the long run, too. Nevertheless, other anthropogenic drivers have to be considered as well, althou...