Camperio, G., Wildpret, W., Zemp, C., Borges, P. A. V., de Nascimento, L., Gabriel, R., Lenzner, B., Mologni, F., Patiño, J., Suter, S., Kreft, H., & Guerrero-Ramírez, N. (2025). Which ongoing and past biodiversity monitoring schemes exist on islands worldwide?: a Systematic Map Protocol. PROCEED-25-00332.
slands contribute disproportionately to global biodiversity, containing many endemic species found nowhere else on the planet [1]. The unique biodiversity on islands results from island area, geographic isolation, and the biotic and abiotic conditions associated with island life. Islands have been used extensively as a model system to reveal the ecological and evolutionary processes underpinning biodiversity globally [2,3,4]. Simultaneously, islands are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances, making them epicenters of species extinctions [5]. This calls for monitoring tools that inform researchers, ecosystem managers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders about the status and trends of biodiversity. Biodiversity monitoring has gained importance globally but remains biased toward certain taxa and high-income countries, highlighting the need for accessible and standardized data collection, as well as the creation of more coordinated and comprehensive global monitoring schemes to address biodiversity data gaps [6]. The Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS) provides a baseline for monitoring biodiversity on islands, integrating standardized protocols and long-term strategies to track biodiversity across island ecosystems [7]. Yet, a systematic approach that allows us to develop the tools needed for a transnational island monitoring network envisioned within the Biodiversa+ funded project Biodiversity Monitoring of Island Ecosystems (BioMonI) is still required. Thus, with the systematic map, we aim to identify past and ongoing monitoring schemes on islands, which Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) have been assessed, and which protocols have been used. This is needed to identify gaps and develop harmonized protocols tailored to the island context but compatible with national, transnational, and global monitoring initiatives. With this knowledge, we aim to create awareness of local and regional stakeholders' needs (via bidirectional transfer knowledge), cross-island methodological challenges, and EBVs relevant to island contexts not integrated into large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs such as GEO-BON.
