Nationwide decline of threatened plant species in Switzerland

Gladiolus palustris - marsh gladiolus / sword lily: The marsh gladiolus is a typical species of purple moor grasslands. Like its habitat, it has become very rare and is now classified as endangered in Switzerland. Andreas Gygax - The Swiss Flora is one of the richest and most diverse in Europe. However, more than 700 plant species are considered to be threatened. In a nationwide project over 400 volunteer botanists revisited known populations of all threatened and rare plant species in Switzerland and recorded their presence or absence. Researchers from the University of Bern and the National Data and Information Center on the Swiss Flora have now analysed the dataset, and the results are alarming. It is well publicised that biodiversity is declining globally. At a local level too, populations of certain species are disappearing. How often this happens and whether certain species are declining more rapidly than others has so far only been assessed by expert knowledge. Obtaining quantitative field data is time consuming and challenging, but absolutely vital if we are to understand species responses to past and future environmental change and successfully conserve and restore threatened populations. With the help of 420 volunteer botanists, "Info Flora', the National Data and Information Center on the Swiss Flora, has launched a nationwide project. The volunteers revisited over 8,000 historically documented populations of the 713 most threatened and rarest plant species in Switzerland between 2010 and 2016 to see if the populations were still there. Researchers from the University of Bern have analysed this impressive dataset and published the results in the journal "Conservation Letters'. Evidence for rapid local plant extinctions. In their "treasure hunt?