Native, alien, endemic, threatened, and extinct species diversity in European countries

This study provides an important baseline assessment for a better understanding of European species diversity patterns. Future research avenues should aim at identifying causal relationships, and test for the effects of scale, life history and ecology of different taxa. Such an extended causal analysis should include historical effects, i.e. regional differences in rates of speciation, dispersal and extinction but also short-term fluctuations in human impact on species diversity, which are notoriously difficult to quantify, but frequently shape current diversity patterns.