Chemical exposure is increasingly recognised as a potential driver of biodiversity loss, yet quantitative relationships and its relative importance compared to other stressors remain poorly studied. The European Union (EU) has intensified efforts to reduce pollution and restore biodiversity through strategic initiatives such as the Biodiversity Strategy, Farm to Fork Strategy, Zero Pollution Action Plan, and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Key chemicals regulations, including REACH and the Plant Protection Products Regulation, aim to safeguard ecosystems, however, due to the complexity it is difficult to measure their direct impact on maintaining or improving biodiversity objectives.
A multidisciplinary Task Force convened by ECETOC has assessed the current state of biodiversity research efforts and its integration within EU chemical regulation. This evaluation encompassed EU legislation, strategic documents, EU-funded research projects, and peer-reviewed literature to identify definitions, metrics, and methodologies used to characterise biodiversity, and to highlight gaps in linking chemical exposure to biodiversity outcomes.
Our analysis indicates that biodiversity is currently referenced in chemical regulation mainly in qualitative terms, biodiversity research rarely focuses explicitly on chemical impacts, and research findings are not clearly linked to regulatory frameworks. The relationship between biodiversity and chemical impacts is further complicated by inconsistent definitions and metrics of biodiversity across disciplines and biomes, as well as minimal alignment with chemical risk assessment practices.
The presentation will summarise these findings and outline recommendations to strengthen the integration of biodiversity considerations into chemical regulation. Recommendations include: developing an operational definition of biodiversity applicable across regulatory contexts; standardising metrics and indicators; establishing a centralised data platform for biodiversity research; and leveraging existing data, methodologies, tools and new technologies (e.g. machine learning).
Preliminary outcomes from a multistakeholder workshop planned for May 2026 will also be shared. This workshop aims to explore available and developing biodiversity definitions, metrics and methodologies relevant to chemical risk assessment, and to identify key actions to bridge the gap between existing scientific understanding and policy objectives for better chemicals management.
How to cite: Galic, N., Gladbach, A., Mayer, C., Stoler, A., Ellis, S., Baccaro, M., Hughes, S. A., Lemaire, P., Maltby, L., Nyman, A.-M., Sanderson, H., Tolls, J., and Wilmot, L.: Assessing Chemical Risks to Biodiversity: Current status, Gaps, and Recommendations for future action, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-604, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-604, 2026.
Pollution derived from hazardous chemicals and waste has emerged as a critical yet comparatively underexamined driver of global biodiversity loss. Increasing evidence demonstrates that exposure to persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, mismanaged waste, etc., adversely affects species survival, ecosystem function, and genetic diversity. However, the scientific and policy responses to these stressors remain fragmented across multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and global governance processes. This assessment studies the role of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions, the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC), and other international agreements in supporting the implementation of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), with a focus on mechanisms to prevent, monitor and mitigate pollution impacts on biodiversity.
The analysis draws upon the 2025 joint BRS-GFC report on their contributions to the GBF targets, a comparative policy mapping against GBF indicators and ongoing collaborative work between biodiversity and chemicals and waste MEAS and International frameworks. In parallel, current work under the GFC’s measurability process is reviewed, examining proposed methodological approaches and indicator frameworks designed to quantify biodiversity benefits arising from improved chemicals and waste management. Particular attention is given to integrative approaches for identifying priority chemicals of concern, assessing exposure pathways and ecosystem-level impacts, and aligning regulatory and technical interventions across multiple actors.
Findings indicate that these international frameworks directly support the GBF implementation, particularly interventions related to mitigating pollution impacts, promoting sustainable production and consumption, enhancing knowledge and capacity for informed decision-making, and management and conservation efforts. Moreover, the emerging measurability framework under the GFC provides a basis for developing harmonized global indicators capable of capturing reductions in chemical pressures and associated positive biodiversity outcomes. Furthermore, collaboration with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) demonstrates the potential for cross-regime policy coherence through shared guidance development, integrated technical assistance, and coordinated negotiation inputs.
This assessment underscores the importance of integrating chemicals and waste governance into biodiversity policy processes and highlights opportunities for improved scientific collaboration, data harmonization, and implementation coordination. Strengthened alignment across MEAs, reinforced by coherent indicators and shared policy instruments, may significantly enhance the effectiveness of global efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss driven by pollution.
How to cite: Harte, A. and Coghlan, E.: Contributions of the international frameworks on chemicals and waste to achieve the Global Biodiversity Framework’s targets to halt biodiversity loss, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-748, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-748, 2026.
Air pollution poses a threat to forest integrity. Lichens and mosses are commonly used to monitor air quality in forests, but they may fall short in capturing spatiotemporal pollution dynamics or in revealing community-level ecotoxicological effects. Here, we introduce a novel ecosystem model complementing existing approaches. Dendrotelms are water-filled tree cavities hosting aquatic biota sustained by allochthonous organic detritus. At the canopy–atmosphere interface, tree crowns capture airborne pollutants, which then runoff via stemflow and are ultimately trapped in the dendrotelm, where they accumulate in sediment layers. We measured concerning levels of eight potentially toxic elements (Zn, Cu, Pb, As, Cd, Ni, V, Cr) in the dendrotelm sediments of three old-growth European Beech forests, but remained low in the Amazonian rainforest location (Mato Grosso, Brazil). Interestingly, the observed among-site contamination levels were positively related to historical NOx emissions in each site (β = 0.9). In the Massane forest, we hypothesised that the hump-shaped relationships between elemental concentrations and the size of the trees hosting the dendrotelms were underlain by a function of tree age integrating over changes in multi-decadal atmospheric deposition. We used this rationale and parameters from the relationships between elemental concentrations and tree sizes at a given point in time to reconstruct historical pollution trends spanning almost a century. These projected temporal reconstructions matched direct observations from temporal contamination profiles obtained with short-lived radionuclide dating (Pb-210ex and Cs-137). Most elements increased from the 1950s, peaked in the 1980s, and decreased until now, thanks to the implementation of air quality policies. Enrichment factors were high in the Massane forest (10–35), suggesting an anthropogenic origin which has to be confirmed by isotope tracing. Lead concentrations in the dendrotelm sediments, probably one of the most harmful metals at these concentrations, reduced invertebrate densities in the European forests we investigated, but not in the less contaminated Amazonian site, highlighting the ecological legacy of airborne pollution in European forests. Our approach fills important qualities required to improve our appraisal of atmospheric pollution in forests, that is, interrogating spatial, temporal, and ecotoxicological scales with a comprehensive approach that can be operated globally.
How to cite: Rota, T. and the DendroMetals&Co team: A novel sentinel of atmospheric pollution in forests, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-824, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-824, 2026.
Metal(loid) contamination is a major threat to ecosystems, as these potentially toxic elements alter the fitness of species and may destabilise food webs. Due to their large abundances and intermediate trophic position between primary producers and apex predators, small mammals are keystone organisms in terrestrial food webs, potentially acting as vectors of contaminants through the food chain. The biogeochemical niche hypothesis (BNH) posits that each species exhibits its own elemental niche and that these niches respond to changes in the abiotic and biotic environment. However, the drivers of seasonal and ontogenetic variation in both essential and potentially toxic elemental concentrations in small mammals are little understood yet, as the BNH has been predominantly tested in vascular plants. Such knowledge can improve our predictions regarding contamination pathways and how the biogeochemical niches of species respond to changes in the environment. Here, we analysed 87 individuals from two distinct omnivorous species (the Yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis, and the Bank vole, Clethrionomys glareolus) sampled in the Ore Mountains, Czech Republic. Specifically, we tested whether the concentrations and compositions of essential (e.g., Na, Mg, Ca) and potentially toxic elements (e.g., Pb, Cd, As) change with ontogenetic variability in the body mass of the individuals, and between seasons (spring vs. autumn). In support of the BNH, species differed in their biogeochemical niches, and most elements showed higher concentrations in spring than in autumn, suggesting that seasonal changes in either the bioavailability of elements, resource–consumer, and/ or consumer–consumer interactions can be detected in biogeochemical niches. To finish, we found shifts in elemental composition with species-specific ontogenetic changes in the body mass of the individuals. Our results provide the first insights into a deeper understanding of temporal variation in the biogeochemical niches of animals, that is, an empirical stepping-stone to a framework that can advance population and community ecology in a context of changes in the distribution of Earth elements.
How to cite: Montiel-Mora, J. R., Rota, T., Chrastný, V., Šípková, A., and Zárybnická, M.: Biogeochemical niches differ between two species of small mammals, seasons, and with ontogenetic changes in body mass, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-734, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-734, 2026.
Chemical pollution threatens within-species genetic variation, and understanding this impact is essential to determine the adaptation potential of different species. However, genetic diversity has been reported to receive the least attention of the three levels of biodiversity outlined by the Convention of Biological Diversity, and while the field of evolutionary toxicology was proposed over a decade ago to help characterize the relationship between chemical exposures and genetic composition of wild populations, this relationship is still under-explored. To overcome challenges in experimentally testing impacts of the multiple chemicals in circulation on the genetics of many species, we propose that data-driven predictive approaches are essential. There is growing data from chemical monitoring/modelling to describe chemical concentrations globally, and wild populations are increasingly sampled for varied purposes (e.g., population genetics). We propose that integrating these published data to assess chemical impacts on the genetics of wild populations can provide insight into the susceptibility and adaptation potential of populations and species exposed to chemicals. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the development of a new metric to assess and predict the concentration of pesticides that may alter the genetic makeup of wild populations. By relating modeled environmental soil concentrations of 92 pesticides to wild genetics data for several species in Europe (e.g., polyommatus icarus, caenorhabditis elegans, sus scrofa) with landscape genetics methods, we identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that differ in populations exposed to low or high concentrations of each pesticide. Then, we quantify the overall potential genetic impacts of each pesticide on each species individually and together using a new unified metric, similar to the methods for species sensitivity distribution but with the genetic impacts on each species as the endpoint. We propose that this new metric can serve as a complement to well-established metrics for chemical risk assessment (e.g., comparing the concentration of chemical affecting the genetic makeup in 5% of species as determined through our metric to the concentration affecting 5% of species on a species sensitivity distribution).
How to cite: Kosnik, M., Guignard, D., Büttner, M., and Scholier, T.: Developing a new metric to quantify the potential impacts of chemicals on the genetic makeup of wild populations, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-633, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-633, 2026.
Chemical pollution is a driver of biodiversity decline, yet quantitative frameworks capable of linking chemical exposure to field-observed biodiversity impacts remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, we present a “blueprint” workflow developed under the NORMAN Joint Programme of Activities (2025), which is designed as a template for systematically analysing the presence and magnitude of ecotoxicity effects of chemical mixtures in multiple-stressed ecosystems, and express the biodiversity damage of chemical pollution in freshwater ecosystems.
The workflow synthesizes existing data, models, and lines of evidence into an integrated approach that translates environmental chemical data, organism-level toxicity, and mixture effects into ecologically meaningful biodiversity metrics across structural, functional, genetic, and ecosystem-service dimensions. We reviewed existing hazard metrics and identified key limitations in current environmental risk assessment, emphasizing the need for biodiversity-relevant units of damage and improved data streams. To illustrate this approach, we evaluated several datasets such as NAIADES (France) and River Rhine (Germany) combining freshwater chemical monitoring and biological monitoring at geographically large scales in Europe. We used them sequentially to address specific questions regarding the link between mixture toxicity pressure and ecosystem level biodiversity damage.
Initial analyses highlight the inherent difficulty in establishing clear correlations between the toxic pressure of chemical mixtures and biodiversity indices. Key confounding factors include historically degraded species communities, absent baseline data, substantial ecological variation across regions, and poor spatiotemporal alignment of chemical and biological datasets. Field studies that do achieve spatial–temporal overlap between chemical exposure and ecological data typically focus only on changes in species richness or abundance, providing a narrow view of biodiversity loss. These findings reinforce the need for refined metric selection, consideration of ecosystem-specific sensitivity, and approaches that leverage large spatial or temporal gradients. We propose a structured set of decisions for selecting datasets, biodiversity, toxic pressure indicators, and statistical methods to test causal pathways and quantify damage levels.
The resulting workflow will guide reproducible chemical–biodiversity linkages across regions and scales, supporting both scientific understanding and regulatory decisions, and paving the way toward operational biodiversity damage metrics and more effective chemical pollution prevention, assessment and management in freshwater ecosystems.
How to cite: Treu, G., Sylvester, F., Schubert, M., Groh, K., Jourdan, J., Schor, J., Hollert, H., Postuma, L., and Fantke, P.: A Blueprint Workflow for Quantifying Chemical Impacts on Freshwater Biodiversity, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-641, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-641, 2026.
Our society faces a triple planetary crisis including biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution (UN, 2025). We identified in a recent interview study with global businesses that biodiversity is not prioritized like climate or financials. These interviews together with a business survey and literature review, confirms the challenge of managing biodiversity in a business context.
To achieve transformative change, the business sector needs to incorporate biodiversity in a holistic way. The balanced scorecard could improve decision-making for business managers with broad set of measures and increased understanding of interrelationships. It moves away from silo-structures and enable problem solving (Kaplan & Norton, 1992). To manage multiple planetary crisis, we suggest a balanced scorecard influenced approach including biodiversity and climate in line with IPBES Nexus Assessment (IPBES, 2024).
The presentation focuses on the proposed “Palette Economy” with nature as a non-human stakeholder to navigate business essential environmental risks (Kopnina et al., 2024). This new decision-making approach aims to manage time and information asymmetries in business models, business cases and incentive programs, and to balance biodiversity, climate and financial considerations. Business benefits are improved applied decision-making when identifying risks and opportunities. We will further develop this new concept in a case study context.
References:
IPBES (2024). Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Harrison, P. A., McElwee, P. D., and van Huysen, T. L. (eds.). IPBES secretariat, Bonn, Germany. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13850054
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard—Measures That Drive Performance. Harvard Business Review, 70(1), 71–79.
Kopnina, H., Zhang, S. R., Anthony, S., Hassan, A., & Maroun, W. (2024). The inclusion of biodiversity into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework: A strategic integration of ecocentric extinction accounting. Journal of Environmental Management, 351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119808
UN. (2025). UN environment agency calls for urgent action on ´triple planetary crisis´. United Nations (UN). https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160236
How to cite: Johansson, H.: The Palette Economy – Balancing biodiversity, climate and financial considerations in a business context, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-97, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-97, 2026.
Air transportation is increasingly shaping economic integration and trade in the ASEAN region. As connectivity and logistics networks expand, air freight activity has risen rapidly, driving development but also heightening environmental stress. Beyond its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, expanding aviation infrastructure and energy demand may indirectly affect ecosystems and biodiversity through land-use change, pollution, and climate-induced habitat loss. Simultaneously, ASEAN nations face growing populations, rising energy demand, and an accelerating transition toward clean energy and green technologies. Yet, empirical evidence on how air freight expansion influences environmental and biodiversity-related outcomes remains limited. This study addresses that gap by assessing the environmental effects of air freight activity in ASEAN economies from 2000 to 2021, focusing on emission patterns and their broader ecological implications. Grounded in the STIRPAT framework, the analysis captures proportional and non-linear effects of anthropogenic activities, incorporating determinants such as population growth, clean energy use, green technological innovation, and economic expansion. Heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence are evaluated using slope homogeneity and CD tests, confirming strong spatial and structural linkages among ASEAN countries. First- and second-generation panel unit root and cointegration tests confirm long-run relationships. Short- and long-run dynamics are estimated using the Driscoll–Kraay Standard Error (DKSE) model, robust to cross-sectional dependence, heteroskedasticity, and autocorrelation. Findings show that population growth, air freight transport, and economic expansion significantly degrade environmental quality—factors that indirectly heighten biodiversity risks through climate and resource pressures. Conversely, clean energy adoption and green technological innovation reduce emissions and generate biodiversity co-benefits over specific periods. Robustness checks using AMG, CCEMG, and PCSE estimators support these results. Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality tests reveal unidirectional causality from population growth, economic expansion, air freight, and innovation to emissions, underscoring the macro-environmental drivers influencing regional ecological integrity. Overall, the study offers policy-relevant insights into the environmental and biodiversity ramifications of air freight operations across ASEAN, emphasizing the need for integrated air transport, clean energy, and innovation strategies to advance low-carbon, biodiversity-positive development in the region.
How to cite: Ridwan, M. and Ko, J.: Towards Low Carbon Economy in ASEAN-5: Synergistic Role of Air Transport, Clean Energy and Green Innovation , World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-215, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-215, 2026.
Chemical pollution is a pervasive driver of biodiversity loss but is under-studied compared to other drivers like climate change. One challenge in characterizing chemical impacts on biodiversity is forming the link between chemicals and subsequent adverse effects on individuals, populations, and ecosystems. Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) describe the link between the trigger of a chemical effect (the molecular initiating event, MIE), key events (KEs) in the cause-effect chain, and ultimately an adverse outcome (AO) in a species. However, the number of existing AOPs is limited (≈550 across chemicals, outcomes, and species), and they are predominantly for humans. Therefore, to form the link between chemicals and adverse outcomes across species to protect biodiversity, more non-human AOPs are needed.
In our project, we develop and test a computational workflow that links existing publicly available data to develop AOPs that may have cross-species relevance, thus serving as potential mechanistic indicators for chemical impacts on biodiversity. Starting from existing databases of chemical-gene interactions in the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, we link chemical-specific gene sets and associated pathway/gene ontology terms using enrichment analysis with the DAVID Knowledgebase, we map associations to specific anatomical contexts with the Bgee Gene Expression Database, and link phenotypes via the Monarch Initiative. Anatomical entities are harmonized with the UBERON multispecies anatomy Ontology and Cell Ontology. Through this, we build per-pesticide networks and extract recurring AOP chains (MIE → cellular/tissue KE → adverse outcome) that were predicted across multiple pesticides per species.
For example, across 173 pesticides, we identified 611,551 recurring AOPs that describe potential pesticide-induced neurotoxicity in zebrafish, and the fungicide iprodione was implicated across the most AOPs. By following this AOP-development method for other species (e.g., extrapolating zebrafish AOPs across more widely distributed fish species), these cross-species AOPs provide individual chemical-level mechanistic predictions into chemical impacts that may contribute to adverse outcomes underlying biodiversity loss. These AOPs can complement established biodiversity monitoring initiatives by predicting causal linkages that signal earlier warnings of biodiversity impacts and enable targeted mitigation.
How to cite: Shen, C., Rollin, D., and Kosnik, M.: Decoding Mechanisms Underlying Chemical Pollution Risks to Biodiversity: A Computational Workflow for Constructing Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs), World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-93, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-93, 2026.
The Valcheta Stream, located in an endorheic basin in Northern Patagonia, Argentina, is a remote system increasingly exposed to diverse anthropogenic pollutants. To evaluate sediment-associated toxicity, we collected composite samples (right bank, left bank, and mid-channel) from three sites with different contamination sources–an agricultural impact zone, an urban-influenced area, and a sewage-affected reach–along with an upstream reference site. Lyophilized sediments were transported under cooled conditions to Germany and Switzerland, where we applied an integrated suite of physiological, behavioral, and molecular biomarkers using amphipods of the genus Gammarus.
Amphipods were collected from the Main River and acclimated for 5–10 days before exposure. Experiments followed OECD/ISO guidelines employing four sediment treatments and a negative control consisting of six replicates, six organisms per 250-ml aerated beaker at 16 °C (total 30 beakers, 180 organisms). Behavioral responses were measured at 24, 48, and 96 h with the ToxmateLab system (ViewPoint, Lyon), using alternating light–dark cycles. Automated analyses identified distinct activity patterns. Preliminary assessments of hyperactivity and hypoactivity revealed clear deviations from baseline locomotion in organisms exposed to sediments from the more impacted sites. Urban sites produced the greatest deviations, potentially suggesting a combination of stressors. Additional parameters, including activity time and average and maximum speed at light and dark conditions, are currently being evaluated in an attempt to obtain a higher sensitivity to these effects.
Following behavioral tests, organisms were frozen at –70 °C for subsequent biochemical and proteomic analyses. Planned endpoints include oxidative stress markers (lipid peroxidation via TBARS, antioxidant and metabolic enzyme activities) and mass-spectrometry-based proteomics with label-free quantification on a Thermo Astral instrument operated in DIA mode.
By integrating behavioral, biochemical, and proteomic biomarkers, this study seeks to identify highly sensitive early-warning indicators of sediment-associated toxicity in the Valcheta Stream under multiple anthropogenic pressures. The combined approach will allow us to disentangle complex stressor effects and detect sublethal impacts well before population- or community-level responses become evident. The resulting indicator set is intended to support regulators and watershed managers in strengthening chemical-risk prevention, improving sediment-quality assessment, and safeguarding freshwater biodiversity in Patagonian ecosystems facing accelerating environmental change.
How to cite: Solari, C. A., Baggio, R. B., Liquin, F. F., Groh, K., Hollert, H., Sylvester, F., and Hünicken, L. A.: Assessing Multi-Source Chemical Pollution and Sediment Toxicity in Northern Patagonian Streams, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-626, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-626, 2026.
