Distributed environmental research infrastructures are important to support assessments of the effects of global change on landscapes, ecosystems and society. These infrastructures need to provide continuity to address longterm change, yet be flexible enough to respond to rapid societal and technological developments that modify research priorities. This horizon scanning exercise was done to identify and prioritize emerging research questions for the future development of ecosystem and...

Much biodiversity data is collected worldwide, but it remains challenging to assemble the scattered knowledge for assessing biodiversity status and trends. The concept of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) was introduced to structure biodiversity monitoring globally. Here, the challenges of a ‘Big Data’ approach to building global EBV data products across taxa and spatiotemporal scales is assessed, focusing on species distribution and abundance.