Open access publications in the SLU publication database

The 2015 Swedish Red List is the fourth edition, encompassing animals, plants and fungi, produced by the Swedish Species Information Centre (SSIC, ArtDatabanken). The Red List is based on the IUCN Red List Criteria (IUCN 2012), and is revised every fifth year. The Swedish Red List assesses the relative risk of species going nationally extinct. The assessments are done by experts at the SSIC, supported by about 100 external experts, in14 committees working on different organism groups.
In the 2015 Red List assessment process, the status and trends of 21,600 species and 1,318 lower taxa (apomictic species, subspecies and varieties) have been assessed, some 22,900 taxa in total. Of the assessed species, 4,273 became red-listed, and of these, 2,029 species were categorized as threatened (CR, EN and VU). The proportion of red-listed species, in relation to all assessed species, was 19.8%, which is similar to the results of 2010 and 2005.
In this report, the number and proportion of assessed species are compared across organism groups, habitats, substrates and pressures. The presentation is divided into a general part and a part with chapters based on landscape types (a coarse classification of habitats). The landscape types covered are Forests, Agricultural landscapes, Urban habitats, Mountains, Wetlands, Freshwater habitats, Seashores, and Marine habitats.
Forests and Agricultural landscapes are the most species-rich landscape types, harbouring approximately 1 800 and 1 400 red-listed species with a strong affinity to these landscape types, respectively. Several hundred additional species are occasionally found here. The pressures adversely affecting the largest number of Swedish red-listed species are logging and overgrowth, each of which impacts more than 30 % of the red-listed species. Logging reduces the area of forests maintaining natural structures and dynamics, thus causing habitat loss. Overgrowth is caused by several factors, including abandonment and cessation of traditional management (cattle grazing and mowing), fertilization, planting of trees, and lack of natural disturbances such as periodical flooding along watercourses and lakes.
Other important adverse ecological pressures are fishery, drainage of wetlands, decline of host species (mainly elms and ash due to invasive pathogens), climate change and competition from invasive species.
The IUCN Red List Index is calculated for a subset of the assessed organism groups. The Index shows that the Red Lists of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 differ very little. However, there are a few exceptions: the status of amphibians and large mammals has improved since 2000. Yet, the pressure on Swedish species appears to have been relatively constant during the past 15 years.