Authors: Zulka, Peter; Milasowszky, Norbert;Oberleitner, Irene;Baumgartner, Christian;Bieringer, Georg;Diry, Christian;Enzinger, Karin;Gilli, Christian;Gollmann, Günter;Grabenhofer, Harald;

Biodiversity is currently being lost at an accelerated pace. Climate change has emerged as novel direct pressure, but it also indirectly affects species and habitats by modifying other pressures. To understand climate-related changes of the pressure structure acting on threatened species and habitats, experts assigned pressures from a pre-compiled non-hierarchical list of 221 pressures to 1109 species and 57 habitat types. We conducted a literature review on overall trends triggered by climate change. Experts then evaluated whether these trends will cause specific pressures to increase, decrease or remain unaltered during climate change. In a similar procedure, managers of five protected areas analysed 10 characteristic species or habitat types of their areas applying the same methodology. Agricultural pressures are currently affecting 597 out of 1109 species (54%), followed by climate change (direct effects, 354 species, 32%). Hydrological pressures (216 species), energy production (115 species), aliens (71 species) and forestry pressures (259 species) will become substantially more pronounced during climate change, whereas pressures from mixed-source pollution (352 species) will become alleviated in the transformation towards non-fossil energies and electric propulsion. Assessment by conservation managers provided a similar ranking of pressures and measures despite being restricted to selected conservation targets and protected areas.