Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity

Human activities, especially conversion and degradation of habitats, are causing global biodiversity declines. How local ecological assemblages are responding is less clear—a concern given their importance for many ecosystem functions and services. We analysed a terrestrial assemblage database of un...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Newbold, Tim, Hudson, Lawrence N., Hill, Samantha L. L., Contu, Sara, Lysenko, Igor, Diaz, Sandra Myrna, Harrison, Michelle L. K., Alhusseini, Tamera, Ingram, Daniel J., Itescu, Yuval, Kattge, Jens, Kirkpatrick, Lucinda, Kleyer, Michael, Pinto Correia, David Laginha, Martin, Callum D., Meiri, Shai, Novosolov, Maria, Pan, Yuan, Phillips, Helen R. P., Purves, Drew W., Robinson, Alexandra, Simpson, Jake, Tuck, Sean L., Weiher, Evan, White, Hannah J., Ewers, Robert M., Mace, Georgina M., Scharlemann, Jörn P. W., Purvis, Andy
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/19962
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/19962
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Land Use
Biodiversity
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:Human activities, especially conversion and degradation of habitats, are causing global biodiversity declines. How local ecological assemblages are responding is less clear—a concern given their importance for many ecosystem functions and services. We analysed a terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes. Here we show that in the worst-affected habitats, these pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%. We estimate that, globally, these pressures have already slightly reduced average within-sample richness (by 13.6%), total abundance (10.7%) and rarefaction-based richness (8.1%), with changes showing marked spatial variation. Rapid further losses are predicted under a business-as-usual land-use scenario; within-sample richness is projected to fall by a further 3.4% globally by 2100, with losses concentrated in biodiverse but economically poor countries. Strong mitigation can deliver much more positive biodiversity changes (up to a 1.9% average increase) that are less strongly related to countries' socioeconomic status.

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