Land-use history impacts functional diversity across multiple trophic groups

Land-use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. Although biodiversity often shows a delayed response to land-use change, previous studies have typically focused on a narrow range of current landscape factors and have largely ignored the role of land-use history in shaping plant and animal communities and their functional characteristics. Here, we used a unique database of 220,000 land-use records to investigate how 20-y of land-use changes have affected functional diversity across multiple trophic groups (primary producers, mutualists, herbivores, invertebrate predators, and vertebrate predators) in 75 grassland fields with a broad range of land-use histories. The effects of land-use history on multitrophic trait diversity were as strong as other drivers known to impact biodiversity, e.g., grassland management and current landscape composition. The diversity of animal mobility and resource-acquisition traits was lower in landscapes where much of the land had been historically converted from grassland to crop. In contrast, functional biodiversity was higher in landscapes containing old permanent grasslands, most likely because they offer a stable and high-quality habitat refuge for species with low mobility and specialized feeding niches. Our study shows that grassland-to-crop conversion has long-lasting impacts on the functional biodiversity of agricultural ecosystems. Accordingly, land-use legacy effects must be considered in conservation programs aiming to protect agricultural biodiversity. In particular, the retention of permanent grassland sanctuaries within intensive landscapes may offset ecological debts.

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Response of herbaceous vegetation functional diversity to land use change across five sites in Europe and Israel

Israel Journal of Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.1560/ijee.57.1-2.53 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 57 (1-2) ◽

pp. 53-72 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Sandra Lavorel ◽

Francesco de Bello ◽

Karl Grigulis ◽

Jan Lepš ◽

Eric Garnier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Functional Diversity ◽

Linear Models ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Environmental Gradients ◽

Functional Divergence ◽

Grassland Management ◽

Community Response ◽

Mixed Linear Models

Only a few studies have examined responses of grassland functional diversity to management and major environmental gradients, in order to address the question of whether grassland use can promote functional divergence. For five grassland sites in Israel, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Mediterranean France, and the French Alps, where traditional grassland management is being abandoned, we quantified community-weighted means (CWM) and functional divergence (FDvg) for the three Leaf-Height-Seed (LHS) traits, individually and in combination. Responses of CWM and FDvg to land use were analyzed by mixed linear models with aridity, phosphorus, fertility, and the fractions of grasses and annuals as covariates.Responses of community-weighted traits to land use were consistent with current knowledge. More intense management favored plants with more rapid resource acquisition (high Specific Leaf Area, or SLA), whereas abandonment or less intense grassland management increased the dominance by tall plants with more conservative strategies (low SLA). Seed weight did not respond to land use. For the three traits and their combination, functional divergence decreased in response to land use change overall. Detailed responses, however, varied depending on sites and especially their climate. At the two French sites, traditional site management promoted functional divergence within communities by suppressing dominance by large perennial tussocks, whereas at the two Mediterranean sites it is likely that the drier climate promoted a functionally diverse pool of species tolerant to grazing.This study demonstrates how simultaneous analyses of variations in community-mean traits and functional divergence for a focused set of traits offer promising avenues to understand mechanisms of community response to environmental change.

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Global land use changes are four times greater than previously estimated

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-22702-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Karina Winkler ◽

Richard Fuchs ◽

Mark Rounsevell ◽

Martin Herold

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Open Data ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Change Processes ◽

Societal Challenges ◽

Global Land ◽

Global North

AbstractQuantifying the dynamics of land use change is critical in tackling global societal challenges such as food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Here we analyse the dynamics of global land use change at an unprecedented spatial resolution by combining multiple open data streams (remote sensing, reconstructions and statistics) to create the HIstoric Land Dynamics Assessment + (HILDA +). We estimate that land use change has affected almost a third (32%) of the global land area in just six decades (1960-2019) and, thus, is around four times greater in extent than previously estimated from long-term land change assessments. We also identify geographically diverging land use change processes, with afforestation and cropland abandonment in the Global North and deforestation and agricultural expansion in the South. Here, we show that observed phases of accelerating (~1960–2005) and decelerating (2006–2019) land use change can be explained by the effects of global trade on agricultural production.

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Land Use Changes Threaten Bird Taxonomic and Functional Diversity Across the Mediterranean Basin: A Spatial Analysis to Prioritize Monitoring for Conservation

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution ◽

10.3389/fevo.2021.612356 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Johanna Fusco ◽

Emily Walker ◽

Julien Papaïx ◽

Marta Debolini ◽

Alberte Bondeau ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Functional Diversity ◽

Mediterranean Basin ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Land Abandonment ◽

Bird Assemblages ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

The Mediterranean Basin

Land use changes rank among the highest threats to biodiversity, but assessment of their ecological impact is impaired by data paucity in vast regions of the world. For birds, land use changes may mean habitat loss or fragmentation, changes in resource availability, and disruption of biotic interactions or dispersal pathways. As a result, avian population sizes and assemblage diversity decline in areas subjected to urbanization, agricultural intensification, and land abandonment worldwide. This threat is especially sensitive in hotspots such as the Mediterranean basin, where avifaunas of several biogeographic origins meet, encompassing numerous endemic taxa, and ecological specialists with low resilience to habitat modifications. Here, we correlated several facets of bird taxonomic and functional diversity to a fine-grained land-use change classification, in order to identify priority areas in need for enforced protocoled bird sampling in a conservation prospect. For this, we computed the species richness, functional richness, originality and specificity of 211 bird assemblages based on bird extent-of-occurrence data for 279 species and 10 ecological traits. We used a spatialized regression model to correlate bird diversity patterns with bioclimatic gradients and land use change between 1992 and 2018, assessed from an unsupervised clustering on 2 km resolution data. We showed that species-rich bird assemblages are subjected to agricultural intensification, while functionally diverse assemblages are mainly undergoing desertification and land abandonment. Unfortunately, most of these changes occur in areas where protocoled bird surveys with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution are lacking. In light of these results, we urge for the setting of bird monitoring programs targeted mainly on parts of North-Africa and the Levant, in order to allow a region-level evaluation of the threat posed by recent land use changes on the exceptional avifaunistic diversity of the basin. Fostering such regional-scale evaluations of congruences between human threats and centers of diversity is a necessary preliminary step for a pragmatic response to data deficiencies and ultimately setting appropriate responses to avoid the collapse of avian assemblages.

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How do habitat amount and habitat fragmentation drive time-delayed responses of biodiversity to land-use change?

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2020.2466 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 288 (1942) ◽

pp. 20202466

Author(s):

Asunción Semper-Pascual ◽

Cole Burton ◽

Matthias Baumann ◽

Julieta Decarre ◽

Gregorio Gavier-Pizarro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Habitat Fragmentation ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Habitat Loss ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Delayed Response ◽

Habitat Amount ◽

Habitat Transformation ◽

Delayed Responses

Land-use change is a root cause of the extinction crisis, but links between habitat change and biodiversity loss are not fully understood. While there is evidence that habitat loss is an important extinction driver, the relevance of habitat fragmentation remains debated. Moreover, while time delays of biodiversity responses to habitat transformation are well-documented, time-delayed effects have been ignored in the habitat loss versus fragmentation debate. Here, using a hierarchical Bayesian multi-species occupancy framework, we systematically tested for time-delayed responses of bird and mammal communities to habitat loss and to habitat fragmentation. We focused on the Argentine Chaco, where deforestation has been widespread recently. We used an extensive field dataset on birds and mammals, along with a time series of annual woodland maps from 1985 to 2016 covering recent and historical habitat transformations. Contemporary habitat amount explained bird and mammal occupancy better than past habitat amount. However, occupancy was affected more by the past rather than recent fragmentation, indicating a time-delayed response to fragmentation. Considering past landscape patterns is therefore crucial for understanding current biodiversity patterns. Not accounting for land-use history ignores the possibility of extinction debt and can thus obscure impacts of fragmentation, potentially explaining contrasting findings of habitat loss versus fragmentation studies.

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Analisis Perubahan Tata Guna Lahan di Kabupaten Bantul Menggunakan Metode Global Moran’s I

Jurnal Buana Informatika ◽

10.24002/jbi.v8i4.1446 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Matheus Supriyanto Rumetna ◽

Eko Sediyono ◽

Kristoko Dwi Hartomo

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Spatial Autocorrelation ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Moran’S I ◽

Complete Spatial Randomness ◽

Moran's I ◽

Global Moran’S I ◽

Spatial Randomness

Abstract. Bantul Regency is a part of Yogyakarta Special Province Province which experienced land use changes. This research aims to assess the changes of shape and level of land use, to analyze the pattern of land use changes, and to find the appropriateness of RTRW land use in Bantul District in 2011-2015. Analytical methods are employed including Geoprocessing techniques and analysis of patterns of distribution of land use changes with Spatial Autocorrelation (Global Moran's I). The results of this study of land use in 2011, there are thirty one classifications, while in 2015 there are thirty four classifications. The pattern of distribution of land use change shows that land use change in 2011-2015 has a Complete Spatial Randomness pattern. Land use suitability with the direction of area function at RTRW is 24030,406 Ha (46,995406%) and incompatibility of 27103,115 Ha or equal to 53,004593% of the total area of Bantul Regency.Keywords: Geographical Information System, Land Use, Geoprocessing, Global Moran's I, Bantul Regency. Abstrak. Analisis Perubahan Tata Guna Lahan di Kabupaten Bantul Menggunakan Metode Global Moran’s I. Kabupaten Bantul merupakan bagian dari Provinsi Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta yang mengalami perubahan tata guna lahan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji perubahan bentuk dan luas penggunaan lahan, menganalisis pola sebaran perubahan tata guna lahan, serta kesesuaian tata guna lahan terhadap RTRW yang terjadi di Kabupaten Bantul pada tahun 2011-2015. Metode analisis yang digunakan antara lain teknik Geoprocessing serta analisis pola sebaran perubahan tata guna lahan dengan Spatial Autocorrelation (Global Moran’s I). Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah penggunaan tanah pada tahun 2011, terdapat tiga puluh satu klasifikasi, sedangkan pada tahun 2015 terdapat tiga puluh empat klasifikasi. Pola sebaran perubahan tata guna lahan menunjukkan bahwa perubahan tata guna lahan tahun 2011-2015 memiliki pola Complete Spatial Randomness. Kesesuaian tata guna lahan dengan arahan fungsi kawasan pada RTRW adalah seluas 24030,406 Ha atau mencapai 46,995406 % dan ketidaksesuaian seluas 27103,115 Ha atau sebesar 53,004593 % dari total luas wilayah Kabupaten Bantul. Kata Kunci: Sistem Informasi Georafis, tata guna lahan, Geoprocessing, Global Moran’s I, Kabupaten Bantul.

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Land-Use Change Impacts from Sustainable Hydropower Production in EU28 Region: An Empirical Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13094599 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 4599

Author(s):

Mohd Alsaleh ◽

Muhammad Mansur Abdulwakil ◽

Abdul Samad Abdul-Rahim

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Land Use ◽

European Union ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽

Energy Production ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Ordinary Least Squares ◽

The European Union ◽

Hydropower Production

Under the current European Union (EU) constitution approved in May 2018, EU countries ought to guarantee that estimated greenhouse-gas releases from land use, land-use change, or forestry are entirely compensated by an equivalent accounted removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air during the period between 2021 and 2030. This study investigates the effect of sustainable hydropower production on land-use change in the European Union (EU28) region countries during 1990–2018, using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). The results revealed that land-use change incline with an increase in hydropower energy production. In addition, economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, and population density are found to be increasing land-use changes, while institutional quality is found to be decreasing land-use change significantly. The finding implies that land-use change in EU28 region countries can be significantly increased by mounting the amount of hydropower energy production to achieve Energy Union aims by 2030. This will finally be spread to combat climate change and environmental pollution. The findings are considered robust as they were checked with DOLS and pooled OLS. The research suggests that the EU28 countries pay attention to the share of hydropower in their renewable energy combination to minimize carbon releases. Politicians and investors in the EU28 region ought to invest further in the efficiency and sustainability of hydropower generation to increase its production and accessibility without further degradation of forest and agricultural conditions. The authorities of the EU28 region should emphasize on efficiency and sustainability of hydropower energy with land-use management to achieve the international commitments for climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development, reduce dependence on fossil fuel, and energy insecurity.

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Land Use Dynamics and Optimization from 2000 to 2020 in East Guangdong Province, China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063473 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3473

Author(s):

Yong Lai ◽

Guangqing Huang ◽

Shengzhong Chen ◽

Shaotao Lin ◽

Wenjun Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Research Result ◽

Global Environmental Change ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Buffer Zones ◽

Conflict Zones ◽

Land Use Dynamics

Anthropogenic land-use change is one of the main drivers of global environmental change. China has been on a fast track of land-use change since the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1978. In view of the situation, this study aims to optimize land use and provide a way to effectively coordinate the development and ecological protection in China. We took East Guangdong (EGD), an underdeveloped but populous region, as a case study. We used land-use changes indexes to demonstrate the land-use dynamics in EGD from 2000 to 2020, then identified the hot spots for fast-growing areas of built-up land and simulated land use in 2030 using the future land-use simulation (FLUS) model. The results indicated that the cropland and the built-up land changed in a large proportion during the study period. Then we established the ecological security pattern (ESP) according to the minimal cumulative resistance model (MCRM) based on the natural and socioeconomic factors. Corridors, buffer zones, and the key nodes were extracted by the MCRM to maintain landscape connectivity and key ecological processes of the study area. Moreover, the study showed the way to identify the conflict zones between future built-up land expansion with the corridors and buffer zones, which will be critical areas of consideration for future land-use management. Finally, some relevant policy recommendations are proposed based on the research result.

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Twenty-Three Years of Land-Use Changes Induced Considerable Threats to the Main Wetlands of Sardinia and Sicily (Italy) along the Mediterranean Bird Flyways

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13060240 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 240

Author(s):

Alessandro Ferrarini ◽

Marco Gustin ◽

Claudio Celada

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Habitat Degradation ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Global Level ◽

Natura 2000 Network ◽

Stopover Sites ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Agricultural Areas

Biodiversity loss has multiple causes, but habitat degradation through land-use change is the predominant driver. We investigated the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network in preserving the main wetlands of the two largest islands of the Mediterranean region, whose conservation is critical for many avian species at European and global level, in a 23-year period (1990–2012). In Sardinia, the surroundings of 22 wetlands were affected by an increase in artificial areas (+64 ha/year) and decrease in agricultural (−54 ha/year) and natural (−17 ha/year) ones. In Sicily, the surroundings of 16 wetlands were impacted by an increase in agricultural areas (+50 ha/year) and decrease in natural and semi-natural ones (−62 ha/year). Results show that the Natura 2000 policies were effective in preserving wetlands (no shrinkages detected in both regions), but their surroundings experienced intense processes of degradation and artificialization in all the sub-periods considered (1990–2000, 2000–2006, 2006–2012), whose effects are now threatening waterbirds and wetland integrity. The enlargement of the existing Natura 2000 sites, the creation of new ones and the speedup of the application of the rules of the Habitats and Birds Directives seem necessary to counteract the rapid land-use changes around these important stopover sites.

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Mistletoes in a changing world: a premonition of a non-analog future?

Botany ◽

10.1139/cjb-2019-0195 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 98 (9) ◽

pp. 479-488

Author(s):

Francisco E. Fontúrbel

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Global Scale ◽

Ecological Interactions ◽

Human Disturbances ◽

Climate Change Effects ◽

Long Run ◽

Plant Animal Interactions ◽

Changing World

Mistletoes are a group of flowering plants that have developed a parasitic lifeform through complex eco-evolutionary processes. Despite being considered a pest, mistletoes represent a keystone forest resource and are involved in complex plant–plant and plant–animal interactions. Their parasitic lifeform and specialized ecological interactions make mistletoes an ideal model with which to understand the effects of anthropogenic disturbances in a changing world. The accelerated growth of the human population has altered all ecosystems on Earth, leading to biodiversity loss. Land-use changes (involving habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation, and transformation processes) can alter the ecological scenario for mistletoe by altering hosts, mutualists, and nutrient cycling. Those changes may have large consequences at the community level, changing the spatial structure of mistletoes, as well as interaction effectiveness, facilitation process, interaction disruption, and novel interactions with invasive species, leading to non-analog communities in the long run. Furthermore, climate change effects operate on a global scale, enhancing the effects of land-use changes. As temperatures increase, many species would alter their distribution and phenology, potentially causing spatial and temporal mismatches. But more critical is the fact that water stress is likely to disrupt key ecological interactions. Thus, mistletoes can provide valuable insights for what we can expect in the future, as a result of human disturbances.

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Contrasting responses of above- and belowground diversity to multiple components of land-use intensity

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-021-23931-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Gaëtane Le Provost ◽

Jan Thiele ◽

Catrin Westphal ◽

Caterina Penone ◽

Eric Allan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Trophic Levels ◽

Land Use Intensity ◽

Trophic Groups ◽

Multiple Components ◽

Belowground Diversity ◽

Landscape Level

AbstractLand-use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss. However, understanding how different components of land use drive biodiversity loss requires the investigation of multiple trophic levels across spatial scales. Using data from 150 agricultural grasslands in central Europe, we assess the influence of multiple components of local- and landscape-level land use on more than 4,000 above- and belowground taxa, spanning 20 trophic groups. Plot-level land-use intensity is strongly and negatively associated with aboveground trophic groups, but positively or not associated with belowground trophic groups. Meanwhile, both above- and belowground trophic groups respond to landscape-level land use, but to different drivers: aboveground diversity of grasslands is promoted by diverse surrounding land-cover, while belowground diversity is positively related to a high permanent forest cover in the surrounding landscape. These results highlight a role of landscape-level land use in shaping belowground communities, and suggest that revised agroecosystem management strategies are needed to conserve whole-ecosystem biodiversity.

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