Assessing land-use effects on European plant diversity using a biome-specific countryside species-area model

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15310%2F17%3A73581269" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15310/17:73581269 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.12608/epdf" target="_blank" >http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.12608/epdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12608" target="_blank" >10.1111/ddi.12608</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Assessing land-use effects on European plant diversity using a biome-specific countryside species-area model

Original language description

Aim: Land-use change is considered a major threat to biodiversity. Species-area relationships (SARs), which are often used to assess biodiversity changes, assume that land use leads to the loss of natural habitats. Yet, in regions with long land-use histories, such as Europe, many species have persisted in, or even depend on, landscapes heavily influenced by land use (i.e., countryside landscapes). Here, we develop a SAR model that considers the conservation value of such landscapes, and we assess how land use affects plant-species richness at broad spatial scales. Location: Countries in the European Union (EU-27). Methods: We first predicted species richness at a 50 x 50 km resolution using a biome-specific SAR and used these predictions as a baseline estimate for (semi-) natural vegetation. Then, we parameterized a countryside SAR (sensu Pereira &amp; Daily, 2006) with habitat affinities derived from a meta-analysis. We estimated changes in species richness as the difference in predictions between the two SAR models. Results: At a 50 x 50 km resolution, predicted species richness has increased by up to 184 species due to land use in 73% of all cells across Europe compared to the (semi-) natural baseline. However, our model also highlights regions with dramatic species losses (in 25% of cells, losses of up to 900 species) due to an unfavourable combination of land-use changes. Averaged across all cells, we predict a loss of 26 plant species (SD = 119, median = 49). Main conclusions: Adopting the countryside SAR model to broader spatial scales overcomes the unrealistic assumptions of previous approaches about generally negative effects of land use. Our approach predicts how local-scale land-use effects translate to biodiversity changes at broader geographic scales. Thus, it allows land-use scenarios being studied in relation to their trade-offs with biodiversity and can be used to target conservation efforts across large areas.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

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Continuities

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Diversity and Distributions

ISSN

1366-9516

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

23

Issue of the periodical within the volume

10

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

1193-1203

UT code for WoS article

000409469400009

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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