Local factors mediate the response of biodiversity to land use on two African mountains

Jung, Martin; Hill, Samantha L. L.; Platts, Philip J.; Marchant, Robert; Siebert, Stefan; Fournier, Anne; Munyekenye, Fred B.; Purvis, Andy; Burgess, Neil D.; Newbold, Tim

doi:10.1111/acv.12327

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…3), therefore increasing the likelihood that past changes in photosynthetic activity of vegetation have been captured. The marginal variance explained was modest, but comparable to other broad-scale studies using the same species assemblage dataset (Newbold et al 2014, De Palma et al 2015, Jung et al 2017. The marginal variance explained was modest, but comparable to other broad-scale studies using the same species assemblage dataset (Newbold et al 2014, De Palma et al 2015, Jung et al 2017.…”

Section: Influences Of Current and Past Dissimilarities In Photosynthsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Longer periods of past BC EVI also increased the explained marginal variance (Supplementary material Appendix 1 Table A1), although most of the variance was already explained by differences in study identity (thus by sampling methods and local factors). The marginal variance explained was modest, but comparable to other broad-scale studies using the same species assemblage dataset (Newbold et al 2014, De Palma et al 2015, Jung et al 2017. It is a limitation that we used data from a wide variety of sources (Hudson et al 2017), which were typically not designed to study lag or memory effects of past changes in land-surface attributes such as photosynthetic activity.…”

Section: Influences Of Current and Past Dissimilarities In Photosynthsupporting

confidence: 57%

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Local species assemblages are influenced more by past than current dissimilarities in photosynthetic activity

et al. 2018

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Most land on Earth has been changed by humans and past changes of land can have lasting influences on current species assemblages. Yet few globally representative studies explicitly consider such influences even though auxiliary data, such as from remote sensing, are readily available. Time series of satellite-derived data have been commonly used to quantify differences in land-surface attributes such as vegetation cover, which will among other things be influenced by anthropogenic land conversions and modifications. Here we quantify differences in current and past (up to five years before sampling) vegetation cover, and assess whether such differences differentially influence taxonomic and functional groups of species assemblages between spatial pairs of sites. Specifically, we correlated between-site dissimilarity in photosynthetic activity of vegetation (the enhanced vegetation index) with the corresponding dissimilarity in local species assemblage composition from a global database using a common metric for both, the Bray-Curtis index. We found that dissimilarity in species assemblage composition was on average more influenced by dissimilarity in past than current photosynthetic activity, and that the influence of past dissimilarity increased when longer time periods were considered. Responses to past dissimilarity in photosynthetic activity also differed among taxonomic groups (plants, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), with reptiles being among the most influenced by more dissimilar past photosynthetic activity. Furthermore, we found that assemblages dominated by smaller and more vegetation-dependent species tended to be more influenced by dissimilarity in past photosynthetic activity than preydependent species. Overall, our results have implications for studies that investigate species responses to current environmental changes and highlight the importance of past changes continuing to influence local species assemblage composition. We demonstrate how local species assemblages and satellite-derived data can be linked and provide suggestions for future studies on how to assess the influence of past environmental changes on biodiversity.

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Section: Influences Of Current and Past Dissimilarities In Photosynthsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Influences Of Current and Past Dissimilarities In Photosynthsupporting

confidence: 57%

Local species assemblages are influenced more by past than current dissimilarities in photosynthetic activity

et al. 2018

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“…The biodiversity response factors used here assume a single global response of biodiversity to land use. However, effects of land use are known to vary across broad geographic regions 41,42 , some of which are underrepresented in the case studies of the version of the PREDICTS database from which the response factors have been obtained, and depend on local land-use management practices 43,44 . Likewise, the results reflect net changes on biodiversity as expressed by the response factors and therefore do not consider the dynamics in community composition during the land use transitions modelled.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to agricultural land for retaining acceptable levels of local biodiversity

Usubiaga‐Liaño

Mace²,

Ekins

2019

Nat Sustain

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Several studies have proposed maximum allowable areas of cropland (12.6-15.18% of terrestrial area) as environmental sustainability requirements, yet none have so far considered the minimum biodiversity levels required to support ecosystem functioning at acceptable levels. Here we use a decision tree-based optimisation model to estimate the maximum area of cropland and pasture that would meet, or would come closest to meeting, the acceptable levels of local biodiversity proposed in the literature (90% local species abundance, 80% local species richness compared to an undisturbed baseline). We model four scenarios in which we vary two key sources of uncertainty: the maximisation function and the potential of secondary vegetation to maintain biodiversity. The model finds that a maximum of 4.62-11.17% of the global ice-free land can be allocated to cropland (7.86-15.67% to pasture) to meet these biodiversity constraints, a lower level than suggested in previous studies. The results are very sensitive to the minimum acceptable biodiversity values and the biodiversity response factors used, but the size of the disparity between current cropland area and our results suggest that actions to limit or reduce the area dedicated to agriculture should feature more prominently in policy discussions.

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“…We acknowledge that predacious arthropod responses to land use are mediated by local factors (Jung et al 2017), and that the findings of this study are indicative of grassland ecosystems and cities not associated with metropolitan areas. Further research is needed in cities in different biomes (Botha et al 2016) and metropolitan areas in grassland ecosystems to fully understand the diversity patterns of predacious arthropod groups in urban green space and should attempt to find commonalities in management processes and degrees of isolation for cities with similar predacious arthropod diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Level of urbanization and habitat type, and not patch size, influence predacious arthropod diversity patterns of urban grasslands in South Africa

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Greyvenstein B, Botha M, van den Berg J, Siebert SJ. 2021. Level of urbanization and habitat type, and not patch size, influence predacious arthropod diversity patterns of urban grasslands in South Africa. Biodiversitas 22: 4078-4094. Predacious arthropods provide a valuable ecosystem service within urban environments by suppressing pest numbers. However, urban ecological studies largely ignore this functional group and its diversity and species composition patterns. Some studies have been published regarding these patterns, however they were mostly done in Australia, Europe and America, thus an African perspective is lacking. Our aim was to address the gap in African literature by quantify the differences in predacious arthropod species richness and diversity within urban green space in varying urbanization intensities, habitat types of grassland and patch sizes in South Africa. Various indices were considered to examine the effect of urbanization on the diversity patterns of Chrysopidae (Neuroptera), Mantodea, Araneae and Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Study sites included three levels of urbanization represented by population density, two types of urban grasslands (i.e., ruderal and fragmented grassland) and a peri-urban rangeland grassland as control, and a wide range of patch sizes. Our results indicated that an increase in urbanization intensities was associated with increased abundance of predacious arthropod taxa. Also, that urban and peri-urban grasslands had similar predacious arthropod species richness and diversity, but differed in species composition. No relationship was found between patch size and arthropod diversity or composition. Thus, predacious arthropod abundances are influenced by the level of urbanization and their species composition is influenced by the type of urban grassland (ruderal or fragmented), which are important considerations for future urban planning/management and conservation strategies. This study gives a South African perspective and indicates that despite the lack of assigned function of urban green spaces, they sustain diverse and distinct predacious arthropod communities, which in turn fulfill various roles in a functioning ecosystem.

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Local factors mediate the response of biodiversity to land use on two African mountains

Cited by 15 publications

References 76 publications

Local species assemblages are influenced more by past than current dissimilarities in photosynthetic activity

Local species assemblages are influenced more by past than current dissimilarities in photosynthetic activity

Limits to agricultural land for retaining acceptable levels of local biodiversity

Level of urbanization and habitat type, and not patch size, influence predacious arthropod diversity patterns of urban grasslands in South Africa

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