Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity

• Published in: Nature (London) 2015-04, Vol.520 (7545), p.45-50
• Main Authors: Newbold, Tim, Hudson, Lawrence N., Hill, Samantha L. L., Contu, Sara, Lysenko, Igor, Senior, Rebecca A., Börger, Luca, Bennett, Dominic J., Choimes, Argyrios, Collen, Ben, Day, Julie, De Palma, Adriana, Díaz, Sandra, Echeverria-Londoño, Susy, Edgar, Melanie J., Feldman, Anat, Garon, Morgan, Harrison, Michelle L. K., Alhusseini, Tamera, Ingram, Daniel J., Itescu, Yuval, Kattge, Jens, Kemp, Victoria, Kirkpatrick, Lucinda, Kleyer, Michael, Correia, David Laginha Pinto, 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
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 45/22; 45/29; 631/158/670; 631/158/672; 631/158/853; 64; 704/158/670; 82; Animals; Biodiversity; Climate change; Conservation of Natural Resources - trends; Ecological function; Ecology - trends; Ecosystems; Environmental degradation; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Human Activities; Humanities and Social Sciences; Land use; Models, Biological; multidisciplinary; Population Dynamics; Science; Socioeconomics; Species richness; Species Specificity; Vegetation
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature14324

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. Analysis of a global data set of local biodiversity comparisons reveals an average 13.6% reduction in species richness and 10.7% reduction in abundance as a result of past human land use, and projections based on these data under a business-as-usual land-use scenario predict further substantial loss this century, unless strong mitigation efforts are undertaken to reverse the effects. Biodiversity losses linked to changing land-use Global studies of biodiversity paint a consistent picture of declines associated with human activity. At the same time, many studies at a local level have shown that biodiversity loss affects ecosystem functions and services. Tim Newbold et al . have assembled a global data set of local biodiversity trends — including 1% of the global total of named species — as a measure of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human pressures. The authors estimate that human-caused changes have already reduced average local species richness by 13.6% and total abundance by 10.7% during the past few centuries. Under projected business-as-usual land use scenarios, further substantial loss is expected this century, but there is room for strong mitigation efforts to reverse the effects.