Grassland management intensification weakens the associations among the diversities of multiple plant and animal taxa

Manning, Peter; Gossner, Martin M.; Bossdorf, Oliver; Allan, Eric; Zhang, Yuan-Ye; Prati, Daniel; Blüthgen, Nico; Boch, Steffen; Böhm, Stefan; Börschig, Carmen; Hölzel, Norbert; Jung, Kirsten; Klaus, Valentin H.; Klein, Alexandra Maria; Kleinebecker, Till; Krauss, Jochen; Lange, Markus; Müller, Jörg; Pašalić, Esther; Socher, Stephanie; ... (2015). Grassland management intensification weakens the associations among the diversities of multiple plant and animal taxa. Ecology, 96(6), pp. 1492-1501. Ecological Society of America 10.1890/14-1307.1

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Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how it alters relationships between the diversities of different taxonomic groups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions. Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (increased fertilization, higher livestock densities, and increased mowing frequency) altered correlations between the species richness of 15 plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. We found that 54% of pairwise correlations between taxonomic groups were significant and positive among all grasslands, while only one was negative. Higher land-use intensity substantially weakened these correlations (35% decrease in r and 43% fewer significant pairwise correlations at high intensity), a pattern which may emerge as a result of biodiversity declines and the breakdown of specialized relationships in these conditions. Nevertheless, some groups (Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera) were consistently correlated with multidiversity, an aggregate measure of total biodiversity comprised of the standardized diversities of multiple taxa, at both high and low land-use intensity. The form of intensification was also important; increased fertilization and mowing frequency typically weakened plant–plant and plant–primary consumer correlations, whereas grazing intensification did not. This may reflect decreased habitat heterogeneity under mowing and fertilization and increased habitat heterogeneity under grazing. While these results urge caution in using certain taxonomic groups to monitor impacts of agricultural management on biodiversity, they also suggest that the diversities of some groups are reasonably robust indicators of total biodiversity across a range of conditions.

Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/10.1890/14-1307.1

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant Ecology
10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Plant Community Ecology

UniBE Contributor:

Manning, Peter, Bossdorf, Oliver, Allan, Eric, Zhang, Yuanye, Prati, Daniel, Boch, Steffen, Socher, Stephanie, Fischer, Markus

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0012-9658

Publisher:

Ecological Society of America

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

03 Jul 2015 14:49

Last Modified:

21 Nov 2023 11:59

Publisher DOI:

10.1890/14-1307.1

Uncontrolled Keywords:

biodiversity indicators, correlation, fertilization, grassland management, grazing, land-use change, land-use intensity, mowing, multidiversity, multitrophic interactions

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.70097

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/70097

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