Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity

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, and others. (2015) Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature, 520 . pp. 45-50. ISSN 0028-0836. E-ISSN 1476-4687. (doi:10.1038/nature14324) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:100863)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14324

Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.1038/nature14324
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology)
Divisions:	Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User:	Daniel Ingram
Date Deposited:	12 Apr 2023 08:53 UTC
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2023 10:10 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/100863 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ingram, Daniel J..

Creator's ORCID:	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5843-220X
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