TY  - JOUR
A1  - Allan, Eric
A1  - Bossdorf, Oliver
A1  - Dormann, Carsten F.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Bellach, Michaela
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Böhm, Stefan
A1  - Börschig, Carmen
A1  - Chatzinotas, Antonis
A1  - Christ, Sabina
A1  - Daniel, Rolf
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Fischer, Christiane
A1  - Friedl, Thomas
A1  - Glaser, Karin
A1  - Hallmann, Christine
A1  - Hodac, Ladislav
A1  - Hölzel, Norbert
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Klein, Alexandra Maria
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Morris, E. Kathryn
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Nacke, Heiko
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Rillig, Matthias C.
A1  - Rothenwoehrer, Christoph
A1  - Schally, Peter
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Schulze, Waltraud X.
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Steckel, Juliane
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Gorke, Martin
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Pfeiffer, Simone
A1  - König-Ries, Birgitta
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
T1  - Interannual variation in land-use intensity enhances grassland multidiversity
JF  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
N2  - Although temporal heterogeneity is a well-accepted driver of biodiversity, effects of interannual variation in land-use intensity (LUI) have not been addressed yet. Additionally, responses to land use can differ greatly among different organisms; therefore, overall effects of land-use on total local biodiversity are hardly known. To test for effects of LUI (quantified as the combined intensity of fertilization, grazing, and mowing) and interannual variation in LUI (SD in LUI across time), we introduce a unique measure of whole-ecosystem biodiversity, multidiversity. This synthesizes individual diversity measures across up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria from 150 grasslands. Multidiversity declined with increasing LUI among grasslands, particularly for rarer species and aboveground organisms, whereas common species and belowground groups were less sensitive. However, a high level of interannual variation in LUI increased overall multidiversity at low LUI and was even more beneficial for rarer species because it slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rare species declined with increasing LUI. In more intensively managed grasslands, the diversity of rarer species was, on average, 18% of the maximum diversity across all grasslands when LUI was static over time but increased to 31% of the maximum when LUI changed maximally over time. In addition to decreasing overall LUI, we suggest varying LUI across years as a complementary strategy to promote biodiversity conservation.
KW  - biodiversity loss
KW  - agricultural grasslands
KW  - Biodiversity Exploratories
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1312213111
SN  - 0027-8424
VL  - 111
IS  - 1
SP  - 308
EP  - 313
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Dormann, Carsten F.
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Klaus, Valentin H.
A1  - Kleinebecker, Till
A1  - Hoelzel, Norbert
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Nieschulze, Jens
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Schumacher, Uta
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Wells, Konstans
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Rothenwöhrer, Christoph
A1  - Scherber, Christoph
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Schulze, Ernst-Detlef
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
T1  - A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization
JF  - Basic and applied ecology : Journal of the Gesellschaft für Ökologie
N2  - Land use is increasingly recognized as a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in many current research projects. In grasslands, land use is often classified by categorical descriptors such as pastures versus meadows or fertilized versus unfertilized sites. However, to account for the quantitative variation of multiple land-use types in heterogeneous landscapes, a quantitative, continuous index of land-use intensity (LUI) is desirable. Here we define such a compound, additive LUI index for managed grasslands including meadows and pastures. The LUI index summarizes the standardized intensity of three components of land use, namely fertilization, mowing, and livestock grazing at each site. We examined the performance of the LUI index to predict selected response variables on up to 150 grassland sites in the Biodiversity Exploratories in three regions in Germany(Alb, Hainich, Schorlheide). We tested the average Ellenberg nitrogen indicator values of the plant community, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration in the aboveground plant biomass, plant-available phosphorus concentration in the top soil, and soil C/N ratio, and the first principle component of these five response variables.
 The LUI index significantly predicted the principal component of all five response variables, as well as some of the individual responses. Moreover, vascular plant diversity decreased significantly with LUI in two regions (Alb and Hainich).
 Inter-annual changes in management practice were pronounced from 2006 to 2008, particularly due to variation in grazing intensity. This rendered the selection of the appropriate reference year(s) an important decision for analyses of land-use effects, whereas details in the standardization of the index were of minor importance. We also tested several alternative calculations of a LUI index, but all are strongly linearly correlated to the proposed index.
 The proposed LUI index reduces the complexity of agricultural practices to a single dimension and may serve as a baseline to test how different groups of organisms and processes respond to land use. In combination with more detailed analyses, this index may help to unravel whether and how land-use intensities, associated disturbance levels or other local or regional influences drive ecological processes.
KW  - Agro-ecosystems
KW  - Biodiversity exploratories
KW  - Grassland management
KW  - Land-use impacts
KW  - Livestock density
KW  - Meadows
KW  - Nitrogen
KW  - Pastures
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001
SN  - 1439-1791
VL  - 13
IS  - 3
SP  - 207
EP  - 220
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Jena
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gossner, Martin M.
A1  - Lewinsohn, Thomas M.
A1  - Kahl, Tiemo
A1  - Grassein, Fabrice
A1  - Boch, Steffen
A1  - Prati, Daniel
A1  - Birkhofer, Klaus
A1  - Renner, Swen C.
A1  - Sikorski, Johannes
A1  - Wubet, Tesfaye
A1  - Arndt, Hartmut
A1  - Baumgartner, Vanessa
A1  - Blaser, Stefan
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Börschig, Carmen
A1  - Buscot, Francois
A1  - Diekötter, Tim
A1  - Jorge, Leonardo Re
A1  - Jung, Kirsten
A1  - Keyel, Alexander C.
A1  - Klein, Alexandra-Maria
A1  - Klemmer, Sandra
A1  - Krauss, Jochen
A1  - Lange, Markus
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Pasalic, Esther
A1  - Penone, Caterina
A1  - Perovic, David J.
A1  - Purschke, Oliver
A1  - Schall, Peter
A1  - Socher, Stephanie A.
A1  - Sonnemann, Ilja
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Tscharntke, Teja
A1  - Türke, Manfred
A1  - Venter, Paul Christiaan
A1  - Weiner, Christiane N.
A1  - Werner, Michael
A1  - Wolters, Volkmar
A1  - Wurst, Susanne
A1  - Westphal, Catrin
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Allan, Eric
T1  - Land-use intensification causes multitrophic homogenization of grassland communities
JF  - Nature : the international weekly journal of science
N2  - Land-use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss(1,2). Alongside reductions in local species diversity, biotic homogenization at larger spatial scales is of great concern for conservation. Biotic homogenization means a decrease in beta-diversity (the compositional dissimilarity between sites). Most studies have investigated losses in local (alpha)-diversity(1,3) and neglected biodiversity loss at larger spatial scales. Studies addressing beta-diversity have focused on single or a few organism groups (for example, ref. 4), and it is thus unknown whether land-use intensification homogenizes communities at different trophic levels, above-and belowground. Here we show that even moderate increases in local land-use intensity (LUI) cause biotic homogenization across microbial, plant and animal groups, both above- and belowground, and that this is largely independent of changes in alpha-diversity. We analysed a unique grassland biodiversity dataset, with abundances of more than 4,000 species belonging to 12 trophic groups. LUI, and, in particular, high mowing intensity, had consistent effects on beta-diversity across groups, causing a homogenization of soil microbial, fungal pathogen, plant and arthropod communities. These effects were nonlinear and the strongest declines in beta-diversity occurred in the transition from extensively managed to intermediate intensity grassland. LUI tended to reduce local alpha-diversity in aboveground groups, whereas the alpha-diversity increased in belowground groups. Correlations between the alpha-diversity of different groups, particularly between plants and their consumers, became weaker at high LUI. This suggests a loss of specialist species and is further evidence for biotic homogenization. The consistently negative effects of LUI on landscape-scale biodiversity underscore the high value of extensively managed grasslands for conserving multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. Indeed, biotic homogenization rather than local diversity loss could prove to be the most substantial consequence of land-use intensification.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/nature20575
SN  - 0028-0836
SN  - 1476-4687
VL  - 540
SP  - 266
EP  - +
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -