Scientific and local ecological knowledge, shaping perceptions towards protected areas and related ecosystem services

Context Most protected areas are managed based on objectives related to scientific ecological knowledge of species and ecosystems. However, a core principle of sustainability science is that understanding and including local ecological knowledge, perceptions of ecosystem service provision and landscape vulnerability will improve sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems. Here, we take up these assumptions in the context of protected areas to provide insight on the effectiveness of nature protection goals, particularly in highly human-influenced landscapes. Objectives We examined how residents' ecological knowledge systems, comprised of both local and scientific, mediated the relationship between their characteristics and a set of variables that represented perceptions of ecosystem services, landscape change, human-nature relationships, and impacts. Methods We administered a face-to-face survey to local residents in the Sierra de Guadarrama protected areas, Spain. We used bi- and multi-variate analysis, including partial least squares path modeling to test our hypotheses. Results Ecological knowledge systems were highly correlated and were instrumental in predicting perceptions of water-related ecosystem services, landscape change, increasing outdoors activities, and human-nature relationships. Engagement with nature, socio-demographics, trip characteristics, and a rural-urban gradient explained a high degree of variation in ecological knowledge. Bundles of perceived ecosystem services and impacts, in relation to ecological knowledge, emerged as social representation on how residents relate to, understand, and perceive landscapes. Conclusions Our findings provide insight into the interactions between ecological knowledge systems and their role in shaping perceptions of local communities about protected areas. These results are expected to inform protected area management and landscape sustainability.Peer reviewe

Patterns of long‐term vegetation change vary between different types of semi‐natural grasslands in Western and Central Europe

Questions: Has plant species richness in semi‐natural grasslands changed over recent decades? Do the temporal trends of habitat specialists differ from those of habitat generalists? Has there been a homogenization of the grassland vegetation? Location: Different regions in Germany and the UK. Methods: We conducted a formal meta‐analysis of re‐survey vegetation studies of semi‐natural grasslands. In total, 23 data sets were compiled, spanning up to 75 years between the surveys, including 13 data sets from wet grasslands, six from dry grasslands and four from other grassland types. Edaphic conditions were assessed using mean Ellenberg indicator values for soil moisture, nitrogen and pH. Changes in species richness and environmental variables were evaluated using response ratios. Results: In most wet grasslands, total species richness declined over time, while habitat specialists almost completely vanished. The number of species losses increased with increasing time between the surveys and were associated with a strong decrease in soil moisture and higher soil nutrient contents. Wet grasslands in nature reserves showed no such changes or even opposite trends. In dry grasslands and other grassland types, total species richness did not consistently change, but the number or proportions of habitat specialists declined. There were also considerable changes in species composition, especially in wet grasslands that often have been converted into intensively managed, highly productive meadows or pastures. We did not find a general homogenization of the vegetation in any of the grassland types. Conclusions: The results document the widespread deterioration of semi‐natural grasslands, especially of those types that can easily be transformed to high production grasslands. The main causes for the loss of grassland specialists are changed management in combination with increased fertilization and nitrogen deposition. Dry grasslands are most resistant to change, but also show a long‐term trend towards an increase in more mesotrophic species

Using incomplete floristic monitoring data from habitat mapping programmes to detect species trends

Aim: The loss of biodiversity has raised serious concerns about the entailing losses of ecosystem services. Here, we explore the potential of repeated habitat mapping data to identify floristic changes over time. Using one German federal state as a case study, we assessed floristic changes between the 1980s and 2010s. These habitat data have great potential for analysis because of their high spatial coverage while also posing methodological challenges such as incomplete observation data. We developed a modelling approach that accounts for incomplete observations and explored the ability to detect temporal trends. Location: The Federal State of Schleswig‐Holstein (Germany) Methods: We compiled plant species lists from the earliest (1980s) and most recent (2010s) habitat mapping survey and aligned differing habitat definitions across mapping campaigns. A total of 5,503 mapped polygons, each with a list of species records, intersected the two surveys. We accounted for underrecorded species by assigning occurrence probabilities, based on species co‐occurrence information across all surveys, using Beals' index and tested the robustness of this approach by simulation experiments. For those species with significant increases and decreases in occurrence probability, we linked these trends to the species' functional characteristics. Results: We found a systematic loss of species that are moderately threatened. Species that indicate low nitrogen supply and high soil moisture declined, suggesting a shift towards a more eutrophic and drier landscape. Importantly, assessing specific plant traits associated with losses, we also detected a decrease in species with reddish and blueish flowers and species providing nectar, pointing to a decrease of insect‐pollinated taxa. Main conclusions: The identified changes raise concerns that plant biodiversity has fundamentally changed over the last three decades, with concomitant consequences for ecosystem services, especially pollination. Given the general lack of historical standardized data, our approach for trend analyses using incomplete observation data may be widely applicable to assess long‐term biodiversity change

<scp>ReSurveyEurope</scp>: A database of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe

AbstractAimsWe introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We describe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, including potential research questions.ResultsReSurveyEurope includes resurveyed vegetation plots from all habitats. Version 1.0 of ReSurveyEurope contains 283,135 observations (i.e., individual surveys of each plot) from 79,190 plots sampled in 449 independent resurvey projects. Of these, 62,139 (78%) are permanent plots, that is, marked in situ, or located with GPS, which allow for high spatial accuracy in resurvey. The remaining 17,051 (22%) plots are from studies in which plots from the initial survey could not be exactly relocated. Four data sets, which together account for 28,470 (36%) plots, provide only presence/absence information on plant species, while the remaining 50,720 (64%) plots contain abundance information (e.g., percentage cover or cover–abundance classes such as variants of the Braun‐Blanquet scale). The oldest plots were sampled in 1911 in the Swiss Alps, while most plots were sampled between 1950 and 2020.ConclusionsReSurveyEurope is a new resource to address a wide range of research questions on fine‐scale changes in European vegetation. The initiative is devoted to an inclusive and transparent governance and data usage approach, based on slightly adapted rules of the well‐established European Vegetation Archive (EVA). ReSurveyEurope data are ready for use, and proposals for analyses of the data set can be submitted at any time to the coordinators. Still, further data contributions are highly welcome.</jats:sec

Forest herb layer response to long-term light deficit along a forest developmental series

Temperate deciduous forest communities are slow-changing systems, with herbaceous understorey communities displaying a delayed response to overstorey canopy and light dynamics. While light availability constrains herbaceous understorey diversity and composition in space and time, its response in the long-term absence of light has seldom been quantified, particularly as it is often confounded by covariation in soil conditions. We studied a developmental high-forest series in two widespread NW-European temperate deciduous forest communities with different dominant canopy tree species: Stellario-Carpinetum (Oak-hornbeam canopy) and Milio-Fagetum (Beech canopy). All plots had soil conditions which were not significantly different, enabling investigation into the direct effects of the long-term absence of light on the herbaceous understorey, disentangled from the confounding effects of soil variation. Plant species richness measures declined with canopy cover continuity in the herb layer of the oak-hornbeam stands, whereas richness in the herb layer of the beech stands displayed a unimodal response. Nonetheless, in both plant communities, species richness and closed-forest species richness were negatively affected by the extended absence of light in stands with the longest period of continuous canopy cover. The long-term limitation or decline in quantitative and qualitative light availability as a result of extended periods of canopy cover was shown to be the primary driver behind losses in alpha-diversity, community composition turn-over and individual species dynamics. Heliophilous species were lost from both communities, while closed-forest species also declined, as a direct consequence of the prolonged period without ample light on the forest floor. This study demonstrates how the herb layer is affected by the absence of light on the forest floor mediated by long periods of continuous canopy cover. Despite different temporal responses in herb layer richness and composition between different shade-casting canopy species, the eventual outcome in the prolonged absence of light is independent of dominant canopy species.status: publishe

Forest herb layer response to long-term light deficit along a forest developmental series

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