Disentangling natural and anthropogenic drivers of native and non‐native plant diversity on North Sea islands

Abstract Aim Biodiversity on islands is commonly explained by a set of natural drivers such as area, isolation and habitat heterogeneity. However, constant human impact has led to considerable changes in island floras worldwide. This is reflected, among others, in increased numbers of non‐native species. Barrier islands are discrete land units, strongly influenced by humans and not displaying significant evolutionary dynamics. This makes them highly suitable for studying contemporary patterns of species richness and underlying processes. We aim to disentangle the effects of established natural and anthropogenic drivers on native and non‐native plant species richness at the example of 31 European barrier islands. Location 31 North Sea barrier islands located off the Dutch, German and Danish coast. Taxon Native and non‐native plant species (spermatophytes and ferns). Methods Individual relationships of natural and anthropogenic drivers with native and non‐native plant species richness are analysed with generalised linear models (GLMs). We use structural equation models (SEMs) to additionally account for interrelations between drivers. Results Island area was the strongest predictor of native and non‐native plant species richness but affected richness mostly indirectly through habitat heterogeneity (non‐native species) and island inhabitants (native species). Isolation had a slight negative effect on native and non‐native plant species numbers on islands. Main Conclusions The richness of native and non‐native plant species on islands is associated with different drivers, that is, habitat heterogeneity and island inhabitants respectively. This might be caused by distinct underlying processes forming native and non‐native richness patterns. Area was confirmed to be the most important driver of species richness but acting primarily through other natural and anthropogenic drivers of plant species richness. We encourage considering both natural and anthropogenic drivers and their interrelatedness to explain contemporary biogeographic patterns of species richness.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft https://doi.org/10.13039/50110000165

Climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas

High resolution information on climatic conditions is essential to many applications in environmental and ecological sciences. Here we present the CHELSA Climatologies at high resolution for the earths land surface areas data of downscaled model output temperature and precipitation estimates of the ERA Interim climatic reanalysis to a high resolution of 30 arc seconds. The temperature algorithm is based on statistical downscaling of atmospheric temperatures. The precipitation algorithm incorporates orographic predictors including wind fields, valley exposition, and boundary layer height with a subsequent bias correction. The resulting data consist of a monthly temperature and precipitation climatology for the years 1979 to 2013. We compare the data derived from the CHELSA algorithm with other standard gridded products and station data from the Global Historical Climate Network. We compare the performance of the new climatologies in species distribution modelling and show that we can increase the accuracy of species range predictions. We further show that CHELSA climatological data has a similar accuracy as other products for temperature but that its predictions of precipitation patterns are better

Climatic and biogeographical drivers of functional diversity in the flora of the Canary Islands

Aim Functional traits can help us to elucidate biogeographical and ecological processes driving assemblage structure. We analysed the functional diversity of plant species of different evolutionary origins across an island archipelago, along environmental gradients and across geological age, to assess functional aspects of island biogeographical theory. Location Canary Islands, Spain. Major taxa studied Spermatophytes. Time period Present day. Methods We collected data for four traits (plant height, leaf length, flower length and fruit length) associated with resource acquisition, competitive ability, reproduction and dispersal ability of 893 endemic, non-endemic native and alien plant species (c. 43% of the Canary Island flora) from the literature. Linking these traits to species occurrences and composition across a 500 m × 500 m grid, we calculated functional diversity for endemic, non-endemic native and alien assemblages using multidimensional functional hypervolumes and related the resulting patterns to climatic (humidity) and island biogeographical (geographical isolation, topographic complexity and geological age) gradients. Results Trait space of endemic and non-endemic native species overlapped considerably, and alien species added novel trait combinations, expanding the overall functional space of the Canary Islands. We found that functional diversity of endemic plant assemblages was highest in geographically isolated and humid grid cells. Functional diversity of non-endemic native assemblages was highest in less isolated and humid grid cells. In contrast, functional diversity of alien assemblages was highest in arid ecosystems. Topographic complexity and geological age had only a subordinate effect on functional diversity across floristic groups. Main conclusions We found that endemic and non-endemic native island species possess similar traits, whereas alien species tend to expand functional space in ecosystems where they have been introduced. The spatial distribution of the functional diversity of floristic groups is very distinct across environmental gradients, indicating that species assemblages of different evolutionary origins thrive functionally in dissimilar habitats.publishedVersio

Devenirs militants:Introduction

Présenter un dossier sur l’engagement qui mette sur le même plan les pratiques militantes dans les partis politiques, les organisations syndicales, le monde associatif et plus généralement les entreprises de mouvement social, pourra paraître osé. C’est que, pendant longtemps, le militantisme a été pensé sous les seules espèces du travail partisan et syndical, dans un contexte où la définition de la participation politique demeurait étroitement cantonnée à l’action dite « conventionnelle ». [Premier paragraphe de l'article

Global Conservation Significance of Ecuador's Yasuní National Park

Margot S. Bass is with Finding Species, Matt Finer is with Save America's Forests, Clinton N. Jenkins is with Duke University and University of Maryland, Holger Kreft is with University of California San Diego, Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia is with King's College London and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Shawn F. McCracken is with Texas State University and the TADPOLE Organization, Nigel C. A. Pitman is with Duke University, Peter H. English is with UT Austin, Kelly Swing is with Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Gorky Villa is with Finding Species, Anthony Di Fiore is with New York University, Christian C. Voigt is with Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Thomas H. Kunz is with Boston University.Background -- The threats facing Ecuador's Yasuní National Park are emblematic of those confronting the greater western Amazon, one of the world's last high-biodiversity wilderness areas. Notably, the country's second largest untapped oil reserves—called “ITT”—lie beneath an intact, remote section of the park. The conservation significance of Yasuní may weigh heavily in upcoming state-level and international decisions, including whether to develop the oil or invest in alternatives. Methodology/Principal Findings -- We conducted the first comprehensive synthesis of biodiversity data for Yasuní. Mapping amphibian, bird, mammal, and plant distributions, we found eastern Ecuador and northern Peru to be the only regions in South America where species richness centers for all four taxonomic groups overlap. This quadruple richness center has only one viable strict protected area (IUCN levels I–IV): Yasuní. The park covers just 14% of the quadruple richness center's area, whereas active or proposed oil concessions cover 79%. Using field inventory data, we compared Yasuní's local (alpha) and landscape (gamma) diversity to other sites, in the western Amazon and globally. These analyses further suggest that Yasuní is among the most biodiverse places on Earth, with apparent world richness records for amphibians, reptiles, bats, and trees. Yasuní also protects a considerable number of threatened species and regional endemics. Conclusions/Significance -- Yasuní has outstanding global conservation significance due to its extraordinary biodiversity and potential to sustain this biodiversity in the long term because of its 1) large size and wilderness character, 2) intact large-vertebrate assemblage, 3) IUCN level-II protection status in a region lacking other strict protected areas, and 4) likelihood of maintaining wet, rainforest conditions while anticipated climate change-induced drought intensifies in the eastern Amazon. However, further oil development in Yasuní jeopardizes its conservation values. These findings form the scientific basis for policy recommendations, including stopping any new oil activities and road construction in Yasuní and creating areas off-limits to large-scale development in adjacent northern Peru.The Blue Moon Fund, the Conservation, Food & Health Foundation, and the Forrest and Frances Lattner Foundation funded MF. The US National Science Foundation (Graduate Research Fellowship Program), Texas State University-Department of Biology, and TADPOLE funded SM. The US National Science Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and Primate Conservation, Inc. funded AD. Establishment of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station supported by the US National Science Foundation–DBI-0434875 (Thomas H. Kunz, PI, with Laura M. MacLatchy, Christopher J. Schneider, and C. Kelly Swing, Co-PIs). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Biological Sciences, School o

Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands

Aim Oceanic islands possess unique floras with high proportions of endemic species. Island floras are expected to be severely affected by changing climatic conditions as species on islands have limited distribution ranges and small population sizes and face the constraints of insularity to track their climatic niches. We aimed to assess how ongoing climate change affects the range sizes of oceanic island plants, identifying species of particular conservation concern. Location Canary Islands, Spain. Methods We combined species occurrence data from single-island endemic, archipelago endemic and nonendemic native plant species of the Canary Islands with data on current and future climatic conditions. Bayesian Additive Regression Trees were used to assess the effect of climate change on species distributions; 71% (n = 502 species) of the native Canary Island species had models deemed good enough. To further assess how climate change affects plant functional strategies, we collected data on woodiness and succulence. Results Single-island endemic species were projected to lose a greater proportion of their climatically suitable area (x ̃ = −0.36) than archipelago endemics (x ̃ = −0.28) or nonendemic native species (x ̃ = −0.26), especially on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which are expected to experience less annual precipitation in the future. Moreover, herbaceous single-island endemics were projected to gain less and lose more climatically suitable area than insular woody single-island endemics. By contrast, we found that succulent single-island endemics and nonendemic natives gain more and lose less climatically suitable area. Main Conclusions While all native species are of conservation importance, we emphasise single-island endemic species not characterised by functional strategies associated with water use efficiency. Our results are particularly critical for other oceanic island floras that are not constituted by such a vast diversity of insular woody species as the Canary Islands

Scientific floras can be reliable sources for some trait data in a system with poor coverage in global trait databases

Aim: Trait‐based approaches are increasingly important in ecology and biogeography, but progress is often hampered by the availability of high‐quality quantitative trait data collected in the field. Alternative sources of trait information include scientific floras and taxonomic monographs. Here we test the reliability and usefulness of trait data acquired from scientific floras against trait values measured in the field, and those in TRY, the most comprehensive global plant trait database. Location: Tenerife and La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. Methods: We measured leaf area and specific leaf area (SLA) in the field for 451 native vascular plant species and compared them with equivalent trait data digitised from the most recent and comprehensive guide of the Canarian flora, and data sourced from TRY. We regressed the field‐measured traits against their equivalents estimated from the literature and used the regression models from one island to predict the trait values on the other island. Results: For leaf area, linear models showed good agreement between values from the scientific flora and those measured in the field (r2 = 0.86). These models were spatially transferable across islands. In contrast, for SLA we found a weak relationship between field‐measured values and the best estimates from the scientific flora (r2 = 0.11). Insufficient data were available in the TRY database for our study area to calculate trait correlations with other data sources. Conclusions: Scientific floras can act as useful data sources for quantitative plant trait data for some traits but not others, whilst the TRY database contains many traits, but is incomplete in species coverage for our study region, and oceanic islands in general

Global mismatches in aboveground and belowground biodiversity

Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well-being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.Peer reviewe

Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant functional strategies on the Canary Islands

peer reviewedAim Oceanic islands possess unique floras with high proportions of endemic species. Island floras are expected to be severely affected by changing climatic conditions as species on islands have limited distribution ranges and small population sizes and face the constraints of insularity to track their climatic niches. We aimed to assess how ongoing climate change affects the range sizes of oceanic island plants, identifying species of particular conservation concern. Location Canary Islands, Spain. Methods We combined species occurrence data from single-island endemic, archipelago endemic and nonendemic native plant species of the Canary Islands with data on current and future climatic conditions. Bayesian Additive Regression Trees were used to assess the effect of climate change on species distributions; 71% (n = 502 species) of the native Canary Island species had models deemed good enough. To further assess how climate change affects plant functional strategies, we collected data on woodiness and succulence. Results Single-island endemic species were projected to lose a greater proportion of their climatically suitable area (x ̃ = −0.36) than archipelago endemics (x ̃ = −0.28) or nonendemic native species (x ̃ = −0.26), especially on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which are expected to experience less annual precipitation in the future. Moreover, herbaceous single-island endemics were projected to gain less and lose more climatically suitable area than insular woody single-island endemics. By contrast, we found that succulent single-island endemics and nonendemic natives gain more and lose less climatically suitable area. Main Conclusions While all native species are of conservation importance, we emphasise single-island endemic species not characterised by functional strategies associated with water use efficiency. Our results are particularly critical for other oceanic island floras that are not constituted by such a vast diversity of insular woody species as the Canary Islands

All Is Not Loss: Plant Biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Anthropogenic global changes in biodiversity are generally portrayed in terms of massive native species losses or invasions caused by recent human disturbance. Yet these biodiversity changes and others caused directly by human populations and their use of land tend to co-occur as long-term biodiversity change processes in the Anthropocene. Here we explore contemporary anthropogenic global patterns in vascular plant species richness at regional landscape scales by combining spatially explicit models and estimates for native species loss together with gains in exotics caused by species invasions and the introduction of agricultural domesticates and ornamental exotic plants. The patterns thus derived confirm that while native losses are likely significant across at least half of Earth's ice-free land, model predictions indicate that plant species richness has increased overall in most regional landscapes, mostly because species invasions tend to exceed native losses. While global observing systems and models that integrate anthropogenic species loss, introduction and invasion at regional landscape scales remain at an early stage of development, integrating predictions from existing models within a single assessment confirms their vast global extent and significance while revealing novel patterns and their potential drivers. Effective global stewardship of plant biodiversity in the Anthropocene will require integrated frameworks for observing, modeling and forecasting the different forms of anthropogenic biodiversity change processes at regional landscape scales, towards conserving biodiversity within the novel plant communities created and sustained by human systems