Nitrogen Pollution Is Linked to US Listed Species Declines

Nitrogen (N) pollution is increasingly recognized as a threat to biodiversity. However, our understanding of how N is affecting vulnerable species across taxa and broad spatial scales is limited. We surveyed approximately 1400 species in the continental United States listed as candidate, threatened, or endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to assess the extent of recognized N-pollution effects on biodiversity in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We found 78 federally listed species recognized as affected by N pollution. To illustrate the complexity of tracing N impacts on listed species, we describe an interdisciplinary case study that addressed the threat of N pollution to California Bay Area serpentine grasslands. We demonstrate that N pollution has affected threatened species via multiple pathways and argue that existing legal and policy regulations can be applied to address the biodiversity consequences of N pollution in conjunction with scientific evidence tracing N impact pathways

Nitrogen Pollution Is Linked to US Listed Species Declines

Nitrogen (N) pollution is increasingly recognized as a threat to biodiversity. However, our understanding of how N is affecting vulnerable species across taxa and broad spatial scales is limited. We surveyed approximately 1400 species in the continental United States listed as candidate, threatened, or endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to assess the extent of recognized N-pollution effects on biodiversity in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We found 78 federally listed species recognized as affected by N pollution. To illustrate the complexity of tracing N impacts on listed species, we describe an interdisciplinary case study that addressed the threat of N pollution to California Bay Area serpentine grasslands. We demonstrate that N pollution has affected threatened species via multiple pathways and argue that existing legal and policy regulations can be applied to address the biodiversity consequences of N pollution in conjunction with scientific evidence tracing N impact pathways

Incorporating Ecosystem Functional Diversity into Geographic Conservation Priorities Using Remotely Sensed Ecosystem Functional Types

Conservation biology must set geographic conservation priorities not only based on the compositional or structural but also on the functional dimensions of biodiversity. However, assessing functional diversity is challenging at the regional scale. We propose the use of satellite-derived Ecosystem Functional Types (EFTs), defined here as patches of land surface that share similar primary production dynamics, to incorporate such aspects of ecosystem functional diversity into the selection of protected areas. We applied the EFT approach to the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico, to characterize the regional heterogeneity of primary production dynamics in terms of EFTs; to set conservation priorities based on EFT richness and rarity; and to explore whether such EFT-based conservation priorities were consistent with and/or complementary to previous assessments focused on biodiversity composition and structure. EFTs were identified based on three ecosystem functional attributes derived from seasonal dynamics of the Enhanced Vegetation Index: the annual mean (proxy of primary production), the seasonal coefficient of variation (descriptor of seasonality), and the date of maximum (indicator of phenology). EFT-based priorities identified 26% of the peninsula as being of extreme or high priority and reinforced the value of the ecosystem functional diversity of areas already prioritized by traditional conservation assessments. In addition, our study revealed that biodiversity composition- and structure-based assessments had not identified the full range of important areas for EFT diversity and tended to better capture areas of high EFT rarity than those of high EFT richness. Our EFT-based assessment demonstrates how remotely sensed regional heterogeneity in ecosystem functions could reinforce and complement traditional conservation priority setting.European Union (EU)Spanish MINECO CGL2014-61610-EXPUniversity of Almeria (PhD contract: research training program)European Union (EU) 641762NASA 2016 GEOBON Work Programme Grant 80NSSC18K044

The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate

Plant biodiversity is often correlated with ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems. However, we know little about the relative and combined effects of above-and belowground biodiversity on multiple ecosystem functions (for example, ecosystem multifunctionality, EMF) or how climate might mediate those relationships. Here we tease apart the effects of biotic and abiotic factors, both above- and belowground, on EMF on the Tibetan Plateau, China. We found that a suite of biotic and abiotic variables account for up to 86% of the variation in EMF, with the combined effects of above-and belowground biodiversity accounting for 45% of the variation in EMF. Our results have two important implications: first, including belowground biodiversity in models can improve the ability to explain and predict EMF. Second, regional-scale variation in climate, and perhaps climate change, can determine, or at least modify, the effects of biodiversity on EMF in natural ecosystems.National Basic Research Program of China [2014CB954004, 2014CB954002]; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDA05050404, XDB03030403]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [31025005, 31321061, 41071167]; National Science Foundation Dimensions of Biodiversity grant [NSF-1136703]; Danish National Research Foundation; US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Terrestrial Ecosystem Sciences Program Award [DE-SC0010562]SCI(E)[email protected]