TY - JOUR

T1 - Grassland management intensification weakens the associations among the diversities of multiple plant and animal taxa

AU - Manning, Pete

AU - Gossner, Martin M.

AU - Bossdorf, Oliver

AU - Allan, Eric

AU - Zhang, Yuan Ye

AU - Prati, Daniel

AU - Blüthgen, Nico

AU - Boch, Steffen

AU - Böhm, Stefan

AU - Börschig, Carmen

AU - Hölzel, Norbert

AU - Jung, Kirsten

AU - Klaus, Valentin H.

AU - Klein, Alexandra Maria

AU - Kleinebecker, Till

AU - Krauss, Jochen

AU - Lange, Markus

AU - Müller, Jörg

AU - PAŠALIć, Esther

AU - Socher, Stephanie A.

AU - Tschapka, Marco

AU - Türke, Manfred

AU - Weiner, Christiane

AU - Werner, Michael

AU - Gockel, Sonja

AU - Hemp, Andreas

AU - Renner, Swen C.

AU - Wells, Konstans

AU - Buscot, François

AU - Kalko, Elisabeth K.V.

AU - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard

AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.

AU - Fischer, Markus

PY - 2015/6/1

Y1 - 2015/6/1

N2 - Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how italters relationships between the diversities of different tax on omicgroups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions.Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (increased fertilization, higher livestock densities, and increased mowing frequency) altered correlations between the species richness of 15 plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. We found that 54%of pairwise correlations between taxonomic groups were significant and positive among all grasslands, while only one was negative. Higher land-use intensity substantially weakened these correlations (35% decrease in rand 43% fewer significantpair wise correlations at high intensity), apattern which may emerge as a result of biodiversity declines and the breakdown of specialized relationships in these conditions. Nevertheless, some groups (Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera) were consistently correlated with multidiversity, an aggregate measure of total biodiversity comprised of the standardized diversities of multiple taxa, at both high and lowland-use intensity. The form of intensification was also important; increased fertilization and mowing frequency typically weakened plant-plantand plant-primary consumer correlations, whereas grazingintensification didnot. This may reflect decreased habitat heterogeneity under mowing and fertilization and increased habitat heterogeneity under grazing.While these results urge caution in using certain taxonomic groups to monitor impacts of agricultural management on biodiversity, they also suggest that the diversities of some groups are reasonably robust indicators of total biodiversity across a range of conditions.

AB - Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how italters relationships between the diversities of different tax on omicgroups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions.Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (increased fertilization, higher livestock densities, and increased mowing frequency) altered correlations between the species richness of 15 plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. We found that 54%of pairwise correlations between taxonomic groups were significant and positive among all grasslands, while only one was negative. Higher land-use intensity substantially weakened these correlations (35% decrease in rand 43% fewer significantpair wise correlations at high intensity), apattern which may emerge as a result of biodiversity declines and the breakdown of specialized relationships in these conditions. Nevertheless, some groups (Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera) were consistently correlated with multidiversity, an aggregate measure of total biodiversity comprised of the standardized diversities of multiple taxa, at both high and lowland-use intensity. The form of intensification was also important; increased fertilization and mowing frequency typically weakened plant-plantand plant-primary consumer correlations, whereas grazingintensification didnot. This may reflect decreased habitat heterogeneity under mowing and fertilization and increased habitat heterogeneity under grazing.While these results urge caution in using certain taxonomic groups to monitor impacts of agricultural management on biodiversity, they also suggest that the diversities of some groups are reasonably robust indicators of total biodiversity across a range of conditions.

KW - Biodiversity indicators

KW - Correlation

KW - Fertilization

KW - Grassland management

KW - Grazing

KW - Land-use change

KW - Land-use intensity

KW - Mowing

KW - Multidiversity

KW - Multitrophic interactions

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930825715&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1890/14-1307.1

DO - 10.1890/14-1307.1

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84930825715

VL - 96

SP - 1492

EP - 1501

JO - Ecology

JF - Ecology

SN - 0012-9658

IS - 6

ER -