TY - JOUR

T1 - Landscape simplification filters species traits and drives biotic homogenization

AU - Gámez-Virués, Sagrario

AU - Perović, David J

AU - Gossner, Martin M

AU - Börschig, Carmen

AU - Blüthgen, Nico

AU - de Jong, Heike

AU - Simons, Nadja K

AU - Klein, Alexandra-Maria

AU - Krauss, Jochen

AU - Maier, Gwen

AU - Scherber, Christoph

AU - Steckel, Juliane

AU - Rothenwöhrer, Christoph

AU - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf

AU - Weiner, Christiane N

AU - Weisser, Wolfgang

AU - Werner, Michael

AU - Tscharntke, Teja

AU - Westphal, Catrin

PY - 2015/10/20

Y1 - 2015/10/20

N2 - Biodiversity loss can affect the viability of ecosystems by decreasing the ability of communities to respond to environmental change and disturbances. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss and has multiple components operating at different spatial scales: from in-field management intensity to landscape-scale simplification. Here we show that landscape-level effects dominate functional community composition and can even buffer the effects of in-field management intensification on functional homogenization, and that animal communities in real-world managed landscapes show a unified response (across orders and guilds) to both landscape-scale simplification and in-field intensification. Adults and larvae with specialized feeding habits, species with shorter activity periods and relatively small body sizes are selected against in simplified landscapes with intense in-field management. Our results demonstrate that the diversity of land cover types at the landscape scale is critical for maintaining communities, which are functionally diverse, even in landscapes where in-field management intensity is high.

AB - Biodiversity loss can affect the viability of ecosystems by decreasing the ability of communities to respond to environmental change and disturbances. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss and has multiple components operating at different spatial scales: from in-field management intensity to landscape-scale simplification. Here we show that landscape-level effects dominate functional community composition and can even buffer the effects of in-field management intensification on functional homogenization, and that animal communities in real-world managed landscapes show a unified response (across orders and guilds) to both landscape-scale simplification and in-field intensification. Adults and larvae with specialized feeding habits, species with shorter activity periods and relatively small body sizes are selected against in simplified landscapes with intense in-field management. Our results demonstrate that the diversity of land cover types at the landscape scale is critical for maintaining communities, which are functionally diverse, even in landscapes where in-field management intensity is high.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Community ecology

KW - Invasive species

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84944937029&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms9568

DO - 10.1038/ncomms9568

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 26485325

VL - 6

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

M1 - 8568

ER -