Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes - eight hypotheses

Research output: Journal contributionsScientific review articlesResearch

Authors

  • Teja Tscharntke
  • Jason M. Tylianakis
  • Tatyana A. Rand
  • Raphael K. Didham
  • Leonore Fahrig
  • Péter Batáry
  • Janne Bengtsson
  • Yann Clough
  • Thomas O. Crist
  • Carsten F. Dormann
  • Robert M. Ewers
  • Jochen Fründ
  • Robert D. Holt
  • Andrea Holzschuh
  • David Kleijn
  • Claire Kremen
  • Doug A. Landis
  • William Laurance
  • David Lindenmayer
  • Christoph Scherber
  • Navjot S. Sodhi
  • Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
  • Carsten Thies
  • Wim H. van der Putten
  • Catrin Westphal
Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this review, we use knowledge gained from human-modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which we hope will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services. We organize the eight hypotheses under four overarching themes. Section A: ‘landscape
moderation of biodiversity patterns’ includes (1) the landscape species pool hypothesis—the size of the landscape-wide species pool moderates local (alpha) biodiversity, and (2) the dominance of beta diversity hypothesis—landscapemoderated dissimilarity of local communities determines landscape-wide biodiversity and overrides negative local effects
of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Section B: ‘landscape moderation of population dynamics’ includes (3) the cross-habitat spillover hypothesis—landscape-moderated spillover of energy, resources and organisms across habitats,including between managed and natural ecosystems, influences landscape-wide community structure and associated processes and (4) the landscape-moderated concentration and dilution hypothesis—spatial and temporal changes in landscape composition can cause transient concentration or dilution of populationswith functional consequences. Section
C: ‘landscape moderation of functional trait selection’ includes (5) the landscape-moderated functional trait selection hypothesis—landscape moderation of species trait selection shapes the functional role and trajectory of community assembly, and (6) the landscape-moderated insurance hypothesis—landscape complexity provides spatial and temporal insurance, i.e. high resilience and stability of ecological processes in changing environments. Section D: ‘landscape constraints on conservation management’ includes (7) the intermediate landscape-complexity hypothesis—landscapemoderated
effectiveness of local conservation management is highest in structurally simple, rather than in cleared (i.e. extremely simplified) or in complex landscapes, and (8) the landscape-moderated biodiversity versus ecosystem service management hypothesis—landscape-moderated biodiversity conservation to optimize functional diversity and related
ecosystem services will not protect endangered species. Shifting our research focus from local to landscape-moderated effects on biodiversity will be critical to developing solutions for future biodiversity and ecosystem service management.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBiological Reviews
Volume87
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)661-685
Number of pages25
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 08.2012

    Research areas

  • Biology - Belowground-aboveground patterns, Beta diversity, Conservation management, Ecosystem functioning and services, Functional traits, Insurance hypothesis, Landscape composition and configuration, Multitrophic interactions, Resilience and stability, Spatial heterogeneity
  • Ecosystems Research

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. How to Explain Major Policy Change Towards Sustainability? Bringing Together the Multiple Streams Framework and the Multilevel Perspective on Socio-Technical Transitions to Explore the German “Energiewende”
  2. Challenges in calculating two-year college student transfer rates to four-year colleges
  3. Thermodynamic description of reactions between Mg and CaO
  4. Embedded Self-Managing Modes of Organizing
  5. Facing the heat
  6. Fair enough!
  7. Use of Chemotaxonomy To Study the Influence of Benzalkonium Chloride on Bacterial Populations in Biodegradation Testing
  8. A cross-scale assessment of productivity–diversity relationships
  9. Classifying railway stations for strategic transport and land use planning
  10. Orientations for co-constructing a positive climate for diversity in teaching and learning
  11. A Note on Smoking Behavior and Health Risk Taking
  12. Probing turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection by Lagrangian trajectory clusters
  13. Examining the effect of principal turnover on teaching quality
  14. Intra-specific leaf trait responses to species richness at two different local scales
  15. Europe and the Media
  16. Computer Support for Environmental Management Accounting
  17. Using bird-habitat relationships to inform urban planning
  18. Long-Term Strategies for Tackling Micropollutants
  19. Dead end or Pathway to new Relations? Structure and Problems of the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement
  20. Encounters, interactions, and connectivities from an art historical perspective
  21. User experience and behavior concerning digital scaffolding during EFL speaking practice
  22. Gramsci global.
  23. Power and control on the waterfront