Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity

Human activities, especially conversion and degradation of habitats, are causing global biodiversity declines. How local ecological assemblages are responding is less clear—a concern given their importance for many ecosystem functions and services. We analysed a terrestrial assemblage database of unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage to quantify local biodiversity responses to land use and related changes. Here we show that in the worst-affected habitats, these pressures reduce within-sample species richness by an average of 76.5%, total abundance by 39.5% and rarefaction-based richness by 40.3%. We estimate that, globally, these pressures have already slightly reduced average within-sample richness (by 13.6%), total abundance (10.7%) and rarefaction-based richness (8.1%), with changes showing marked spatial variation. Rapid further losses are predicted under a business-as-usual land-use scenario; within-sample richness is projected to fall by a further 3.4% globally by 2100, with losses concentrated in biodiverse but economically poor countries. Strong mitigation can deliver much more positive biodiversity changes (up to a 1.9% average increase) that are less strongly related to countries' socioeconomic status.

Fil: Newbold, Tim. United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Reino Unido

Fil: Hudson, Lawrence N.. Natural History Museum. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Hill, Samantha L. L.. United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Reino Unido

Fil: Contu, Sara. Natural History Museum. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Lysenko, Igor. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Diaz, Sandra Myrna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina

Fil: Harrison, Michelle L. K.. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Alhusseini, Tamera. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Ingram, Daniel J.. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Itescu, Yuval. Tel-Aviv University. Faculty of Life Sciences. Deptartment of Zoology; Israel

Fil: Kattge, Jens. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry; Alemania. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research; Alemania

Fil: Kirkpatrick, Lucinda. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences,; Reino Unido

Fil: Kleyer, Michael. University of Oldenburg. Institute of Biology and Environmental Sciences. Landscape Ecology Group; Alemania

Fil: Pinto Correia, David Laginha. Natural History Museum. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Martin, Callum D.. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Meiri, Shai. Tel-Aviv University. Faculty of Life Sciences. Deptartment of Zoology; Israel

Fil: Novosolov, Maria. Tel-Aviv University. Faculty of Life Sciences. Deptartment of Zoology; Israel

Fil: Pan, Yuan. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Phillips, Helen R. P.. Natural History Museum. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Purves, Drew W.. Microsoft Research Cambridge. Computational Science Laboratory, ; Reino Unido

Fil: Robinson, Alexandra. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Simpson, Jake. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Tuck, Sean L.. University of Oxford, Department of Plant Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Weiher, Evan. University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Biology Department; Estados Unidos

Fil: White, Hannah J.. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Ewers, Robert M.. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido

Fil: Mace, Georgina M.. University College London. Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research. Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment; Reino Unido

Fil: Scharlemann, Jörn P. W.. United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre; Reino Unido

Fil: Purvis, Andy. Natural History Museum. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido. Imperial College London. Department of Life Sciences; Reino Unido