Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – http://www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

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a b s t r a c tWe investigated whether an intact extraradical mycelium (ERM) is more effective than other forms of propagule from indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in providing protection against stress to a host plant. The response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to Mn toxicity was studied in a two-phase greenhouse experiment. In Phase 1, four Mn tolerant species from the natural vegetation, ranging from strongly mycotrophic to non-or weakly mycotrophic, were grown to develop different amounts of ERM. Wheat was then planted (Phase 2) with the ERM fragmented by sieving (Disturbed Treatment) or kept intact with no prior soil disturbance (Undisturbed Treatment). The growth of wheat was doubled by earlier and faster mycorrhizal colonization (AC) in the presence of an intact ERM at planting. There was a positive correlation between plant growth and the reduction of Mn and enhancement of P and S uptake into shoots. However, the growth of plants in undisturbed soil was significantly affected by the ERM developer species, which was not explained by differences in AC. Colonization starting from an intact ERM greatly enhanced the potential of AMF for protection against Mn toxicity. However, the degree of protection depended on the plant previously grown to develop the ERM, suggesting that there may be functional diversity within the ERM developed by mycotrophic plants of the natural vegetation.

As functional diversity influences the benefits conferred on host plants by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and large scale commercial inoculation is currently impracticable, strategies are required to manage communities of indigenous AMF associated with different hosts within agricultural cropping systems. In a non-sterilized soil, using 454 pyrosequencing of the LSU-D2 rDNA gene, host plant AMF diversity was assessed following successions of different plant species, grown with or without prior soil disturbance. Diversity present in the