Directional turnover towards larger‐ranged plants over time and across habitats

Abstract

Species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. Here, we analysed the trajectories of 1827 plant species over time intervals of up to 78 years at 141 sites across mountain summits, forests, and lowland grasslands in Europe. We found, albeit with relatively small effect sizes, displacements of smaller‐ by larger‐ranged species across habitats. Communities shifted in parallel towards more nutrient‐demanding species, with species from nutrient‐rich habitats having larger ranges. Because these species are typically strong competitors, declines of smaller‐ranged species could reflect not only abiotic drivers of global change, but also biotic pressure from increased competition. The ubiquitous component of turnover based on species range size we found here may partially reconcile findings of no net loss in local diversity with global species loss, and link community‐scale turnover to macroecological processes such as biotic homogenisation.

Lost, gained, and regained functional and phylogenetic diversity of European mammals since 8000 years ago

“…Hence, the increasing “continentality” of island biotas can simultaneously increase within‐island diversity and decrease global gamma diversity. Such changes are also possible in continental regions, but the effect sizes are small (Staude et al, 2022).…”

“…Such changes are also possible in continental regions, but the effect sizes are small (Staude et al, 2022).…”

A model-based scenario analysis of the impact of forest management and environmental change on the understorey of temperate forests in Europe

“…If the initial level of N deposition was high, the understorey richness changes was lower. High N deposition benefits nutrient-demanding species (often large-ranged species), which replace small-ranged species, so that species turnover leads to no net loss in local alpha diversity (Staude et al, 2022). Another alternative explanation is that the effects of N deposition in high deposition regions are no longer noticeable because the most sensitive species are already lost (Walter et al, 2017).…”

Divergent roles of herbivory in eutrophying forests

“…That is, we determined the threat status of each species at a given site based on the respective national Red List of the country in which that site was located (based on IUCN threat classifications, see ref. 86 ). We then calculated the percentage of threatened species per site per survey period (baseline site mean = 2.2%, resurvey site mean = 1.9%).…”

“…Our range size estimates are based on areas of occupancy (AOO, in km 2 ) derived from point occurrence records in GBIF by ref. 86 . We determined the lowest quintile of range size, which we classified as small ranged.…”