Multi-taxon inventory reveals highly consistent biodiversity responses to ecospace variation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-taxon inventory reveals highly consistent biodiversity responses to ecospace variation

AU - Brunbjerg, Ane Kirstine

AU - Bruun, Hans Henrik

AU - Dalby, Lars

AU - Classen, Aimee Taylor

AU - Fløjgaard, Camilla

AU - Frøslev, Tobias Guldberg

AU - Hansen, Oskar Liset Pryds

AU - Høye, Toke Thomas

AU - Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold

AU - Svenning, J.-C.

AU - Ejrnæs, Rasmus

PY - 2020/9/1

Y1 - 2020/9/1

N2 - Amidst the global biodiversity crisis, identifying drivers of biodiversity variation remains a key challenge. Scientific consensus is limited to a few macroecological rules, such as species richness increasing with area, which provide limited guidance for conservation. In fact, few agreed ecological principles apply at the scale of sites or reserve management, partly because most community-level studies are restricted to single habitat types and species groups. We used the recently proposed ecospace framework and a comprehensive data set for aggregating environmental variation to predict multi-taxon diversity. We studied richness of plants, fungi, and arthropods in 130 sites representing the major terrestrial habitat types in Denmark. We found the abiotic environment (ecospace position) to be pivotal for the richness of primary producers (vascular plants, mosses, and lichens) and, more surprisingly, little support for ecospace continuity as a driver. A peak in richness at intermediate productivity adds new empirical evidence to a long-standing debate over biodiversity responses to productivity. Finally, we discovered a dominant and positive response of fungi and insect richness to organic matter accumulation and diversification (ecospace expansion). Two simple models of producer and consumer richness accounted for 77 % of the variation in multi-taxon species richness suggesting a significant potential for generalization beyond individual species responses. Our study widens the traditional conservation focus on vegetation and vertebrate populations unravelling the importance of diversification of carbon resources for diverse heterotrophs, such as fungi and insects.

AB - Amidst the global biodiversity crisis, identifying drivers of biodiversity variation remains a key challenge. Scientific consensus is limited to a few macroecological rules, such as species richness increasing with area, which provide limited guidance for conservation. In fact, few agreed ecological principles apply at the scale of sites or reserve management, partly because most community-level studies are restricted to single habitat types and species groups. We used the recently proposed ecospace framework and a comprehensive data set for aggregating environmental variation to predict multi-taxon diversity. We studied richness of plants, fungi, and arthropods in 130 sites representing the major terrestrial habitat types in Denmark. We found the abiotic environment (ecospace position) to be pivotal for the richness of primary producers (vascular plants, mosses, and lichens) and, more surprisingly, little support for ecospace continuity as a driver. A peak in richness at intermediate productivity adds new empirical evidence to a long-standing debate over biodiversity responses to productivity. Finally, we discovered a dominant and positive response of fungi and insect richness to organic matter accumulation and diversification (ecospace expansion). Two simple models of producer and consumer richness accounted for 77 % of the variation in multi-taxon species richness suggesting a significant potential for generalization beyond individual species responses. Our study widens the traditional conservation focus on vegetation and vertebrate populations unravelling the importance of diversification of carbon resources for diverse heterotrophs, such as fungi and insects.

KW - abiotic environment

KW - carbon resources

KW - environmental DNA

KW - heterotrophs

KW - primary producers

KW - taxonomic aggregation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086336600&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/oik.07145

DO - 10.1111/oik.07145

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0030-1299

VL - 129

SP - 1381

EP - 1392

JO - Oikos

JF - Oikos

IS - 9

ER -