TY - JOUR
T1 - Community mean traits as additional indicators to monitor effects of land-use intensity on grassland plant diversity
AU - Pfestorf, H.
AU - Weiß, L.
AU - Müller, J.
AU - Boch, S.
AU - Socher, S. A.
AU - Prati, D.
AU - Schöning, I.
AU - Weisser, W.
AU - Fischer, M.
AU - Jeltsch, F.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG for funding the DFG Priority Program 1374 “Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories”, the authorities of the Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin, the National Park Hainich and the Biosphere Area Schwäbische Alb for support and the responsible state environmental offices of Baden-Württemberg, Thüringen, and Brandenburg for field permits (according to § 7BbgNatSchG). Furthermore, our thanks go to the managers of the three exploratories, Swen Renner, Sonja Gockel, Andreas Hemp, Martin Gorke and Simone Pfeiffer for their work in maintaining the plot and project infrastructure, and Elisabeth Kalko, Eduard Linsenmaier, Dominik Hessenmöller, Jens Nieschulze, Francois Buscot and Ernst-Detlef Schulze for their role in setting up the Biodiversity Exploratories project. We also thank Nico Blüthgen and his group for their work leading to the development of the land-use intensity index, Frank Schurr for his statistical advice and, finally, we thank the many student helpers involved in the collection of field data.
PY - 2013/2/20
Y1 - 2013/2/20
N2 - Semi-natural grasslands, biodiversity hotspots in Central-Europe, suffer from the cessation of traditional land-use. Amount and intensity of these changes challenge current monitoring frameworks typically based on classic indicators such as selected target species or diversity indices. Indicators based on plant functional traits provide an interesting extension since they reflect ecological strategies at individual and ecological processes at community levels. They typically show convergent responses to gradients of land-use intensity over scales and regions, are more directly related to environmental drivers than diversity components themselves and enable detecting directional changes in whole community dynamics. However, probably due to their labor- and cost intensive assessment in the field, they have been rarely applied as indicators so far.Here we suggest overcoming these limitations by calculating indicators with plant traits derived from online accessible databases. Aiming to provide a minimal trait set to monitor effects of land-use intensification on plant diversity we investigated relationships between 12 community mean traits, 2 diversity indices and 6 predictors of land-use intensity within grassland communities of 3 different regions in Germany (part of the German 'Biodiversity Exploratory' research network). By standardization of traits and diversity measures, use of null models and linear mixed models we confirmed (i) strong links between functional community composition and plant diversity, (ii) that traits are closely related to land-use intensity, and (iii) that functional indicators are equally, or even more sensitive to land-use intensity than traditional diversity indices. The deduced trait set consisted of 5 traits, i.e., specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), seed release height, leaf distribution, and onset of flowering. These database derived traits enable the early detection of changes in community structure indicative for future diversity loss. As an addition to current monitoring measures they allow to better link environmental drivers to processes controlling community dynamics.
AB - Semi-natural grasslands, biodiversity hotspots in Central-Europe, suffer from the cessation of traditional land-use. Amount and intensity of these changes challenge current monitoring frameworks typically based on classic indicators such as selected target species or diversity indices. Indicators based on plant functional traits provide an interesting extension since they reflect ecological strategies at individual and ecological processes at community levels. They typically show convergent responses to gradients of land-use intensity over scales and regions, are more directly related to environmental drivers than diversity components themselves and enable detecting directional changes in whole community dynamics. However, probably due to their labor- and cost intensive assessment in the field, they have been rarely applied as indicators so far.Here we suggest overcoming these limitations by calculating indicators with plant traits derived from online accessible databases. Aiming to provide a minimal trait set to monitor effects of land-use intensification on plant diversity we investigated relationships between 12 community mean traits, 2 diversity indices and 6 predictors of land-use intensity within grassland communities of 3 different regions in Germany (part of the German 'Biodiversity Exploratory' research network). By standardization of traits and diversity measures, use of null models and linear mixed models we confirmed (i) strong links between functional community composition and plant diversity, (ii) that traits are closely related to land-use intensity, and (iii) that functional indicators are equally, or even more sensitive to land-use intensity than traditional diversity indices. The deduced trait set consisted of 5 traits, i.e., specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), seed release height, leaf distribution, and onset of flowering. These database derived traits enable the early detection of changes in community structure indicative for future diversity loss. As an addition to current monitoring measures they allow to better link environmental drivers to processes controlling community dynamics.
KW - (Semi-natural) Grasslands
KW - Biodiversity Exploratories
KW - Biological conservation
KW - Indicators
KW - Land-use intensity
KW - Plant functional traits
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84873186013
U2 - 10.1016/j.ppees.2012.10.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ppees.2012.10.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84873186013
SN - 1433-8319
VL - 15
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
JF - Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
IS - 1
ER -
