Abstract
The current biodiversity decline through anthropogenic land-use not only involves local species losses, but also homogenization of communities, with a few generalist species benefitting most from human activities. Most studies assessed community heterogeneity (β-diversity) on larger scales by comparing different sites, but little is known about impacts on β-diversity within each site, which is relevant for understanding variation in the level of α-diversity, the small-scale distribution of species and associated habitat heterogeneity. To obtain our dataset with 36,899 individuals out of 117 different plant- and leafhopper (Auchenorrhyncha) species, we sampled communities of 140 managed grassland sites across Germany by quantitative vacuum suction of five 1 m2 plots on each site. Sites differed in land-use intensity as characterized by intensity of fertilization, mowing and grazing. Our results demonstrate a significant within-site homogenization of plant- and leafhopper communities with increasing land-use intensity. Correspondingly, density (− 78%) and γ-diversity (− 35%) declined, particularly with fertilization and mowing intensity. More than 34% of plant- and leafhopper species were significant losers and only 6% were winners of high land-use intensity, with abundant and widespread species being less affected. Increasing land-use intensity adversely affected dietary specialists and promoted generalist species. Our study emphasizes considerable, multifaceted effects of land-use intensification on species loss, with a few dominant generalists winning, and an emerging trend towards more homogenized assemblages. By demonstrating homogenization for the first time within sites, our study highlights that anthropogenic influences on biodiversity even occur on small scales.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the farmers and landowners for providing their grasslands, Andrea Hilpert, Steffen Both, Jonas Beck and Marten Tschorn for their help in the field and sample sorting. Thanks to Elisabeth Huber, Michaela Hanke, Eva Wegstein, Philipp Gebhardt, Jasminka Köhler, Luisa Köhler, Sonja Elberich and Kristof Thulen for sorting the samples, and Fernanda Vieira da Costa for her input to the data processing. We thank the managers of the three Exploratories, Kirsten Reichel-Jung, Swen Renner, Katrin Lorenzen, Sonja Gockel, Kerstin Wiesner, and Martin Gorke for their work in maintaining the plot and project infrastructure; Christiane Fischer and Simone Pfeiffer for giving support through the central office, Michael Owonibi for managing the central data base, and Markus Fischer, Eduard Linsenmair, Dominik Hessenmöller, Jens Nieschulze, Daniel Prati, Ingo Schöning, François Buscot, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Wolfgang W. Weisser and the late Elisabeth Kalko for their role in setting up the Biodiversity Exploratories project. The work has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) Priority Program 1374 “Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories” (DFG-Refno. BL 960/6-1). Fieldwork permits were issued by the responsible state environmental office of Baden-Württemberg, Thüringen and Brandenburg (according to § 72BbgNatSchG).
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MNC, NB and KM conceived and designed the experiments. MNC, GK and JG performed the experiments and collected the data. MNC, NB and KM analyzed the data. MNC, NB and KM wrote the manuscript; other authors provided editorial advice.
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Communicated by Nina Farwig.
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Chisté, M.N., Mody, K., Kunz, G. et al. Intensive land use drives small-scale homogenization of plant- and leafhopper communities and promotes generalists. Oecologia 186, 529–540 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-4031-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-017-4031-0