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Multi‐taxon inventory reveals highly consistent biodiversity responses to ecospace variation
Author(s) -
Brunbjerg Ane Kirstine,
Bruun Hans Henrik,
Dalby Lars,
Classen Aimée T.,
Fløjgaard Camilla,
Frøslev Tobias G.,
Pryds Hansen Oskar Liset,
Høye Toke Thomas,
Moeslund Jesper Erenskjold,
Svenning JensChristian,
Ejrnæs Rasmus
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
oikos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.672
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1600-0706
pISSN - 0030-1299
DOI - 10.1111/oik.07145
Subject(s) - species richness , biodiversity , ecology , biology , abiotic component , habitat , taxon , diversification (marketing strategy) , business , marketing
Amidst the global biodiversity crisis, identifying general principles for variation of biodiversity 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.

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