Land-use impacts on plant functional diversity throughout Europe

Aim: Global biodiversity loss resulting from anthropogenic land-use
activities is a pressing concern, requiring precise assessments of impacts
at large spatial extents. Existing models mainly focus on species richness
and abundance, lacking insights into ecological mechanisms and
species' roles in ecosystem functioning. To bridge this gap, we
conducted an extensive analysis of the impact of human land use on
vascular plant functional diversity, across diverse land-use classes and
bioregions in Europe, comparing it to traditional metrics. Location:
Europe           Time period: 1992-2019                           Major taxa studied: Vascular plants Methods: Integrating extensive databases of vegetation plots with spatial data on land use and land cover, we paired plots from areas actively used and modified by humans with plots from natural habitats under similar environmental conditions. Using species occurrences and traits, in each plot we computed three complementary functional diversity metrics (functional richness, evenness, and divergence), species richness and abundance. We assessed the impact of land use by comparing the metrics in the paired plots. Results: Our findings revealed that, compared to natural habitats, anthropogenic land use exhibits lower functional richness and divergence but higher functional evenness across most land-use classes and bioregions. The response of functional richness was more marked than the other two metrics and especially pronounced in croplands and urban areas and in northern bioregions. Functional richness exhibited a pattern that did not fully overlap with the trend in species richness, providing useful complementary information. Main conclusions: We provide a large-scale precise assessment of anthropogenic land-use impacts on functional diversity across Europe. Our findings indicate that: (i) human disturbance significantly alters plant functional diversity compared to natural habitats; (ii) this alteration goes in the direction of functional homogenization within sites; (iii) functional diversity metrics complement traditional metrics by offering deeper insights into the ecological mechanisms in response to anthropogenic land use.

研究目的：由人为土地利用活动引发的全球生物多样性丧失是一项亟待解决的紧迫议题，亟需在大空间尺度上对其影响开展精准评估。现有模型多聚焦于物种丰富度与物种多度，缺乏对生态机制以及物种在生态系统功能中所扮演角色的深入认知。为填补这一研究空白，我们针对欧洲范围内不同土地利用类型与生物地理区的维管植物（vascular plant）功能多样性（functional diversity）受人类土地利用的影响开展了系统性分析，并将其与传统生物多样性指标进行对比。
研究区域：欧洲；时间跨度：1992年—2019年；研究类群：维管植物（vascular plant）。
研究方法：整合大规模植被样地数据库与土地利用/土地覆被空间数据，将受人类活动开发与改造区域的样地，与环境条件相似的原生自然栖息地样地进行配对。基于物种出现记录与功能性状，我们在每个样地中计算了三项互补的功能多样性指标：功能丰富度（functional richness）、功能均匀度（functional evenness）与功能分异度（functional divergence），同时计算了物种丰富度与物种多度。通过对比配对样地的各项指标，我们评估了土地利用的生态影响。
研究结果：研究发现，相较于原生自然栖息地，在多数土地利用类型与生物地理区中，人为土地利用生境的功能丰富度与功能分异度更低，但功能均匀度更高。其中，功能丰富度的响应相较于其余两项指标更为显著，尤其在农田、城市区域以及北部生物地理区中表现突出。功能丰富度的变化模式与物种丰富度的变化趋势并未完全重合，能够提供具有补充价值的额外信息。
主要结论：本研究完成了欧洲范围内人为土地利用对植物功能多样性影响的大规模精准评估。研究结果表明：（1）相较于原生自然栖息地，人类干扰显著改变了植物功能多样性；（2）这种改变呈现出样地内功能均质化的趋势；（3）功能多样性指标能够补充传统生物多样性指标，为解析人为土地利用影响下的生态机制提供更深入的视角。