DiVert: a global database of land use and management effects on terrestrial vertebrate abundance and diversity

Motivation Given that land use is a major driver of biodiversity loss worldwide, it is key to understand how different land use types and management practices affect biodiversity. Existing global databases on biodiversity responses to land use generally distinguish only broad land use types, focus on a wide taxonomic coverage at the expense of detail or completeness, or do not include diversity in primary vegetation as a benchmark. Here, we introduce DiVert: a comprehensive global dataset with local measurements of terrestrial vertebrate abundance and diversity in a variety of land types and management practices as compared to primary vegetation. Main types of variables contained The database contains 3,656 diversity and 69,244 abundance values in eight main land types: primary vegetation, agroforestry, cropland, forestry, mining, pasture, secondary vegetation, and urban. For each record, we also report detailed information relevant for assessing impacts of land use and management on vertebrate abundance and diversity. This information includes prior land use, time since conversion, crop type and diversity, type of logging, and the presence of natural margins. In addition, we provide information about the data collection process for each record, such as sampling method, sampling effort and plot size, as well as taxonomic information. Spatial location and grain The database contains site-level data covering all continents except Antarctica. Time period and grain 1965-2024 Major taxa and level of measurement The dataset includes records of amphibians (16.5%), birds (55.4%), mammals (18.4%) and reptiles (9.7%). Abundance data are provided at the species (98.3%) or genus level (1.7%). Diversity metrics, such as number of species or Shannon index, are provided per taxonomic family, order, or class.