Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity
| Authors |
PARTEL Meelis TAMME Riin CARMONA Carlos P RIIBAK Kersti MOORA Mari BENNETT Jonathan A CHIARUCCI Alessandro CHYTRÝ Milan DE BELLO Francesco ERIKSSON Ove HARRISON Susan LEWIS Robert John MOLES Angela T OPIK Maarja PRICE Jodi N AMPUTU Vistorina ASKARIZADEH Diana ATASHGAHI Zohreh AUBIN Isabelle AZCARATE Francisco M BARRETT Matthew D BASHIRZADEH Maral BATORI Zoltan BEENAERTS Natalie BERGHOLZ Kolja BIRKELI Kristine BIURRUN Idoia BLANCO-MORENO Jose M BLOODWORTH Kathryn J BOISVERT-MARSH Laura BOLDGIV Bazartseren BRANCALION Pedro H S BREARLEY Francis Q BROWN Charlotte BUENO C Guillermo BUFFA Gabriella CAHILL James F CAMPOS Juan A CANGELMI Giacomo CARBOGNANI Michele CARCAILLET Christopher CERABOLINI Bruno E L CHEVALIER Richard CLAVEL Jan S COSTA Jose M COUSINS Sara A O CUDA Jan DAIREL Mariana MICHELE Dalle Fratte DANILOVA Alena DAVISON John DEAK Balazs SILVIA Del Vecchio DEMBICZ Iwona DENGLER Juergen DOLEZAL Jiri DOMENE Xavier DVORSKY Miroslav EJTEHADI Hamid ENRICO Lucas EPIKHIN Dmitrii ESKELINEN Anu ESSL Franz FAN Gaohua FANTINATO Edy FAZLIOGLU Fatih FERNANDEZ-PASCUAL Eduardo FERRARA Arianna FIDELIS Alessandra FISCHER Markus FLAGMEIER Maren FORTE T'ai G W FRASER Lauchlan H FUJINUMA Junichi FURQUIM Fernando F GARRIS Berle GARRIS Heath W GIORGIS Melisa A GIUSSO del Galdo Gianpietro GONZALEZ-ROBLES Ana GOOD Megan K GUARDIOLA Moises GUARINO Riccardo GUERRERO Irene GUILLEMOT Joannes GULER Behlul GUO Yinjie HAESEN Stef HEJDA Martin HELENO Ruben H HOYE Toke T HRIVNAK Richard HUANG Yingxin HUNTER John T IAKUSHENKO Dmytro IBANEZ Ricardo INGERPUU Nele IRL Severin D H JANIKOVA Eva JANSEN Florian JELTSCH Florian JENTSCH Anke JIMENEZ-ALFARO Borja JKS Madli JOURI Mohammad H KARAMI Sahar KATAL Negin KELEMEN Andras KHAIRULLIN Bulat I KHUROO Anzar A KOMATSU Kimberly J KONECNA Marie KOOK Ene KORELL Lotte KOROLEVA Natalia KORZNIKOV Kirill A KOZHEVNIKOVA Maria V KOZUB Lukasz LAANISTO Lauri LAGER Helena LANTA Vojtech LASAGNO Romina G LEMBRECHTS Jonas J LI Liping LISNER Ales LIU Houjia LIU Kun LIU Xuhe LUCAS-BORJA Manuel Esteban LUDEWIG Kristin LUKACS Katalin LUTHER-MOSEBACH Jona MACEK Petr MARIGNANI Michela MICHALET Richard MIGLECZ Tamas MOESLUND Jesper Erenskjold MOEYS Karlien MONTESINOS Daniel MORENO-JIMENEZ Eduardo MOYSIYENKO Ivan MUCINA Ladislav MUNOZ-ROJAS Miriam MURILLO Raytha A NAMBAHU Sylvia M NEUENKAMP Lena NORMAND Signe NOWAK Arkadiusz NUCHE Paloma OJA Tatjana ONIPCHENKO Vladimir G PACHEDJIEVA Kalina L PAGANELI Bruno PECO Begona PERALTA Ana M L PEREZ-HAASE Aaron PERI Pablo L PETRAGLIA Alessandro PEYRE Gwendolyn PLAZA-ALVAREZ Pedro Antonio PLUE Jan PRENTICE Honor C PROKHOROV Vadim E RADUJKOVIC Dajana RAHMANIAN Soroor REITALU Triin RISTOW Michael ROBIN Agnes A ROBLES Ana Belen GINART Daniel A Rodriguez ROMAN Raul ROOS Ruben E ROSATI Leonardo SADLO Jiri SALIMBAYEVA Karina SANCHEZ de Dios Rut SANCHIR Khaliun SATTLER Cornelia SCASTA John D SCHMIEDEL Ute SCHRADER Julian SCHULTZ Nick L SELLAN Giacomo SERRA-DIAZ Josep M SILAN Giulia SKALOVA Hana SKOBEL Nadiia SONKOLY Judit STAJEROVA Katerina SVITKOVA Ivana SWIERSZCZ Sebastian TANENTZAP Andrew J TANENTZAP Fallon M TARIFA Ruben TEJERO Pablo TEKEEV Dzhamal K THOLIN Michael THORMODSAETER Ruben S TIAN Yichen TOKARYUK Alla TOELGYESI Csaba TOMASELLI Marcello TORDONI Enrico TOEROEK Peter TOTHMERESZ Bela TOUSSAINT Aurele TOUZARD Blaise TRINDADE Diego P F TSAKALOS James L TURKIS Sevda VALENCIA Enrique VALERIO Mercedes VALKO Orsolya KOENRAAD Van Meerbeek VANDVIK Vigdis VILLELLAS Jesus VIRTANEN Risto VITKOVA Michaela VOJIK Martin ANDREAS von Hessberg JONATHAN von Oppen WAGNER Viktoria WAN Ji-Zhong WANG Chun-Jing WANI Sajad A WEISS Lina WEVILL Tricia XIAO Sa MARTINEZ Oscar Zarate ZOBEL Martin |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | NATURE |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08814-5 |
| Keywords | biodiversity; global perspective; human activity; plant community; species diversity; vegetation dynamics |
| Description | Anthropogenic biodiversity decline threatens the functioning of ecosystems and the many benefits they provide to humanity(1). As well as causing species losses in directly affected locations, human influence might also reduce biodiversity in relatively unmodified vegetation if far-reaching anthropogenic effects trigger local extinctions and hinder recolonization. Here we show that local plant diversity is globally negatively related to the level of anthropogenic activity in the surrounding region. Impoverishment of natural vegetation was evident only when we considered community completeness: the proportion of all suitable species in the region that are present at a site. To estimate community completeness, we compared the number of recorded species with the dark diversity-ecologically suitable species that are absent from a site but present in the surrounding region(2). In the sampled regions with a minimal human footprint index, an average of 35% of suitable plant species were present locally, compared with less than 20% in highly affected regions. Besides having the potential to uncover overlooked threats to biodiversity, dark diversity also provides guidance for nature conservation. Species in the dark diversity remain regionally present, and their local populations might be restored through measures that improve connectivity between natural vegetation fragments and reduce threats to population persistence. |