Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe

Francesca Pilotto , Ingolf Kuhn (1) , Rita Adrian (2) , Renate Alber , Audrey Alignier (3) , Christopher Andrews , Jaana Bäck , Luc Barbaro (4, 5) , Deborah Beaumont , Natalie Beenaerts , Sue Benham , David S Boukal , Vincent Bretagnolle , Elisa Camatti , Roberto Canullo , Patricia G Cardoso , Bruno J Ens , Gert Everaert , Vesela Evtimova , Heidrun Feuchtmayr , Ricardo García-González , Daniel Gómez García , Ulf Grandin , Jerzy M Gutowski , Liat Hadar , Lubos Halada , Melinda Halassy , Herman Hummel , Kaisa-Leena Huttunen , Bogdan Jaroszewicz , Thomas C Jensen , Henrik Kalivoda , Inger Kappel Schmidt , Ingrid Kröncke , Reima Leinonen , Filipe Martinho , Henning Meesenburg , Julia Meyer , Stefano Minerbi , Don Monteith , Boris P Nikolov , Daniel Oro , Dāvis Ozoliņš , Bachisio M Padedda , Denise Pallett , Marco Pansera , Miguel Ângelo Pardal , Bruno Petriccione , Tanja Pipan , Juha Pöyry , Stefanie M Schäfer , Marcus Schaub , Susanne C Schneider , Agnija Skuja , Karline Soetaert , Gunta Spriņģe , Radoslav Stanchev , Jenni A Stockan , Stefan Stoll , Lisa Sundqvist , Anne Thimonier , Gert van Hoey , Gunther van Ryckegem , Marcel E Visser , Samuel Vorhauser , Peter Haase

1 UFZ - Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung = Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
2 IGB - Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
3 SAD Paysage - SAD Paysage
4 DYNAFOR - Dynamiques et écologie des paysages agriforestiers
5 CESCO - Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation

Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological time series (15-91 years) collected across Europe, using a comprehensive dataset comprising 6,200 marine, freshwater and terrestrial taxa. We test whether (i) local long-term biodiversity trends are consistent among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, and (ii) changes in biodiversity correlate with regional climate and local conditions. Our results reveal that local trends of abundance, richness and diversity differ among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, demonstrating that biodiversity changes at local scale are often complex and cannot be easily generalized. However, we find increases in richness and abundance with increasing temperature and naturalness as well as a clear spatial pattern in changes in community composition (i.e. temporal taxonomic turnover) in most biogeoregions of Northern and Eastern Europe.

Keywords: Macroecology; Climate-change ecology; Biodiversity

Domains: Environmental Sciences; Biodiversity and Ecology

Francesca Pilotto, Ingolf Kuhn, Rita Adrian, Renate Alber, Audrey Alignier, et al.. Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe. Nature Communications, 2020, 11, pp.1-11. ⟨10.1038/s41467-020-17171-y⟩. ⟨mnhn-03082659⟩