Nature Communications (Feb 2016)

Land use imperils plant and animal community stability through changes in asynchrony rather than diversity

  • Nico Blüthgen,
  • Nadja K. Simons,
  • Kirsten Jung,
  • Daniel Prati,
  • Swen C. Renner,
  • Steffen Boch,
  • Markus Fischer,
  • Norbert Hölzel,
  • Valentin H. Klaus,
  • Till Kleinebecker,
  • Marco Tschapka,
  • Wolfgang W. Weisser,
  • Martin M. Gossner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10697
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Long-term stability of ecological communities is vital for maintaining ecosystem functioning. Here, Blüthgen et al. show that greater land-use intensity in grasslands and forests can have negative impacts on the stability of plant and animal communities, driven primarily by variation in asynchrony between species.