Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Research article2020Peer reviewedOpen access

Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe

Pilotto, Francesca; Kuehn, Ingolf; Adrian, Rita; Alber, Renate; Alignier, Audrey; Andrews, Christopher; Baeck, Jaana; Barbaro, Luc; Beaumont, Deborah; Beenaerts, Natalie; Benham, Sue; Boukal, David S.; Bretagnolle, Vincent; Camatti, Elisa; Canullo, Roberto; Cardoso, Patricia G.; Ens, Bruno J.; Everaert, Gert; Evtimova, Vesela; Feuchtmayr, Heidrun;
Show more authors

Abstract

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 similar to 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. The global biodiversity decline might conceal complex local and group-specific trends. Here the authors report a quantitative synthesis of longterm biodiversity trends across Europe, showing how, despite overall increase in biodiversity metric and stability in abundance, trends differ between regions, ecosystem types, and taxa.

Published in

Nature Communications
2020, Volume: 11, number: 1, article number: 3486Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

    Sustainable Development Goals

    SDG14 Life below water
    SDG15 Life on land

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Ecology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17171-y

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107190