1. Urbanization drives cross‐taxon declines in abundance and diversity at multiple spatial scales
- Author
-
Kristien I. Brans, Hans Matheve, Rose Sablon, Nicolas Debortoli, Koen Martens, Frederik Hendrickx, Lisa F. Baardsen, Andros T. Gianuca, Robby Stoks, Jessie M. T. Engelen, Katrien De Wolf, Dries Bonte, Erik Matthysen, Luc Lens, Caroline Souffreau, Fabio T. T. Hanashiro, Isa Schön, Jeroen Van Wichelen, Pieter Vanormelingen, Thierry Backeljau, Elena Piano, Ellen Decaestecker, Eveline Pinseel, Hans Van Dyck, Lynn Govaert, Luc De Meester, Janet Higuti, Diego Fontaneto, Maxime Dahirel, Thomas Merckx, Wim Vyverman, Marie Cours, Karine Van Doninck, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes] (ECOBIO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR)-Institut Ecologie et Environnement (INEE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University [Belgium] (UGENT), P07/4, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, 45968/2012‐1, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut Ecologie et Environnement (INEE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universiteit Gent = Ghent University (UGENT), Dahirel, Maxime/0000-0001-8077-7765, Taquicava Hanashiro, Fabio, Toshiro/0000-0002-0965-0304, Piano, Elena, Souffreau, Caroline, Merckx, Thomas, Baardsen, Lisa F., Backeljau, Thierry, Bonte, Dries, Brans, Kristien, I, Cours, Marie, Dahirel, Maxime, Debortoli, Nicolas, Decaestecker, Ellen, De Wolf, Katrien, Engelen, Jessie M. T., Fontaneto, Diego, Gianuca, Andros T., Govaert, Lynn, Hanashiro, Fabio T. T., Higuti, Janet, Lens, Luc, Martens, Koen, Matheve, Hans, Matthysen, Erik, Pinseel, Eveline, Sablon, Rose, SCHON, Isa, Stoks, Robby, Van Doninck, Karine, Van Dyck, Hans, Vanormelingen, Pieter, Van Wichelen, Jeroen, Vyverman, Wim, De Meester, Luc, Hendrickx, Frederik, and Biology
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Ecologie [animale] ,Biodiversity ,Beta diversity ,Evolution des espèces ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Environmental Science(all) ,Abundance (ecology) ,Animals ,Environmental Chemistry ,insect decline ,Biology ,Relative species abundance ,Ecosystem ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,General Environmental Science ,biodiversity ,Global and Planetary Change ,spatial scale ,Ecology ,Urbanization ,Species diversity ,land use ,15. Life on land ,biotic homogenization ,Coleoptera ,Chemistry ,diversity partitioning ,urban ecology ,Geography ,Urban ecology ,Spatial ecology ,Species richness ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,Biologie ,Butterflies ,Sciences exactes et naturelles - Abstract
The increasing urbanization process is hypothesized to drastically alter (semi-)natural environments with a concomitant major decline in species abundance and diversity. Yet, studies on this effect of urbanization, and the spatial scale at which it acts, are at present inconclusive due to the large heterogeneity in taxonomic groups and spatial scales at which this relationship has been investigated among studies. Comprehensive studies analysing this relationship across multiple animal groups and at multiple spatial scales are rare, hampering the assessment of how biodiversity generally responds to urbanization. We studied aquatic (cladocerans), limno-terrestrial (bdelloid rotifers) and terrestrial (butterflies, ground beetles, ground- and web spiders, macro-moths, orthopterans and snails) invertebrate groups using a hierarchical spatial design, wherein three local-scale (200 m x 200 m) urbanization levels were repeatedly sampled across three landscape-scale (3 km x 3 km) urbanization levels. We tested for local and landscape urbanization effects on abundance and species richness of each group, whereby total richness was partitioned into the average richness of local communities and the richness due to variation among local communities. Abundances of the terrestrial active dispersers declined in response to local urbanization, with reductions up to 85% for butterflies, while passive dispersers did not show any clear trend. Species richness also declined with increasing levels of urbanization, but responses were highly heterogeneous among the different groups with respect to the richness component and the spatial scale at which urbanization impacts richness. Depending on the group, species richness declined due to biotic homogenization and/or local species loss. This resulted in an overall decrease in total richness across groups in urban areas. These results provide strong support to the general negative impact of urbanization on abundance and species richness within habitat patches and highlight the importance of considering multiple spatial scales and taxa to assess the impacts of urbanization on biodiversity. Belgian Science Policy Office, Grant/Award Number: P07/4; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico, Grant/Award Number: 45968/2012-1 Piano, E (reprint author), Univ Turin, Dept Life Sci & Syst Biol, Turin, Italy. elena.piano@unito.it
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF