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Different land-use types equally impoverish but differentially preserve grassland species and functional traits of spider assemblages.

ABSTRACT: Land-use change is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss by introducing environmental modifications, which excludes native species unable to adapt to the novel conditions. Grasslands are among the most threatened biomes; understanding the influence of different land-use types on native species is crucial to achieving sustainable management policies. We hypothesized that land-use types that partially conserve the original vegetation cover would show higher taxonomic and functional diversity and similarity with native assemblages than land-use types that replace the original vegetation cover. We compared the taxonomic and functional alpha and beta diversity of spider assemblages between soybean crops, eucalypt plantations, and cattle fields with seminatural grasslands. Through null models, we assessed the standardized effect sizes to test differences in the strength of environmental filtering among land-use types. Environmental changes introduced by different land-use types resulted in assemblages differentiated in species and trait composition, taxonomically and functionally impoverished with respect to seminatural grasslands. All land-use types drove species replacement and trait loss and replacement of grassland spiders. Each land-use showed a characteristic species and trait composition. Most of the grassland traits were not lost but were under or over-represented according to the land-use type. Only in soybean crops the formation of spider communities would be mainly driven by environmental filtering. Changes in land-use decreased species diversity and modified the composition of spider species and functional traits leading to differentiated spider assemblages. As spider species and traits varied among land-uses, a mitigation measure against grasslands biodiversity loss could be the development of productive landscapes with a mosaic of land-use types, as each of them would provide microhabitats for species with different requirements. Because land-use types mainly led to the rearrangement of grassland functional trait values, most of spider functions might be conserved in mosaics of land-use types.

SUBMITTER: Pinto CM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8119495 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundHow land use shapes biodiversity and functional trait composition of animal communities is an important question and frequently addressed. Land-use intensification is associated with changes in abiotic and biotic conditions including environmental homogenization and may act as an environmental filter to shape the composition of species communities. Here, we investigated the responses of land snail assemblages to land-use intensity and abiotic soil conditions (pH, soil moisture), and analyzed their trait composition (shell size, number of offspring, light preference, humidity preference, inundation tolerance, and drought resistance). We characterized the species' responses to land use to identify 'winners' (species that were more common on sites with high land-use intensity than expected) or 'losers' of land-use intensity (more common on plots with low land-use intensity) and their niche breadth. As a proxy for the environmental 'niche breadth' of each snail species, based on the conditions of the sites in which it occurred, we defined a 5-dimensional niche hypervolume. We then tested whether land-use responses and niches contribute to the species' potential vulnerability suggested by the Red List status.ResultsOur results confirmed that the trait composition of snail communities was significantly altered by land-use intensity and abiotic conditions in both forests and grasslands. While only 4% of the species that occurred in forests were significant losers of intensive forest management, the proportion of losers in grasslands was much higher (21%). However, the species' response to land-use intensity and soil conditions was largely independent of specific traits and the species' Red List status (vulnerability). Instead, vulnerability was only mirrored in the species' rarity and its niche hypervolume: threatened species were characterized by low occurrence in forests and low occurrence and abundance in grasslands and by a narrow niche quantified by land-use components and abiotic factors.ConclusionLand use and environmental responses of land snails were poorly predicted by specific traits or the species' vulnerability, suggesting that it is important to consider complementary risks and multiple niche dimensions.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Soil bacteria are important drivers for nearly all biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems and participate in most nutrient transformations in soil. In contrast to the importance of soil bacteria for ecosystem functioning, we understand little how different management types affect the soil bacterial community composition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used pyrosequencing-based analysis of the V2-V3 16S rRNA gene region to identify changes in bacterial diversity and community structure in nine forest and nine grassland soils from the Schwäbische Alb that covered six different management types. The dataset comprised 598,962 sequences that were affiliated to the domain Bacteria. The number of classified sequences per sample ranged from 23,515 to 39,259. Bacterial diversity was more phylum rich in grassland soils than in forest soils. The dominant taxonomic groups across all samples (>1% of all sequences) were Acidobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, and Firmicutes. Significant variations in relative abundances of bacterial phyla and proteobacterial classes, including Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Verrucomicrobia, Cyanobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes and Alphaproteobacteria, between the land use types forest and grassland were observed. At the genus level, significant differences were also recorded for the dominant genera Phenylobacter, Bacillus, Kribbella, Streptomyces, Agromyces, and Defluviicoccus. In addition, soil bacterial community structure showed significant differences between beech and spruce forest soils. The relative abundances of bacterial groups at different taxonomic levels correlated with soil pH, but little or no relationships to management type and other soil properties were found. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Soil bacterial community composition and diversity of the six analyzed management types showed significant differences between the land use types grassland and forest. Furthermore, bacterial community structure was largely driven by tree species and soil pH.

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Different land-use types equally impoverish but differentially preserve grassland species and functional traits of spider assemblages.

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