Landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns and processes ‐ eight hypotheses

By T. Tscharntke, J. Tylianakis, T. Rand, Raphael K. Didham, L. Fahrig, P. Batáry, J. Bengtsson, Y. Clough, T. O. Crist, Carsten F. Dormann and 16 more. Biological Reviews of The Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2012

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Understanding how landscape characteristics affect biodiversity patterns and ecological processes at local and landscape scales is critical for mitigating effects of global environmental change. In this review, we use knowledge gained from human‐modified landscapes to suggest eight hypotheses, which we hope will encourage more systematic research on the role of landscape composition and configuration in determining the structure of ecological communities, ecosystem functioning and services. We organize the eight hypotheses under four overarching themes. Section A: ‘landscape moderation of biodiversity patterns' includes (1) the landscape species pool hypothesis—the size of the landscape‐wide species pool moderates local (alpha) biodiversity, and (2) the dominance of beta diversity hypothesis—landscape‐moderated dissimilarity of local communities determines landscape‐wide biodiversity and overrides negative local effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity. Section B: ‘landscape moderation of population dynamics' includes (3) the cross‐habitat spillover hypothesis—landscape‐moderated spillover of energy, resources and organisms across habitats, including between managed and natural ecosystems, influences landscape‐wide community structure and associated processes and (4) the landscape‐moderated concentration and dilution hypothesis—spatial and temporal changes in landscape composition can cause transient concentration or dilution of populations with functional consequences. Section C: ‘landscape moderation of functional trait selection’ includes (5) the landscape‐moderated functional trait selection hypothesis—landscape moderation of species trait selection shapes the functional role and trajectory of community assembly, and (6) the landscape‐moderated insurance hypothesis—landscape complexity provides spatial and temporal insurance, i.e. high resilience and stability of ecological processes in changing environments. Section D: ‘landscape constraints on conservation management' includes (7) the intermediate landscape‐complexity hypothesis—landscape‐moderated effectiveness of local conservation management is highest in structurally simple, rather than in cleared (i.e. extremely simplified) or in complex landscapes, and (8) the landscape‐moderated biodiversity versus ecosystem service management hypothesis—landscape‐moderated biodiversity conservation to optimize functional diversity and related ecosystem services will not protect endangered species. Shifting our research focus from local to landscape‐moderated effects on biodiversity will be critical to developing solutions for future biodiversity and ecosystem service management.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/316057d4ec200e3422bc402375ef5620d1da0f06

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Citations in the corpus

A global quantitative synthesis of local and landscape effects on wild bee pollinators in agroecosystems. (2013, positive): “…can improve bee abundance, richness and productivity even in landscapes with little natural habitat (Williams & Kremen 2007; Holzschuh et al. 2008; Rundl € of et al. 2008; Batary et al. 2011), as long as sufﬁcient habitat exists to maintain source populations (Tscharntke et al. 2005, 2012).”
Trap nests for bees and wasps to analyse trophic interactions in changing environments—A systematic overview and user guide (2018, background): “At the landscape scale, recent trap nest studies have increasingly incorporated data from geographic information systems to test hypotheses related to how landscapes moderate biodiversity (sensu Tscharntke et al., 2012).”
Ecological theory provides strong support for habitat restoration (2017, background): “…landscape context to both conservation management and habitat restoration has been stressed by several authors, because factors that determine the diversity, resistance and resilience of natural communities often operate at the landscape scale (Tscharntke et al., 2012; Auffret et al., 2015).”
Habitat fragmentation and species richness (2015, background): “Habitat loss is typically accompanied by fragmentation (Tscharntke et al., 2012), and many ecologists, myself included, have concluded that fragmentation poses an prominent critic of fragmentation effects is Lenore Fahrig.”
Biodiversity consequences of land-use change and forest disturbance in the Amazon:a multi-scale assessment using ant communities (2016, result): “This is consistent with the landscape species pool hypothesis (Tscharntke et al. 2012), where primary forests act as sources for secondary forests and cleared areas (Graham et al.”
Impact of landscape composition and configuration on forest specialist and generalist bird species in the fragmented Lacandona rainforest, Mexico (2015, background): “, 2011) and higher landscape connectivity (Antongiovanni and Metzger, 2005; Fahrig, 2007), thus supporting more species than landscapes with homogeneous matrices (see the ‘‘landscape insurance hypothesis’’; Tscharntke et al., 2012).”
Protecting an ecosystem service: approaches to understanding and mitigating threats to wild insect pollinators (2016, background): “This is important since agricultural 1135 intensification influences biodiversity and ecosystem processes by reducing the 1136 heterogeneity, composition and configuration of habitats at difference spatial scales 1137 (Tscharntke et al., 2012).”