Habitat-specific trends in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in European plant communities over a century.
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Journal article
Creator (person)
Kambach, Stephan
Jandt, Ute
Rosario Acosta, Alicia Teresa
Álvarez-Martínez, Jose Manuel
Axmanová, Irena
Bazzichetto, Manuele
Bergmeier, Erwin
Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus
Biurrun, Idoia
Bonari, Gianmaria
Carboni, Marta
Carlucci, Marcos Bergmann
Carranza, Maria Laura
Cerabolini, Bruno Enrico Leone
Chiarucci, Alessandro
Chytrý, Milan
Damasceno, Gabriella
Dengler, Jürgen
De Sanctis, Michele
Divíšek, Jan
Dolezal, Jiří
Dullinger, Stefan
Essl, Franz
Friesová, Klára
Fontana, Veronika
Garbolino, Emmanuel
Glaser, Michael
González-Robles, Ana
Güler, Behlül
Hähn, Georg J. A.
Hájek, Michal
Hruska, Tracy
Illa, Estela
Jansen, Florian
Jansen, Steven
Jentsch, Anke
Jiménez-Alfaro, Borja
Kissling, W. Daniel
Knollová, Ilona
Losapio, Gianalberto
Liu, Udayangani
Lenoir, Jonathan
Lens, Frederic
Lenzner, Bernd
Perea, Antonio J.
Méndez, Laura
Messier, Julie
Mori, Akira S.
Napoleone, Francesca
Norum, Roger
Novakovskiy, Alexander
Onstein, Renske
Pakeman, Robin J.
Peñuelas, Josep
Petřík, Petr
Pielech, Remigiusz
Pinho, Bruno X.
Poschlod, Peter
Rašomavičius, Valerijus
Roscher, Christiane
Rossi, Christian
Sabatini, Francesco Maria
Sandel, Brody
Costa, David Schellenberger
Schmidt, Wolfgang
Sheremetiev, Serge
Shovon, Tanvir Ahmed
Spasojevic, Marko J.
Swenson, Nathan G.
Swacha, Grzegorz
Tarifa, Rubén
Tichý, Lubomír
Tomaselli, Marcello
Valdés, Alicia
Van Meerbeek, Koenraad
Vandvik, Vigdis
Vassilev, Kiril
Večeřa, Martin
Weiher, Evan
Wohlgemuth, Thomas
Bruelheide, Helge
Date published
May 8, 2026
Abstract
Despite widespread concern over global biodiversity loss, the balance between gains and losses within local plant communities remains contentious, largely due to a scarcity of integrative, long-term and large-scale analyses across different habitats and multiple facets of biodiversity. Here, we analyse 57,390 vegetation-plot time series of vascular plants across Europe to quantify the average and habitat-specific trends in taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic, and gamma diversity, alongside with changes in threatened Red List, non-native, and specialist versus generalist species. We find that, over the last 100 years, plant communities gained on average 0.7% in vegetation cover and 0.2% in species number per year, associated with gains in functional and phylogenetic diversity, non-native, Red List, and generalist species. Diversity changes are most pronounced in mire and wetland communities. Differences among habitat types and habitat-change trajectory (stable, successional, disturbed), together with the most recent observation year, explain 2.1%–36.6% of the variation in diversity trends. Habitat-specific gamma diversity showed no general trends and only increased in stable grasslands and successional sparsely vegetated habitats. By integrating habitat types and change trajectories, we reconcile some of the conflicting narratives on local biodiversity change in favour of a more nuanced understanding of the observed variation in local biodiversity change.
Project(s)
Priority 3: Digital Revolution
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
Projekt DEAL | Open access funding |
Journal title
Nature Communications
Volume
17
Article number
4208
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Place of publication
Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany
eISSN
2041-1723
Date accepted
April 8, 2026
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
IF = 15.7 (2024)