Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels

Marta Gaia Sperandii; Manuele Bazzichetto; Lars Götzenberger; Marco Moretti; Rafael Achury; Nico Blüthgen; Markus Fischer; Norbert Hölzel; Valentin H. Klaus; Till Kleinebecker; Felix Neff; Daniel Prati; Ralph Bolliger; Sebastian Seibold; Nadja K. Simons; Michael Staab; Wolfgang W. Weisser; Francesco de Bello; Martin M. Gossner

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp6445

Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels

Marta Gaia Sperandii^*
, Manuele Bazzichetto
, Lars Götzenberger
, Marco Moretti
, Rafael Achury
, Nico Blüthgen
, Markus Fischer
, Norbert Hölzel
, Valentin H. Klaus
, Till Kleinebecker
, Felix Neff
, Daniel Prati
, Ralph Bolliger
, Sebastian Seibold
, Nadja K. Simons
, Michael Staab
, Wolfgang W. Weisser
, Francesco de Bello
, Martin M. Gossner^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Understanding how land use affects temporal stability is crucial to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanistic links between land-use intensity and stability-driving mechanisms remain unclear, with functional traits likely playing a key role. Using 13 years of data from 300 sites in Germany, we tested whether and how trait-based community features mediate the effect of land-use intensity on acknowledged stability drivers (compensatory dynamics, portfolio effect, and dominant species variability), within and across plant and arthropod communities. Trait-based plant features, especially the prevalence of acquisitive strategies along the leaf-economics spectrum, were the main land-use intensity mediators within and across taxonomic and trophic levels, consistently influencing dominant species variability. Functional diversity also mediated land-use intensity effects but played a lesser role. Our analysis discloses trait-based community features as key mediators of land-use effects on stability drivers, emphasizing the need to consider multi-trophic functional interactions to better understand complex ecosystem dynamics.

Original language	English
Article number	eadp6445
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	11
Issue number	4
Number of pages	15
ISSN	2375-2548
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp6445
Publication status	Published - 24.01.2025
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 15 Life on Land

Research areas and keywords

Biology
Ecosystems Research

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

General

Access to Document

10.1126/sciadv.adp6445Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Sperandii, M. G., Bazzichetto, M., Götzenberger, L., Moretti, M., Achury, R., Blüthgen, N., Fischer, M., Hölzel, N., Klaus, V. H., Kleinebecker, T., Neff, F., Prati, D., Bolliger, R., Seibold, S., Simons, N. K., Staab, M., Weisser, W. W., de Bello, F., & Gossner, M. M. (2025). Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels. Science Advances, 11(4), Article eadp6445. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp6445

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title = "Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels",

abstract = "Understanding how land use affects temporal stability is crucial to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanistic links between land-use intensity and stability-driving mechanisms remain unclear, with functional traits likely playing a key role. Using 13 years of data from 300 sites in Germany, we tested whether and how trait-based community features mediate the effect of land-use intensity on acknowledged stability drivers (compensatory dynamics, portfolio effect, and dominant species variability), within and across plant and arthropod communities. Trait-based plant features, especially the prevalence of acquisitive strategies along the leaf-economics spectrum, were the main land-use intensity mediators within and across taxonomic and trophic levels, consistently influencing dominant species variability. Functional diversity also mediated land-use intensity effects but played a lesser role. Our analysis discloses trait-based community features as key mediators of land-use effects on stability drivers, emphasizing the need to consider multi-trophic functional interactions to better understand complex ecosystem dynamics.",

keywords = "Biology, Ecosystems Research",

author = "Sperandii, \{Marta Gaia\} and Manuele Bazzichetto and Lars G{\"o}tzenberger and Marco Moretti and Rafael Achury and Nico Bl{\"u}thgen and Markus Fischer and Norbert H{\"o}lzel and Klaus, \{Valentin H.\} and Till Kleinebecker and Felix Neff and Daniel Prati and Ralph Bolliger and Sebastian Seibold and Simons, \{Nadja K.\} and Michael Staab and Weisser, \{Wolfgang W.\} and \{de Bello\}, Francesco and Gossner, \{Martin M.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).",

year = "2025",

month = jan,

day = "24",

doi = "10.1126/sciadv.adp6445",

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Sperandii, MG, Bazzichetto, M, Götzenberger, L, Moretti, M, Achury, R, Blüthgen, N, Fischer, M, Hölzel, N, Klaus, VH, Kleinebecker, T, Neff, F, Prati, D, Bolliger, R, Seibold, S, Simons, NK, Staab, M, Weisser, WW, de Bello, F & Gossner, MM 2025, 'Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels', Science Advances, vol. 11, no. 4, eadp6445. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp6445

TY - JOUR

T1 - Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels

AU - Sperandii, Marta Gaia

AU - Bazzichetto, Manuele

AU - Götzenberger, Lars

AU - Moretti, Marco

AU - Achury, Rafael

AU - Blüthgen, Nico

AU - Fischer, Markus

AU - Hölzel, Norbert

AU - Klaus, Valentin H.

AU - Kleinebecker, Till

AU - Neff, Felix

AU - Prati, Daniel

AU - Bolliger, Ralph

AU - Seibold, Sebastian

AU - Simons, Nadja K.

AU - Staab, Michael

AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.

AU - de Bello, Francesco

AU - Gossner, Martin M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).

PY - 2025/1/24

Y1 - 2025/1/24

N2 - Understanding how land use affects temporal stability is crucial to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanistic links between land-use intensity and stability-driving mechanisms remain unclear, with functional traits likely playing a key role. Using 13 years of data from 300 sites in Germany, we tested whether and how trait-based community features mediate the effect of land-use intensity on acknowledged stability drivers (compensatory dynamics, portfolio effect, and dominant species variability), within and across plant and arthropod communities. Trait-based plant features, especially the prevalence of acquisitive strategies along the leaf-economics spectrum, were the main land-use intensity mediators within and across taxonomic and trophic levels, consistently influencing dominant species variability. Functional diversity also mediated land-use intensity effects but played a lesser role. Our analysis discloses trait-based community features as key mediators of land-use effects on stability drivers, emphasizing the need to consider multi-trophic functional interactions to better understand complex ecosystem dynamics.

AB - Understanding how land use affects temporal stability is crucial to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Yet, the mechanistic links between land-use intensity and stability-driving mechanisms remain unclear, with functional traits likely playing a key role. Using 13 years of data from 300 sites in Germany, we tested whether and how trait-based community features mediate the effect of land-use intensity on acknowledged stability drivers (compensatory dynamics, portfolio effect, and dominant species variability), within and across plant and arthropod communities. Trait-based plant features, especially the prevalence of acquisitive strategies along the leaf-economics spectrum, were the main land-use intensity mediators within and across taxonomic and trophic levels, consistently influencing dominant species variability. Functional diversity also mediated land-use intensity effects but played a lesser role. Our analysis discloses trait-based community features as key mediators of land-use effects on stability drivers, emphasizing the need to consider multi-trophic functional interactions to better understand complex ecosystem dynamics.

KW - Biology

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85216736058

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DO - 10.1126/sciadv.adp6445

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 39854460

AN - SCOPUS:85216736058

SN - 2375-2548

VL - 11

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

IS - 4

M1 - eadp6445

ER -

Functional traits mediate the effect of land use on drivers of community stability within and across trophic levels

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Research areas and keywords

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Access to Document

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Cite this