We showed the robustness of space-for-time substitutions in approximating temporal biodiversity responses of German grasslands to land-use intensification, which is a major driver of biodiversity decline. Our research calls for more standardized temporal data to fine-tune approximated biodiversity trends.
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References
IPBES. Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES Secretariat, 2019). This report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services shows the major effect of land-use intensification on biodiversity decline.
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Cowie, R. H., Bouchet, P. & Fonatine, B. The sixth mass extinction: fact, fiction or speculation. Biol. Rev. 97, 640–643 (2022). This review presents the opposing results and possible reasons behind different estimates of biodiversity decline.
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Gossner, M. et al. Land-use intensification causes multitrophic homogenization of grassland communities. Nature 540, 266–269 (2016). This article presents an example of large-scale multitrophic biodiversity decline due to land-use intensification using space-for-time substitution, and was the starting point of the present study.
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This is a summary of: Neuenkamp, L. et al. Congruent direction but different magnitude of biodiversity response to land-use intensification in space and time. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02896-0 (2025).
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Space-for-time substitution can predict grassland biodiversity dynamics. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 2191–2192 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02905-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02905-2