Abstract Aims We introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We describe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, including potential research questions. Results ReSurveyEurope includes resurveyed vegetation plots from all habitats. Version 1.0 of ReSurveyEurope contains 283,135 observations (i.e., individual surveys of each plot) from 79,190 plots sampled in 449 independent resurvey projects. Of these, 62,139 (78%) are permanent plots, that is, marked in situ, or located with GPS, which allow for high spatial accuracy in resurvey. The remaining 17,051 (22%) plots are from studies in which plots from the initial survey could not be exactly relocated. Four data sets, which together account for 28,470 (36%) plots, provide only presence/absence information on plant species, while the remaining 50,720 (64%) plots contain abundance information (e.g., percentage cover or cover–abundance classes such as variants of the Braun‐Blanquet scale). The oldest plots were sampled in 1911 in the Swiss Alps, while most plots were sampled between 1950 and 2020. Conclusions ReSurveyEurope is a new resource to address a wide range of research questions on fine‐scale changes in European vegetation. The initiative is devoted to an inclusive and transparent governance and data usage approach, based on slightly adapted rules of the well‐established European Vegetation Archive (EVA). ReSurveyEurope data are ready for use, and proposals for analyses of the data set can be submitted at any time to the coordinators. Still, further data contributions are highly welcome.
Abstract Ecosystems are subject to multiple, natural and anthropogenic environmental influences, including nitrogen ( N ) deposition, land use and climate. Assessment of the relative importance of these influences on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is crucial for guiding policy and management decisions to mitigate global change; yet, few studies consider multiple drivers. In the UK , ongoing loss of the internationally important arctic/alpine moss‐sedge community, R acomitrium heath, has been linked to elevated N deposition, high grazing pressures and their combination; however, the relative importance of these drivers remains unclear. We used environmental gradients across the habitat's E uropean distribution ( UK , F aroes, N orway and I celand) to investigate the relative impact of N deposition and grazing pressure, as well as climate, on the condition of the dominant moss species, R acomitrium lanuginosum . Key variables including tissue chemistry, growth and cover were measured at 36 sites, and multiple linear regressions were used to examine the relative importance of the drivers across sites. Our results clearly show that regional variation in the condition of R . lanuginosum across E urope is primarily associated with the impacts of N deposition, with climate (air temperature) and grazing pressure playing secondary roles. In contrast to previous experimental studies, we found moss growth to be stimulated by elevated N deposition; this apparent discrepancy may result from the use of artificially high N concentrations in many experiments. Despite increased growth rates, we found that moss mat depth and cover declined in response to N deposition. Our results suggest that this is due to increased decomposition of material in the moss mat, which ultimately leads to loss of moss cover and habitat degradation. This study clearly demonstrates both the key role of N deposition in degradation of R acomitrium heath and the importance of observational studies along natural gradients for testing predictions from experimental studies in the real world.
R code, derived metrics, and limited metadata associated with Wilcox et al. (2017). Asynchrony among local communities stabilizes ecosystem function of metacommunities. Ecology Letters. When using this data or code, please cite the original publication: Wilcox, K.R., A.T. Tredennick, S. Koerner, E. Grman, L. Hallett, M. Avolio, K. La Pierre, G. Houseman, F. Isbell, D. Johnson, J. Alatalo, A. Baldwin, E. Bork, E. Boughton, W. Bowman, A. Britton, J. Cahill, S. Collins, G-Z. Du, A. Eskelinen, L. Gough, A. Jentsch, C. Kern, K. Klanderud, A. Knapp, J. Kreyling, Y. Luo, J. McLaren, P. Megonigal, V. Onipchenko, J. Prevéy, J. Price, C. Robinson, O. Sala, M. Smith, N. Soudzilovskaia, L. Souza, D. Tilman, S. White, Z. Xu, L. Yahdjian, Q. Yu, P. Zhang, Y, Zhang. (2017). Asynchrony among local communities stabilizes ecosystem function of metacommunities. Ecology Letters 20(12):1534–1545. Additionally, please cite the Figshare file set: Wilcox, K.R., A.T. Tredennick, S. Koerner, E. Grman, L. Hallett, M. Avolio, K. La Pierre. (2017). Data and code from: Asynchrony among local communities stabilizes ecosystem function of metacommunities. Figshare. https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5384167. R CodeThe analysis proceeds in several steps, which can be viewed most easily by examining the ~/Wilcox_etal_DerivedData_and_Code/analysis_scripts/main_text_scripts/patches_source_all_scripts.R file. Questions about the code or analysis should be directed to Kevin Wilcox (wilcoxkr@gmail.com) or Andrew Tredennick (atredenn@gmail.com). Derived DataWe provide the full set of metrics (e.g., alpha, beta, and gamma stability and diversity) for each of our study sites. The main analysis and all figures in the paper can be reproduced using these metrics. Metrics were calculated from time series of abundance data from 62 grassland sites around the globe, although primarily from North America and Europe. The data is part of the CoRRE Data Base (http://corredata.weebly.com/), and those interested in using proprietary data not included in this fileset are encouraged to contact the CoRRE data base maintainers (http://corredata.weebly.com/contact.html).
Significance Accurate prediction of community responses to global change drivers (GCDs) is critical given the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem services. There is consensus that human activities are driving species extinctions at the global scale, but debate remains over whether GCDs are systematically altering local communities worldwide. Across 105 experiments that included over 400 experimental manipulations, we found evidence for a lagged response of herbaceous plant communities to GCDs caused by shifts in the identities and relative abundances of species, often without a corresponding difference in species richness. These results provide evidence that community responses are pervasive across a wide variety of GCDs on long-term temporal scales and that these responses increase in strength when multiple GCDs are simultaneously imposed.
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