Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity.

ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic biodiversity decline threatens the functioning of ecosystems and the many benefits they provide to humanity¹. As well as causing species losses in directly affected locations, human influence might also reduce biodiversity in relatively unmodified vegetation if far-reaching anthropogenic effects trigger local extinctions and hinder recolonization. Here we show that local plant diversity is globally negatively related to the level of anthropogenic activity in the surrounding region. Impoverishment of natural vegetation was evident only when we considered community completeness: the proportion of all suitable species in the region that are present at a site. To estimate community completeness, we compared the number of recorded species with the dark diversity-ecologi

SUBMITTER: Partel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12095060 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature