Increasing land use drives changes in plant phylogenetic diversity and prevalence of specialists.

ABSTRACT: Increased human land use has resulted in the increased homogenization of biodiversity between sites, yet we lack sufficient indicators to predict which species decline and the consequence of their potential loss on ecosystem services. We used comparative phylogenetic analysis to (1) characterize how increasing conversion of forest and grasslands to grazing pasturelands changes plant diversity and composition; (2) examine how changes in land use relate to declines in functional trait diversity; and (3) specifically investigate how these changes in plant composition affect the prevalence of zygomorphy and the possible consequences that these changes may have on pollinator functional groups. As predicted, we found that the conversion to grazing pasturelands negatively impacted species richnes

SUBMITTER: Villalobos S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4782714 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature