Impacts of landscape patterns on plant species diversity at a global scale

Abstract

Landscape patterns are important drivers of biodiversity. Owing to differences in vegetation types, sampling methods, diversity measures, spatial scales, and landscape levels, the impact of landscape patterns on biodiversity remains widely debated. Using a global standardized plant community database and land use and land cover maps at 30-m resolution, for the period 1990-2017, we calculated plant species α- and β-diversity, and landscape metrics at patch- and landscape-levels, and discerned the direct and indirect impacts of landscape patterns on plant species diversity based on environmental factors, namely climate, spatial features, and human disturbance. We found that landscape patterns exhibited the main indirect effects, whereas climate factors exhibited dominant direct effects on plant α-diversity via the direct effects of patch patterns and functional traits. With respect to β-diversity, landscape-level patterns exerted more direct than indirect effects. These effects are strongly dependent on scale. Landscape- and patch-level patterns had opposite effects on plant diversity, depending on their composition and spatial structure, demonstrating that their effects could be mediated by one another. The adaptation of plants to landscape patterns is mainly through variations in leaf area, plant height, specific leaf area, stem density, seed biomass, and other seed-dispersal traits, which vary across vegetation types. Our findings highlight the importance of functional traits and diversity in understanding the mechanism by which landscape patterns influence plant species diversity; accordingly, we recommend balancing the spatial structure of patch- and landscape-level patterns to enhance variation in functional traits, and, ultimately, to maintain global plant diversity.

Keywords: Functional diversity; Landscape complexity; Landscape fragmentation; Landscape patterns; Patch metrics; α-Diversity; β-Diversity.