Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity

Pärtel, Meelis and Tamme, Riin and Carmona, Carlos P. and Riibak, Kersti and Moora, Mari and Bennett, Jonathan A. and Chiarucci, Alessandro and Chytrý, Milan and de Bello, Francesco and Eriksson, Ove and Harrison, Susan and Lewis, Robert John and Moles, Angela T. and Öpik, Maarja and Price, Jodi N. and Amputu, Vistorina and Askarizadeh, Diana and Atashgahi, Zohreh and Aubin, Isabelle and Azcárate, Francisco M. and Barrett, Matthew D. and Bashirzadeh, Maral and Bátori, Zoltán and Beenaerts, Natalie and Bergholz, Kolja and Birkeli, Kristine and Biurrun, Idoia and Blanco-Moreno, José M. and Bloodworth, Kathryn J. and Boisvert-Marsh, Laura and Boldgiv, Bazartseren and Brancalion, Pedro H. S. and Brearley, Francis Q. and Brown, Charlotte and Bueno, C. Guillermo and Buffa, Gabriella and Cahill, James F. and Campos, Juan A. and Cangelmi, Giacomo and Carbognani, Michele and Carcaillet, Christopher and Cerabolini, Bruno E. L. and Chevalier, Richard and Clavel, Jan S. and Costa, José M. and Cousins, Sara A. O. and Čuda, Jan and Dairel, Mariana and Dalle Fratte, Michele and Danilova, Alena and Davison, John and Deák, Balázs and Del Vecchio, Silvia and Dembicz, Iwona and Dengler, Jürgen and Dolezal, Jiri and Domene, Xavier and Dvorsky, Miroslav and Ejtehadi, Hamid and Enrico, Lucas and Epikhin, Dmitrii and Eskelinen, Anu and Essl, Franz and Fan, Gaohua and Fantinato, Edy and Fazlioglu, Fatih and Fernández-Pascual, Eduardo and Ferrara, Arianna and Fidelis, Alessandra and Fischer, Markus and Flagmeier, Maren and Forte, T’ai G. W. and Fraser, Lauchlan H. and Fujinuma, Junichi and Furquim, Fernando F. and Garris, Berle and Garris, Heath W. and Giorgis, Melisa A. and Giusso del Galdo, Gianpietro and González-Robles, Ana and Good, Megan K. and Guardiola, Moisès and Guarino, Riccardo and Guerrero, Irene and Guillemot, Joannès and Güler, Behlül and Guo, Yinjie and Haesen, Stef and Hejda, Martin and Heleno, Ruben H. and Høye, Toke T. and Hrivnák, Richard and Huang, Yingxin and Hunter, John T. and Iakushenko, Dmytro and Ibáñez, Ricardo and Ingerpuu, Nele and Irl, Severin D. H. and Janíková, Eva and Jansen, Florian and Jeltsch, Florian and Jentsch, Anke and Jiménez-Alfaro, Borja and Jõks, Madli and Jouri, Mohammad H. and Karami, Sahar and Katal, Negin and Kelemen, András and Khairullin, Bulat I. and Khuroo, Anzar A. and Komatsu, Kimberly J. and Konečná, Marie and Kook, Ene and Korell, Lotte and Koroleva, Natalia and Korznikov, Kirill A. and Kozhevnikova, Maria V. and Kozub, Łukasz and Laanisto, Lauri and Lager, Helena and Lanta, Vojtech and Lasagno, Romina G. and Lembrechts, Jonas J. and Li, Liping and Lisner, Aleš and Liu, Houjia and Liu, Kun and Liu, Xuhe and Lucas-Borja, Manuel Esteban and Ludewig, Kristin and Lukács, Katalin and Luther-Mosebach, Jona and Macek, Petr and Marignani, Michela and Michalet, Richard and Miglécz, Tamás and Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold and Moeys, Karlien and Montesinos, Daniel and Moreno-Jiménez, Eduardo and Moysiyenko, Ivan and Mucina, Ladislav and Muñoz-Rojas, Miriam and Murillo, Raytha A. and Nambahu, Sylvia M. and Neuenkamp, Lena and Normand, Signe and Nowak, Arkadiusz and Nuche, Paloma and Oja, Tatjana and Onipchenko, Vladimir G. and Pachedjieva, Kalina L. and Paganeli, Bruno and Peco, Begoña and Peralta, Ana M. L. and Pérez-Haase, Aaron and Peri, Pablo L. and Petraglia, Alessandro and Peyre, Gwendolyn and Plaza-Álvarez, Pedro Antonio and Plue, Jan and Prentice, Honor C. and Prokhorov, Vadim E. and Radujković, Dajana and Rahmanian, Soroor and Reitalu, Triin and Ristow, Michael and Robin, Agnès A. and Robles, Ana Belén and Rodríguez Ginart, Daniel A. and Román, Raúl and Roos, Ruben E. and Rosati, Leonardo and Sádlo, Jiří and Salimbayeva, Karina and Sánchez de Dios, Rut and Sanchir, Khaliun and Sattler, Cornelia and Scasta, John D. and Schmiedel, Ute and Schrader, Julian and Schultz, Nick L. and Sellan, Giacomo and Serra-Diaz, Josep M. and Silan, Giulia and Skálová, Hana and Skobel, Nadiia and Sonkoly, Judit and Štajerová, Kateřina and Svitková, Ivana and Świerszcz, Sebastian and Tanentzap, Andrew J. and Tanentzap, Fallon M. and Tarifa, Rubén and Tejero, Pablo and Tekeev, Dzhamal K. and Tholin, Michael and Thormodsæter, Ruben S. and Tian, Yichen and Tokaryuk, Alla and Tölgyesi, Csaba and Tomaselli, Marcello and Tordoni, Enrico and Török, Péter and Tóthmérész, Béla and Toussaint, Aurèle and Touzard, Blaise and Trindade, Diego P. F. and Tsakalos, James L. and Türkiş, Sevda and Valencia, Enrique and Valerio, Mercedes and Valkó, Orsolya and Van Meerbeek, Koenraad and Vandvik, Vigdis and Villellas, Jesus and Virtanen, Risto and Vítková, Michaela and Vojík, Martin and von Hessberg, Andreas and von Oppen, Jonathan and Wagner, Viktoria and Wan, Ji-Zhong and Wang, Chun-Jing and Wani, Sajad A. and Weiss, Lina and Wevill, Tricia and Xiao, Sa and Zárate Martínez, Oscar and Zobel, Martin (2025) Global impoverishment of natural vegetation revealed by dark diversity. Nature, 641 (8064). pp. 917-924. ISSN 0028-0836

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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—ecologically suitable species that are absent from a site but present in the surrounding region2. In the sampled regions with a minimal human footprint index, an average of 35% of suitable plant species were present locally, compared with less than 20% in highly affected regions. Besides having the potential to uncover overlooked threats to biodiversity, dark diversity also provides guidance for nature conservation. Species in the dark diversity remain regionally present, and their local populations might be restored through measures that improve connectivity between natural vegetation fragments and reduce threats to population persistence.

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