title: Species richness declines and biotic homogenisation have slowed down for NW-European pollinators and plants.
abstract: Concern about biodiversity loss has led to increased public investment in conservation. Whereas there is a widespread perception that such initiatives have been unsuccessful, there are few quantitative tests of this perception. Here, we evaluate whether rates of biodiversity change have altered in recent decades in three European countries (Great Britain, Netherlands and Belgium) for plants and flower visiting insects. We compared four 20-year periods, comparing periods of rapid land-use intensification and natural habitat loss (1930-1990) with a period of increased conservation investment (post-1990). We found that extensive species richness loss and biotic homogenisation occurred before 1990, whereas these negative trends became substantially less accentuated during recent decades, being partially reversed for certain taxa (e.g. bees in Great Britain and Netherlands). These results highlight the potential to maintain or even restore current species assemblages (which despite past extinctions are still of great conservation value), at least in regions where large-scale land-use intensification and natural habitat loss has ceased.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. l.g.carvalheiro@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Luísa Gigante
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Carvalheiro
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Kunin
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Keil
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aguirre-Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Willem Nicolaas
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Groom
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hennekens
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Van Landuyt
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Van de Meutter
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Michez
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rasmont
authors.forename: Baudewijn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ode
authors.forename: Simon Geoffrey
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Potts
authors.forename: Menno
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reemer
authors.forename: Stuart Paul Masson
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Joop
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schaminée
authors.forename: Michiel F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: WallisDeVries
authors.forename: Jacobus Christiaan
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Biesmeijer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005060:Europe; D007313:Insecta / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D010944:Plants; D054817:Pollination