title: Nitrogen deposition and multi-dimensional plant diversity at the landscape scale.
abstract: Estimating effects of nitrogen (N) deposition is essential for understanding human impacts on biodiversity. However, studies relating atmospheric N deposition to plant diversity are usually restricted to small plots of high conservation value. Here, we used data on 381 randomly selected 1 km(2) plots covering most habitat types of Central Europe and an elevational range of 2900 m. We found that high atmospheric N deposition was associated with low values of six measures of plant diversity. The weakest negative relation to N deposition was found in the traditionally measured total species richness. The strongest relation to N deposition was in phylogenetic diversity, with an estimated loss of 19% due to atmospheric N deposition as compared with a homogeneously distributed historic N deposition without human influence, or of 11% as compared with a spatially varying N deposition for the year 1880, during industrialization in Europe. Because phylogenetic plant diversity is often related to ecosystem functioning, we suggest that atmospheric N deposition threatens functioning of ecosystems at the landscape scale.
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, University of Basel , Vesalgasse 1, Basel 4051, Switzerland ; Hintermann and Weber AG , Austrasse 2a, Reinach 4153, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9742-8297
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.affiliation: Hintermann and Weber AG , Austrasse 2a, Reinach 4153, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kohli
authors.affiliation: Meteotest , Fabrikstrasse 14, Bern 3012, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Beat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rihm
authors.affiliation: Zoological Institute, University of Basel , Vesalgasse 1, Basel 4051, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Amrhein
authors.affiliation: Air Pollution Control and Chemicals Division, Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) , Bern 3003, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Beat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Achermann
keywords: biodiversity monitoring; ecosystem stability; global change; species richness