Land-use change undermines the stability of avian functional diversity
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Land-use change causes widespread shifts in the composition and functional diversity of species assemblages. However, its impact on ecosystem resilience remains uncertain. The stability of ecosystem functioning may increase after land-use change because the most sensitive species are removed, which leaves more resilient survivors1,2,3. Alternatively, ecosystems may be destabilized if land-use change reduces functional redundancy, which accentuates the ecological impacts of further species loss4,5. Current evidence is inconclusive, partly because trait data have not been available to quantify functional stability at sufficient scale. Here we use morphological measurements of 3,696 bird species to estimate shifts in functional redundancy after recent anthropogenic land-use change at 1,281 sites worldwide. We then use extinction simulations to assess the sensitivity of these altered assemblages to future species loss. Although the proportion of disturbance-tolerant species increases after land-use change, we show that this does not increase stability because functional redundancy is reduced. This decline in redundancy destabilizes ecosystem function because relatively few additional extinctions lead to accelerated losses of functional diversity, particularly in trophic groups that deliver important ecological services such as seed dispersal and insect predation. Our analyses indicate that land-use change may have major undetected impacts on the resilience of key ecological functions, hindering the capacity of natural ecosystems to absorb further reductions in functionality caused by ongoing perturbations.
Date Issued
2026-01-08
Date Acceptance
2025-10-21
Citation
Nature, 2026, 649, pp.381-387
ISSN
0028-0836
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
381
End Page
387
Journal / Book Title
Nature
Volume
649
Issue
8096
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41299180
PII: 10.1038/s41586-025-09788-0
Subjects
BIODIVERSITY
BIRD COMMUNITIES
ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION
EXTINCTION FILTERS
FRAGMENTATION
GLOBAL CHANGE
Multidisciplinary Sciences
REDUNDANCY
RESILIENCE
RESPONSES
Science & Technology
Science & Technology - Other Topics
USE INTENSIFICATION
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2025-11-26