Combining biodiversity resurveys across regions to advance global change research

Kris Verheyen, Pieter De Frenne, Lander Baeten, Donald M. Waller, Radim Hédl, Michael P. Perring, Haben Blondeel, Jörg Brunet, Markéta Chudomelová, Guillaume Decocq, Emiel De Lombaerde, Leen Depauw, Thomas Dirnböck, Tomasz Durak, Ove Eriksson, Frank S. Gilliam, Thilo Heinken, Steffi Heinrichs, Martin Hermy, Bogdan JaroszewiczMichael A. Jenkins, Sarah E. Johnson, Keith J. Kirby, Martin Kopecký, Dries Landuyt, Jonathan Lenoir, Daijiang Li, Martin Macek, Sybryn L. Maes, František Máliš, Fraser J G Mitchell, Tobias Naaf, George Peterken, Petr Petřík, Kamila Reczyńska, David A. Rogers, Fride Høistad Schei, Wolfgang Schmidt, Tibor Standovár, Krzysztof Świerkosz, Karol Ujházy, Hans Van Calster, Mark Vellend, Ondřej Vild, Kerry Woods, Monika Wulf, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    93 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    More and more ecologists have started to resurvey communities sampled in earlier decades to determine long-term shifts in community composition and infer the likely drivers of the ecological changes observed. However, to assess the relative importance of and interactions among multiple drivers, joint analyses of resurvey data from many regions spanning large environmental gradients are needed. In this article, we illustrate how combining resurvey data from multiple regions can increase the likelihood of driver orthogonality within the design and show that repeatedly surveying across multiple regions provides higher representativeness and comprehensiveness, allowing us to answer more completely a broader range of questions. We provide general guidelines to aid the implementation of multiregion resurvey databases. In so doing, we aim to encourage resurvey database development across other community types and biomes to advance global environmental change research.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)73-83
    Number of pages11
    JournalBioscience
    Volume67
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Combining biodiversity resurveys across regions to advance global change research'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this