2025/11/26 by Thomas L. Weeks, Patrick A. Walkden, David P. Edwards +4 · 1 voice · 12 citations
Environmental Science · #Ecological stability #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Ecosystem #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience #Ectotherm #Environmental change #Extinction (optical mineralogy) #Functional diversity #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Metacommunity #Psychological resilience #Trait #Trophic level
paper · doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09788-0
published in Nature 649(8096), 381-387 (Nature Portfolio)
openalex publication_date 2025/11/26 · openalex created_date 2025/11/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
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 survivors 1–3 . Alternatively, ecosystems may be destabilized if land-use change reduces functional redundancy, which accentuates the ecological impacts of further species loss 4,5 . 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.