Biodiversity time series reveal global losses and accelerated redistributions of species, but no net loss in local species richness. To better understand how these patterns are linked, we quantify how individual species trajectories scale up to diversity changes using data from 68 vegetation resurvey studies of seminatural forests in Europe. Herb-layer species with small geographic ranges are being replaced by more widely distributed species, and our results suggest that this is due less to species abundances than to species nitrogen niches. Nitrogen deposition accelerates the extinctions of small-ranged, nitrogen-efficient plants and colonization by broadly distributed, nitrogen-demanding plants (including non-natives). Despite no net change in species richness at the spatial scale of a study site, the losses of small-ranged species reduce biome-scale (gamma) diversity. These results provide one mechanism to explain the directional replacement of small-ranged species within sites and thus explain patterns of biodiversity change across spatial scales.

Białowieża Geobotanical Station Faculty of Biology University of Warsaw Warszawa Poland

Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden

Department of Botany Faculty of Biological Sciences University of Wrocław Wrocław Poland

Department of Botany Faculty of Science Palacký University in Olomouc Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Botany University of Wisconsin Madison WI USA

Department of Forest Biodiversity Faculty of Forestry University of Agriculture in Kraków Kraków Poland

Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia

Department of Hidrobiology University of Pécs Szekszárd Hungary

Department of Plant Physiology and Ecology University of Rzeszów Rzeszów Poland

Department of Plant Systematics Ecology and Theoretical Biology Institute of Biology L Eötvös University Budapest Hungary

Department of Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the Temperate Zones University of Göttingen Göttingen Germany

Environment Agency Austria Vienna Austria

Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká Czech Republic

Faculty of Forestry Institute of Environmental and Earth Sciences University of Sopron Sopron Hungary

Faculty of Forestry Technical University in Zvolen Zvolen Slovakia

Forest and Nature Lab Ghent University Gontrode Belgium

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Leipzig Germany

Institute for Regional Development University of Pécs Szekszárd Hungary

Institute of Biochemistry and Biology University of Potsdam Potsdam Germany

Institute of Biology Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Halle Germany

Institute of Botany Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic

Institute of Ecology and Evolution Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena Germany

Leibniz Centre Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research Müncheberg Germany

MTA DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group University of Debrecen Debrecen Hungary

Museum of Natural History University of Wrocław Wrocław Poland

National Forest Centre Zvolen Slovakia

Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research Division of Forest and Forest Resources Bergen Norway

Research Institute for Nature and Forest Brussels Belgium

Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Alnarp Sweden

UMR 7058 CNRS EDYSAN Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés Jules Verne University of Picardie Amiens France

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figshare
10.6084/m9.figshare.10110713.v1