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Abstract

Among the processes currently eroding biodiversity, land-use intensification is one of the most important. Using data from 150 grasslands, in three regions of Germany, we therefore tested for effects of land-use intensity and inter-annual variation in land-use intensity on biodiversity. To measure whole ecosystem biodiversity, we introduce a new metric of multidiversity, which incorporates the diversities of up to 49 taxonomic groups of plants, animals, fungi and bacteria. Multidiversity declined with increasing land-use intensity, particularly for rarer species and aboveground groups, while common species and belowground species were less sensitive. However, high levels of inter-annual variation in land-use intensity increased overall multidiversity and slowed the rate at which the multidiversity of rarer species declined with increasing land-use intensity. In addition to decreasing mean land-use intensity, we suggest that varying land-use intensity across years, in particular varying grazing intensity over time, could be a novel strategy to reduce local biodiversity loss.