Drivers and functional effects of real-world plant diversity change

Land use intensification greatly reduces the species riches of grassland plant communities and shifts them towards dominate by ‘fast’ species with high rates of growth and tissue turnover. These changes are caused by a combination of increased mowing frequency, higher stocking rates and higher fertilisation rates. Such changes have led to major changes in a wide range of ecosystem functions and services, and these are comparable to those observed in more controlled biodiversity experiments.