DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw3n
title: Contrasting ecological mechanisms mediate the impact of land conversion on ecosystem multifunctionality

description: Land use/cover (LULC) changes have unequivocally affected biodiversity and
 ecosystem functioning, with enormous repercussions for human well-being.
 However, the mechanistic ecological mechanisms underlying the impact of
 land conversion on ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) remain
 insufficiently examined from the perspective of multiple biodiversity
 attributes in dryland regions with increasing deforestation
 rates. We investigated how the conversion of natural forests and
 savannas to agroforestry parklands alters the relationships between
 multiple biodiversity attributes (taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic, and
 structural) and EMF, while accounting for the effects of environmental
 factors in the dryland landscapes in Benin. We used forest inventory data
 from 145 plots spanning forests, savannas, and agroforestry parklands and
 assessed the implications of three land conversion scenarios. We
 quantified EMF using eight functions that are central to primary
 productivity and nutrient cycling. We found that EMF was
 positively related solely to structural diversity in forests. The
 conversion of forests and savannas to agroforestry parklands decreased EMF
 both directly and indirectly. The indirect effects were mediated by two
 contrasting biodiversity effects. When forests were converted to
 agroforestry parklands through savannas, indirect effects were driven by
 shifts in functional composition toward the dominance of species with
 acquisitive traits. In contrast, species diversity reduction explained the
 indirect effects when savannas were converted to agroforestry parklands.
 The aridity index and soil texture influenced biodiversity attributes, but
 not EMF. The present study provides evidence that the
 biodiversity–EMF relationship is dependent on the LULC type and was
 evident only in the natural ecosystem through the effects of structural
 diversity, thereby emphasizing the importance of enhancing structural
 diversity for promoting EMF in forests. Our findings also demonstrate that
 land conversion weakened natural EMF through biotic homogenization
 resulting from two contrasting biodiversity-related mechanisms including
 loss of species diversity and dominance of species with acquisitive
 resource-use strategy.
description: Data were collected across three dominant land use (LU) types in
 the Sudanian and Sudano–Guinean zones in Benin, West Africa. The LU types
 included forests, savannas and agroforestry parklands. Vegetation and soil
 data were collected from 145 circular plots of 0.1 ha each. Within each
 plot, the floristic inventory consisted of counting and measuring the
 diameter at breast height (DBH, cm) and height (H, m) of all living trees
 with DBH &gt; 5 cm. Leaf samples were collected
 from 5–16 individual trees of abundant species across the sampling plots
 to determine their dry matter content (mg g<sup>-1</sup>)
 andnitrogen content (%). Soil samples were collected at a 0–20 cm depth
 from the center of four subplots of 0.01 ha each that were installed
 within the main plot. The soil samples were analyzed for organic carbon
 (%), total nitrogen (%), total phosphorus (%), and available phosphorus
 (%) content. Litter samples were collected from four smaller plots of 1 m
 radius that were established within the four 0.01 ha subplots to quantify
 litter biomass (Mg ha<sup>-1</sup>). Data
 on environmental conditions were also collected. We characterized the
 environmental conditions of each sampling plot based on climate,
 topography, and soil. The climatic variables included aridity index and
 precipitation seasonality, which were extracted from the WorldClim2
 database at a resolution of ~1 km for 1971–2000. We used elevation data
 recorded by a handheld GPS to represent the topography. Additionally, we
 downloaded data on soil content (%) of clay, silt, sand, and soil pH from
 the Africa Soil Profiles Database at a resolution of 1 km (https://www.isric.org)
 for three standard soil depth intervals (0‒5, 5‒15 and 15–30 cm). We used
 the weighted mean values of the additional soil variables for the 0–20 cm
 soil layer in the subsequent analyses. 
description: # Contrasting ecological mechanisms mediate the impact of land conversion
 on ecosystem multifunctionality
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw3n](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw3n) ## Description of the data and file structure The zipped file in Dryad contains the data necessary to reproduce the statistical analyses published in the manuscript "Contrasting ecological mechanisms mediate the impact of land conversion on ecosystem multifunctionality" in Functional Ecology by Noulèkoun et al. The file includes 3 files, whose content is described below. 1- Main database "data_FE_Noulekoun_et_al" This is .csv document that contains all the variables used in the statistical analysis are displayed along with their values per plot. The names of the variables are abbreviated in this document and their description is provided in the second file entitled "Description_abbreviations_FE_Noulekoun" (see also Table below). The dataset does not contain any missing values. 2\. "Description_abbreviations_FE_Noulekoun" This is an excel document where the description of all abbreviations is provided (see also Table below). 3\. "R_code_FE_Noulekoun et al." This is the R code used to perform the analysis. Ample details are provided on how the analysis was done in the document. ### Files and variables | Abbreviations | Description | | :------------ | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | vegetation | Vegetation types | | Fo\_Sa\_Pk | Conversion of forest to parkland through savanna | | Fo\_Pk | Direct conversion of forest to parkland | | Sa\_Pk | Direct conversion of savanna to parkland | | plot\_ID | Plot unique ID | | altitude | Elevation (m) | | AI  | Aridity index | | clay20 | Clay content (%) in 0-20 soil layer | | sand20 | Sand content (%) in 0-20 soil layer | | silt20 | Silt content (%) in 0-20 soil layer | | cec1m | Cation exchange capacity  (cmol/kg) | | soc1m | Soil organic carbon (g/kg) | | ph20 | pH (H2O) in 0-20 soil layer | | bio15 | Precipitation seasonality | | cvdbh | Coefficient of variation of DBH  | | agb | Aboveground biomass (mg/ha) | | shanon | Shannon diversity index  | | fdis | Functional dispersion | | cwmhm | Community-weighted mean of maximum tree height (m) | | cwmsla | Community-weighted mean of specific leaf area (mm2 /mg) | | cwmldmc | Community-weighted mean of leaf dry matter content (mg/g) | | cwmlnc | Community-weighted mean of leaf nitrogen content (%) | | sespd | Standardized effect size (ses)  of Faith's phylogenetic diversity index (PD) | | sesmpd | Standardized effect size (ses) of mean pairwise phylogenetic distance (MPD) | | sesmntd | Standardized effect size (ses) of mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD) | | soc0\_20cm | Soil organic carbon stock in 0-20 cm soil layer (mg/ha) | | litter | Litter biomass (mg/ha) | | tp0\_20\_p | Soil total phosphorus content (%) | | avp0\_20\_p | Soit available phosphorus content(%) | | stn0\_20 | Soit total nitrogen content (%) | | cn\_ratio\_p | Carbon to nitrogen ratio | | cp\_ratio\_p | Carbon to phosphorus content | ## Code/software Please, refer to the file "R_code_FE_Noulekoun et al."