Research project
ScaleHDR - Scale-dependent Heterogeneity-Diversity Relationships
How does environmental heterogeneity shape biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales?
- Duration
- 2022 - 2028
- Contact
- Yali Si
- Funding
- Starter Grant (Faculty of Science, Leiden University), China Scholarship Council
Short abstract
Environmental heterogeneity shapes biodiversity across space and time, yet these dynamic processes remain relatively understudied. This overarching project uses remote sensing and species data to examine how heterogeneity influences biodiversity across spatial scales, environmental gradients, and over time, providing a scale-aware understanding with implications for monitoring, conservation, and landscape management
Project description
Spatial scale-dependent heterogeneity–diversity relationships
Environmental heterogeneity is widely recognised as a key driver of biodiversity because variation in habitat conditions increases niche availability and promotes species coexistence. However, empirical studies report highly variable heterogeneity–diversity relationships, including positive, negative, and nonlinear responses.
A major source of this variability is scale dependence, as both environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity responses change with spatial grain and along environmental gradients. This part of the project therefore examines how multiple dimensions of heterogeneity, e.g., vegetation structure and habitat complexity, relate to bird species richness and functional diversity across spatial scales. It further assesses how consistently these relationships hold across contrasting landscape contexts and across environmental gradients.
Temporal dynamics of environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity
Beyond spatial variation, ecosystems are also inherently dynamic through time. Environmental heterogeneity is continuously reshaped by land-use change, vegetation dynamics, and structural landscape transformation. Despite this, its temporal implications for biodiversity remain insufficiently understood.
This part of the project uses long-term remote sensing data combined with bird occurrence records to quantify the temporal dynamics of environmental heterogeneity and how they influence bird communities over time. It focuses on landscape and vegetation structural dynamics and their ecological consequences, providing insights into how biodiversity responds to ongoing environmental change.