Impacts of land change on biodiversity: making the link to ecosystem services

We lack sufficient understanding of the processes by which biodiversity alterations induced by land cover change impact ecosystem functioning. An understanding of the mechanistic role of biodiversity is required to provide a functional perspective on ecosystem service delivery. To bridge this gap, investigating complementarity and heterogeneity in functional traits within species groups or across trophic levels is particularly relevant. Such an understanding will then facilitate spatial mapping of areas of co-occurrence of multiple ecosystem services, as well as of critical trade-offs between monetized, cultural and other supporting ecosystem services that need to be considered as hard constraints to ecosystem management. In doing so, the nature and underpinnings of tradeoffs between bundles of ecosystem services accruing to different regions and groups of people, impacting equity and wellbeing, will be uncovered to support improved policy and land planning.