Legacy effects of past land use on current biodiversity in a low-intensity farming landscape in Transylvania (Romania)

摘要: Ecological impacts of past land use can persist for centuries. While present-day is relatively easy to quantify, characterizing historical uses and their legacies on biodiversity remains challenging. Southern Transylvania in Romania a biodiversity-rich area which has undergone major political socio-economic changes, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire two World Wars, communist dictatorship, capitalist democracy, EU accession—all leading widespread land-use changes. We investigated whether community composition birds, plants, butterflies was associated with use. surveyed at 150 sites classified those as forest, arable land, or managed grassland six epochs using maps 1870s, 1930s, 1970s, satellite imagery 1985 2000, field visits 2012. Sites were labelled permanent if they had same all non-permanent otherwise. used clustering PERMANOVA based similarity test associations between history. found significant differences (p = 0.030) bird communities forest sites, (p = 0.051). No among plants Bird use, though not. Historical change our study likely not sufficiently intense cross relevant ecological thresholds that would lead legacy effects plant butterfly communities.