Plant species extinction debt in a temperate biodiversity hotspot: community, species and functional traits approaches

peer reviewed ; Destruction and fragmentation of (semi-) natural habitats are considered the main causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Plant species may exhibit a slow response to fragmentation, resulting in the development of an extinction debt in fragmented plant communities. The detection of extinction debt is of primary importance in habitat conservation strategies. We applied two different approaches proposed in the literature to identify extinction debt in Southeast Belgium calcareous grasslands. The first method compared species richness between stable and fragmented habitat patches.... Mehr ...