WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Across four northern Iberian landscapes, researchers compared vegetation and biodiversity measures along woody encroachment gradients. Some functional and phylogenetic diversity rose as shrubs entered, while taxonomic diversity peaked around lower to intermediate shrub levels before dropping under denser woody cover.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Preventing every shrub or allowing complete woody takeover are both crude prescriptions. Management for open-habitat specialists needs explicit targets and mosaics, not a blanket equation between more biomass and more biodiversity.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Observational gradient comparisons do not show the effect of a prescribed intervention, and responses differ by assemblage, site history and the diversity metric chosen.
SOURCE
Landscape Ecology · Iberian woody-encroachment biodiversity study
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