Human land-use change results in disturbance of landscapes and ecosystems on large areas of the Earth, thus affecting environmental resources and ecosystem services. Human land use is the main factor for loss of biodiversity on a global scale. To date, most effects of land use on plant communities and ecosystem services have been tested under distinct disturbance regimes in a single biogeographical region. Comparing various types of land use under different degrees of intensity across biomes might reveal universal patterns of ecosystem responses that are unknown so far. In this project we will will jointly investigate land-use impacts on plant communities, biodiversity and C storage in Northwest Germany  using data from field plots analyzed by a statistical habitat model. The main objective of this project is to find universal patterns of responses to change in land use, and to predict consequences for plant biodiversity and ecosystem C storage across land-use types and biogeographical regions. Verifying a functional relation between sets of biological attributes, environmental resources and land management will allow predicting biodiversity for a wide range of systems and landscapes by knowing land use and resource regimes.