Global biodiversity is at risk due to anthropogenic activity. Land-use change and land-use

intensification have been particularly damaging, resulting in widespread habitat and

biodiversity loss, and an increasing number of species threatened with extinction.

Continued pressure on the land system to produce food, biomass for bioenergy, timber

and other products for a growing human population could further threaten biodiversity.

However, questions remain about how land use and land-use intensity affect different

dimensions of biodiversity, and therefore how best to manage land to not only conserve

biodiversity, but also to meet other land-based objectives. This thesis explores several

outstanding questions about land systems and biodiversity, with a focus on biodiversity

patterns and trends in productive landscapes. Biodiversity data from the literature are

analysed within a geospatial framework using statistical models to derive new

predictions about how land use and land-use intensity affect biodiversity. The research

finds that local biodiversity trends usually remain static or increase with tree plantation

age, depending on geographic realm, biome, plantation type and land-use intensity. The

research also shows that global energy crop plantation expansion could have a range of

ecological effects depending on initial land use, landscape composition and geographic

location. Increased removal of crop residues from fields for bioenergy production is

similarly found to have mixed effects on local biodiversity, depending on crop yield,

climate and current residue management. Lastly, the research finds that landscape-scale

land use and land-use intensity affect range-wide vertebrate habitat suitability,

depending on taxonomic group and geographic range size, and regional biodiversity

patterns. The results add to the current understanding of how land systems shape

biodiversity on different spatial scales. Furthermore, the research has the potential to

inform land-use planning, increase the sustainability of agriculture and forestry,

influence decisions about bioenergy production, and enhance the conservation and

restoration of biodiversity.