Legacy effects of European colonialism on hotspots of biocultural diversity threat

Patterns of biological diversity have been shaped by cultural practices in the past, while in turn, cultures and languages have evolved in close interaction with local species and ecosystems. However, in the Anthropocene, humans are putting increasingly more and diverse pressures on ecosystems and cultures resulting in accelerating threat levels on both. Understanding where biological and linguistic diversity (a common measure of cultural diversity) is threatened globally, and which drivers shape their distribution is crucial for pinpointing hotspots and prioritizing efforts to counter these threats. We find that the spatial patterns of the erosion of biological and cultural diversity are weakly congruent on a global scale and that they are driven by differential sets of mechanisms. However, our results also indicate that particularly large-scale historic socio-political events like the European colonial expansion have left long-lasting imprints on both biological and cultural diversity. The duration of European colonialism (i.e., the time a specific region was occupied by Europeans powers) significantly increases contemporary observed threat levels of biological and linguistic diversity.