A decade of decline in ruderal plant species due to urbanization of villages in northeastern Germany

The current decline of ruderal plant species in central European villages might be caused by urban- ization replacing historical rural management. However, the extent and speed of this development are poorly studied, and urbanization as a complex of several factors is hard to analyze. We used age of age of village parts (< 1945, 1945–1990, > 1990) as a proxy for urbanization and studied its impact on the population numbers of 13 ruderal plant species. We investigated seven villages in NE Germany in 2011 and again in 2022. The age of village parts had a positive impact on population numbers, with the old- est parts harboring the most populations and the youngest parts the fewest. The number of species, as well as the abundance of their populations, decreased from 2011 to 2022. We assume that declining traditional land use with farm gardens and animal husbandry is the main driver for the loss of ruderal diversity. We could show that the age of village parts is a useful proxy for urbanization, and that the negative impact of urbanization on diversity and abundance of ruderal plant species in villages is al- ready seen after one decade.