Cross-scale effects of land use on the functional composition of herbivorous insect communities

Neff, Felix; Blüthgen, Nico; Chisté, Melanie N.; Simons, Nadja K.; Steckel, Juliane; Weisser, Wolfgang W.; Westphal, Catrin; Pellissier, Loïc; Goßner, Martin M.

doi:10.1007/s10980-019-00872-1

Cited by 16 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…Ecosystem multifunctionality was significantly higher in seminatural grasslands compared to intensively managed grasslands (research question 1). This is in line with studies showing that intensive agriculture decreases multifunctionality by homogenizing plant and faunal communities and soil properties (e.g., Birkhofer et al 2012, Gossner et al 2016, Soliveres et al 2016), and reducing functional diversity at local and landscape scales (Allan et al 2015, Neff et al 2019). In contrast, traditionally managed seminatural grasslands are characterized by high taxonomic and structural heterogeneity above‐ and belowground (Lachat et al 2010, Diacon‐Bolli et al 2012, Byrne and delBarco‐Trillo 2019, Peciña et al 2019), thereby supporting multiple functions and services simultaneously.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Evaluating long‐term success in grassland restoration: an ecosystem multifunctionality approach

Resch

Schütz

Buchmann

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

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It is generally assumed that restoring biodiversity will enhance diversity and ecosystem functioning. However, to date, it has rarely been evaluated whether and how restoration efforts manage to rebuild biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (ecosystem multifunctionality) simultaneously. Here, we quantified how three restoration methods of increasing intervention intensity (harvest only < topsoil removal < topsoil removal + propagule addition) affected grassland ecosystem multifunctionality 22 yr after the restoration event. We compared restored with intensively managed and targeted seminatural grasslands based on 13 biotic and abiotic, above‐ and belowground properties. We found that all three restoration methods improved ecosystem multifunctionality compared to intensively managed grasslands and developed toward the targeted seminatural grasslands. However, whereas higher levels of intervention intensity reached ecosystem multifunctionality of targeted seminatural grasslands after 22 yr, lower intervention missed this target. Moreover, we found that topsoil removal with and without seed addition accelerated the recovery of biotic and aboveground properties, and we found no negative long‐term effects on abiotic or belowground properties despite removing the top layer of the soil. We also evaluated which ecosystem properties were the best indicators for restoration success in terms of accuracy and cost efficiency. Overall, we demonstrated that low‐cost measures explained relatively more variation of ecosystem multifunctionality compared to high‐cost measures. Plant species richness was the most accurate individual property in describing ecosystem multifunctionality, as it accounted for 54% of ecosystem multifunctionality at only 4% of the costs of our comprehensive multifunctionality approach. Plant species richness is the property that typically is used in restoration monitoring by conservation agencies. Vegetation structure, soil carbon storage and water‐holding capacity together explained 70% of ecosystem multifunctionality at only twice the costs (8%) of plant species richness, which is, in our opinion, worth considering in future restoration monitoring projects. Hence, our findings provide a guideline for land managers how they could obtain an accurate estimate of aboveground‐belowground ecosystem multifunctionality and restoration success in a highly cost‐efficient way.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Evaluating long‐term success in grassland restoration: an ecosystem multifunctionality approach

Resch

Schütz

Buchmann

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

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“…2 ). This hypothesis applies, in particular, to mowing frequency, which has well-documented strong effects on plant and insect communities ( 8 , 11 , 40 ). For forests, we hypothesized no substantial changes in network structure and robustness along the land-use intensity gradient (hypothesis 2; Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Changes in plant-herbivore network structure and robustness along land-use intensity gradients in grasslands and forests

et al. 2021

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Land-use intensification poses major threats to biodiversity, such as to insect herbivore communities. The stability of these communities depends on interactions linking herbivores and host plants. How interaction network structure begets robustness, and thus stability, in different ecosystems and how network structure and robustness are altered along land-use intensity gradients are unclear. We analyzed plant-herbivore networks based on literature-derived interactions and long-term sampling from 289 grasslands and forests in three regions of Germany. Network size and nestedness were the most important determinants of network robustness in both ecosystems. Along land-use intensity gradients, networks in moderately grazed grasslands were more robust than in those managed by frequent mowing or fertilization. In forests, changes of network robustness along land-use intensity gradients relied on changes in plant species richness. Our results expand our knowledge of the stability of plant-herbivore networks and indicate options for management aimed at stabilizing herbivore communities.

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“…The two subsamples per plot were pooled and arthropods were sorted to order or lower taxonomic levels. Here, we focused on three herbivorous taxa (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha; Hemiptera: Heteroptera; Orthoptera), which constitute a large part of the insect herbivore community in seminatural grasslands (e.g., Neff et al 2019). Individuals were identified to species level (details in Appendix ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, dispersal filters determine which species reach a site whereas biotic and abiotic filters determine which species establish given a particular environmental setting and the presence of other organisms (Belyea and Lancaster 1999). In grasslands, intensified agriculture at local and landscape scale has been shown to act as a filter selecting against large‐bodied species and habitat specialists with restricted dispersal capacities during community assembly (Ribera et al 2001, Rader et al 2014, Gámez‐Virués et al 2015, Simons et al 2016, Neff et al 2019). Consequently, trait combinations that suffer most from intensified land use might be particularly difficult to restore (Woodcock et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term restoration success of insect herbivore communities in seminatural grasslands: a functional approach

Neff

Resch

Marty

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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Seminatural grasslands are important biodiversity hotspots, but they are increasingly degraded by intensive agriculture. Grassland restoration is considered to be promising in halting the ongoing loss of biodiversity, but this evaluation is mostly based on plant communities. Insect herbivores contribute substantially to grassland biodiversity and to the provisioning of a variety of ecosystem functions. However, it is unclear how they respond to different measures that are commonly used to restore seminatural grasslands from intensively used agricultural land. We studied the long‐term success of different restoration techniques, which were originally targeted at reestablishing seminatural grassland plant communities, for herbivorous insect communities on taxonomic as well as functional level. Therefore, we sampled insect communities 22 yr after the establishment of restoration measures. These measures ranged from harvest and removal of biomass to removal of the topsoil layer and subsequent seeding of plant propagules. We found that insect communities in restored grasslands had higher taxonomic and functional diversity compared to intensively managed agricultural grasslands and were more similar in composition to target grasslands. Restoration measures including topsoil removal proved to be more effective, in particular in restoring species characterized by functional traits susceptible to intensive agriculture (e.g., large‐bodied species). Our study shows that long‐term success in the restoration of herbivorous insect communities of seminatural grasslands can be achieved by different restoration measures and that more invasive approaches that involve the removal of the topsoil layer are more effective. We attribute these restoration successes to accompanying changes in the plant community, resulting in bottom‐up control of the herbivore community. Our results are of critical importance for management decisions aiming to restore multi‐trophic communities, their functional composition and consequently the proliferation of ecosystem functions.

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Cross-scale effects of land use on the functional composition of herbivorous insect communities

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

Evaluating long‐term success in grassland restoration: an ecosystem multifunctionality approach

Evaluating long‐term success in grassland restoration: an ecosystem multifunctionality approach

Changes in plant-herbivore network structure and robustness along land-use intensity gradients in grasslands and forests

Long‐term restoration success of insect herbivore communities in seminatural grasslands: a functional approach

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