Relationship of insect biomass and richness with land use along a climate gradient

Uhler, Johannes; Redlich, Sarah; Zhang, Jie; Hothorn, Torsten; Tobisch, Cynthia; Ewald, Jörg; Thorn, Simon; Seibold, Sebastian; Mitesser, Oliver; Morinière, Jérôme; Bozicevic, Vedran; Benjamin, Caryl; Englmeier, Jana; Fricke, Ute; Ganuza, Cristina; Haensel, Maria; Riebl, Rebekka; Rojas‐Botero, Sandra; Rummler, Thomas; Uphus, Lars; Schmidt, Stefan; Steffan‐Dewenter, Ingolf; Müller, Jörg

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26181-3

Cited by 85 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Changes in arthropod biomass, abundance and community composition are expected to have diverse and ramifying consequences, via alterations of food webs, nutrient recycling, pollination and pest control, but we still lack a comprehensive understanding of key drivers of biomass, composition, richness and diversity of insect communities (Seibold et al, 2019). Few studies have simultaneously compared insect biomass across multiple different habitat types and at different spatial scales (Hallmann et al, 2017; Uhler et al, 2021). Nonetheless, understanding relationships between insect biomass and land cover and land use is essential for conservation strategies aiming to mitigate insect loss.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying insect biomass is negatively associated with urban cover in surrounding landscapes

Svenningsen

Bowler

Hecker

et al. 2022

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim In this study, we assessed the importance of local‐ to landscape‐scale effects of land cover and land use on flying insect biomass. Location Denmark and parts of Germany. Methods We used rooftop‐mounted car nets in a citizen science project (“InsectMobile”) to allow for large‐scale geographic sampling of flying insects. Volunteers sampled insects along 278 five‐km routes in urban, farmland, grassland, wetland and forest landscapes in the summer of 2018. The bulk insect samples were dried overnight to obtain the sample biomass. We extracted proportional land use variables in buffers between 50 and 1,000 m along the routes and compiled them into land cover categories to examine the effect of each land cover, and specific land use types, on insect biomass. Results We found a negative association between urban cover and flying insect biomass (1% increase in urban cover = 1% [95% CI: −3.0 to 0.0] decrease in biomass in Denmark, and a 3% [95% CI: −3.0 to 0.0] decrease in Germany) at a landscape scale (1,000‐m buffer). In Denmark, we also found positive effects of semi‐natural land cover types, that is protected grassland (largest at the landscape scale, 1000 m) and forests (largest at intermediate scales, 250 m). Protected grassland cover had a stronger positive effect on insect biomass than forest cover did. For farmland cover, the positive association with insect biomass was not clearly modified by any variable associated with farmland use intensity. The negative association between insect biomass and urban land cover appeared to be reduced by increased urban green space. Main conclusions Our results show that land cover has an impact on flying insect biomass with the magnitude of this effect varying across spatial scales. However, the vast expanse of grey space in urbanized areas has a direct negative impact on flying insect biomass across all spatial scales examined.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying insect biomass is negatively associated with urban cover in surrounding landscapes

Svenningsen

Bowler

Hecker

et al. 2022

Diversity and Distributions

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show abstract

“…For instance, the current design allowed us to detect contrasting responses of total flying insect biomass and richness to land use and climate (Uhler et al, 2021). Yet the proposed method can also easily be extended to include higher resolution land-use types or detailed landscape structures ecologically relevant for specific target organisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, our extensive on‐field assessments within this experimental framework will fill existing knowledge gaps about biodiversity trends across taxa, relationships between above‐ and below‐ground arthropods and the microbial diversity of decomposer communities. For instance, the current design allowed us to detect contrasting responses of total flying insect biomass and richness to land use and climate (Uhler et al., 2021). Yet the proposed method can also easily be extended to include higher resolution land‐use types or detailed landscape structures ecologically relevant for specific target organisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling effects of climate and land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services—A multi‐scale experimental design

et al. 2021

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1. Climate and land-use change are key drivers of environmental degradation in the Anthropocene, but too little is known about their interactive effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Long-term data on biodiversity trends are currently lacking. Furthermore, previous ecological studies have rarely considered climate and land use in a joint design, did not achieve variable independence or lost statistical power by not covering the full range of environmental gradients.2. Here, we introduce a multi-scale space-for-time study design to disentangle effects of climate and land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services. The site selection approach coupled extensive GIS-based exploration (i.e. using a Geographic information system) and correlation heatmaps with a crossed and nested design covering regional, landscape and local scales. Its implementation in Bavaria (Germany) resulted in a set of study plots that maximise the potential range and independence of environmental variables at different spatial scales. 3. Stratifying the state of Bavaria into five climate zones (reference period 1981-2010) and three prevailing land-use types, that is, near-natural, agriculture and | 515 Methods in Ecology and Evoluঞon REDLICH Et aL.

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“…We used the BOLD (Barcode of Life Data System) taxa assignment database, and all sequences with amplicon overlap lower than 97% (a value of species identity accuracy) were excluded to ensure the reliability of the results ( 66 ). For full protocols of the molecular work and bioinformatic procedures, see ( 67 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive effects of climate and land use on pollinator diversity differ among taxa and scales

et al. 2022

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Changes in climate and land use are major threats to pollinating insects, an essential functional group. Here, we unravel the largely unknown interactive effects of both threats on seven pollinator taxa using a multiscale space-for-time approach across large climate and land-use gradients in a temperate region. Pollinator community composition, regional gamma diversity, and community dissimilarity (beta diversity) of pollinator taxa were shaped by climate-land-use interactions, while local alpha diversity was solely explained by their additive effects. Pollinator diversity increased with reduced land-use intensity (forest < grassland < arable land < urban) and high flowering-plant diversity at different spatial scales, and higher temperatures homogenized pollinator communities across regions. Our study reveals declines in pollinator diversity with land-use intensity at multiple spatial scales and regional community homogenization in warmer and drier climates. Management options at several scales are highlighted to mitigate impacts of climate change on pollinators and their ecosystem services.

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Relationship of insect biomass and richness with land use along a climate gradient

Cited by 85 publications

References 62 publications

Flying insect biomass is negatively associated with urban cover in surrounding landscapes

Flying insect biomass is negatively associated with urban cover in surrounding landscapes

Disentangling effects of climate and land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services—A multi‐scale experimental design

Interactive effects of climate and land use on pollinator diversity differ among taxa and scales

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