Landscape simplification filters species traits and drives biotic homogenization

Pollinator-mediated effects of landscape-scale land use on grassland plant community composition and ecosystem functioning - seven hypotheses

Environmental change is disrupting mutualisms between organisms worldwide. Reported declines in insect populations and changes in pollinator community compositions in response to land use and other environmental drivers have put the spotlight on the need to conserve pollinators. While this is often motivated by their role in supporting crop yields, the role of pollinators for reproduction and resulting taxonomic and functional assembly in wild plant communities has received less attention. Recent findings suggest that observed and experimental gradients in pollinator availability can affect plant community composition, but we know little about when such shifts are to be expected, or the impact they have on ecosystem functioning. Correlations between plant traits related to pollination and plant traits related to other important ecosystem functions, such as productivity, nitrogen uptake or palatability to herbivores, lead us to expect non-random shifts in ecosystem functioning in response to changes in pollinator communities. At the same time, ecological and evolutionary processes may counteract these effects of pollinator declines, limiting changes in plant community composition, and in ecosystem functioning. Despite calls to investigate community- and ecosystem-level impacts of reduced pollination, the study of pollinator effects on plants has largely been confined to impacts on plant individuals or single-species populations. With this review we aim to break new ground by bringing together aspects of landscape ecology, ecological and evolutionary plant-insect interactions, and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research, to generate new ideas and hypotheses about the ecosystem-level consequences of pollinator declines in response to land-use change, using grasslands as a focal system. Based on an integrated set of seven hypotheses, we call for more research investigating the putative pollinator-mediated links between landscape-scale land use and ecosystem functioning. In particular, future research should use combinations of experimental and observational approaches to assess the effects of changes in pollinator communities over multiple years and across species on plant communities and on trait distributions both within and among species.

Mixing on- and off-field measures for biodiversity conservation

The continuing biodiversity losses through agricultural expansion and intensification are dramatic. We argue that a mix of on- and off-field measures is needed, overcoming the false dichotomy of the land sharing-sparing debate. Protected land is essential for global biodiversity, while spillover between farmed and natural land is key to reducing species extinctions. This is particularly effective in landscapes with small and diversified fields. Focusing only on protected land fails to conserve a wealth of species, which often provide major ecosystem services such as pest control, pollination, and cultural benefits. On-field measures must minimise yield losses to prevent increased demand for food imports from biodiversity-rich regions, requiring enforcement of high social-ecological land-use standards to ensure a good life for all.

Companion plants and straw mulch reduce cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala) damage on oilseed rape

BACKGROUND

Plant diversification, especially sowing crops with the addition of companion plants has been demonstrated as a suitable practice to increase insect pest control in multiple cropping systems. Since the ban on use of neonicotinoid seed treatments in oilseed rape (OSR), the harvested area has reduced significantly in Europe, mainly because of the damage caused by cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala). Several companion plants such as legumes and other species of Brassicaceae have been reported as potential companions for OSR but robust evaluation of their efficiency to reduce cabbage stem flea beetle damage in replicated trials is lacking.

RESULTS

Four field trials were conducted in the UK and Germany to test the effect of different companion plants, or the addition of straw mulch, on cabbage stem flea beetle adult feeding and larval infestation in OSR. We found significant differences in the level of feeding damage between treatments in all experiments. Combinations of OSR with cereal companion plants or with straw mulch showed the strongest reduction in adult feeding damage. A protective effect of legumes was also observed in one trial. Differences in larval infestation were also observed between treatments but were not consistent and might be more related to the OSR plant biomass than to treatments.

CONCLUSION

This study shows that companion planting can protect OSR crops from cabbage stem flea beetle adult feeding damage. We show for the first time that not only legumes, but also cereals and the application of straw mulch can have a strong protective effect on the crop. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Land-use change in the past 40 years explains shifts in arthropod community traits

Understanding how anthropogenic activities induce changes in the functional traits of arthropod communities is critical to assessing their ecological consequences. However, we largely lack comprehensive assessments of the long-term impact of global-change drivers on the trait composition of arthropod communities across a large number of species and sites. This knowledge gap critically hampers our ability to predict human-driven impacts on communities and ecosystems. Here, we use a dataset of 1.73 million individuals from 877 species to study how four functionally important traits of carabid beetles and spiders (i.e. body size, duration of activity period, tolerance to drought, and dispersal capacity) have changed at the community level across ~40 years in different types of land use and as a consequence of land use changes (that is, urbanisation and loss of woody vegetation) at the landscape scale in Switzerland. The results show that the mean body size in carabid communities declined in all types of land use, with particularly stronger declines in croplands compared to forests. Furthermore, the length of the activity period and the tolerance to drought of spider communities decreased in most land use types. The average body size of carabid communities in landscapes with increased urbanisation in the last ~40 years tended to decrease. However, the length of the activity period, the tolerance to drought, and the dispersal capacity did not change significantly. Furthermore, urbanisation promoted increases in the average dispersal capacities of spider communities. Additionally, urbanisation favoured spider communities with larger body sizes and longer activity periods. The loss of woody areas at the landscape level was associated with trait shifts to carabid communities with larger body sizes, shorter activity periods, higher drought tolerances and strongly decreased dispersal capacities. Decreases in activity periods and dispersal capacities were also found in spider communities. Our study demonstrates that human-induced changes in land use alter key functional traits of carabid and spider communities in the long term. The detected trait shifts in arthropod communities likely have important consequences for their functional roles in ecosystems.

Flower-bee versus pollen-bee metanetworks in fragmented landscapes

Understanding the organization of mutualistic networks at multiple spatial scales is key to ensure biological conservation and functionality in human-modified ecosystems. Yet, how changing habitat and landscape features affect pollen-bee interaction networks is still poorly understood. Here, we analysed how bee-flower visitation and bee-pollen-transport interactions respond to habitat fragmentation at the local network and regional metanetwork scales, combining data from 29 fragments of calcareous grasslands, an endangered biodiversity hotspot in central Europe. We found that only 37% of the total unique pairwise species interactions occurred in both pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, whereas 28% and 35% were exclusive to pollen-transport and flower visitation networks, respectively. At local level, network specialization was higher in pollen-transport networks, and was negatively related to the diversity of land cover types in both network types. At metanetwork level, pollen transport data revealed that the proportion of single-fragment interactions increased with landscape diversity. Our results show that the specialization of calcareous grasslands' plant-pollinator networks decreases with landscape diversity, but network specialization is underestimated when only based on flower visitation information. Pollen transport data, more than flower visitation, and multi-scale analyses of metanetworks are fundamental for understanding plant-pollinator interactions in human-dominated landscapes.

Land conversion to agriculture induces taxonomic homogenization of soil microbial communities globally

Agriculture contributes to a decline in local species diversity and to above- and below-ground biotic homogenization. Here, we conduct a continental survey using 1185 soil samples and compare microbial communities from natural ecosystems (forest, grassland, and wetland) with converted agricultural land. We combine our continental survey results with a global meta-analysis of available sequencing data that cover more than 2400 samples across six continents. Our combined results demonstrate that land conversion to agricultural land results in taxonomic and functional homogenization of soil bacteria, mainly driven by the increase in the geographic ranges of taxa in croplands. We find that 20% of phylotypes are decreased and 23% are increased by land conversion, with croplands enriched in Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadota, Planctomycetota, Myxcoccota and Latescibacterota. Although there is no significant difference in functional composition between natural ecosystems and agricultural land, functional genes involved in nitrogen fixation, phosphorus mineralization and transportation are depleted in cropland. Our results provide a global insight into the consequences of land-use change on soil microbial taxonomic and functional diversity.

A global survey of host, aquatic, and soil microbiomes reveals shared abundance and genomic features between bacterial and fungal generalists

Environmental change, coupled with alteration in human lifestyles, is profoundly impacting the microbial communities critical to the health of the Earth and its inhabitants. To identify bacteria and fungi that are resistant and susceptible to habitat change, we analyze thousands of genera detected in 1,580 host, soil, and aquatic samples. This large-scale analysis identifies 48 bacterial and 4 fungal genera that are abundant across the three biomes, demonstrating fitness in diverse environmental conditions. Samples containing these generalists have significantly higher alpha diversity. These generalists play a significant role in shaping cross-kingdom community structure, boasting larger genomes with more secondary metabolism and antimicrobial resistance genes. Conversely, 30 bacterial and 19 fungal genera are only found in a single habitat, suggesting a limited ability to adapt to different and changing environments. These findings contribute to our understanding of microbial niche breadth and its consequences for global biodiversity loss.

Restoring spatiotemporal variability to enhance the capacity for dispersal-limited species to track climate change

Climate refugia are areas where species can persist through climate change with little to no movement. Among the factors associated with climate refugia are high spatial heterogeneity, such that there is only a short distance between current and future optimal climates, as well as biotic or abiotic environmental factors that buffer against variability in time. However, these types of climate refugia may be declining due to anthropogenic homogenization of environments and degradation of environmental buffers. To quantify the potential for restoration of refugia-like environmental conditions to increase population persistence under climate change, we simulated a population's capacity to track their temperature over space and time given different levels of spatial and temporal variability in temperature. To determine how species traits affected the efficacy of restoring heterogeneity, we explored an array of values for species' dispersal ability, thermal tolerance, and fecundity. We found that species were more likely to persist in environments with higher spatial heterogeneity and lower environmental stochasticity. When simulating a management action that increased the spatial heterogeneity of a previously homogenized environment, species were more likely to persist through climate change, and population sizes were generally higher, but there was little effect with mild temperature change. The benefits of heterogeneity restoration were greatest for species with limited dispersal ability. In contrast, species with longer dispersal but lower fecundity were more likely to benefit from a reduction in environmental stochasticity than an increase in spatial heterogeneity. Our results suggest that restoring environments to refugia-like conditions could promote species' persistence under the influence of climate change in addition to conservation strategies such as assisted migration, corridors, and increased protection.

Dietary metabarcoding reveals the simplification of bird-pest interaction networks across a gradient of agricultural cover

Agriculture is vital for supporting human populations, but its intensification often leads to landscape homogenization and a decline in non-provisioning ecosystem services. Ecological intensification and multifunctional landscapes are suggested as nature-based alternatives to intensive agriculture, using ecological processes like natural pest regulation to maximize food production. Birds are recognized for their role in increasing crop yields by consuming invertebrate pests in several agroecosystems. However, the understanding of how bird species, their traits and agricultural land cover influence the structure of bird-pest interactions remains limited. We sampled bird-pest interactions monthly for 1 year, at four sites within a multifunctional landscape, following a gradient of increasing agricultural land cover. We analysed 2583 droppings of 55 bird species with DNA metabarcoding and detected 225 pest species in 1139 samples of 42 bird species. As expected, bird-pest interactions were highly variable across bird species. Dietary pest richness was lower in the fully agricultural site, while predation frequency remained consistent across the agricultural land cover gradient. Network analysis revealed a reduction in the complexity of bird-pest interactions as agricultural coverage increased. Bird species abundance affected the bird's contribution to the network structure more than any of the bird traits analysed (weight, phenology, invertebrate frequency in diet and foraging strata), with more common birds being more important to network structure. Overall, our results show that increasing agricultural land cover increases the homogenization of bird-pest interactions. This shows the importance of maintaining natural patches within agricultural landscapes for biodiversity conservation and enhanced biocontrol.

Human-induced homogenization of microbial taxa and function in a subtropical river and its impacts on community stability

Combination of taxa and function can provide a more comprehensive picture on human-induced microbial homogenization. Here, we obtained 2.58 billion high-throughput sequencing reads and 479 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of planktonic microbial communities in a subtropical river for 5 years. We found the microbial taxa homogenization and functional homogenization were uncoupled. Although human activities in downstream sites significantly decreased the taxonomic diversity of non-abundant ASV communities (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence variants), they did not significantly decrease the taxonomic diversity of abundant ASV and total observed MAG communities. However, the total observed MAG communities in downstream sites tended to homogenize into some specific taxa which encode human-activity-related functional genes, such as nutrient cycles, greenhouse gas emission, antibiotic and arsenic resistance. Those specific MAGs with high taxonomic diversity caused the weak heterogenization of total observed MAG communities in downstream sites. Moreover, functional homogenization promoted the synchrony among downstream MAGs, and these MAGs constructed some specific network modules might to synergistically execute or resist the human-activity-related functions. High synchrony also led to the tandem effects among MAGs and thus decreased community stability. Overall, our findings revealed the links of microbial taxa, functions and stability under human activity impacts, and provided a strong evidence to encourage us re-thinking biotic homogenization based on microbial taxa and their functional attributes.

Kelp forests collapse reduces understorey seaweed β-diversity

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Kelps are the primary foundation species in temperate subtidal rocky shores worldwide. However, global change is causing their decline with consequences for the organisms that rely on them. An accurate assessment of these consequences may depend on which attributes of the associated community are considered. This study shows that conventional α-diversity approaches may overlook some of these consequences compared to spatially explicit approaches such as with β-diversity.

METHODS

A 1-year seasonal study was conducted to compare the macroalgal understorey between healthy reefs with a Laminaria ochroleuca canopy and degraded reefs where the canopy collapsed years ago due to excessive fish herbivory. At each reef, the understorey seaweed assemblage was recorded in five replicate quadrats to estimate α-diversity (total richness, species density, Shannon index) and β-diversity (intra- and inter-reef scale).

KEY RESULTS

The understorey assemblage exhibited a distinct seasonal dynamic in both healthy and degraded reefs. α-Diversity attributes increased in spring and summer; turf-forming algae were particularly dominant in degraded reefs during summer. β-Diversity also showed seasonal variability, but mostly due to the changes in degraded reefs. None of the α-diversity estimates differed significantly between healthy and degraded reefs. In contrast, spatial β-diversity was significantly lower in degraded reefs.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the loss of the kelp canopy affected the composition of the macroalgal understorey, none of the conventional indicators of α-diversity detected significant differences between healthy and degraded reefs. In contrast, small-scale spatial β-diversity decreased significantly as a result of deforestation, suggesting that the loss of kelp canopy may not significantly affect the number of species but still have an effect on their spatial arrangement. Our results suggest that small-scale β-diversity may be a good proxy for a more comprehensive assessment of the consequences of kelp forest decline.

Crop and landscape heterogeneity increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: A global review and meta-analysis

Agricultural intensification not only increases food production but also drives widespread biodiversity decline. Increasing landscape heterogeneity has been suggested to increase biodiversity across habitats, while increasing crop heterogeneity may support biodiversity within agroecosystems. These spatial heterogeneity effects can be partitioned into compositional (land-cover type diversity) and configurational heterogeneity (land-cover type arrangement), measured either for the crop mosaic or across the landscape for both crops and semi-natural habitats. However, studies have reported mixed responses of biodiversity to increases in these heterogeneity components across taxa and contexts. Our meta-analysis covering 6397 fields across 122 studies conducted in Asia, Europe, North and South America reveals consistently positive effects of crop and landscape heterogeneity, as well as compositional and configurational heterogeneity for plant, invertebrate, vertebrate, pollinator and predator biodiversity. Vertebrates and plants benefit more from landscape heterogeneity, while invertebrates derive similar benefits from both crop and landscape heterogeneity. Pollinators benefit more from configurational heterogeneity, but predators favour compositional heterogeneity. These positive effects are consistent for invertebrates and vertebrates in both tropical/subtropical and temperate agroecosystems, and in annual and perennial cropping systems, and at small to large spatial scales. Our results suggest that promoting increased landscape heterogeneity by diversifying crops and semi-natural habitats, as suggested in the current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, is key for restoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

A slow-fast trait continuum at the whole community level in relation to land-use intensification

Organismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow- to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, whether there is synchronisation of these strategies at the entire community level is unclear. Here, we combine trait data for >2800 above- and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands. The results indicate that most guilds consistently respond to these drivers through both direct and trophically mediated effects, resulting in a 'slow-fast' axis at the level of the entire community. Using 15 indicators of carbon and nutrient fluxes, biomass production and decomposition, we also show that fast trait communities are associated with faster rates of ecosystem functioning. These findings demonstrate that 'slow' and 'fast' strategies can be manifested at the level of whole communities, opening new avenues of ecosystem-level functional classification.

Immunogenetic-pathogen networks shrink in Tome's spiny rat, a generalist rodent inhabiting disturbed landscapes

Anthropogenic disturbance may increase the emergence of zoonoses. Especially generalists that cope with disturbance and live in close contact with humans and livestock may become reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens. Yet, whether anthropogenic disturbance modifies host-pathogen co-evolutionary relationships in generalists is unknown. We assessed pathogen diversity, neutral genome-wide diversity (SNPs) and adaptive MHC class II diversity in a rodent generalist inhabiting three lowland rainforest landscapes with varying anthropogenic disturbance, and determined which MHC alleles co-occurred more frequently with 13 gastrointestinal nematodes, blood trypanosomes, and four viruses. Pathogen-specific selection pressures varied between landscapes. Genome-wide diversity declined with the degree of disturbance, while MHC diversity was only reduced in the most disturbed landscape. Furthermore, pristine forest landscapes had more functional important MHC-pathogen associations when compared to disturbed forests. We show co-evolutionary links between host and pathogens impoverished in human-disturbed landscapes. This underscores that parasite-mediated selection might change even in generalist species following human disturbance which in turn may facilitate host switching and the emergence of zoonoses.

Asynchrony in terrestrial insect abundance corresponds with species traits

Asynchrony in population abundance can buffer the effects of environmental change leading to greater community and ecosystem stability. Both environmental (abiotic) drivers and species functional (biotic) traits can influence population dynamics leading to asynchrony. However, empirical evidence linking dissimilarity in species traits to abundance asynchrony is limited, especially for understudied taxa such as insects. To fill this knowledge gap, we explored the relationship between pairwise species trait dissimilarity and asynchrony in interannual abundance change between pairs of species for 422 moth, butterfly, and bumblebee species in Great Britain. We also explored patterns differentiating traits that we assumed to capture 'sensitivity to environmental variables' (such as body mass), and traits that may reflect 'diversity in exposure' to environmental conditions and lead to niche partitioning (for example, habitat uses, and intra-annual emergence periods). As expected, species trait dissimilarity calculated overall and for many individual traits representing response and exposure was positively correlated with asynchrony in all three insect groups. We found that 'exposure' traits, especially those relating to the phenology of species, had the strongest relationship with abundance asynchrony from all tested traits. Positive relationships were not simply due to shared evolutionary history leading to similar life-history strategies: detected effects remained significant for most traits after accounting for phylogenetic relationships within models. Our results provide empirical support that dissimilarity in traits linked to species exposure and sensitivity to the environment could be important for temporal dissimilarity in insect abundance. Hence, we suggest that general trait diversity, but especially diversity in 'exposure' traits, could play a significant role in the resilience of insect communities to short-term environmental perturbations through driving asynchrony between species abundances.

Gut microbial shifts in vampire bats linked to immunity due to changed diet in human disturbed landscapes

Anthropogenic land-use change alters wildlife habitats and modifies species composition, diversity, and contacts among wildlife, livestock, and humans. Such human-modified ecosystems have been associated with emerging infectious diseases, threatening human and animal health. However, human disturbance also creates new resources that some species can exploit. Common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) in Latin America constitute an important example, as their adaptation to human-modified habitats and livestock blood-feeding has implications for e.g., rabies transmission. Despite the well-known links between habitat degradation and disease emergence, few studies have explored how human-induced disturbance influences wildlife behavioural ecology and health, which can alter disease dynamics. To evaluate links among habitat disturbance, diet shifts, gut microbiota, and immunity, we quantified disturbance around roosting caves of common vampire bats in Costa Rica, measured their long-term diet preferences (livestock or wildlife blood) using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, evaluated innate and adaptive immune markers, and characterized their gut microbiota. We observed that bats from roosting caves with more cattle farming nearby fed more on cattle blood. Moreover, gut microbial richness and the abundance of specific gut microbes differed according to feeding preferences. Interestingly, bats feeding primarily on wildlife blood harboured a higher abundance of the bacteria Edwardsiella sp., which tended to be associated with higher immunoglobulin G levels. Our results highlight how human land-use change may indirectly affect wildlife health and emerging infectious diseases through diet-induced shifts in microbiota, with implications for host immunity and potential consequences for susceptibility to pathogens.

Biotic homogenization, lower soil fungal diversity and fewer rare taxa in arable soils across Europe

Soil fungi are a key constituent of global biodiversity and play a pivotal role in agroecosystems. How arable farming affects soil fungal biogeography and whether it has a disproportional impact on rare taxa is poorly understood. Here, we used the high-resolution PacBio Sequel targeting the entire ITS region to investigate the distribution of soil fungi in 217 sites across a 3000 km gradient in Europe. We found a consistently lower diversity of fungi in arable lands than grasslands, with geographic locations significantly impacting fungal community structures. Prevalent fungal groups became even more abundant, whereas rare groups became fewer or absent in arable lands, suggesting a biotic homogenization due to arable farming. The rare fungal groups were narrowly distributed and more common in grasslands. Our findings suggest that rare soil fungi are disproportionally affected by arable farming, and sustainable farming practices should protect rare taxa and the ecosystem services they support.

Hedgerows can increase predation rates in wheat fields in homogeneous agricultural landscapes

In agricultural landscapes, semi-natural habitats can support populations of beneficial species, such as natural enemies. Using artificial caterpillars made of plasticine, we compared arthropod and vertebrate predation rates in wheat fields adjacent to hedgerows or spontaneous grass margins in two contrasting agricultural landscapes. Overall, 25.3% of the caterpillars were attacked after 24 h, mainly by arthropods (67.1%). Predation rates in the heterogeneous and homogeneous landscapes were similar (mean ± SE; 24.9% ± 3.0% vs 25.7% ± 3.6%, n = 10 per landscape). However, we found a significant interaction between the margin and landscape type. Total (arthropods + vertebrates) predation rates were significantly higher in wheat fields next to hedgerows than in conventional wheat fields with grass margins in the homogeneous landscape (33.7% ± 4.5% vs 17.7% ± 2.5%, n = 5 per margin type and landscape), while no difference between predation rates in the two margin types was detected in the heterogeneous landscape. Total and vertebrate predation rates were positively affected by plant species richness, which suggest that one of the mechanisms through which hedgerows can support higher predator activity than spontaneous grass margins, particularly in homogeneous agricultural landscapes, is by providing higher plant diversity. Our results suggest that in simple landscapes, hedgerows may act as habitat islands of high conservation value for biodiversity, having a disproportionate value compared to hedgerows in landscapes that include forest fragments and other semi-natural habitats.

How artificial light at night may rewire ecological networks: concepts and models

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is eroding natural light cycles and thereby changing species distributions and activity patterns. Yet little is known about how ecological interaction networks respond to this global change driver. Here, we assess the scientific basis of the current understanding of community-wide ALAN impacts. Based on current knowledge, we conceptualize and review four major pathways by which ALAN may affect ecological interaction networks by (i) impacting primary production, (ii) acting as an environmental filter affecting species survival, (iii) driving the movement and distribution of species, and (iv) changing functional roles and niches by affecting activity patterns. Using an allometric-trophic network model, we then test how a shift in temporal activity patterns for diurnal, nocturnal and crepuscular species impacts food web stability. The results indicate that diel niche shifts can severely impact community persistence by altering the temporal overlap between species, which leads to changes in interaction strengths and rewiring of networks. ALAN can thereby lead to biodiversity loss through the homogenization of temporal niches. This integrative framework aims to advance a predictive understanding of community-level and ecological-network consequences of ALAN and their cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Light pollution in complex ecological systems'.

Response of Spider and Epigaeic Beetle Assemblages to Overwinter Planting Regimes and Surrounding Landscape Compositions

The rotation patterns of summer rice-winter oil seed rape and summer rice-winter fallow are the main planting regimes in the rice ecosystem in southern China. However, the impact of local rotation patterns and landscape factors on the overwintering conservation of predators in spider and epigaeic beetle assemblages remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the diversity and density of spiders and beetles over two consecutive winters (2019/2020 and 2020/2021), focusing on the impact of two rotation patterns (rice-fallow and rice-oilseed rape) and surrounding landscape compositions on predator diversity. The main findings of our research were that spiders were more abundant and had a higher activity density in the fallow rice fields (FRs) compared to the oilseed rape fields (OSRs), whereas ground beetles exhibited the opposite pattern. Specifically, fallow rice fields supported small and ballooning spiders (e.g., dominant spider: Ummeliata insecticeps), while OSRs supported larger ground beetles (e.g., dominant beetles: Agonum chalcomus and Pterostichus liodactylus). Moreover, the composition of spider assemblages were impacted by semi-natural habitats (SNHs) during overwintering, while ground beetle assemblages were influenced by overwinter planting patterns. Overall, our results suggest that different planting regimes and preserving semi-natural habitats are a strategic way to enhance species diversity and functional diversity of ground predators. It is, therefore, recommended that to conserve and improve predator diversity during overwintering, land managers and farmers should aim to maintain diverse planting regimes and conserve local semi-natural habitats.

Hedgerows interact with forests to shape the abundance of mesopredators and their predation rate on eggs in farmland landscapes

Nest predation is the main cause of reproductive failure, particularly in ground-nesting birds on farmlands. Understanding the links between nest predation and habitat change can help design effective management schemes to constrain the negative impact of predation pressure on birds. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationships between landscape attributes, predator distribution, and nest predation are still unclear. Here, we use an experimental approach to examine the effects of distance to the hedgerow as well as hedgerow and forest densities on the abundance of major mesopredators of ground nests of our study area (i.e., corvids) and on the predation rate of artificial ground nests (n = 2576). We found evidence that landscape configuration influenced predation patterns differently depending on the predator species. Nest predation by corvids was more likely in homogeneous and open agricultural landscapes with a low density of forest and hedgerows, whereas predation by other predators was more likely close to hedgerows. Nest predation by corvids and the abundance of corvids also tended to be lower in landscapes dominated by grasslands. Other variables such as road density and distance to human settlements had contrasted effects on the likelihood of a nest being depredated by corvids, i.e., no effect with proximity to human settlements and decreasing trend with road density. Altogether, our results suggest that landscape features interact with mesopredator distribution and their predation rates of ground nests. Therefore, from a conservation and management perspective, a heterogeneous agricultural landscape that includes a mixture of crops associated with patches of forests, hedgerows, and grasslands offering alternative food to generalist predators should contribute to reducing ground-nesting bird predation.

Linking Anthropogenic Landscape Perturbation to Herbivory and Pathogen Leaf Damage in Tropical Tree Communities

Anthropogenic disturbance of tropical humid forests leads to habitat loss, biodiversity decline, landscape fragmentation, altered nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration, soil erosion, pest/pathogen outbreaks, among others. Nevertheless, the impact of these alterations in multitrophic interactions, including host-pathogen and vector-pathogen dynamics, is still not well understood in wild plants. This study aimed to provide insights into the main drivers for the incidence of herbivory and plant pathogen damage, specifically, into how vegetation traits at the local and landscape scale modulate such interactions. For this purpose, in the tropical forest of Calakmul (Campeche, Mexico), we characterised the foliar damage caused by herbivores and pathogens in woody vegetation of 13 sampling sites representing a gradient of forest disturbance and fragmentation in an anthropogenic landscape from well preserved to highly disturbed and fragmented areas. We also evaluated how the incidence of such damage was modulated by the vegetation and landscape attributes. We found that the incidence of damage caused by larger, mobile, generalist herbivores, was more sensitive to changes in landscape configuration, while the incidence of damage caused by small and specialised herbivores with low dispersal capacity was more influenced by vegetation and landscape composition. In relation to pathogen symptoms, the herbivore-induced foliar damage seems to be the main factor related to their incidence, indicating the enormous importance of herbivorous insects in the modulation of disease dynamics across tropical vegetation, as they could be acting as vectors and/or facilitating the entry of pathogens by breaking the foliar tissue and the plant defensive barriers. The incidence of pathogen damage also responded to vegetation structure and landscape configuration; the incidence of anthracnose, black spot, and chlorosis, for example, were favoured in sites surrounded by smaller patches and a higher edge density, as well as those with a greater aggregation of semi-evergreen forest patches. Fungal pathogens were shown to be an important cause of foliar damage for many woody species. Our results indicate that an increasing transformation and fragmentation of the tropical forest of southern Mexico could reduce the degree of specialisation in plant-herbivore interactions and enhance the proliferation of generalist herbivores (chewers and scrapers) and of mobile leaf suckers, and consequently, the proliferation of some symptoms associated with fungal pathogens such as fungus black spots and anthracnose. The symptoms associated with viral and bacterial diseases and to nutrient deficiency, such as chlorosis, could also increase in the vegetation in fragmented landscapes with important consequences in the health and productivity of wild and cultivated plant species. This is a pioneering study evaluating the effect of disturbances on multitrophic interactions, offering key insights on the main drivers of the changes in herbivory interactions and incidence of plant pathogens in tropical forests.

Shifting taxonomic and functional community composition of rivers under land use change

Land use intensification has led to conspicuous changes in plant and animal communities across the world. Shifts in trait-based functional composition have recently been hypothesized to manifest at lower levels of environmental change when compared to species-based taxonomic composition; however, little is known about the commonalities in these responses across taxonomic groups and geographic regions. We investigated this hypothesis by testing for taxonomic and geographic similarities in the composition of riverine fish and insect communities across gradients of land use in major hydrological regions of the conterminous United States. We analyzed an extensive data set representing 556 species and 33 functional trait modalities from 8023 fish communities and 1434 taxa and 50 trait modalities from 5197 aquatic insect communities. Our results demonstrate abrupt threshold changes in both taxonomic and functional community composition due to land use conversion. Functional composition consistently demonstrated lower land use threshold responses compared to taxonomic composition for both fish (urban p = 0.069; agriculture p = 0.029) and insect (urban p = 0.095; agriculture p = 0.043) communities according to gradient forest models. We found significantly lower thresholds for urban versus agricultural land use for fishes (taxonomic and functional p < 0.001) and insects (taxonomic p = 0.001; functional p = 0.033). We further revealed that threshold responses in functional composition were more geographically consistent than for taxonomic composition to both urban and agricultural land use change. Traits contributing the most to overall functional composition change differed along urban and agricultural land gradients and conformed to predicted ecological mechanisms underpinning community change. This study points to reliable early-warning thresholds that accurately forecast compositional shifts in riverine communities to land use conversion, and highlight the importance of considering trait-based indicators of community change to inform large-scale land use management strategies and policies.

Effects of deterministic assembly of communities caused by global warming on coexistence patterns and ecosystem functions

Seasonal rhythms in biological and ecological dynamics are fundamental in regulating the structuring of microbial communities. Evaluating the seasonal rhythms of microorganisms in response to climate change could provide information on their variability and stability over longer timescales (>20-year). However, information on temporal variability in microorganism responses to medium- and long-term global warming is limited. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the temporal dynamics of microbial communities in response to global warming; to this end, we integrated data on the maintenance of species diversity, community composition, temporal turnover rates (v), and community assembly process in two typical ecosystems (meadows and shrub habitat) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Our results showed that 21 years of global warming would increase the importance of the deterministic process for microorganisms in both ecosystems across all seasons (R2 of grassland (GL) control: 0.524, R2 of GL warming: 0.467; R2 of shrubland (SL) control: 0.556, R2 of SL warming: 0.543), reducing species diversity and altering community composition. Due to environmental filtration pressure from 21 years of warming, the low turnover rate (v of warming: -3.13/-2.00, v of control: -2.44/-1.48) of soil microorganisms reduces the resistance and resilience of ecological communities, which could lead to higher community similarity and more clustered taxonomic assemblages occurring across years. Changes to temperature might increase selection pressure on specialist taxa, which directly causes dominant species (v of warming: -1.63, v of control: -2.49) primarily comprising these taxa to be more strongly impacted by changing temperature than conditionally (v of warming: -1.47, v of control: -1.75) or always rare taxa (v of warming: -0.57, v of control: -1.33). Evaluation of the seasonal rhythms of microorganisms in response to global warming revealed that the variability and stability of different microbial communities in different habitats had dissimilar biological and ecological performances when challenged with an external disturbance. The balance of competition and cooperation, because of environmental selection, also influenced ecosystem function in complex terrestrial ecosystems. Overall, our study enriches the limited information on the temporal variability in microorganism responses to 21 years of global warming, and provides a scientific basis for evaluating the impact of climate warming on the temporal stability of soil ecosystems.

Community recovery of benthic macroinvertebrates in a stream influenced by mining activity: Importance of microhabitat monitoring

The decrease in freshwater biodiversity owing to anthropogenic disturbances such as mining activity is a global challenge; hence, there is an urgent need for systematic approaches to continuously monitor such disturbances and/or the recovery of biodiversity in freshwater habitats. The Hwangjicheon Stream is the source of South Korea's longest river and has been subjected to runoff from coal mining. We investigated changes in the diversity of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in various microhabitats, including riffle, run, and pool, to monitor the recovery of biodiversity in the stream following the improvement of a mining water treatment plant in 2019. The dataset comprised 111 samples obtained from four types of microhabitats (riffle, run, pool, and riparian) over a four-year period from 2018 to 2021. The mining-affected sites had lower macroinvertebrate community complexities according to a network analysis, and grouped into the same cluster based on self-organizing map (SOM) analysis. Moreover, 51 taxa selected as indicator species represented each cluster obtained through the SOM analysis. Among them, only Limnodrilus gotoi and Radix auricularia were included as indicator species at the mining-affected sites. However, after 2020, the benthic macroinvertebrate community complexity increased, and some of the microhabitats at the mining-affected sites were included in the same cluster as the reference sites in the SOM analysis, indicating that the recovery of benthic macroinvertebrate communities had initiated in certain microhabitats (e.g., riparian). Further analysis confirmed that the macroinvertebrate community clearly differed according to the survey year, even in different microhabitats at the same sites. This suggests that more acute microhabitat monitoring may be necessary to quickly confirm biodiversity restoration when assessing the degree of the recovery in river biodiversity from anthropogenic disturbances.

Salinization and sedimentation drive contrasting assembly mechanisms of planktonic and sediment-bound bacterial communities in agricultural streams

Agriculture is the most dominant land use globally and is projected to increase in the future to support a growing human population but also threatens ecosystem structure and services. Bacteria mediate numerous biogeochemical pathways within ecosystems. Therefore, identifying linkages between stressors associated with agricultural land use and responses of bacterial diversity is an important step in understanding and improving resource management. Here, we use the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) ecoregion, a highly modified agroecosystem, as a case study to better understand agriculturally associated drivers of stream bacterial diversity and assembly mechanisms. In the MAP, we found that planktonic bacterial communities were strongly influenced by salinity. Tolerant taxa increased with increasing ion concentrations, likely driving homogenous selection which accounted for ~90% of assembly processes. Sediment bacterial phylogenetic diversity increased with increasing agricultural land use and was influenced by sediment particle size, with assembly mechanisms shifting from homogenous to variable selection as differences in median particle size increased. Within individual streams, sediment heterogeneity was correlated with bacterial diversity and a subsidy-stress relationship along the particle size gradient was observed. Planktonic and sediment communities within the same stream also diverged as sediment particle size decreased. Nutrients including carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, which tend to be elevated in agroecosystems, were also associated with detectable shifts in bacterial community structure. Collectively, our results establish that two understudied variables, salinity and sediment texture, are the primary drivers of bacterial diversity within the studied agroecosystem, whereas nutrients are secondary drivers. Although numerous macrobiological communities respond negatively, we observed increasing bacterial diversity in response to agricultural stressors including salinization and sedimentation. Elevated taxonomic and phylogenetic bacterial diversity likely increases the probability of detecting community responses to stressors. Thus, bacteria community responses may be more reliable for establishing water quality goals within highly modified agroecosystems that have experienced shifting baselines.

Urbanisation generates multiple trait syndromes for terrestrial animal taxa worldwide

Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats, species, and functional groups. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities. Using a dataset encompassing six terrestrial faunal taxa (amphibians, bats, bees, birds, carabid beetles and reptiles) across 379 cities on 6 continents, we show that urbanisation produces taxon-specific changes in trait composition, with traits related to reproductive strategy showing the strongest response. Our findings suggest that urbanisation results in four trait syndromes (mobile generalists, site specialists, central place foragers, and mobile specialists), with resources associated with reproduction and diet likely driving patterns in traits associated with mobility and body size. Functional diversity measures showed varied responses, leading to shifts in trait space likely driven by critical resource distribution and abundance, and taxon-specific trait syndromes. Maximising opportunities to support taxa with different urban trait syndromes should be pivotal in conservation and management programmes within and among cities. This will reduce the likelihood of biotic homogenisation and helps ensure that urban environments have the capacity to respond to future challenges. These actions are critical to reframe the role of cities in global biodiversity loss.

Biotic homogenisation and differentiation as directional change in beta diversity: synthesising driver-response relationships to develop conceptual models across ecosystems

Biotic homogenisation is defined as decreasing dissimilarity among ecological assemblages sampled within a given spatial area over time. Biotic differentiation, in turn, is defined as increasing dissimilarity over time. Overall, changes in the spatial dissimilarities among assemblages (termed 'beta diversity') is an increasingly recognised feature of broader biodiversity change in the Anthropocene. Empirical evidence of biotic homogenisation and biotic differentiation remains scattered across different ecosystems. Most meta-analyses quantify the prevalence and direction of change in beta diversity, rather than attempting to identify underlying ecological drivers of such changes. By conceptualising the mechanisms that contribute to decreasing or increasing dissimilarity in the composition of ecological assemblages across space, environmental managers and conservation practitioners can make informed decisions about what interventions may be required to sustain biodiversity and can predict potential biodiversity outcomes of future disturbances. We systematically reviewed and synthesised published empirical evidence for ecological drivers of biotic homogenisation and differentiation across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater realms to derive conceptual models that explain changes in spatial beta diversity. We pursued five key themes in our review: (i) temporal environmental change; (ii) disturbance regime; (iii) connectivity alteration and species redistribution; (iv) habitat change; and (v) biotic and trophic interactions. Our first conceptual model highlights how biotic homogenisation and differentiation can occur as a function of changes in local (alpha) diversity or regional (gamma) diversity, independently of species invasions and losses due to changes in species occurrence among assemblages. Second, the direction and magnitude of change in beta diversity depends on the interaction between spatial variation (patchiness) and temporal variation (synchronicity) of disturbance events. Third, in the context of connectivity and species redistribution, divergent beta diversity outcomes occur as different species have different dispersal characteristics, and the magnitude of beta diversity change associated with species invasions also depends strongly on alpha and gamma diversity prior to species invasion. Fourth, beta diversity is positively linked with spatial environmental variability, such that biotic homogenisation and differentiation occur when environmental heterogeneity decreases or increases, respectively. Fifth, species interactions can influence beta diversity via habitat modification, disease, consumption (trophic dynamics), competition, and by altering ecosystem productivity. Our synthesis highlights the multitude of mechanisms that cause assemblages to be more or less spatially similar in composition (taxonomically, functionally, phylogenetically) through time. We consider that future studies should aim to enhance our collective understanding of ecological systems by clarifying the underlying mechanisms driving homogenisation or differentiation, rather than focusing only on reporting the prevalence and direction of change in beta diversity, per se.

Invertebrate biodiversity continues to decline in cropland

Modern agriculture has drastically changed global landscapes and introduced pressures on wildlife populations. Policy and management of agricultural systems has changed over the last 30 years, a period characterized not only by intensive agricultural practices but also by an increasing push towards sustainability. It is crucial that we understand the long-term consequences of agriculture on beneficial invertebrates and assess if policy and management approaches recently introduced are supporting their recovery. In this study, we use large citizen science datasets to derive trends in invertebrate occupancy in Great Britain between 1990 and 2019. We compare these trends between regions of no- (0%), low- (greater than 0-50%) and high-cropland (greater than 50%) cover, which includes arable and horticultural crops. Although we detect general declines, invertebrate groups are declining most strongly in high-cropland cover regions. This suggests that even in the light of improved policy and management over the last 30 years, the way we are managing cropland is failing to conserve and restore invertebrate communities. New policy-based drivers and incentives are required to support the resilience and sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. Post-Brexit changes in UK agricultural policy and reforms under the Environment Act offer opportunities to improve agricultural landscapes for the benefit of biodiversity and society.

Opportunities and challenges for Common Agricultural Policy reform to support the European Green Deal

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the European Union's main instrument for agricultural planning, with a new reform approved for 2023-2027. The CAP intends to align with the European Green Deal (EGD), a set of policy initiatives underpinning sustainable development and climate neutrality in the European Union (EU), but several flaws cast doubts about the compatibility of the objectives of these 2 policies. We reviewed recent literature on the potential of CAP environmental objectives for integration with the EGD: protection of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable management of natural resources. The CAP lacks appropriate planning measures, furthering instead risks to biodiversity and ecosystem services driven by landscape and biotic homogenization. Funding allocation mechanisms are not tailored to mitigate agricultural emissions, decreasing the efficiency of climate mitigation actions. The legislation subsidies farmers making extensive use of synthetic inputs without adequately supporting organic production, hindering the transition toward sustainable practices. We recommend proper control mechanisms be introduced in CAP Strategic Plans from each member state to ensure the EU is set on a sustainable production and consumption path. These include proportional assignment of funds to each CAP objective, quantitative targets to set goals and evidence-based interventions, and relevant indicators to facilitate effective monitoring of environmental performance. Both the CAP and the EGD should maintain ambitious environmental commitments in the face of crisis to avoid further degradation of the natural resources on which production systems stand.

Phenotypic clines in herbivore resistance and reproductive traits in wild plants along an agricultural gradient

The conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture is a leading cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. While many studies examine how landscape modification affects species diversity, a trait-based approach can provide new insights into species responses to environmental change. Wild plants persisting in heavily modified landscapes provide a unique opportunity to examine species' responses to land use change. Trait expression within a community plays an important role in structuring species interactions, highlighting the potential implications of landscape mediated trait changes on ecosystem functioning. Here we test the effect of increasing agricultural landscape modification on defensive and reproductive traits in three commonly occurring Brassicaceae species to evaluate plant responses to landscape change. We collected seeds from populations at spatially separated sites with variation in surrounding agricultural land cover and grew them in a greenhouse common garden, measuring defensive traits through an herbivore no-choice bioassay as well as reproductive traits such as flower size and seed set. In two of the three species, plants originating from agriculturally dominant landscapes expressed a consistent reduction in flower size and herbivore leaf consumption. One species also showed reduced fitness associated with increasingly agricultural landscapes. These findings demonstrate that wild plants are responding to landscape modification, suggesting that the conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture has consequences for wild plant evolution.

Projected landscape-scale repercussions of global action for climate and biodiversity protection

Land conservation and increased carbon uptake on land are fundamental to achieving the ambitious targets of the climate and biodiversity conventions. Yet, it remains largely unknown how such ambitions, along with an increasing demand for agricultural products, could drive landscape-scale changes and affect other key regulating nature's contributions to people (NCP) that sustain land productivity outside conservation priority areas. By using an integrated, globally consistent modelling approach, we show that ambitious carbon-focused land restoration action and the enlargement of protected areas alone may be insufficient to reverse negative trends in landscape heterogeneity, pollination supply, and soil loss. However, we also find that these actions could be combined with dedicated interventions that support critical NCP and biodiversity conservation outside of protected areas. In particular, our models indicate that conserving at least 20% semi-natural habitat within farmed landscapes could primarily be achieved by spatially relocating cropland outside conservation priority areas, without additional carbon losses from land-use change, primary land conversion or reductions in agricultural productivity.

Urbanization-land-use interactions predict antibiotic contamination in soil across urban-rural gradients

Antibiotics ubiquitously occur in soils and pose a potential threat to ecosystem health. Concurrently, urbanization and land-use intensification have transformed soil ecosystems, but how they affect antibiotic contamination remain largely unknown. Therefore, we profiled a broad-scale pattern of antibiotics in soil from agricultural lands and green spaces across urbanization gradients, and explored the hypothetical models to verify the effects of urbanization and land-use intensity on antibiotic contamination. The results showed that antibiotic concentrations and seasonality were higher in agricultural soil than in green spaces, which respectively showed linear or hump-shaped declines along with the increasing distance to urban centers. However, the response of antibiotic pollution to land-use intensity depended strongly on the urbanization level. More importantly, interactions between urbanization and land-use explained, on average, 59.6 % of the variation in antibiotic concentrations in soil across urbanization gradients. The proposed interactions can predict the non-linear changes in soil vulnerability to antibiotic contamination. Our study revealed that the urbanization can modulate the effects of land-use intensity on antibiotic concentration and seasonality in the soil environment, and that there is high stress on peri-urban soil ecosystems due to ongoing land-use changes arising from rapid urbanization processes.

Modeling climate change impacts on potential global distribution of Tamarixia radiata Waterston (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), is an efficient vector of "Candidatus Liberibacter" species, the causative agents implicated in citrus greening or huanglongbing (HLB). HLB is the most devastating citrus disease and has killed millions of citrus trees worldwide. Classical biological control using Tamarixia radiata Waterston (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) against ACP has been successful in some regions. Climatic conditions are critical in determining suitable areas for the geographical distribution of T. radiata. However, paucity of information on climate change impacts on the global spread of T. radiata restricts international efforts to manage ACP with T. radiata. We investigated the potential global distribution of T. radiata using 317 native and non-native occurrence records and 20 environmental data sets (with correlation coefficients (|r| > 0.7)). Using the Maximum Entropy model, these data were analyzed for two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and two time periods (2030s and 2050s). We showed that habitat suitability for T. radiata occurred in all continents except Antarctica. However, the highly suitable areas for T. radiata were found in parts of the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The climate suitable areas would increase until the 2050s. The predictions showed that mean temperature of coldest quarter and precipitation of warmest quarter were the most important environmental variables that influenced the distribution of T. radiata. The model reliably predicted habitat suitability for T. radiata, which can be adapted in classical biological control programs to effectively manage ACP in an environmentally friendly manner.

Land-use diversity predicts regional bird taxonomic and functional richness worldwide

Unveiling the processes that shape biodiversity patterns is a cornerstone of ecology. Land-use diversity (i.e., the variety of land-use categories within an area) is often considered an important environmental factor that promotes species richness at landscape and regional scales by increasing beta-diversity. Still, the role of land-use diversity in structuring global taxonomic and functional richness is unknown. Here, we examine the hypothesis that regional species taxonomic and functional richness is explained by global patterns of land-use diversity by analyzing distribution and trait data for all extant birds. We found strong support for our hypothesis. Land-use diversity predicted bird taxonomic and functional richness in almost all biogeographic realms, even after accounting for the effect of net primary productivity (i.e., a proxy of resource availability and habitat heterogeneity). This link was particularly consistent with functional richness compared to taxonomic richness. In the Palearctic and Afrotropic realms, a saturation effect was evident, suggesting a non-linear relationship between land-use diversity and biodiversity. Our results reveal that land-use diversity is a key environmental factor associated with several facets of bird regional diversity, widening our understanding of key large-scale predictors of biodiversity patterns. These results can contribute to policies aimed at minimizing regional biodiversity loss.

Plant Functional Dispersion, Vulnerability and Originality Increase Arthropod Functions from a Protected Mountain Mediterranean Area in Spring

Plant diversity often contributes to the shape of arthropod communities, which in turn supply important ecosystem services. However, the current biodiversity loss scenario, particularly worrying for arthropods, constitutes a threat for sustainability. From a trait-based ecology approach, our goal was to evaluate the bottom-up relationships to obtain a better understanding of the conservation of the arthropod function within the ecosystem. Specifically, we aim: (i) to describe the plant taxonomic and functional diversity in spring within relevant habitats of a natural protected area from the Mediterranean basin; and (ii) to evaluate the response of the arthropod functional community to plants. Plants and arthropods were sampled and identified, taxonomic and functional indices calculated, and the plant-arthropod relationships analyzed. Generally, oak forests and scrublands showed a higher plant functional diversity while the plant taxonomic richness was higher in grasslands and chestnut orchards. The abundance of arthropod functional groups increased with the plant taxonomic diversity, functional dispersion, vulnerability and originality, suggesting that single traits (e.g., flower shape or color) may be more relevant for the arthropod function. Results indicate the functional vulnerability of seminatural habitats, the relevance of grasslands and chestnut orchards for arthropod functions and pave the way for further studies about plant-arthropod interactions from a trait-based ecology approach.

The supply of multiple ecosystem services requires biodiversity across spatial scales

The impact of local biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning is well established, but the role of larger-scale biodiversity dynamics in the delivery of ecosystem services remains poorly understood. Here we address this gap using a comprehensive dataset describing the supply of 16 cultural, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services in 150 European agricultural grassland plots, and detailed multi-scale data on land use and plant diversity. After controlling for land-use and abiotic factors, we show that both plot-level and surrounding plant diversity play an important role in the supply of cultural and aboveground regulating ecosystem services. In contrast, provisioning and belowground regulating ecosystem services are more strongly driven by field-level management and abiotic factors. Structural equation models revealed that surrounding plant diversity promotes ecosystem services both directly, probably by fostering the spill-over of ecosystem service providers from surrounding areas, and indirectly, by maintaining plot-level diversity. By influencing the ecosystem services that local stakeholders prioritized, biodiversity at different scales was also shown to positively influence a wide range of stakeholder groups. These results provide a comprehensive picture of which ecosystem services rely most strongly on biodiversity, and the respective scales of biodiversity that drive these services. This key information is required for the upscaling of biodiversity-ecosystem service relationships, and the informed management of biodiversity within agricultural landscapes.

Soil microbiomes and one health

The concept of one health highlights that human health is not isolated but connected to the health of animals, plants and environments. In this Review, we demonstrate that soils are a cornerstone of one health and serve as a source and reservoir of pathogens, beneficial microorganisms and the overall microbial diversity in a wide range of organisms and ecosystems. We list more than 40 soil microbiome functions that either directly or indirectly contribute to soil, plant, animal and human health. We identify microorganisms that are shared between different one health compartments and show that soil, plant and human microbiomes are perhaps more interconnected than previously thought. Our Review further evaluates soil microbial contributions to one health in the light of dysbiosis and global change and demonstrates that microbial diversity is generally positively associated with one health. Finally, we present future challenges in one health research and formulate recommendations for practice and evaluation.

Spiders indicate delivery of an agri-environment scheme at multiple diversity levels

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are expected to counteract the negative impacts of intensive agriculture on biodiversity. These schemes were specifically designed to target farmland biodiversity and included, for instance, ecological focus areas (EFAs). In Switzerland, in order to qualify for direct payments, farmers must manage 7% or more of their land as biodiversity promotion areas (BPAs). BPAs encompass extensively managed and low intensity hay meadows, fallows (wildflower strips), traditional orchards with high-stem trees and hedgerows. Evaluation of AES delivery for biodiversity is of crucial importance but must be performed across several years and considering the various components of species diversity to avoid incomplete or wrong conclusions. From a complex study design comprising 478 fields in three regions and sampling over 7 years with four sampling times, spider assemblages of BPA habitats were compared to corresponding conventionally managed fields. A battery of investigations was performed including alpha- and beta-diversity analysis, multivariate dispersion, indicator species and species specificity to understand what BPAs deliver for spiders in the habitat scale and farming landscape. Results showed that alpha-diversity (average number of species) was usually higher in BPA habitats than in conventionally managed fields but the species composition (beta-diversity) had more power to perceive AES impact. Furthermore, the various environmental conditions of BPAs in the farming landscape led to highly diverse spider assemblages (multivariate dispersion) emphasizing that not only the agricultural management plays a role in determining species diversity but the environmental heterogeneity. Indicator (and rare) species were mostly found in woody BPAs (hedges and high-stem tree orchards) revealing the high importance of these BPA habitats for spider conservation. At regional scale, BPA hedges contributed most to the regional diversity of spiders in grassland and mixed regions while BPA meadows and wildflower strip BPAs were first delivering in the region of arable crops. Recommendations highlight the role of the woody habitats and of the environmental heterogeneity in the farming landscape as well as of regional planning to make AES effective.

Understanding Spatiotemporal Variation in Richness and Rate of Within-Site Turnover for Vegetation Communities in Western Eurasia over the Last 4000 Years

Vegetation communities are intricate networks of co-occurring species. Logistical challenges in collecting primary data means research often utilises short-term data from restricted geographical areas. In this study, we examine spatiotemporal change in richness and turnover of vascular plants and bryophytes over the last 4000 years at 23 sites in western Eurasia using high-resolution palaeoecological data. We find support for the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient and Altitudinal Diversity Gradient in both the overall vegetation community (arboreal and non-arboreal species) and the shrub and herb sub-community (non-arboreal species only), as well as a significant temporal increase in the gradient of both relationships. There was a temporal increase in (alpha) richness; the rate of turnover was high but temporally consistent for the overall vegetation community and high but decreasing over time for the shrub and herb sub-community. The rate of change in turnover was affected by latitude (steeper negative relationship at higher latitudes) and altitude (steeper negative relationship at lower altitudes). The Diversity-Stability Hypothesis was supported: vegetation communities changed from “lower richness, higher turnover” historically to “higher richness, lower turnover” more recently. Causal mechanisms for these complex interlinked biogeographical patterns remain ambiguous, but likely include climate change, non-native introductions, increasing homogenisation of generalist taxa, landscape simplification, and anthropogenic disturbance. Further research into drivers of the spatiotemporal patterns revealed here is a research priority, which is especially important in the context of biodiversity decline and climate change.

Breakpoints in butterfly decline in Central Europe over the last century

Recent studies indicated severe decline of insect diversity and abundance across major parts of Central Europe. Theoretical studies showed that the drivers behind biodiversity loss vary considerably over time. However, these scenarios so far have been insufficiently approved by long-term and large-scale data. In this study we analysed the temporal trends of butterflies and Zygaenid moths across the federal state of Salzburg, northern Austria, from 1920 to 2019. Our study area covers a large variety of habitats and altitudes. Various changes of land use and intensification occurred during and shortly before our studied period, with a first wave of habitat destruction starting in the late 19th century, followed by the deterioration of habitat quality since the mid-20th century. We used 59,870 presence-only data of 168 butterfly and burnet moth species. Each of these species was classified according to ecological characteristics. Break point analyses for non-linear temporal trends in the community composition returned two major time windows. These time windows coincide with periods characterized by severe habitat destruction and the deterioration of habitat quality due to agricultural intensification. We found significant reductions of the proportion of species requiring specific habitats since 1920 and until today. We identified additional break points for species requiring high habitat qualities, endangered butterfly species, and sedentary species, particularly after a main break point in the 1960s. Our findings underline that, apart from habitat destruction, the deterioration of habitat quality is a main driver of biodiversity loss in general. Therefore, nature conservation should focus on maintaining the highest possible habitat quality.

Disentangling direct and indirect drivers of farmland biodiversity at landscape scale

To stop the ongoing decline of farmland biodiversity there are increasing claims for a paradigm shift in agriculture, namely from conserving and restoring farmland biodiversity at field scale (α-diversity) to doing it at landscape scale (γ-diversity). However, knowledge on factors driving farmland γ-diversity is currently limited. Here, we quantified farmland γ-diversity in 123 landscapes and analysed direct and indirect effects of abiotic and land-use factors shaping it using structural equation models. The direction and strength of effects of factors shaping γ-diversity were only partially consistent with what is known about factors shaping α-diversity, and indirect effects were often stronger than direct effects or even opposite. Thus, relationships between factors shaping α-diversity cannot simply be up-scaled to γ-diversity, and also indirect effects should no longer be neglected. Finally, we show that local mitigation measures benefit farmland γ-diversity at landscape scale and are therefore a useful tool for designing biodiversity-friendly landscapes.

Canopy arthropod declines along a gradient of olive farming intensification

Arthropod declines have been linked to agricultural intensification. However, information about the impacts of intensification is still limited for many crops, as is our understanding of the responses of different arthropod taxa and trophic groups, thus hindering the development of effective mitigation measures. We investigated the impacts of olive farming intensification on canopy-dwelling arthropods in the Mediterranean region. Intensification involves the increased use of agrochemicals, mechanisation and irrigation, but also structural changes from traditional orchards with low densities of large and old trees, to intensive and superintensive orchards with high to very high densities of smaller and younger trees, respectively. Canopy arthropods were vacuum-sampled at 53 sites representing the three orchard intensification levels, in spring, summer and autumn 2017. We evaluated how the arthropod community varied across intensification levels, and in response to orchard structure, management and landscape context. We found no changes in the diversity of arthropod taxa across intensification levels after correcting for sample coverage, but arthropod abundance declined markedly along the intensification gradient. Decreased abundance was associated with changes in orchard structure, lower herbaceous cover, and higher herbicide and insecticide use. The abundance of a specialized olive pest was lower in landscapes with higher woodland cover. The negative effects of intensification were stronger in spring and summer than in autumn, and parasitoids and predators were particularly affected. Overall, results suggest that retaining herbaceous cover, reducing agrochemical inputs and preserving natural woody elements in the landscape, may contribute to mitigate impacts of olive farming intensification on canopy arthropods, particularly on beneficial species.

Stability and asynchrony of local communities but less so diversity increase regional stability of Inner Mongolian grassland

Extending knowledge on ecosystem stability to larger spatial scales is urgently needed because present local-scale studies are generally ineffective in guiding management and conservation decisions of an entire region with diverse plant communities. We investigated stability of plant productivity across spatial scales and hierarchical levels of organization and analyzed impacts of dominant species, species diversity, and climatic factors using a multisite survey of Inner Mongolian grassland. We found that regional stability across distant local communities was related to stability and asynchrony of local communities. Using only dominant instead of all-species dynamics explained regional stability almost equally well. The diversity of all or only dominant species had comparatively weak effects on stability and synchrony, whereas a lower mean and higher variation of precipitation destabilized regional and local communities by reducing population stability and synchronizing species dynamics. We demonstrate that, for semi-arid temperate grassland with highly uneven species abundances, the stability of regional communities is increased by stability and asynchrony of local communities and these are more affected by climate rather than species diversity. Reduced amounts and increased variation of precipitation in the future may compromise the sustainable provision of ecosystem services to human well-being in this region.

Complex agricultural landscapes host more biodiversity than simple ones: A global meta-analysis

Agricultural land, the world’s largest human-managed ecosystem, forms the matrix that connects remnant and fragmented patches of natural vegetation where nondomesticated biodiversity struggles to survive. Increasing the resources that this matrix can offer to biodiversity is critical to halting biodiversity loss. Our comprehensive meta-analysis demonstrates the positive and significant effect on biodiversity of increasing landscape complexity in agricultural lands. We found more biodiversity in complex landscapes, potentially contributing to agriculture production, ecosystem resilience, and human well-being. Current biodiversity conservation strategies tend to focus on natural ecosystems, often ignoring opportunities to boost biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Our findings provide a strong scientific evidence base for synergistically managing agriculture at the landscape level for biodiversity conservation and sustainable production.

Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity conservation requires profound structural changes worldwide. Often, discussions are centered on management at the field level. However, a wide and growing body of evidence calls for zooming out and targeting agricultural policies, research, and interventions at the landscape level to halt and reverse the decline in biodiversity, increase biodiversity-mediated ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, and improve the resilience and adaptability of these ecosystems. We conducted the most comprehensive assessment to date on landscape complexity effects on nondomesticated terrestrial biodiversity through a meta-analysis of 1,134 effect sizes from 157 peer-reviewed articles. Increasing landscape complexity through changes in composition, configuration, or heterogeneity significatively and positively affects biodiversity. More complex landscapes host more biodiversity (richness, abundance, and evenness) with potential benefits to sustainable agricultural production and conservation, and effects are likely underestimated. The few articles that assessed the combined contribution of linear (e.g., hedgerows) and areal (e.g., woodlots) elements resulted in a near-doubling of the effect sizes (i.e., biodiversity level) compared to the dominant number of studies measuring these elements separately. Similarly, positive effects on biodiversity are stronger in articles monitoring biodiversity for at least 2 y compared to the dominant 1-y monitoring efforts. Besides, positive and stronger effects exist when monitoring occurs in nonoverlapping landscapes, highlighting the need for long-term and robustly designed monitoring efforts. Living in harmony with nature will require shifting paradigms toward valuing and promoting multifunctional agriculture at the farm and landscape levels with a research agenda that untangles complex agricultural landscapes’ contributions to people and nature under current and future conditions.

Multiple drivers influence tree species diversity and above-ground carbon stock in second-growth Atlantic forests: Implications for passive restoration

Second-growth forests (SGF) are critical components for limiting biodiversity loss and climate change mitigation. However, these forests were established after anthropic disturbances such as land use for planting, and in highly human-modified landscapes. These interventions can decrease the ability of biological communities to recover naturally, and it is necessary to understand how multiple drivers, from local scale to landscape scale influence the diversity and carbon stock of these forests in natural regeneration. For this, we used data from 37 SGF growing on areas previously used for eucalyptus plantations in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, after the last cut cycle. For each SGF, the forest tree species diversity was calculated based on the Hills number, and we also calculated the above-ground carbon stock. Then, we evaluated the influence of multiple environmental factors on these indexes: soil properties, past-management intensity, patch configuration, and landscape composition. Little influence of soil properties was found, only soil fertility negatively influenced above-ground carbon stock. However, past-management intensity negatively influenced tree species diversity and carbon stock. The isolation of other forests and tree species propagules source distance (>500 ha) also negatively influenced the diversity of species. This is probably due to the favoring of tree pioneer species in highly human-modified landscapes because they are more tolerant of environmental changes, less dependent on animal dispersal, and have low carbon stock capacity. Thus, areas with higher past-management intensity and more isolated areas are less effective for passive restoration and may require intervention to recover tree diversity and carbon stock in the Atlantic Forest. The approach, which had not yet been applied in the Atlantic Forest, brought similar results to that found in other forests, and serves as a theoretical basis for choosing priority areas for passive restoration in the biome.

Effects of urbanization on woody plant phylogenetic diversity and its associations with landscape features in the high latitude northern hemisphere region, Northeast China

Urbanization is one of the primary drivers of terrestrial modification, with marked biological homogenization worldwide but relatively poor knowledge of woody phylogenetic diversity. Here, we investigated 943 plots, about 93,000 woody plants from 130 species in Northeast China, and calculated six phylogenetic diversity indexes, and urbanization landscape metrics; the responses of phylogenetic diversity to urbanization and its coupling relationship with landscape features were explored at 25 km × 25 km, 50 km × 50 km and 75 km × 75 km grid scales. We found that urbanization had enhanced the evolutionary distinctiveness of woody plants, characterizing as increasing Faith phylogenetic diversity (FPD) and their mean pairwise distance (MPD) while decreasing the mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD); these trends were independent of landscape scales and gymnosperm inclusion or not. As indicated by increasing SesMPD (Standardized MPD), the dominant role of community assemblage changed from environmental filtering in low urbanization intensity (UI) to competitive exclusion in high UI regions. Artificial surface area (ASA) and its percentage, SHAPE_F (Shape index of forest), and PD_F (Patch density of forest) had a threshold effect on phylogenetic diversity. ASA%, GDP (gross domestic product), and population density were the most potent predictors for the variations of phylogenetic diversity, and GDP contributed the most (42.9%). A higher GDP accompanied a higher FPD, SesPD (Standardized FPD), and SesMNTD (Standardized MNTD); higher PD_F and lower SHAPE_F were associated with higher MNTD, MPD, and SesMPD. In conclusion, urbanization strongly modifies woody plant phylogenetic diversity. Identifying the threshold effects and significant factors for phylogenetic variations allows biodiversity assessment and conservation through proper landscape configuration under the urbanization context.

Phylogenetic, functional and taxonomic responses of wild bee communities along urbanisation gradients

Increasing urbanisation is one of the primary drivers of land-use change that threaten biodiversity. Wild bee communities have been reported with contrasting responses to urbanisation, with varying effects on abundance and taxonomical diversity. The suite of functional traits exhibited by wild bee species might determine their persistence in urban areas. Urbanisation thus can impose an environmental filter with potential consequences on the functional and phylogenetical diversity of wild bee communities. Here, we sampled 2944 wild bee specimens from 156 species in 29 sites located along an urbanisation gradient using a replicated design in three mid-sized cities in the Loire valley (France). We show that urban landscape cover has a negative effect on overall species richness and taxonomical diversity indices, while total abundance remains constant. Species loss was taxon dependent, mainly driven by Andrenidae and Halictidae. Only a few species, especially of the genus Lasioglossum, were positively affected by the urban landscape cover. Urban and peri-urban areas differed in their composition of bee assemblages. Species turnover was the main component of beta diversity, driving community dissimilarities through the urban gradient. Urbanisation favours bees with small body sizes, social structure and extended flight periods but did not affect the phylogenetic or the functional diversity of communities. Our findings have implications for understanding the factors involved in the environmental filter exerted through the urban gradient on bee communities helping to implement conservation measures and managing urban spaces for bees.

Linking agricultural practices to lizard trophic behaviour: An ecological approach

Among intensive agricultural practices, pesticides, mowing, and heavy agricultural machineries have become an important tool to maximize harvesting and secure animal husbandry. However, they are also cause of agricultural ecosystem decline, often leading to degradation of key micro-habitat features for many species, higher predation risk and lower food availability. We investigated the diet and foraging ecology of the Italian wall lizard in agricultural areas to determine whether different management practices (conventional, organic, and control) can affect (i) the structure of the trophic niche of the species; (ii) prey diversity, the degree of individual specialization, and the overall population feeding strategy; (iii) lizards' health status. Faecal pellets were collected for diet composition analyses, while prey diversity in the environment was estimated by placing adhesive traps. Lizards' body condition did not differ among management type although males from control field resulted slightly larger than those from conventional and organic areas. The species showed a generalist (conventional and organic areas) and mixed (control area) feeding strategy with a preference for coleopterans. Although a different prey diversity was found in control areas compared to organic and conventional ones, diet composition and the importance of specific food items was similar among management types. This may suggest that management activities may have affected the overall prey availability and indirectly influenced lizard trophic behaviour. Our study provides a comprehensive knowledge on the feeding ecology of P. siculus in managed habitats, which may have useful implications for the overall conservation of lizards in agricultural environments.