Effects of land cover and protected areas on flying insect diversity

作者：James S. Sinclair, Dominik Buchner, Mark O. Gessner, Jörg Müller, Steffen U. Pauls, Stefan Stoll, Ellen A. R. Welti, Claus Bässler, Jörn Buse, Frank Dziock, Julian Enß, Thomas Hörren, Robert Künast, Yuanheng Li, Andreas Marten, Carsten Morkel, Ronny Richter, Sebastian Seibold, Martin Sorg, Sönke Twietmeyer, Dirk Weis, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Benedikt Wiggering, Martin Wilmking, Gerhard Zotz, Mark Frenzel, Florian Leese, Peter Haase · 发表于：Conservation Biology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/cobi.14425 · 被引用次数：19 · 研究领域：Plant and animal studies、Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Widespread insect losses are a critical global problem. Mitigating this problem requires identifying the principal drivers across different taxa and determining which insects are covered by protected areas. However, doing so is hindered by missing information on most species owing to extremely high insect diversity and difficulties in morphological identification. To address this knowledge gap, we used one of the most comprehensive insect DNA metabarcoding data sets assembled (encompassing 31,846 flying insect species) in which data were collected from a network of 75 Malaise traps distributed across Germany. Collection sites encompass gradients of land cover, weather, and climate, along with differences in site protection status, which allowed us to gain broader insights into how insects respond to these factors. We examined changes in total insect biomass, species richness, temporal turnover, and shifts in the composition of taxa, key functional groups (pollinators, threatened species, and invasive species), and feeding traits. Lower insect biomass generally equated to lower richness of all insects and higher temporal turnover, suggesting that biomass loss translates to biodiversity loss and less stable communities. Spatial variability in insect biomass and composition was primarily driven by land cover, rather than weather or climate change. As vegetation and land-cover heterogeneity increased, insect biomass increased by 50% in 2019 and 56% in 2020 and total species richn...