Habitat and land-use intensity shape moth community structure across temperate forest and grassland

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Rafael Achury
  • Michael Staab
  • Sebastian Seibold
  • Jörg Müller
  • Lea Heidrich
  • Marcel Püls
  • Hermann Hacker
  • Carlos Roberto Fonseca
  • Markus Fischer
  • Nico Blüthgen
  • Wolfgang Weisser

Land-use change and intensification are major drivers of biodiversity loss, yet their effects on diversity have usually been studied within a single habitat type or land-use category, limiting our understanding of cross-habitat patterns. Moths, a species-rich taxon worldwide, represent a significant portion of the biodiversity in both temperate forests and grasslands, functioning as pollinators and herbivores. While increasing land-use intensity (LUI) in both habitats is expected to negatively impact moth assemblages, the strength of this effect remains uncertain. Moreover, land-use intensification interacts with broader environmental factors, such as weather conditions and the spread of artificial light at night (ALAN), but their combined effects on moth community diversity and turnover across habitats remain poorly understood. We sampled moth communities across 150 grassland and 150 forest plots along land-use gradients in Germany. We quantified plot- and landscape-scale LUI and tested the role of plant diversity, temperature and precipitation during the night of sampling and the preceding season, and ALAN in shaping moth diversity (standardized by coverage) along Hill numbers. Forests supported significantly higher moth abundance, biomass and diversity than grasslands, with habitat type being the main driver of moth community composition. LUI at the plot scale had contrasting effects on moth abundance, increasing it in forests but reducing it in grasslands. Impacts of LUI were more pronounced at the landscape level, reducing moth diversity particularly in areas dominated by grasslands. Plant diversity and temperature were key determinants for moth communities, increasing alpha diversity across diversity metrics, that is Hill numbers. ALAN had no significant influence on moth abundance or biomass but significantly decreased Simpson diversity. Beta diversity increased with geographic distance, habitat change and LUI but decreased with weather differences among plots. Our results highlight the interplay between LUI, habitat type and abiotic factors in shaping moth communities across large spatial scales. Effective conservation strategies should consider maintaining habitat heterogeneity and promoting plant diversity, particularly in temperate habitats exposed to high land-use intensification.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftJournal of Animal Ecology
Jahrgang94
Ausgabenummer11
Seiten (von - bis)2308-2321
Anzahl der Seiten14
ISSN0021-8790
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 05.11.2025

Bibliographische Notiz

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Requests in American and British English
  2. The Influence of Terrorism on Expatriate Performance: a Conceptual Approach
  3. Time sensitivity
  4. Secret Agents
  5. Virtual Voting in RFMOs
  6. Out of the box
  7. Science and policy on endocrine disrupters must not be mixed
  8. Mockular
  9. Influence of Ce addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of high pressure die cast AM50 magnesium alloy
  10. Centralized and decentralized utilization of organic residues for lactic acid production
  11. Designing benign molecules
  12. Performativity, performance studies and digital cultures
  13. Wage Structures, Fairness Perceptions, and Job Satisfaction
  14. Anmerkung zu EuGH Rs. C-555/07 (Kücükdeveci)
  15. How Participatory Should Environmental Governance Be?
  16. Digitale Geschäftsmodellinnovationen implementieren
  17. Metacommunity, mainland-island system or island communities?
  18. Case study analysis of laser-assisted Low-Cost Automation assembly
  19. Lagging behind in CSR?
  20. A world of abundance
  21. Flexible and Adaptable Restoration
  22. Materialitäten der Kindheit
  23. Does fragmentation contribute to the forest crisis in Germany?
  24. High quality extrudates from aluminum chips by new billet compaction and deformation routes
  25. Community resilience for a 1.5 degrees C world
  26. Development of a magnesium secondary alloy system for mixed magnesium post-consumer scrap
  27. Parameters, concepts and the terminology of outer space law: a review of the essential facilities served by outer space activities and the rules of interpretation for treaty law and soft law guidelines.
  28. The Upcycle
  29. Polarization of Time and Income - A Multidimensional Analysis for Germany