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Abstract Over the last decades, numerous natural habitats have been converted into settlement areas, agricultural land, and tree plantations on a large spatial scale. As a result, natural ecosystems have been destroyed. In consequence, many ecosystems exist today as small and geographically isolated remnants. To what extent the original species diversity can persist in such small habitat patches is questionable and strongly depends on the ecology of the species. A prominent example of severe habitat destruction are the species-rich tropical cloud forests of Taita Hills in southern Kenya, which have been deforested almost completely during past decades. However, there still exist typical forest species in the few remaining forest fragments. In this study, we investigate the population ecology and behaviour of two butterfly species present in the cloud forest remnants of Taita Hills, Protogoniomorpha parhassus and Precis tugela. Over a period of one month, we conducted Mark-Release-Recapture to study population sizes and demographic structures, lifespan, dispersal, and behaviour. We found that both species exhibited medium population sizes and are sedentary. However, some individuals performed dispersal throughout the forest. The behaviour of the two species differs: While P. tugela was mostly observed basking with open wings, P. parhassus was mostly sitting under leaves with closed wings. The life span was rather long for butterflies. Implications for insect conservation This study documents the population ecology and behaviour of these two Afrotropical butterflies and underlines the relevance of the conservation of cloud forest remnants to preserve species, which mainly depends on these habitat remnants.

Context Intensification of land-use caused a reduction of ecosystem heterogeneity and diversity, and subsequently led to dramatic decrease of biodiversity. Species depending on dynamic ecosystems are particularly affected from this trend of land-use intensification, landscape homogenization, and the optimization of land-use. Forest species suffer under the intensification of forest management, in the worst case transforming light and heterogeneous deciduous forests into species-poor intensively used deciduous forests optimized for wood production. This lead to the destruction of a mosaic consisting of various successional stages in parallel. Objective In this study we analyse the relevance of forest heterogeneity, forest disturbance and microhabitat preferences of egg oviposition and larval development for a highly endangered butterfly species, Euphydryas maturna. This butterfly species mainly occurs in light and moist deciduous forests, such as riparian forests along mountain streams in northern Austria. Methods We combine detailed field observations with high resolution aerial pictures taken with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to build ensemble habitat suitability models from GAM, GBM, GLM, and Maxent models. Results We found that egg ovipositions take place exclusively on the tree species Fraxinus excelsior, preferably exposed to the south, partly shaded, and at medium height (3 m). Our habitat suitability models based on high resolution aerial pictures indicate that egg ovipositions are clustered and accumulate along forest edges and at sites with high forest heterogeneity. Conclusion Our study underlines the high relevance and importance of light deciduous forest structures with environmental dynamics creating the preconditions of specific microhabitat structures for endangered species, such as E. maturna. Our study shows that UAV-captured high precision aerial imagery are well suited to optimally connect two spatial scales, the ecosystem and microhabitat scale.

The genetic characteristics of neutral loci in natural populations are shaped by the interplay between genetic drift and gene flow that themselves result from key ecological and evolutionary processes. Because of their influence on population size, habitats characteristics may influence substantially populations' genetic characteristics. However, past studies focused primarily on variables related to habitat quantity while habitat quality was largely overlooked. We therefore combined genetic data to detailed habitat descriptions of three sympatric butterfly species having different ecological needs to quantify the relative contribution of geographic distance and habitat quality/quantity on their genetic characteristics. In all species, the genetic diversity was greater in larger and good quality patches. The genetic differentiation of Lycaena helle (specialist species with limited dispersal) was mostly explained by geographical distances. This effect was dampened by habitat quality as populations inhabiting low quality patches had higher genetic differentiations indicating that the constraints set by local environmental factors increased genetic drift. In Boloria eunomia (specialist species with greater dispersal), the genetic differentiation was only influenced by geographic distance. Finally, in Brenthis ino (more generalist species with greater dispersal), isolation-by-distance was weak and habitat characteristics were unrelated to genetic differentiation. The different effect of habitat quality on these species' genetic characteristics suggests that fundamental ecological traits underpin their response to habitat degradation. In L. helle, a species with major conservation concerns, these results show that preserving habitat quality and connectivity among populations' are important to ensure the maintenance of fully functional metapopulations.

Biodiversity is declining across the globe. Main drivers causing the vanishing of species are habitat destruction and the transformation of former heterogeneous landscapes into homogeneous and intensively used landscapes. Modern land management focuses on the creation of landscape configuration with sharp boundaries between ecosystems. In consequence, transition zones between two ecosystems such as between forest and open grassland are rare, as it counteracts the efficient and commercial use of space. However, there are many species relying on such transition zones between habitats, as the Clouded Apollo butterfly Parnassius mnemosyne. This highly endangered butterfly species occurs in light deciduous forests, interspersed with extensively used grasslands. In our study, we analysed habitat requirements of this butterfly species. We recorded larvae and feeding marks at its primary larval food plant, Corydalis cava, and assessed microhabitat characteristics, including microclimatic conditions. We captured high-resolution multispectral aerial imagery with an unmanned aerial vehicle. We subsequently combined ground-truthing data with information from high resolution aerial pictures to calculate habitat suitability models. We found that P. mnemosyne larvae mainly occur in the transition zone between deciduous light forest and extensively used grasslands with C. cava. Caterpillars of P. mnemosyne are particularly found around trees, basking on foliage and grass to rapidly reach high operation temperatures. Results from Species Distribution Models underline the relevance of transition zones between habitats for P. mnemosyne, and for biodiversity in general. The Clouded Apollo may serve as excellent indicator species for light deciduous forests, and as flagship to promote the conservation and restoration of transition zones between habitats in nature conservation.

Numerous conservation activities in Africa have been of little effect. In this study, we investigate socio-economic trade-offs that might have been overlooked, yet may undermine conservation action in discret pathways. Data was collected in three study sites with fragile forest ecosystems in south-eastern Kenya, through locally adapted structured surveys and semi-structured expert guides. These analyses are drawn from 827 structured surveys and 37 expert interviews, which were done during 2016–2018. We found general coherences between age, gender, ethnicity, indigenous knowledge, formal education, and higher incomes, which shapes forest conservation attitudes. Indigenous knowledge is marginal, and most people with formal education in the rural setting are likely to be young without legal land rights or among the minority with off-farm employment. The reluctance to address historical land injustices and inequitable sharing of entitlements and management authority overrides positive attitudes and intentions towards forest conservation in all three study sites. However, we found considerable discrepancies among the three study sites. For Arabuko Sokoke forest, the awareness of forest conservation was relatively low when compared with the other two study sites. Forests play a major role against the backdrop of resource use in all three regions. But, different ecosystem services are used among the three study sites. For environmental education and communication, internet plays a comparatively minor role. Strategies to preserve forest differ among the three study sites: Reforestation is proposed in cloud forests of Taita Hills and riparian forests, whereas off-farm employment and alternative income sources plays a major role in Arabuko Sokoke forest. Our findings underline that locally specific conservation management is needed to conduct efficient nature conservation, particularly in countries with very heterogeneous ethnicities and environments.

Species respond differently to landscape structures and environmental changes. In nature conservation, however, responses of a few indicator groups are often generalised to the ecosystem level. In this study, we analyse how birds and butterflies respond to identical landscape structures and environmental gradients across a habitat mosaic in southern Kenya. The study area represents natural coastal forest (core and margins) as well as different agro-environments (orchards and pastures), which partly may also be suitable surrogate habitats for forest species. We assessed birds and butterflies during the same time and along identical transects, covering the dry and rainy season. The obtained results indicate that both indicator groups depict habitat types in some aspects similarly but in others in somewhat different ways. Thus, strongest differences in community similarity were visible between forest interior and open landscape (i.e. pastures) for both taxa. The forest community strongly overlapped with orchards for birds but less so for butterflies. Thus, orchards in close geographic context with natural forests might be possible surrogates for certain forest bird species but less so for the little mobile forest butterfly species. The temporal variation in species richness, abundances, and community structures was much stronger for butterflies compared to birds. Thus, seasonality in tropical ecosystems has to be considered when interpreting community structures of butterflies but much less so in birds. In general, birds and butterflies proved to be suitable indicator groups to ecologically assess landscape structures in East Africa, with birds more representing the landscape level and butterflies more the fine-grained habitat scale.

The cloud forests of the Taita Hills are valuable refuges for numerous endemic and rare animal and plant species. They also provide various ecosystem services that support subsistence farming. Due to the large-scale destruction and conversion of these species-rich natural forests into subsistence agriculture and plantations of exotic tree species, most of the natural cloud forest habitats have disappeared and ecosystem services have been significantly diminished. Despite numerous conservation initiatives, the destruction of the Taita Hills forest ecosystem continues, which also lowers livelihood quality of the local people. During a workshop with representatives of GOs, NGOs, researchers and representatives of the local community we identified potential factors which are essential to reverse this negative trend. We found that governance structures urgently need to be strengthened, and that the traditional conservation system needs to get transformed and revitalised. The basic prerequisite is a vital communication among generations, especially between the youth and the elders, as well as and improved communication of scientific knowledge to policy makers and the society. Furthermore, it is essential to harmonize stakeholders’ mandates, policies and actions to efficiently restore this unique forest biodiversity hotspot, and to secure livelihood needs for the local people.

Knowledge on cheetah population densities across their current range is limited. Therefore, new and efficient assessment tools are needed to gain more knowledge on species distribution, ecology and behaviour. Scat detection dogs have emerged as an efficient and non-invasive method to monitor elusive and vulnerable animal species, like cheetahs, due to the dog’s superior olfactory system. However, the success of locating scat using detection dogs can be significantly improved under suitable weather conditions. We examined the impact of temperature, humidity and wind speed on detection rates of scat from cheetahs during a scat detection dog survey in Northern Kenya. We found that average wind speed positively influences the scat detection rate of detection dogs working on leash. Humidity showed no significant influence. Temperature showed a strong negative correlation with humidity and thus was excluded from our model analyses. While it is likely that wind speed is especially invalid for dogs working off leash, this study did not demonstrate this. Wind speed could thus influence the success of monitoring cheetahs or other target species. Our findings help to improve the survey and thus maximise the coverage of study area and the collection of target samples of elusive and rare species.

Agricultural intensification leads to a strong homogenization of landscapes. Plots have become larger, boundaries of fields straight, and land plots have been cultivated more intensively. Field copses, ruderal areas and hedgerows were removed. As a result, most of these small-scale habitats located at the edges of fields have disappeared. Thus, many potential habitats of plant and animal species have been destroyed, and the permeability of the landscape decreased during the past decades. Landscape homogenization consequently impacts biodiversity and reduces species richness and abundance of many taxa. In this study, we surveyed changes of land cover and landscape configuration on a field-by-field basis, based on historical (1953) and recent (2018) aerial and satellite images. We further compiled data of butterfly diversity for the same time periods and region. Our data show significant decrease of field copses over the past decades. The landscape structure changed towards rather homogenous fields with straight boundaries among single land plots. The expected number of species per sample unit of an assumed species decreased significantly. Particularly butterflies relying on oligotrophic and xerothermic grasslands decreased, as well as sedentary specialist species. In contrast, the proportion of ubiquitous and mobile generalist species increased. This underlines the general trend of faunal homogenization and the loss of specialized and sedentary species, in the wake of landscape homogenization.

Prioritization is crucial in nature conservation, as land and financial resources are limited. Selection procedures must follow objective criteria, and not primarily subjective aspects, such as charisma. In this study, we assessed the level of charisma for all European butterflies. Based on these data, we analysed the charisma values of the species listed on the annexes of the EU Habitats Directive and of the species being of conservation priority according to criteria derived by three objective criteria: Species ecological specialisation, distribution, and threat. The mean level of charisma was higher for species of the EU Habitats Directive than for species of conservation priority and for not-listed species. Five of the twenty most charismatic species were also listed on the EU Habitats Directive, but none occurred on the list of species being of conservation priority. A trait space analysis revealed remarkable differences between the different species assortments: The species listed on the EU Habitats Directive covered a large trait space and included many species with high charismatic value, but low ecological and biogeographical relevance, while species of high conservation priority covered a restricted trait space and did not overlap with charismatic species. According to our findings, the selection of species for nature conservation still follows a mix of being aesthetic combined with some ecological criteria.

Tropical forests suffer severe habitat destruction. Thus, tropical forests frequently consist today of only a few small remnants that are often embedded within a matrix of agricultural fields and tree plantations. Forest specialist species have experienced severe population declines under these circumstances. We studied bird communities based on census plots set up in a near-natural forest block, as well as degraded forest patches, tree plantations, and agricultural fields, across the Taita Hills in southern Kenya. We classified each bird species according its ecology and behavior. We quantified the land cover and landscape configuration around each census plot. Typical forest species were mainly observed in the near-natural forest block, and to a lower extent in degraded forest patches. Plantations were almost devoid of birds. Bird communities of small forest fragments were more similar to that of agricultural land than the near-natural forest block. Most frugivorous, insectivorous and nectarivorous birds occurred in forest habitats, while granivorous bird species dominated the bird communities of agricultural land. The surrounding landscape had a marginal impact on bird species composition at local sites. Our study showed that the preservation of near-natural cloud forest, including small forest patches, is essential for the conservation of forest-dependent species, and that plantations do not serve as surrogate habitats.

Context Biodiversity is severely decreasing at a global scale since several decades. There are significant changes in species community compositions, reductions of species richness and abundances of arthropods, as well as of arthropod biomass. Land use intensification and climate change are assumed to be main drivers causing biodiversity change and loss. However, proximate effects of land use, landscape configuration, topography and climate on species richness and species community composition were only rarely analysed. Objective We study the effects of current land cover, landscape structures and climate on butterfly and burnet moth species diversity and community composition across northern Austria (i.e. the federal state of Salzburg). Methods We compiled observation data of butterflies and burnet moths for the past 40 years. We divided faunal data, land cover data and data on climate into 5 × 5 km2 grid cells. We classified all lepidopterans assessed into groups according to their distribution, behaviour, ecology and life-history. Results We found higher species richness and temporal community shifts in higher elevations, and where topographic heterogeneity is high. Habitat connectivity has a positive impact on ecologically specialised, sedentary, and endangered species. Mean temperature and precipitation positively influenced species richness. Conclusions Both, land-use and climate strongly shape biodiversity structures. In particular, landscape heterogeneity promotes the diversity of ecological niches, which subsequently accelerates species diversity, including specialist species. Agricultural intensification in higher elevations and at steep slopes is more difficult and therefore less attractive, and thus the level of biodiversity is still high. In addition, climate warming might lead to the accumulation of species in higher elevations. Our study further underlines the relevance of habitat conservation at lower elevations, where not all habitat types are conserved sufficiently.

The number of insect species and insect abundances decreased severely during the past decades over major parts of Central Europe. Previous studies documented declines of species richness, abundances, shifts in species composition, and decreasing biomass of flying insects. In this study, we present a standardized approach to quantitatively and qualitatively assess insect diversity, biomass, and the abundance of taxa, in parallel. We applied two methods: Malaise traps, and automated and active light trapping. Sampling was conducted from April to October 2018 in southern Germany, at four sites representing conventional and organic farming. Bulk samples obtained from Malaise traps were further analyzed using DNA metabarcoding. Larger moths (Macroheterocera) collected with light trapping were further classified according to their degree of endangerment. Our methods provide valuable quantitative and qualitative data. Our results indicate more biomass and higher species richness, as well as twice the number of Red List lepidopterans in organic farmland than in conventional farmland. This combination of sampling methods with subsequent DNA metabarcoding and assignments of individuals according depending on ecological characteristics and the degree of endangerment allows to evaluate the status of landscapes and represents a suitable setup for large‐scale long‐term insect monitoring across Central Europe, and elsewhere., Malaise trap on the grassland of organic farmland.

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.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-04-28T19:44:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-09-02 The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks1. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate2–5 with decomposer groups—such as microorganisms and insects—contributing to variations in the decomposition rates2,6,7. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood7. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect—including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms—insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and −0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle. Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich Berchtesgaden National Park Epidemiology Biostatistics and Prevention Institute University of Zurich Southern Research Station USDA Forest Service Field Station Fabrikschleichach University of Würzburg Biological Sciences University of Toronto Scarborough Fenner School of Environment and Society The Australian National University Department of Biogeography University of Bayreuth Department of Disturbance Ecology University of Bayreuth Instituto de Ecología Regional CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Tucumán Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology University of Würzburg Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology The Czech Academy of Sciences Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Centre of Mazandaran Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Universidade Federal de Lavras Department of Biodiversity Conservation Goethe-University Frankfurt Bavarian Forest National Park CIRAD UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane (EcoFoG) AgroParisTech CNRS INRA Universite des Antilles Universite de Guyane Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Grassland Vegetation Lab Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management Norwegian University of Life Sciences Institute of Ecology and Botany Centre for Ecological Research Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences Animal Ecology University of Marburg École d’Ingénieurs de Purpan Université de Toulouse UMR 1201 Dynafor Ecosystem Science and Management Program University of Northern British Columbia Laboratory of Applied Ecology University of Abomey-Calavi Department of Ecology University of Granada Réserves Naturelles de France Royal Alberta Museum Conservation Ecology University of Marburg Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology Centre for the Environment Institute for Future Environments Forest Research Institute Malaysia International Institute of Tropical Forestry USDA Forest Service Forest Entomology Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL Evolutionary Zoology University of Salzburg Natural Resources Canada Canadian Forest Service Eurofins Ahma Oy Department of Plant Systematics University of Bayreuth Department of Wildlife Fish and Environmental Studies Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Applied Landscape Ecology Chuo University School of Forest Sciences University of Eastern Finland School of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences Bern University of Applied Sciences CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia Kunming Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences ECNU-Alberta Joint Lab for Biodiversity Study Tiantong National Station for Forest Ecosystem Research East China Normal University Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Banos Department of Thermodynamics Universidad Nacional del Nordeste Tropical Forests and People Research Centre University of the Sunshine Coast Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Laboratory National University of Mongolia School of Environment and Science Griffith University School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences University College Cork Edge Hill University Institute of Forestry Tribhuvan University Institute of Evolution University of Haifa Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute) School of Forestry University of Canterbury Institute of Zoology University of Hamburg Faculté des Sciences Université d’Antananarivo Tropical Biodiversity and Social Enterprise Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista Ecology Group University Erlangen-Nuremberg H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Environmental and Conservation Sciences Murdoch University Environmental Futures Research Institute Griffith University Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment ARC Centre for Forest Value University of Tasmania Terrestrial Ecology Research Group School of Life Sciences Technical University of Munich EcoBank Team National Institute of Ecology College of Forestry Beijing Forestry University Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Estadual Paulista

Weisser, Wolfgang W/0000-0002-2757-8959; Penone, Caterina/0000-0002-8170-6659; Schall, Peter/0000-0003-4808-818X; Bauhus, Jurgen/0000-0002-9673-4986 WOS: 000493807800042 PubMed: 31666721 Recent reports of local extinctions of arthropod species(1), and of massive declines in arthropod biomass(2), point to land-use intensification as a major driver of decreasing biodiversity. However, to our knowledge, there are no multisite time series of arthropod occurrences across gradients of land-use intensity with which to confirm causal relationships. Moreover, it remains unclear which land-use types and arthropod groups are affected, and whether the observed declines in biomass and diversity are linked to one another. Here we analyse data from more than 1 million individual arthropods (about 2,700 species), from standardized inventories taken between 2008 and 2017 at 150 grassland and 140 forest sites in 3 regions of Germany. Overall gamma diversity in grasslands and forests decreased over time, indicating loss of species across sites and regions. In annually sampled grasslands, biomass, abundance and number of species declined by 67%, 78% and 34%, respectively. The decline was consistent across trophic levels and mainly affected rare species; its magnitude was independent of local land-use intensity. However, sites embedded in landscapes with a higher cover of agricultural land showed a stronger temporal decline. In 30 forest sites with annual inventories, biomass and species number-but not abundance-decreased by 41% and 36%, respectively. This was supported by analyses of all forest sites sampled in three-year intervals. The decline affected rare and abundant species, and trends differed across trophic levels. Our results show that there are widespread declines in arthropod biomass, abundance and the number of species across trophic levels. Arthropod declines in forests demonstrate that loss is not restricted to open habitats. Our results suggest that major drivers of arthropod decline act at larger spatial scales, and are (at least for grasslands) associated with agriculture at the landscape level. This implies that policies need to address the landscape scale to mitigate the negative effects of land-use practices. DFGGerman Research Foundation (DFG) We thank T. Lewinsohn, S. Meyer and V. Wolters for their comments and suggestions for the analyses; M. Lutz, J. Bartezko, P. Freynhagen, I. Gallenberger, M. Turke, M. Lange, T. Kahl, E. Pasalic, E. Sperr, K. Kremer and all student helpers for conducting arthropod sampling in the field and laboratory; R. Achtziger, E. Anton, T. Blick, B. Buche, M.-A. Fritze, R. Heckmann, A. Kastner, F. Kohler, G. Kohler, T. Kolkebeck, C. Morkel, F. Schmolke, T. Wagner and O. Wiche for arthropod species identification; C. Seilwinder and R. Honecker for GIS work; the managers of the three Exploratories (K. Wells, S. Renner, K. Reichel-Jung, S. Gockel, K. Wiesner, K. Lorenzen, A. Hemp and M. Gorke) for their work in maintaining the site and project infrastructure; C. Fischer and S. Pfeiffer for giving support through the central office; A, Ostrowski, M. Owonibi and J. Nieschulze for managing the central database; and D. Hessenmoller, I. Schoning, F. Buscot and the late E. Kalko for their role in setting up the Biodiversity Exploratories project. The work has been funded by the DFG Priority Program 1374 'Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories'. Field work permits were issued by the responsible state environmental offices of Baden-Wurttemberg, Thuringen and Brandenburg.

Effects of anthropogenic activities on habitats and species communities and populations are complex and vary across species depending on their ecological traits. Movement ecology may provide important insights into species’ responses to habitat structures and quality. We investigated how movement behavior across a human‐modified landscape depends on species identity and species traits, with particular focus on habitat specialization, feeding guilds, and dispersal behavior. We tracked 34 individuals of nine Afrotropical bird species during three years in an anthropogenic riparian landscape of East Africa. We investigated whether species’ functional traits predicted their habitat use and movement behavior better than species’ identities. Our results indicate that habitat specialists mainly occur in dense riparian thickets, while habitat generalists do occur in agricultural land. Home‐ranges of omnivorous habitat generalists are larger than of frugivorous and insectivorous generalists and omnivorous and insectivorous specialists. Movement speed was highest in settlement areas for all species, with activity peaks during morning and afternoon for habitat specialists. Our results reveal that functional traits and species identity provide complementary insights into responses of organisms to habitat structures and habitat quality.

Prioritizing species for nature conservation should follow objective ecologically and biogeographically meaningful selection criteria. In this study, we test an approach to prioritize butterfly species for nature conservation considering the following parameters: (1) geographical distribution and endemicity, (2) vulnerability and (3) ecological specialization. Following these criteria, we identified 51 species of conservation priority out of the 403 European species assessed, that is 12.7%. This list of species and those included in the annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) had only four species in common. The species selected by both approaches differed significantly in their traits considering their distribution and ecological specialization with the annexes of the EU Habitats Directive including many species that are neither range‐restricted nor have their core distribution within Europe, and furthermore many not threatened ecological generalists. Our results suggest that species prioritization for nature conservation should follow objective criteria, such as distribution and ecological specialization.

The COVID-19 crisis and the environmental crisis share a range of similarities. Both crises take place on a global scale and affect all aspects of our lives. However, we humans respond differently to these challenges. Here, we compare and comment on characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis and the environmental crisis, explore how far these two crises are comparable, and what we can learn from actions that have been taken against the COVID-19 crisis. We discuss how human societies are affected by the respective crises, and analyze policy makers’ responses and offer pathways to better inform policy. We highlight the role of science, which significantly contributed to decision making throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but seems frequently underrepresented in the environmental crisis. We conclude that there are significant differences between the two crises in terms of perceptibility and thus communicability. While problems and solutions in the COVID-19 crisis are largely linearly correlated, the challenges of the environmental crisis are far more complex and decoupled, and thus appear much more complex and are often only perceived with difficulty by humans. Thus, tackling the environmental crisis is much more challenging than solving the COVID-19 crisis. To overcome the environmental crisis, purely technical approaches for combating symptoms are not sufficient. However, political interests are usually short-term, and do not correspond with the temporal and spatial scales of global change. There is an urgent need to improve institutionalized scientific advisory mechanisms and to empower global policy makers who are independent of local interest groups. Furthermore, we need the sound communication of complex interactions to the general public and the translation of scientific findings into action. One possibility to achieve this is to bring together natural scientists with expertise in biology, climate and geosciences and social scientists, psychologists, and, possibly, artists.

The geographical distributions of species associated with European temperate broadleaf forests have been significantly influenced by glacial–interglacial cycles. During glacial periods, these species persisted in Mediterranean and extra-Mediterranean refugia and later, during interglacial periods, expanded northwards. The widespread saproxylic beetle Bolitophagus reticulatus depends closely on European temperate broadleaf forests. It usually develops in the tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius, a major decomposer of broadleaf-wood. We sampled B. reticulatus in sporocarps from European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis) across Europe and the Caucasus region. We analysed mitochondrial gene sequences (cox1, cox2, cob) and 17 microsatellites to reconstruct the geographical distribution of glacial refugia and postglacial recolonization pathways. We found only marginal genetic differentiation of B. reticulatus, except for a significant split between populations of the Caucasus region and Europe. This indicates the existence of past refugia south of the Great Caucasus, and a contact zone with European populations in the Crimean region. Further potential refugia might have been located at the foothills of the Pyrenees and in the Balkan region. Our genetic data suggest a phalanx-wise recolonization of Europe, a reflection of the high mobility of B. reticulatus.

Species community structures respond strongly to habitat changes. These are either driven by nature or human activities. The biota of East African drylands responds highly sensitively to natural and anthropogenic impacts. Thus, seasonality strongly influences resource availability in a cyclic manner during the year, with cyclic appearance of the different developmental stages of invertebrates, while man-made landscape transformations profoundly and permanently modify habitat structures and, as a consequence, species communities. Butterflies are an excellent model group for the study of the effects of seasonality, and to test for biodiversity responses to anthropogenic activities such as habitat modification, degradation and destruction. We performed transect counts of adult butterflies in riparian forests and their adjoining areas, either dry savannahs with occasional pasturing (i.e. near-natural status) or farmland areas with fields, gardens and settlements (i.e. highly degraded status with lack of original vegetation). Transects were set along the river beds as well as at 250 m and 500 m distances parallel to these rivers, with eight transects per distance class and site (i.e. 48 transects in total). We recorded habitat structures for each transect. Counts were conducted during the dry and the rainy season, with 16 repetitions for each single transect, i.e. eight per season and transect. We compiled trait data on morphology, geographic distribution, ecology, behaviour, and life-history for all butterfly species encountered. Our results show higher species richness and numbers of individuals in farmland transects compared with the savannah region. Seasonal fluctuations of the detectable species abundances between the rainy and dry season were severe. These fluctuations were much more pronounced for the savannah than the farmland area, i.e. was buffered by human activities. Farmland and savannah support two distinct butterfly communities, with generalist species being more common in the farmland communities. Strict habitat associations were comparatively weak and typical dry savannah and riparian forest species were not clearly restricted to the near natural landscape.

Warm-adapted species survived the cold stages of the past glacial-interglacial cycles in southern European peninsulas and recolonized major parts of Central and Northern Europe in the wake of postglacial warming. However, many of the genetic lineages which differentiated within these refugia predate even the Pleistocene. One of these refugia is the Italian Peninsula with its surrounding islands. In this meta-analysis, we compiled phylogeographic patterns of multiple species across this region. We transformed existing geographic information on 78 animal and plant species (with a total of 471 genetic lineages) within 17 predefined areas into presence/absence matrices. We elaborated three matrices: (i) only old lineages exclusively distinguished by deep splits, (ii) only young lineages distinguished by shallow (i.e. recent) splits, and (iii) presence/absence of the respective species. To infer biogeographic relationships between the predefined areas, we performed bootstrapped neighbour joining cluster analyses on these three matrices. In addition, we reviewed the geological history of Italy to identify causes of the observed biogeographic patterns. We found Sardinia and Corsica to be biogeographically closely linked with each other, and that they diverge strongly from all other regions. Sicily also diverges strongly from all other regions, while the intra-island differentiation was comparatively low. On the Italian mainland, Calabria exhibited the most pronounced biogeographic differentiation, often with several lineages present, resulting from old vicariance events within the region. Furthermore, southern Apulia and the Po Plain with adjoining areas of northern peninsular Italy displayed considerable distinctiveness. Admixture prevailed in the areas between these three regions. The ancient isolation of Sicily, as well as Sardinia plus Corsica, resulted in endemic lineages with only moderate recent exchange with adjacent mainland regions. Pronounced diversification occurs within the Italian Peninsula. The complex tectonic activities, such as shifting (micro)plates, submergence of major parts of peninsular Italy with the genesis of numerous Pliocene islands, in combination with the climatic cycles during the Pleistocene have most likely generated the current biogeographic pattern of species. Immigrations from the Balkan Peninsula into northern Italy partly accounted for the distinctiveness of this region. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12983-021-00418-9.

The conversion of natural ecosystems due to anthropogenic activities has led to the destruction of natural habitats and to the deterioration of habitat quality. Top predators particularly respond sensitively to changes in habitat structures, including the availability of prey. The cheetah

Reports of major losses in insect biodiversity have stimulated an increasing interest in temporal population changes. Existing datasets are often limited to a small number of study sites, few points in time, a narrow range of land-use intensities and only some taxonomic groups, or they lack standardised sampling. While new monitoring programs have been initiated, they still cover rather short time periods. Daskalova et al. 2021 (Insect Conservation and Diversity, 14, 1-18) argue that temporal trends of insect populations derived from short time series are biased towards extreme trends, while their own analysis of an assembly of shorter- and longer-term time series does not support an overall insect decline. With respect to the results of Seibold et al. 2019 (Nature, 574, 671-674) based on a 10-year multi-site time series, they claim that the analysis suffers from not accounting for temporal pseudoreplication. Here, we explain why the criticism of missing statistical rigour in the analysis of Seibold et al. (2019) is not warranted. Models that include 'year' as random effect, as suggested by Daskalova et al. (2021), fail to detect non-linear trends and assume that consecutive years are independent samples which is questionable for insect time-series data. We agree with Daskalova et al. (2021) that the assembly and analysis of larger datasets is urgently needed, but it will take time until such datasets are available. Thus, short-term datasets are highly valuable, should be extended and analysed continually to provide a more detailed understanding of insect population changes under the influence of global change, and to trigger immediate conservation actions. Projekt DEAL Open Access funding enabled and organised by Projekt DEAL. WOA Institution: Technische Universitat Munchen Blended DEAL: Projekt DEAL. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. WOS:000608170300012 2-s2.0-85100160129

Species demanding specific habitat requirements suffer, particularly under environmental changes. The smallest owl of Africa, the Sokoke Scops Owl (Otus ireneae), occurs exclusively in East African coastal forests. To understand the movement behaviour and habitat demands of O. ireneae, we combined data from radio-tracking and remote sensing to calculate Species Distribution Models across the Arabuko Sokoke forest in southern Kenya. Based on these data, we estimated the local population size and projected the distribution of current suitable habitats. We found that the species occurs only in Cynometra woodland with large old trees and dense vegetation. Based on home range sizes and the distribution of suitable forest habitats, the local population size was estimated at O. ireneae, and of other specialist forest species, even further. Due to their close connection with intact Cynometra forest, O. ireneae is an excellent indicator of intact forest remnants. In addition, this species is a suitable flagship for the promotion and conservation of the last remaining coastal forests of East Africa.

Two major theories of community assembly - based on the assumption of 'limiting similarity' or 'habitat filtering', respectively - predict contrasting patterns in the spatial arrangement of functional traits. Previous analyses have made progress in testing these predictions and identifying underlying processes, but have also pointed to theoretical as well as methodological shortcomings. Here we applied a recently developed methodology for spatially explicit analysis of phylogenetic meta-community structure to study the pattern of co-occurrence of functional traits in Afrotropical and Neotropical bird species inhabiting forest fragments. Focusing separately on locomotory, dietary, and dispersal traits, we tested whether environmental filtering causes spatial clustering, or competition leads to spatial segregation as predicted by limiting similarity theory. We detected significant segregation of species co-occurrences in African fragments, but not in the Neotropical ones. Interspecific competition had a higher impact on trait co-occurrence than filter effects, yet no single functional trait was able to explain the observed degree of spatial segregation among species. Despite high regional variability spanning from spatial segregation to aggregation, we found a consistent tendency for a clustered spatial patterning of functional traits among communities in fragmented landscapes, particularly in non-territorial species. Overall, we show that behavioural effects, such as territoriality, and environmental effects, such as the area of forest remnants or properties of the landscape matrix in which they are embedded, can strongly affect the pattern of trait co-occurrence. Our findings suggest that trait-based analyses of community structure should include behavioural and environmental covariates, and we here provide an appropriate method for linking functional traits, species ecology and environmental conditions to clarify the drivers underlying spatial patterns of species co-occurrence.

Pristine tropical ecosystems are currently suffering under extreme demographic pressure. This has led to habitat destruction and disturbances, an important precondition for the invasion of exotic species into pristine ecosystems, with detrimental effects on biodiversity. In this study, we analysed the chronology of land cover changes along rivers in south-eastern Kenya using historical aerial photographs and current aerial pictures taken from a drone. We assessed quantity and quality of riparian thickets along these rivers in 1961, 1980 and 2015/2016 and analysed effects of fundamental land cover changes on arthropod abundance and diversity. Our data show effects from demographic pressure by the increasing number of human settlements rising by 425% from 1961 to 2015/2016 (i.e. from 36 to 189 settlements). 58.5% of the land surface originally covered by pristine riparian forests was cleared and transformed into agricultural land. After clearance and agricultural usage it frequently became fallow land and was invaded by the exotic shrub species Lantana camara. While the total coverage of riparian vegetation did not change over time, its quality declined dramatically. Currently 36.6% of the cleared pristine riparian forest is covered by L. camara thickets, and only 22.5% of the pristine riparian forest has remained unchanged over time. This modification of the vegetation structure impacts biodiversity. The abundances of three guilds of arthropods significantly differed between pristine and L. camara-dominated riparian vegetation, with herbivorous arthropods and ants being more abundant in pristine than in L. camara-dominated vegetation. Our data show that habitat destruction and disturbance is the prerequisite for subsequent invasion by exotic plant species, having a strong effect on species composition and diversity at higher trophic levels.

A growing number of studies are providing evidence that a suite of anthropogenic stressors — habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, invasive species, climate change and overharvesting — are seriously reducing insect and other invertebrate abundance, diversity and biomass across the biosphere. These declines affect all functional groups: herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids, predators and pollinators. Insects are vitally important in a wide range of ecosystem services of which some are vitally important for food production and security (for example, pollination and pest control). […]. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Here we build on the manifesto ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, issued by the Alliance of World Scientists. As a group of conservation biologists deeply concerned about the decline of insect populations, we here review what we know about the drivers of insect extinctions, their consequences, and how extinctions can negatively impact humanity. We are causing insect extinctions by driving habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, use of polluting and harmful substances, the spread of invasive species, global climate change, direct overexploitation, and co-extinction of species dependent on other species. With insect extinctions, we lose much more than species. We lose abundance and biomass of insects, diversity across space and time with consequent homogenization, large parts of the tree of life, unique ecological functions and traits, and fundamental parts of extensive networks of biotic interactions. Such losses lead to the decline of key ecosystem services on which humanity depends. From pollination and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality indication and many others, insects provide essential and irreplaceable services. We appeal for urgent action to close key knowledge gaps and curb insect extinctions. An investment in research programs that generate local, regional and global strategies that counter this trend is essential. Solutions are available and implementable, but urgent action is needed now to match our intentions.