Landscape simplification filters species traits and drives biotic homogenization.
Biodiversity loss can affect the viability of ecosystems by decreasing the ability of communities to respond to environmental change and disturbances. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss and has multiple components operating at different spatial scales: from in-field management intensity to landscape-scale simplification. Here we show that landscape-level effects dominate functional community composition and can even buffer the effects of in-field management intensification on functional homogenization, and that animal communities in real-world managed landscapes show a unified response (across orders and guilds) to both landscape-scale simplification and in-field intensification. Adults and larvae with specialized feeding habits, species with shorter activity periods and relatively small body sizes are selected against in simplified landscapes with intense in-field management. Our results demonstrate that the diversity of land cover types at the landscape scale is critical for maintaining communities, which are functionally diverse, even in landscapes where in-field management intensity is high.
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Sagrario
S
Gámez-Virués
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
David J
DJ
Perović
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Center for Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, D-85354 Freising, Germany.
Martin M
MM
Gossner
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Carmen
C
Börschig
Ecological Networks, Biology, Technical University of Darmstadt, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
Nico
N
Blüthgen
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Heike
H
de Jong
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Center for Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, D-85354 Freising, Germany.
Nadja K
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2718-7050
NK
Simons
Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
Alexandra-Maria
AM
Klein
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Biocenter, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
Jochen
J
Krauss
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Gwen
G
Maier
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Christoph
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7924-8911
C
Scherber
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Biocenter, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
Juliane
J
Steckel
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Christoph
C
Rothenwöhrer
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Biocenter, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany.
Ingolf
I
Steffan-Dewenter
Ecological Networks, Biology, Technical University of Darmstadt, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
Christiane N
CN
Weiner
Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Center for Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, D-85354 Freising, Germany.
Wolfgang
W
Weisser
Ecological Networks, Biology, Technical University of Darmstadt, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
Michael
M
Werner
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Teja
T
Tscharntke
Agroecology, Department of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Göttingen, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Catrin
C
Westphal
D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D001097:Arachnida; D001516:Bees; D044822:Biodiversity; D058448:Biota; D001517:Coleoptera; D004175:Diptera; D017753:Ecosystem; D005858:Germany; D065948:Grassland; D006430:Hemiptera; D020062:Heteroptera; D007814:Larva; D007915:Lepidoptera