title: Landscape simplification weakens the association between terrestrial producer and consumer diversity in Europe.
abstract: Land-use change is one of the primary drivers of species loss, yet little is known about its effect on other components of biodiversity that may be at risk. Here, we ask whether, and to what extent, landscape simplification, measured as the percentage of arable land in the landscape, disrupts the functional and phylogenetic association between primary producers and consumers. Across seven European regions, we inferred the potential associations (functional and phylogenetic) between host plants and butterflies in 561 seminatural grasslands. Local plant diversity showed a strong bottom-up effect on butterfly diversity in the most complex landscapes, but this effect disappeared in simple landscapes. The functional associations between plant and butterflies are, therefore, the results of processes that act not only locally but are also dependent on the surrounding landscape context. Similarly, landscape simplification reduced the phylogenetic congruence among host plants and butterflies indicating that closely related butterflies become more generalist in the resources used. These processes occurred without any detectable change in species richness of plants or butterflies along the gradient of arable land. The structural properties of ecosystems are experiencing substantial erosion, with potentially pervasive effects on ecosystem functions and future evolutionary trajectories. Loss of interacting species might trigger cascading extinction events and reduce the stability of trophic interactions, as well as influence the longer term resilience of ecosystem functions. This underscores a growing realization that species richness is a crude and insensitive metric and that both functional and phylogenetic associations, measured across multiple trophic levels, are likely to provide additional and deeper insights into the resilience of ecosystems and the functions they provide.
authors.affiliation: DAFNAE, University of Padova, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.|Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, Würzburg, 97074, Germany.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7052-5572
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dainese
authors.affiliation: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Nick J B
authors.initials: NJB
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.affiliation: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, OX10 8BB, UK.
authors.forename: Gary D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Powney
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, SE-750 07, Sweden.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bommarco
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, SE-750 07, Sweden.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Öckinger
authors.affiliation: Natural Environment Centre, Finnish Environment Institute, PO Box 140, Helsinki, FI-00251, Finland.
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuussaari
authors.affiliation: Natural Environment Centre, Finnish Environment Institute, PO Box 140, Helsinki, FI-00251, Finland.
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pöyry
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Tim G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Benton
authors.affiliation: Institute of Crop and Soil Science, Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Bundesallee 50, Braunschweig, D-38116, Germany.
authors.forename: Doreen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gabriel
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour, University of Liverpool, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Jenny A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hodgson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Kunin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden.
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lindborg
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biological Sciences, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sait
authors.affiliation: DAFNAE, University of Padova, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002080:Butterflies; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: coevolution; ecosystem resilience; functional traits; habitat loss; herbivory; host specialization; land-use change; phylogenetic diversity; plant-insect interactions; trophic associations