title: Urbanization drives community shifts towards thermophilic and dispersive species at local and landscape scales.
abstract: The increasing conversion of agricultural and natural areas to human-dominated urban landscapes is predicted to lead to a major decline in biodiversity worldwide. Two conditions that typically differ between urban environments and the surrounding landscape are increased temperature, and high patch isolation and habitat turnover rates. However, the extent and spatial scale at which these altered conditions shape biotic communities through selection and/or filtering on species traits are currently poorly understood. We sampled carabid beetles at 81 sites in Belgium using a hierarchically nested sampling design wherein three local-scale (200 × 200 m) urbanization levels were repeatedly sampled across three landscape-scale (3 × 3 km) urbanization levels. First, we showed that communities sampled in the most urbanized locations and landscapes displayed a distinct species composition at both local and landscape scale. Second, we related community means of species-specific thermal preferences and dispersal capacity (based on European distribution and wing morphology, respectively) to the urbanization gradients. We showed that urban communities consisted on average of species with a preference for higher temperatures and with better dispersal capacities compared to rural communities. These shifts were caused by an increased number of species tolerating higher temperatures, a decreased richness of species with low thermal preference, and an almost complete depletion of species with very low-dispersal capacity in the most urbanized localities. Effects of urbanization were most clearly detected at the local scale, although more subtle effects could also be found at the scale of entire landscapes. Our results demonstrate that urbanization may fundamentally and consistently alter species composition by exerting a strong filtering effect on species dispersal characteristics and favouring replacement by warm-dwelling species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Turin, Italy.|Entomology Department, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4685-7240
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Piano
authors.affiliation: Entomology Department, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium.|Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Katrien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: De Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bona
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dries
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonte
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Diana E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bowler
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isaia
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lens
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Group, Biodiversity Research Centre, Earth and Life Institute, Croix du Sud 2, 1348, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Merckx
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Daan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mertens
authors.affiliation: Entomology Department, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Kerckvoorde
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KU Leuven, Ch. De Bériotstraat 32, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Meester
authors.affiliation: Entomology Department, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vautierstraat 29, 1000, Brussels, Belgium.|Terrestrial Ecology Unit, Biology Department, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hendrickx
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001530:Belgium; D044822:Biodiversity; D001517:Coleoptera; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D014507:Urbanization
keywords: global change; habitat loss; metacommunity; species loss; urban heat island effect