Converting habitat for agricultural production threatens biodiversity loss worldwide 10 and has significant implications for human well-being. Debates on how to conserve biodiversity 11 as the demand for agriculture products rises is being informed by studies using habitat specificity 12 as a proxy for sensitivity to land modification, assuming all species respond to habitat loss and 13 fragmentation relative to their affinity towards the habitat type being converted. Here, we test 14 this assumption among rodent assemblages on the Canadian Prairies, hypothesizing negative 15 responses among grassland obligates and neutral or positive responses among habitat generalists 16 to landscape change along a gradient of increasing agricultural intensity. We found complex, 17 sometimes contradictory responses among rodent species, which depended on the magnitude of 18 habitat loss that had occurred and did not always reflect each species' relative affinity for 19 grassland habitat. Our results suggest future studies should avoid assuming a single habitat type 20 appropriately characterizes resource limitation among all species, and instead carefully consider 21 which dimension of the ecological niche defines specificity for each species. Our results indicate 22 23 significant implications for biodiversity conservation when used to inform agriculture and land 24 use policies.25