A summary of eight traits of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and Araneae, occurring in grasslands in Germany

Goßner, Martin M.; Simons, Nadja K.; Achtziger, Roland; Blick, Theo; Dorow, Wolfgang; Dziock, Frank; Köhler, Frank; Rabitsch, Wolfgang; Weisser, Wolfgang W.

doi:10.1038/sdata.2015.13

Cited by 56 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Trait databases also exist for animals at a regional scale, including vertebrates (i.e., fish; Frimpong & Angermeier, 2009) and invertebrates, such as ground beetles (Homburg, Homburg, Schäfer, Schuldt, & Assmann, 2014), cavity‐nesting wasps and bees (Scales project; http://www.scales-project.net/), hoverflies (Speight, Castella, & Sarthou, 2013), and aquatic macroinvertebrates (Statzner, Bonada, & Dolédec, 2008; Vieira et al., 2006). However, for most taxonomic groups of invertebrates and vertebrates, available trait databases are still missing (Gossner et al., 2015). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trait‐based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Hevia

Martín‐López

Palomo

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the responses of biodiversity to drivers of change and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem properties and ecosystem services is a key challenge in the context of global environmental change. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of the scientific literature linking direct drivers of change and ecosystem services via functional traits of three taxonomic groups (vegetation, invertebrates, and vertebrates) to: (1) uncover trends and research biases in this field; and (2) synthesize existing empirical evidence. Our results show the existence of important biases in published studies related to ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, direct drivers of change, ecosystem services, geographical range, and the spatial scale of analysis. We found multiple evidence of links between drivers and services mediated by functional traits, particularly between land‐use changes and regulating services in vegetation and invertebrates. Seventy‐five functional traits were recorded in our sample. However, few of these functional traits were repeatedly found to be associated with both the species responses to direct drivers of change (response traits) and the species effects on the provision of ecosystem services (effect traits). Our results highlight the existence of potential “key functional traits,” understood as those that have the capacity to influence the provision of multiple ecosystem services, while responding to specific drivers of change, across a variety of systems and organisms. Identifying “key functional traits” would help to develop robust indicator systems to monitor changes in biodiversity and their effects on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services supply.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trait‐based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Hevia

Martín‐López

Palomo

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We extracted trait information for all sampled species within our five target taxa from a published trait database that includes trait information from literature and expert knowledge (Gossner et al. 2015 a ). Selected traits were body size, dispersal ability, feeding mode, specialization, and stratum use.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a detailed description of trait definitions see Appendix and Gossner et al. (2015 a ). The morphometric traits for Heteroptera were derived from measurements on 415 male and female Heteroptera individuals that were selected to be representative specimen for the 158 Heteroptera species sampled in our grasslands (Gossner et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We developed a comparable classification across five arthropod (sub‐)orders: beetles (Coleoptera), true bugs (Heteroptera), leaf‐ and planthoppers (Auchenorrhyncha), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), and spiders (Araneae) to enable an analysis of the majority of the grassland arthropod community (Gossner et al. 2015 a ). For each arthropod species that we sampled over 5 yr across 150 grassland plots, we collected trait information from the literature (including textbooks, identification keys, and expert knowledge).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multi‐taxa approach shows consistent shifts in arthropod functional traits along grassland land‐use intensity gradient

Simons

Weisser

Goßner

2016

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Intensification of land use reduces biodiversity but may also shift the trait composition of communities. Understanding how land use affects single traits and community trait composition, helps to understand why some species are more affected by land use than others. Trait‐based analyses are common for plants, but rare for arthropods. We collected literature‐based traits for nearly 1000 insect and spider species to test how land‐use intensity (including mowing, fertilization, and grazing) across 124 grasslands in three regions of Germany affects community‐weighted mean traits across taxa and in single taxa. We additionally measured morphometric traits for more than 150 Heteroptera species and tested whether the weighted mean morphometric traits change with increasing land‐use intensity. Community average body size decreased and community average dispersal ability increased from low to high land‐use intensity. Furthermore, the relative abundance of herbivores and of specialists among herbivores decreased and the relative abundance of species using the herb layer increased with increasing land‐use intensity. Community‐weighted means of the morphometric traits in Heteroptera also changed from low to high land‐use intensity toward longer and thinner shapes as well as longer appendices (legs, wings, and antenna). While changes in traits with increasing mowing and fertilization intensity were consistent with the combined land‐use intensity, community average traits did often not change or with opposite direction under increasing grazing intensity. We conclude that high land‐use intensity acts as an environmental filter selecting for on average smaller, more mobile, and less specialized species across taxa. Although trait collection across multiple arthropod taxa is laborious and needs clear trait definitions, it is essential for understanding the functional consequences of biodiversity loss due to land‐use intensification.

show abstract

“…To do this we performed multiple regressions with the SES of the functional effect of each species as a response variable, and the 'response to LUI' as a predictor. To correct for other species characteristics that might affect their multifunctional importance, we also included their average abundance (across all sites in which each species occurred) and functional traits (plant height and specific leaf area for plants, and body size for herbivores and predators; obtained from available databases [46,47]). 'Response to land use intensity' was the standardized coefficient of a linear regression between each species' abundance and LUI.…”

Section: (Iii) Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality

Soliveres

Manning

Prati

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

One contribution of 17 to a theme issue 'Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in dynamic landscapes'. Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity-multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a landuse intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above-and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the communitylevel effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Speciesspecific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.

show abstract

A summary of eight traits of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and Araneae, occurring in grasslands in Germany

Cited by 56 publications

References 32 publications

Trait‐based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Trait‐based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Multi‐taxa approach shows consistent shifts in arthropod functional traits along grassland land‐use intensity gradient

Locally rare species influence grassland ecosystem multifunctionality

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About