Land cover and flying insect diversity
Low vegetation boosted insect biomass and richness more than expected across German monitoring sites.
Source
Effects of land cover and protected areas on flying insect diversity
What they did
Sampled flying insects with Malaise traps at 75 German sites in 2019–2020 and related biomass, richness, and turnover to land cover, weather, and protected-area status.
What they found
50,087 insect OTUs (10,803 named species); low vegetation raised biomass 50–56% and richness 58% and 33%; land cover, weather, and climate explained 42% of site variation.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Does not experimentally restore habitat or prove that protected-area designation caused the insect patterns.
Key terms
- OTU
- Operational taxonomic unit from DNA sequences.
- Malaise trap
- Tent-like intercept trap for flying insects.
- Temporal turnover
- Change in community composition between samples.
- Low vegetation
- Grassland, meadows, gardens and similar open cover.
- Validated species
- OTUs assigned accepted species names.
- Protected area
- Park or reserve with restricted land conversion.
Flashcards
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Validated insect species named:
Common questions
How many sites?
75 in Germany.
Validated species?
10,803.
Dominant order?
Diptera (36%).
2019 mean biomass?
2.0 g/day per site.
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