Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 24, Issue 2, Pages 288-297Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.13642
Keywords
Bipartite networks; connectance; fragmentation; generalist; habitat selectivity; intraspecific variation; landscape configuration; landscape simplification; modularity; patch density
Categories
Funding
- University of Padova [BIRD171833/17]
- Fondazione Ing
- [(STARS-CoG)-2017]
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Measuring habitat specialisation is crucial for predicting species extinctions and understanding ecosystem functioning. Our study revealed intraspecific variation in habitat specialisation among arthropod species, with some groups showing reduced ability to adapt to landscape changes, while others were better equipped to persist in highly impacted landscapes by being able to utilize a broad set of resources.
Measuring habitat specialisation is pivotal for predicting species extinctions and for understanding consequences on ecosystem functioning. Here, we sampled pollinator and natural enemy communities in all major habitat types occurring across multiple agricultural landscapes and used species-habitat networks to determine how habitat specialisation changed along gradients in landscape composition and configuration. Although it is well known that landscape simplification often causes the replacement of specialists with generalists, our study provided evidence for intraspecific variation in habitat specialisation, highlighting how a large number of arthropod species adapted their way of selecting habitat resources depending on the landscape structure. Groups with higher diet specialisation and limited foraging flexibility appeared to have a reduced ability to respond to landscape changes, indicating that some arthropod taxa are better able than others to adapt to an increasingly broad set of resources and persist in highly impacted landscapes.
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