Martin Musche

Ecological and evolutionary processes at expanding range margins

Many animals are regarded as relatively sedentary and specialized in marginal parts of their geographical distributions. They are expected to be slow at colonizing new habitats. Despite this, the cool margins of many species’ distributions have expanded rapidly in association with recent climate warming. We examined four insect species that have expanded their geographical ranges in Britain over the past 20 years. Here we report that two butterfly species have increased the variety of habitat types that they can colonize, and that two bush cricket species show increased fractions of longer-winged (dispersive) individuals in recently founded populations. Both ecological and evolutionary processes are probably responsible for these changes. Increased habitat breadth and dispersal tendencies have resulted in about 3- to 15-fold increases in expansion rates, allowing these insects to cross habitat disjunctions that would have represented major or complete barriers to dispersal before the expansions started. The emergence of dispersive phenotypes will increase the speed at which species invade new environments, and probably underlies the responses of many species to both past and future climate change.

Functional richness of local hoverfly communities (Diptera, Syrphidae) in response to land use across temperate Europe

Environmental change is not likely to act on biodiversity in a random manner, but rather according to species traits that affect assembly processes, thus, having potentially serious consequences on ecological functions. We investigated the effects of anthropogenic land use on functional richness of local hoverfly communities of 24 agricultural landscapes across temperate Europe. A multivariate ordination separated seven functional groups based on resource use, niche characteristics and response type. Intensive land use reduced functional richness, but each functional group responded in a unique way. Species richness of generalist groups was nearly unaffected. Local habitat quality mainly affected specialist groups, while land use affected intermediate groups of rather common species. We infer that high species richness within functional groups alone is no guarantee for maintaining functional richness. Thus, it is not species richness per se that improves insurance of functional diversity against environmental pressures but the degree of dissimilarity within each functional group.

Research needs for incorporating the ecosystem service approach into EU biodiversity conservation policy

Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders, including research funders and policy-makers. These recommendations focus on the ecological underpinning of ecosystem services, drivers that affect ecosystems and their services, biological traits and ecosystem services, the valuation of ecosystem services, spatial and temporal scales in ecosystem service assessment, indicators of ecosystem services, and habitat management, conservation policy and ecosystem services. The recommendations in this paper help steer the research agenda on ecosystem services into policy-relevant areas, agreed upon by funders, researchers and policy-makers. This research agenda will only succeed with increased collaboration between researchers across disciplines, thereby providing a challenge to the research community and research funders to work in new, interdisciplinary ways.

Population structure of a large blue butterfly and its specialist parasitoid in a fragmented landscape

Habitat fragmentation may interrupt trophic interactions if herbivores and their specific parasitoids respond differently to decreasing connectivity of populations. Theoretical models predict that species at higher trophic levels are more negatively affected by isolation than lower trophic level species. By combining ecological data with genetic information from microsatellite markers we tested this hypothesis on the butterfly Maculinea nausithous and its specialist hymenopteran parasitoid Neotypus melanocephalus. We assessed the susceptibility of both species to habitat fragmentation by measuring population density, rate of parasitism, overall genetic differentiation (θST) and allelic richness in a large metapopulation. We also simulated the dynamics of genetic differentiation among local populations to asses the relative effects of migration rate, population size, and haplodiploid (parasitoid) and diploid (host) inheritance on metapopulation persistence. We show that parasitism by N. melanocephalus is less frequent at larger distances to the nearest neighbouring population of M. nausithous hosts, but that host density itself is not affected by isolation. Allelic richness was independent of isolation, but the mean genetic differentiation among local parasitoid populations increased with the distance between these populations. Overall, genetic differentiation in the parasitoid wasp was much greater than in the butterfly host and our simulations indicate that this difference is due to a combination of haplodiploidy and small local population sizes. Our results thus support the hypothesis that Neotypus parasitoid wasps are more sensitive to habitat fragmentation than their Maculinea butterfly hosts.

The European Grassland Butterfly Indicator: 1990–2011

This report presents the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator, based on national Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (BMS) in 19 countries across Europe, most of them in the European Union. The indicator shows that since 1990 till 2011 butterfly populations have declined by almost 50 %, indicating a dramatic loss of grassland biodiversity. This also means the situation has not improved since the first version of the indicator published in 2005. Of the 17 species, 8 have declined in Europe, 2 have remained stable and 1 increased. For six species the trend is uncertain. The main driver behind the decline of grassland butterflies is the change in rural land use: agricultural intensification where the land is relatively flat and easy to cultivate, and abandonment in mountains and wet areas, mainly in eastern and southern Europe. Agricultural intensification leads to uniform, almost sterile grasslands for biodiversity. Grassland butterflies thus mainly survive in traditionally farmed low‑input systems (High Nature Value (HNV) Farmland) as well as nature reserves, and on marginal land such as road verges and amenity areas. (Less)

The next generation of site-based long-term ecological monitoring: Linking essential biodiversity variables and ecosystem integrity

Global change effects on biodiversity and human wellbeing call for improved long-term environmental data as a basis for science, policy and decision making, including increased interoperability, multifunctionality, and harmonization. Based on the example of two global initiatives, the International Long-Term Ecological Research (ILTER) network and the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), we propose merging the frameworks behind these initiatives, namely ecosystem integrity and essential biodiversity variables, to serve as an improved guideline for future site-based long-term research and monitoring in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal ecosystems. We derive a list of specific recommendations of what and how to measure at a monitoring site and call for an integration of sites into co-located site networks across individual monitoring initiatives, and centered on ecosystems. This facilitates the generation of linked comprehensive ecosystem monitoring data, supports synergies in the use of costly infrastructures, fosters cross-initiative research and provides a template for collaboration beyond the ILTER and GEO BON communities.

GENETIC POPULATION STRUCTURE AND REPRODUCTIVE FITNESS IN THE PLANT SANGUISORBA OFFICINALIS IN POPULATIONS SUPPORTING COLONIES OF AN ENDANGERED MACULINEA BUTTERFLY

The loss of genetic variation in small populations through drift and inbreeding is thought to decrease fitness and population viability. In order to evaluate the suitability of small Sanguisorba officinalis populations for the long‐term conservation of an endangered Maculinea butterfly species, we investigated the plants genetic population structure using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and measured life‐history traits related to reproduction. Genetic distances between populations were low (mean \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

Do drivers of biodiversity change differ in importance across marine and terrestrial systems — Or is it just different research communities' perspectives?

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