Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest.

Mounting evidence shows overall insect abundances are in decline globally. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides have all been implicated, but their relative effects have never been evaluated in a comprehensive large-scale study. We harmonized 17 years of land use, climate, multiple classes of pesticides, and butterfly survey data across 81 counties in five states in the US Midwest. We find community-wide declines in total butterfly abundance and species richness to be most strongly associated with insecticides in general, and for butterfly species richness the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds in particular. This included the abundance of the migratory monarch (Danaus plexippus), whose decline is the focus of intensive debate and public concern. Insect declines cannot be understood without comprehensive data on all putative drivers, and the 2015 cessation of neonicotinoid data releases in the US will impede future research.

Cross-Site Comparisons of Dryland Ecosystem Response to Climate Change in the US Long-Term Ecological Research Network.

Long-term observations and experiments in diverse drylands reveal how ecosystems and services are responding to climate change. To develop generalities about climate change impacts at dryland sites, we compared broadscale patterns in climate and synthesized primary production responses among the eight terrestrial, nonforested sites of the United States Long-Term Ecological Research (US LTER) Network located in temperate (Southwest and Midwest) and polar (Arctic and Antarctic) regions. All sites experienced warming in recent decades, whereas drought varied regionally with multidecadal phases. Multiple years of wet or dry conditions had larger effects than single years on primary production. Droughts, floods, and wildfires altered resource availability and restructured plant communities, with greater impacts on primary production than warming alone. During severe regional droughts, air pollution from wildfire and dust events peaked. Studies at US LTER drylands over more than 40 years demonstrate reciprocal links and feedbacks among dryland ecosystems, climate-driven disturbance events, and climate change.

Habitat fragmentation alters the distance of abiotic seed dispersal through edge effects and direction of dispersal.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are leading causes of species declines, driven in part by reduced dispersal. Isolating the effects of fragmentation on dispersal, however, is daunting because the consequences of fragmentation are typically intertwined, such as reduced connectivity and increased prevalence of edge effects. We used a large-scale landscape experiment to separate consequences of fragmentation on seed dispersal, considering both distance and direction of local dispersal. We evaluated seed dispersal for five wind- or gravity-dispersed, herbaceous plant species that were planted at different distances from habitat edges, within fragments that varied in their connectivity and shape (edge-to-area ratio). Dispersal distance was affected by proximity and direction relative to the nearest edge. For four of five species, dispersal distances were greater further from habitat edges and when seeds dispersed in the direction of the nearest edge. Connectivity and patch edge-to-area ratio had minimal effects on local dispersal. Our findings illustrate how some, but not all, landscape changes associated with fragmentation can affect the key population process of seed dispersal.

Ant Communities and Ecosystem Services in Organic Versus Conventional Agriculture in the U.S. Corn Belt.

Reducing the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides can limit negative impacts of agriculture on insects and is a crucial step towards sustainable agriculture. In the United States, organic agriculture has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollutant runoff, and biodiversity loss in the Midwestern Corn Belt-an area extending over 500,000 km2 devoted to intensive production of corn Zea mays (Linnaeus 1753) (Poales: Poaceae), often in rotation with soy Glycine max (Linnaeus 1753) (Fabales: Fabaceae) or wheat Triticum aestivum (Linnaeus 1753) (Poales: Poaceae). Working in 30-yr-long landscape experiments in this region, we tested for impacts of conventional versus organic agriculture on ant communities (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and potential ecosystem services they provide. Organic fields supported higher ant diversity and a slightly more species-rich ant assemblage than conventionally managed fields but did not otherwise differ in community composition. Despite similar community composition, organic and conventional fields differed in seasonal patterns of ant foraging activity and potential for natural pest suppression. Conventional plots experienced higher overall ant foraging activity, but with the timing skewed towards late in the growing season such that 75% of ant foraging occurred after crop harvest in a wheat year and was therefore unavailable for pest suppression. Organic fields, in contrast, experienced moderate levels of ant foraging activity throughout the growing season, with most foraging occurring during crop growth. Organic fields thus supported twice as much pest suppression potential as conventional fields. Our results highlight the importance of timing in mediating ecosystem services in croplands and emphasize the value of managing landscapes for multiple services rather than yield alone.

A review of sourdough starters: ecology, practices, and sensory quality with applications for baking and recommendations for future research.

The practice of sourdough bread-making is an ancient science that involves the development, maintenance, and use of a diverse and complex starter culture. The sourdough starter culture comes in many different forms and is used in bread-making at both artisanal and commercial scales, in countries all over the world. While there is ample scientific research related to sourdough, there is no standardized approach to using sourdough starters in science or the bread industry; and there are few recommendations on future directions for sourdough research. Our review highlights what is currently known about the microbial ecosystem of sourdough (including microbial succession within the starter culture), methods of maintaining sourdough (analogous to land management) on the path to bread production, and factors that influence the sensory qualities of the final baked product. We present new hypotheses for the successful management of sourdough starters and propose future directions for sourdough research and application to better support and engage the sourdough baking community.

How long do population level field experiments need to be? Utilising data from the 40-year-old LTER network.

We utilise the wealth of data accessible through the 40-year-old Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network to ask if aspects of the study environment or taxa alter the duration of research necessary to detect consistent results. To do this, we use a moving-window algorithm. We limit our analysis to long-term (> 10 year) press experiments recording organismal abundance. We find that studies conducted in dynamic abiotic environments need longer periods of study to reach consistent results, as compared to those conducted in more moderated environments. Studies of plants were more often characterised by spurious results than those on animals. Nearly half of the studies we investigated required 10 years or longer to become consistent, where all significant trends agreed in direction, and four studies (of 100) required longer than 20 years. Here, we champion the importance of long-term data and bolster the value of multi-decadal experiments in understanding, explaining and predicting long-term trends.

Bioenergy landscapes drive trophic shifts in generalist ants.

Changes in trophic niche-the pathways through which an organism obtains energy and nutrients-are a fundamental way in which organisms respond to environmental conditions. But the capacity for species to alter their trophic niches in response to global change, and the ways they do so when able, remain largely unknown. Here we examine food webs in three long-term and large-scale experiments to test how resource availability and nutritional requirements interact to determine an organism's trophic niche in the context of one of the largest global trends in land use-the rise in bioenergy production. We use carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses to characterize arthropod food webs across three biofuel crops representing a gradient in plant resource richness (corn monocultures, fields dominated by native switchgrass and restored prairie), and to quantify changes in the trophic niche of a widespread generalist ant species across habitats. In doing so, we measure the effects of basal resource richness on food chain length, niche breadth and trophic position. We frame our results in the context of two hypotheses that explain variation in trophic niche-the niche variation hypothesis which emphasizes the importance of resource diversity and ecological opportunity, and the optimal diet hypothesis which emphasizes dietary constraints and the availability of optimal resources. Increasing plant richness lengthened food chains by 10%-20% compared to monocultures. Niche breadths of generalist ants did not vary with resource richness, suggesting they were limited by optimal diet requirements and constraints rather than by ecological opportunity. The ants instead responded to changes in plant richness by shifting their estimated trophic position. In resource-poor monocultures, the ants were top predators, sharing a trophic position with predatory spiders. In resource-rich environments, in contrast, the ants were omnivores, relying on a mix of animal prey and plant-based resources. In addition to highlighting novel ecosystem impacts of alternate bioenergy landscapes, our results suggest that niche breadth and trophic diversification depend more on the presence of optimal resources than on ecological opportunity alone.

Long-term research avoids spurious and misleading trends in sustainability attributes of no-till.

Agricultural management recommendations based on short-term studies can produce findings inconsistent with long-term reality. Here, we test the long-term environmental sustainability and profitability of continuous no-till agriculture on yield, soil water availability, and N2 O fluxes. Using a moving window approach, we investigate the development and stability of several attributes of continuous no-till as compared to conventional till agriculture over a 29-year period at a site in the upper Midwest, US. Over a decade is needed to detect the consistent effects of no-till. Both crop yield and soil water availability required 15 years or longer to generate patterns consistent with 29-year trends. Only marginal trends for N2 O fluxes appeared in this period. Relative profitability analysis suggests that after initial implementation, 86% of periods between 10 and 29 years recuperated the initial expense of no-till implementation, with the probability of higher relative profit increasing with longevity. Importantly, statistically significant but misleading short-term trends appeared in more than 20% of the periods examined. Results underscore the importance of decadal and longer studies for revealing consistent dynamics and emergent outcomes of no-till agriculture, shown to be beneficial in the long term.

Maintaining historic disturbance regimes increases species' resilience to catastrophic hurricanes.

As habitat loss and fragmentation, urbanization, and global climate change accelerate, conservation of rare ecosystems increasingly relies on human intervention. However, any conservation strategy is vulnerable to unpredictable, catastrophic events. Whether active management increases or decreases a system's resilience to these events remains unknown. Following Hurricane Irma's landfall in our habitat restoration study sites, we found that rare ecosystems with active, human-imposed management suffered less damage in a hurricane's path than unmanaged systems. At the center of Irma's landfall, we found Croton linearis' (a locally rare plant that is the sole host for two endangered butterfly species) survival and population growth rates in the year of the hurricane were higher in previously managed plots than in un-managed controls. In the periphery of Irma's circulation, the effect of prior management was stronger than that of the hurricane. Maintaining the historical disturbance regime thus increased the resilience of the population to major hurricane disturbance. As climate change increases the probability and intensity of severe hurricanes, human management of disturbance-adapted landscapes will become increasingly important for maintaining populations of threatened species in a storm's path. Doing nothing will accelerate extinction.

Global modeling of nature's contributions to people.

The magnitude and pace of global change demand rapid assessment of nature and its contributions to people. We present a fine-scale global modeling of current status and future scenarios for several contributions: water quality regulation, coastal risk reduction, and crop pollination. We find that where people's needs for nature are now greatest, nature's ability to meet those needs is declining. Up to 5 billion people face higher water pollution and insufficient pollination for nutrition under future scenarios of land use and climate change, particularly in Africa and South Asia. Hundreds of millions of people face heightened coastal risk across Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas. Continued loss of nature poses severe threats, yet these can be reduced 3- to 10-fold under a sustainable development scenario.

Ongoing accumulation of plant diversity through habitat connectivity in an 18-year experiment.

Deleterious effects of habitat fragmentation and benefits of connecting fragments could be significantly underestimated because changes in colonization and extinction rates that drive changes in biodiversity can take decades to accrue. In a large and well-replicated habitat fragmentation experiment, we find that annual colonization rates for 239 plant species in connected fragments are 5% higher and annual extinction rates 2% lower than in unconnected fragments. This has resulted in a steady, nonasymptotic increase in diversity, with nearly 14% more species in connected fragments after almost two decades. Our results show that the full biodiversity value of connectivity is much greater than previously estimated, cannot be effectively evaluated at short time scales, and can be maximized by connecting habitat sooner rather than later.

Butterfly abundance declines over 20 years of systematic monitoring in Ohio, USA.

Severe insect declines make headlines, but they are rarely based on systematic monitoring outside of Europe. We estimate the rate of change in total butterfly abundance and the population trends for 81 species using 21 years of systematic monitoring in Ohio, USA. Total abundance is declining at 2% per year, resulting in a cumulative 33% reduction in butterfly abundance. Three times as many species have negative population trends compared to positive trends. The rate of total decline and the proportion of species in decline mirror those documented in three comparable long-term European monitoring programs. Multiple environmental changes such as climate change, habitat degradation, and agricultural practices may contribute to these declines in Ohio and shift the makeup of the butterfly community by benefiting some species over others. Our analysis of life-history traits associated with population trends shows an impact of climate change, as species with northern distributions and fewer annual generations declined more rapidly. However, even common and invasive species associated with human-dominated landscapes are declining, suggesting widespread environmental causes for these trends. Declines in common species, although they may not be close to extinction, will have an outsized impact on the ecosystem services provided by insects. These results from the most extensive, systematic insect monitoring program in North America demonstrate an ongoing defaunation in butterflies that on an annual scale might be imperceptible, but cumulatively has reduced butterfly numbers by a third over 20 years.

Landscape heterogeneity is key to forecasting outcomes of plant reintroduction.

Conservation and restoration projects often involve starting new populations by introducing individuals into portions of their native or projected range. Such efforts can help meet many related goals, including habitat creation, ecosystem service provisioning, assisted migration, and the reintroduction of imperiled species following local extirpation. The outcomes of reintroduction efforts, however, are highly variable, with results ranging from local extinction to dramatic population growth; reasons for this variation remain unclear. Here, we ask whether population growth following plant reintroductions is governed by variation at two scales: the scale of individual habitat patches to which individuals are reintroduced, and larger among-landscape scales in which similar patches may be situated in landscapes that differ in matrix type, soil conditions, and other factors. Quantifying demographic variation at these two scales will help prioritize locations for introduction and, once introductions take place, forecast population growth. This work took place within a large-scale habitat fragmentation experiment, where individuals of two perennial forb species were reintroduced into eight replicate ~50-ha landscapes, each containing a set of five ~1-ha patches that varied in their degree of isolation (connected by habitat corridors or unconnected) and edge-to-area ratio. Using data on individual growth, survival, reproductive output, and recruitment collected one to two years after reintroduction, we developed models to forecast population growth, then compared forecasts to observed population sizes, three and six years later. Both the type of patch (connected and unconnected) and identity of the landscape to which individuals were reintroduced had effects on forecasted population growth rates, but only variation associated with landscape identity was an accurate predictor of subsequently observed population growth rates. Models that did not include landscape identity had minimal forecasting ability, revealing the key importance of variation at this scale for accurate prediction. Of the five demographic rates used to model population dynamics, seed production was the most important source of forecast error in population growth rates. Our results point to the importance of accounting for landscape-scale variation in demographic models and demonstrate how such models might assist with prioritizing particular landscapes for species reintroduction projects.

Movement and Demography of At-Risk Butterflies: Building Blocks for Conservation.

The number of insect species at risk of population decline and extinction is increasing rapidly. Yet we know almost nothing about the ecology of these species, except for at-risk butterflies. A growing body of literature shows how butterfly vital rates, including demography and movement, are essential for guiding conservation and recovery. History has shown us that without these data, conservation decisions often weaken, rather than enhance, population viability. This is especially true in changing landscapes. We review knowledge of vital rates across all at-risk butterflies. We have information on movement for 17 of 283 butterfly species and information on demography for 19 species. We find that habitat-specific movement behavior is key to understanding how to connect populations, and habitat-specific demography is central to managing habitats. Methods and analyses worked out for butterflies can provide a scaffold around which to build studies for the conservation of other at-risk insects.

Connectivity increases trophic subsidies in fragmented landscapes.

Landscape corridors mitigate the negative effects of habitat fragmentation by increasing dispersal. Corridors also increase biodiversity in connected habitat fragments, suggestive of metacommunity dynamics. What is unknown in this case is the mechanisms through which metacommunity dynamics act. Working in a large-scale fragmentation experiment, we tested the effect of corridors on the movement of prey species and subsequent effects on predator nutrition (which we call trophic subsidies). We enriched plants of central patches with 15 N, then measured δ15 N in green lynx spiders, the most abundant insect predator, in patches that were either connected to or isolated from the enriched patch. We found that corridors increased prey movement, as they increased spider δ15 N by 40% in connected patches. Corridors also improved spider body condition, increasing nitrogen relative to carbon. We suggest a novel mechanism, trophic subsidies, through which corridors may increase the stability or size of populations in connected landscapes.

Disentangling fragmentation effects on herbivory in understory plants of longleaf pine savanna.

Habitat fragmentation affects species and their interactions through intertwined mechanisms that include changes to fragment area, shape, connectivity and distance to edge. Disentangling these pathways is a fundamental challenge of landscape ecology and will help identify ecological processes important for management of rare species or restoration of fragmented habitats. In a landscape experiment that manipulated connectivity, fragment shape, and distance to edge while holding fragment area constant, we examined how fragmentation impacts herbivory and growth of nine plant species in longleaf pine savanna. Probability of herbivory in open habitat was strongly dependent on proximity to forest edge for every species, increasing with distance to edge in six species (primarily grasses and annual forbs) and decreasing in three species (perennial forbs and a shrub). In the two species of perennial forbs, these edge effects were dependent on fragment shape; herbivory strongly decreased with distance to edge in fragments of two shapes, but not in a third shape. For most species, however, probability of herbivory was unrelated to connectivity or fragment shape. Growth was generally determined more strongly by leaf herbivory than by distance to edge, fragment shape, or connectivity. Taken together, these results demonstrate consistently strong edge effects on herbivory, one of the most important biotic factors determining plant growth and demography. Our results contrast with the generally inconsistent results of observational studies, likely because our experimental approach enabled us to tease apart landscape processes that are typically confounded.

Connectivity from a different perspective: comparing seed dispersal kernels in connected vs. unfragmented landscapes.

Habitat fragmentation can create significant impediments to dispersal. A technique to increase dispersal between otherwise isolated fragments is the use of corridors. Although previous studies have compared dispersal between connected fragments to dispersal between unconnected fragments, it remains unknown how dispersal between fragments connected by a corridor compares to dispersal in unfragmented landscapes. To assess the extent to which corridors can restore dispersal in fragmented landscapes to levels observed in unfragmented landscapes, we employed a stable-isotope marking technique to track seeds within four unfragmented landscapes and eight experimental landscapes with fragments connected by corridors. We studied two wind- and two bird-dispersed plant species, because previous community-based research showed that dispersal mode explains how connectivity effects vary among species. We constructed dispersal kernels for these species in unfragmented landscapes and connected fragments by marking seeds in the center of each landscape with 'IN and then recovering marked seeds in seed traps at distances up to 200 m. For the two wind-dispersed plants, seed dispersal kernels were similar in unfragmented landscapes and connected fragments. In contrast, dispersal kernels of bird-dispersed seeds were both affected by fragmentation and differed in the direction of the impact: Morella cerifera experienced more and Rhus copallina experienced less long-distance dispersal in unfragmented than in connected landscapes. These results show that corridors can facilitate dispersal probabilities comparable to those observed in unfragmented landscapes. Although dispersal mode may provide useful broad predictions, we acknowledge that similar species may respond uniquely due to factors such as seasonality and disperser behavior. Our results further indicate that prior work has likely underestimated dispersal distances of wind-dispersed plants and that factors altering long-distance dispersal may have a greater impact on the spread of species than previously thought.

The influence of habitat fragmentation on multiple plant-animal interactions and plant reproduction.

Despite broad recognition that habitat loss represents the greatest threat to the world's biodiyersity, a mechanistic understanding of how habitat loss and associated fragmentation affect ecological systems has proven remarkably challenging. The challenge stems from the multiple interdependent ways that landscapes change following fragmentation and the ensuing complex impacts on populations and communities of interacting species. We confronted these challenges by evaluating how fragmentation affects individual plants through interactions with animals, across five herbaceous species native to longleaf pine savannas. We created a replicated landscape experiment that provides controlled tests of three major fragmentation effects (patch isolation, patch shape [i.e., edge-to-area ratio], and distance to edge), established experimental founder populations of the five species to control for spatial distributions and densities of individual plants, and employed structural equation modeling to evaluate the effects of fragmentation on plant reproductive output and the degree to which these impacts are mediated through altered herbivory, pollination, or pre-dispersal seed predation. Across species, the most consistent response to fragmentation was a reduction in herbivory. Herbivory, however, had little impact.on plant reproductive output, and thus we found little evidence for any resulting benefit to plants in fragments. In contrast, fragmentation rarely impacted pollination or pre-dispersal seed predation, but both of these interactions had strong and consistent impacts on plant reproductive output. As a result, our models robustly predicted plant reproductive output (r2 = 0.52-0.70), yet due to the weak effects of fragmentation on pollination and pre-dispersal seed predation, coupled with the weak effect of herbivory on plant reproduction, the effects of fragmentation on reproductive output were generally small in magnitude and inconsistent. This work provides mechanistic insight into landscape-scale variation in plant reproductive success, the relative importance of plant-animal interactions for structuring these dynamics, and the nuanced nature of how habitat fragmentation can affect populations and communities of interacting species.