Arthropod species loss underpins biomass declines.

ABSTRACT: Recent declines in arthropod diversity, abundance and biomass are central to the global biodiversity crisis. Yet, we lack a mechanistic understanding of the respective contributions of species richness, species identity and abundance to overall biomass change, and how the environment filters these processes. Synthesizing 11 years of data from a biodiversity experiment and from farmed grasslands in central Europe across a gradient of plant species richness and land-use intensity, we show that local arthropod biomass declines were predominantly (>90%) linked to species richness losses. Abundance declines among persisting species accounted for only 5-8% of lost biomass. The role of species identity depended on the environment and diminished over time: especially under high plant diversity and

SUBMITTER: Wildermuth B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12789023 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature