Urban moth communities suggest that life in the city favours thermophilic multi-dimensional generalists.

ABSTRACT: Biodiversity is challenged worldwide by exploitation, global warming, changes in land use and increasing urbanization. It is hypothesized that communities in urban areas should consist primarily of generalist species with broad niches that are able to cope with novel, variable, fragmented, warmer and unpredictable environments shaped by human pressures. We surveyed moth communities in three cities in northern Europe and compared them with neighbouring moth assemblages constituting species pools of potential colonizers. We found that urban moth communities consisted of multi-dimensional generalist species that had larger distribution ranges, more variable colour patterns, longer reproductive seasons, broader diets, were more likely to overwinter as an egg, more thermophilic, and occupied mo

SUBMITTER: Franzen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7341934 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature