Moth declines are most severe in broadleaf woodlands despite a net gain in habitat availability.

ABSTRACT: While agricultural intensification and habitat loss are cited as key drivers of moth decline, these alone cannot explain declines observed in UK woodlands - a habitat that has expanded in area since 1968.We quantified how moth communities changed across habitats and regions and determined how species traits interacted with habitat in predicting moth abundance change. We hypothesised that, in woodlands, species more vulnerable to shading and browsing by deer (species specialising on forbs, shrubs and shade-intolerant plants) had declined more severely than other species, and that moth decline in woodlands was more severe at sites more susceptible to deer damage.We modelled abundance, biomass, species richness and diversity from 1968 to 2016 and explored how these interacted with habitat and

SUBMITTER: Blumgart D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9545439 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature