Complex temporal trends in biomass and abundance of Diptera driven by
the impact of agricultural intensity on community-level turnover
Abstract
Insect declines have been reported widely and are expected to alter
ecosystem functions and processes. Land-use change is recognised as a
major cause of decline in insect biodiversity and abundance. Variation
in local environmental drivers and the scale of available monitoring
data have left large knowledge gaps in which taxa are declining and
where declines are the greatest, and how these declines will impact
ecosystems. We used 11 years (2006-2016) of monitoring data on 40 farms
distributed over ~10,000 km2 in southern Québec, Canada,
to quantify the impact of agricultural intensity on temporal trends in
abundance and biomass of Diptera (true flies). There was a large
difference in temporal trends between farms, which we found to be driven
by agricultural landcover. Contrary to expectation, increases in
abundance over time were greater in areas with higher agricultural
intensity, especially with an increase in cereal crops. In contrast,
declines in dipteran biomass were steeper in areas of higher
agricultural intensity, although only with greater maize and soy
production rather than cereals such as wheat. Variation in forest cover
around farms had the least effect on trends. We found steeper declines
in biomass per total number of Diptera with increasing agricultural
cover, suggesting the presence of community turnover toward
smaller-bodied flies with lower individual biomass. Our results reveal
further complexities in insect trends driven by changes in land-use and
show the importance of long-term monitoring and the use of multiple
indicators for understanding biodiversity change.