2023/01/20 by Jamie M. Kass, Masashi Yoshimura, Masako Ogasawara +6 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Plant and animal studies #Species Distribution and Climate Change
paper · pdf · doi:10.1101/2023.01.17.523860
openalex publication_date 2023/01/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Abstract Concerns about widespread human-induced declines in insect populations are mounting, yet little is known about how land-use change modifies the dynamics of insect communities, particularly in understudied biomes. Here, we examine how the seasonal patterns of ant activity—key drivers of terrestrial ecosystem functioning—vary with human-induced land cover change on a subtropical island landscape. Using trap captures sampled biweekly from a biodiversity monitoring network covering Okinawa Island, Japan, we processed 1.2 million individuals and reconstructed activity patterns within and across habitat types. Forest communities exhibited greater variability than those in more developed areas. Using time-series decomposition to deconstruct this pattern, we found that ant communities at sites with greater human development exhibited diminished seasonality, reduced synchrony, and higher stochasticity compared to those at sites with greater forest cover. Our results cannot be explained by variation in either regional or in situ temperature patterns, or by differences in species richness or composition among sites. We conclude that the breakdown of natural seasonal patterns of functionally key insect communities may comprise an important and underappreciated consequence of global environmental change that must be better understood across Earth’s biomes.