DOI: 10.5061/dryad.54cd3
title: Data from: Configurational landscape heterogeneity shapes functional community composition of grassland butterflies

description: 1. Landscape heterogeneity represents two aspects of landscape
 simplification: (i) compositional heterogeneity (diversity of habitat
 types) and (ii) configurational heterogeneity (number, size and
 arrangement of habitat patches); both with different ecological
 implications for community composition. 2. We examined how independent
 gradients of compositional and configurational landscape heterogeneity, at
 eight spatial scales, shape taxonomic and functional composition of
 butterfly communities in 91 managed grasslands across Germany. We used
 landscape metrics that were calculated from functional maps based on
 habitat preferences of individual species during different life stages.
 The relative effects of compositional and configurational landscape
 heterogeneity were compared with those of local land use intensity on
 butterfly taxonomic diversity, community composition and functional
 diversity of traits related to body size, feeding breadth and migratory
 tendency. 3. As expected, compositional heterogeneity had strong positive
 effects on taxonomic diversity while configurational heterogeneity had
 strong positive effects on trait dominance within the community. When
 landscapes had smaller mean patch size and greater boundary area,
 communities were dominated by species with more specialized larval
 feeding, decreased forewing length and limited migratory tendency. 4. The
 positive effects of increased configurational landscape heterogeneity
 outweighed the negative effects of local land use intensity on larval
 feeding specialization, at all spatial scales, highlighting its importance
 for specialists of all dispersal capabilities. 5. Synthesis and
 applications. We show that landscapes with high compositional
 heterogeneity support communities with greater taxonomic diversity, while
 landscapes with high configurational heterogeneity support communities
 that include vulnerable species (feeding specialists with larger body
 size, sedentary nature and more negatively affected by local management
 intensity). A decline in functional community composition can lead to
 functional homogenization, affecting the viability of the ecosystems by
 decreasing the variability in their responses to disturbance and altering
 their functioning. A landscape management for grasslands that promotes the
 maintenance of small patch sizes and a diversity of land-uses in the
 surrounding landscape (within 250–1000 m) is recommended for the
 conservation of diverse butterfly communities. These strategies could also
 benefit Government programs such as the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy in
 their efforts to reduce the loss of biodiversity in agricultural
 landscapes.
description: Local land use intensity
 indexLocal land use intensity
 for each study plot, published by Blüthgen, N., Dormann, C.F., Prati, D.,
 Klaus, V.H., Kleinebecker, T., Holzel, N., Alt, F., Boch, S., Gockel, S.,
 Hemp, A., Muller, J., Nieschulze, J., Renner, S.C., Schoning, I.,
 Schumacher, U., Socher, S.A., Wells, K., Birkhofer, K., Buscot, F.,
 Oelmann, Y., Rothenwohrer, C., Scherber, C., Tscharntke, T., Weiner, C.
 N., Fischer, M., Kalko, E. K. V., Linsenmair, K.E., Schulze, E.D. &
 Weisser, W.W. (2012) A quantitative index of land-use intensity in
 grasslands: Integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization. Basic and
 Applied Ecology, 13, 207–220.lui.csvButterfly abundance dataButterfly abundance data; see Börschig, C., Klein, A.M., von Wehrden, H. & Krauss, J. (2013) Traits of butterfly communities change from specialist to generalist characteristics with increasing land-use intensity. Basic and Applied Ecology, 14, 547–554 for more details.abund.csvTraits for butterfly speciesTraits for butterfly species (larval-feeding breath, male forewing length and migratory tendency) were compiled from: Higgins, L.G. & Riley, N.D. (1970) A field guide to the butterflies of Britain & Europe, 1st edn. Collins, London; Koch, M. (1991) Schmetterlinge, 3rd edn. Neuman Verlag Radebeul, Germany; Settele, J., Feldmann, R. & Reinhardt, R. (1999) Die Tagfalter Deutschlands, 1st edn. Eugen Stuttgart: Ulmer Verlag, Germany; Settele, J., Steiner, R., Reinhardt, R., Feldmann, R. & Herrmann, G. (2009) Schmetterlinge. Die Tagfalter Deutschlands. 2nd edn. Stuttgart: Ulmer Verlag, Germany.traits.csvCoordinates of study sitesThe file 'Perovic_et_al_degraded_site_coordinates.xlsx' was created to replace the file 'coordinates.csv' in the original version of 'Data from: Configurational landscape heterogeneity shapes functional community composition of grassland butterflies'. The original file 'coordinates.csv' was removed to protect the privacy of private land owners in accordance with regulations of the Exploratories project (http://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/). Original coordinates were obscured by setting the last 3 digits to 0 which will lead to a precision of 1000 m. This information is also included in the README file.Perovic_et_al_degraded_site_coordinates.xlsxLandscape metricsThe Shannon diversity index of land cover types (SHDI) and the mean of the perimeter to area ratio of patches within the landscape (PAR). For more details see: Steckel, J., Westphal, C., Peters, M.K., Bellach, M., Rothenwoehrer, C., Erasmi, S., Scherber, C., Tscharntke, T. & Steffan-Dwenter, S. (2014) Landscape composition and configuration differently affect trap-nesting bees, wasps and their antagonists. Biological Conservation, 172, 56–64.landscape.csv