DOI: 10.71615/bexis.32231
title: Cleaned and extended arthropod data from 150 grassland plots, 2008-2018 used in "Arthropod species loss underpins biomass declines", Nature Ecology Evolution

description: To identify the community (dis-)assembly components underpinning arthropod biomass declines, arthropod samples from grasslands in three German regions (Schwäbische Alb, Hainich-Dün, Schorfheide-Chorin) in the years 2008-2018 (BExIS ID 21969) were cleaned (incomplete samplings were removed and only taxa with species-level identification were kept), body length values were assigned based on literature and biomass values per species were calculated based on allometric regressions.
description: Important Notes: Further steps can be found in the associated paper and the processed dataset (BExIS ID 32232). | Study design: From BExIS dataset 21969: Sweep-net transects per plot, 150 m, comprising 3 of the 50 m long plot borders; 60 double sweeps in total per plot and month. One repetition in June and one in August. | Sampling design: From BExIS dataset 21969: All arthropods of the herb layer were sampled twice per year in June and August to represent different phenological windows within the peak season of adult arthropod activity. Based on monthly samplings at the beginning of the study, we identified these two months to represent the best trade-off between reducing sampling effort and covering most species. Sweep netting was only conducted on days without rain, low wind speed and after morning dew had dried. | Data preparation: First, incomplete samplings were removed and only taxa with species-level identification were kept; further, body length values were assigned based on literature (Gossner et al. 2015) and biomass values per species were calculated based on allometric regressions (Sohlström et al. 2018; example R code provided). LUI values based on the combined intensities of mowing, fertilization and grazing (Blüthgen et al. 2012) per plot per year were assigned using the LUI calculator (Ostrowski et al. 2019, Vogt et al. 2019), with LUI values based on the sampling year and the two years before the sampling date (LUI tool settings: default components set; global for ALB, HAI, SCH; overall; three years).&lt;br&gt;Find the example R code for the taxon-specific allometric regressions at https://github.com/BWildermuth/Model_every_species_counts, specifically Wildermuth2025_Biomass_regressions.R. | Literature references: Blüthgen, N., Dormann, C. F., Prati, D., Klaus, V. H., Kleinebecker, T., Hölzel, N., Alt, F., Boch, S., Gockel, S., Hemp, A., Müller, J., Nieschulze, J., Renner, S. C., Schöning, I., Schumacher, U., Socher, S. A., Wells, K., Birkhofer, K., Buscot, F., … Weisser, W. W. (2012). A quantitative index of land-use intensity in grasslands: Integrating mowing, grazing and fertilization. Basic and Applied Ecology, 13(3), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2012.04.001&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Gossner, M. M., Simons, N. K., Achtziger, R., Blick, T., Dorow, W. H. O., Dziock, F., Köhler, F., Rabitsch, W., & Weisser, W. W. (2015). A summary of eight traits of Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and Araneae, occurring in grasslands in Germany. Scientific Data, 2(1), 150013. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.13&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Ostrowski, A., Lorenzen, K., Petzold, E., & Schindler, S. (2020). Land use intensity index (LUI) calculation tool of the Biodiversity Exploratories project for grassland survey data from three different regions in Germany since 2006, BEXIS 2 module (Version v2.0.0) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3865579&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sohlström, E. H., Marian, L., Barnes, A. D., Haneda, N. F., Scheu, S., Rall, B. C., Brose, U., & Jochum, M. (2018). Applying generalized allometric regressions to predict live body mass of tropical and temperate arthropods. Ecology and Evolution, 8(24), 12737–12749. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4702&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Vogt, J., Klaus, V. H., Both, S., Fürstenau, C., Gockel, S., Gossner, M. M., Heinze, J., Hemp, A., Hölzel, N., Jung, K., Kleinebecker, T., Lauterbach, R., Lorenzen, K., Ostrowski, A., Otto, N., Prati, D., Renner, S., Schumacher, U., Seibold, S., … Weisser, W. W. (2019). Eleven years’ data of grassland management in Germany. Biodiversity Data Journal, 7, e36387. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e36387&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Wildermuth, B., Bröcher, M., Ladouceur, E., Meyer, S.T., Schielzeth, H., Staab, M., Achury, R., Blüthgen, N., Hertzog, L., Hines, J., Roscher, C., Schweiger, O., Weisser, W.W., Ebeling, A. (2025) Arthropod species loss underpins biomass declines. Nature Ecology Evolution 10, 83-94.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02909-y | Data references: Weisser, W., Gossner, M., Pasalic, E., Lange, M., Türke, M., Gallenberger, I., Simons, N., Staab, M. (2024). Sweep net samples from grasslands since 2008: Araneae, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera (Version 13). Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. https://www.bexis.uni-jena.de/ddm/data/Showdata/21969?version=13