The latter may not necessarily be part of the process, whereas an improved understanding of biological reality and controlling mechanisms must be. Unless we know what's there, we cannot say whether, how or why it has changed. But improved understanding of mechanisms relating systems to biodiversity may enable us to provide immediate policy guidance which could be heuristically improved upon as knowledge increases. Any particular taxonomic group is indicative of the environmental requirements of the species present. Most insect species are beetles and, in NZ and Australia at least, are estimated to provide close to half all species of insects present.
Beetles range across the complete functional and trophic range of the insects.
They are better known and show higher habitat fidelity than Hymenoptera and Diptera and are easier to work with than these other species-rich multitrophic groups. Therefore to see what happens to biodiversity when we manipulate the world requires us to at least look at the beetle assemblages of vegetation systems. We need standards to be able to compare, but as ecosystems and their component species vary, our standard cannot be specific organisms but rather the methodology used. We also cannot see mechanisms such as congeneric species replacement within trophic groups over successions. And in particular, we cannot utilise the vast explanatory potential of species ecologies that has been accumulated by all the wonder-filled entomologists of the past and present.