Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1111/ddi.13274
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Winners and losers over 35 years of dragonfly and damselfly distributional change in Germany
Author Bowler, D.E.; Eichenberg, D.; Conze, K.-J.; Suhling, F.; Baumann, K.; Benken, T.; Bönsel, A.; Bittner, T.; Drews, A.; Günther, A.; Isaac, N.J.B.; Petzold, F.; Seyring, M.; Spengler, T.; Trockur, B.; Willigalla, C.; Bruelheide, H.; Jansen, F.; Bonn, A. ORCID logo
Source Titel Diversity and Distributions
Year 2021
Department iDiv; ESS
Volume 27
Issue 8
Page From 1353
Page To 1366
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.73n5tb2wp
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fddi.13274&file=ddi13274-sup-0001-Supinfo.txt
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fddi.13274&file=ddi13274-sup-0002-Supinfo.pdf
Keywords biodiversity monitoring; citizen science; long-term change; occupancy-detection models; range-shifting; trait-based
Abstract Aim Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large-scale, long-term changes for most insect groups but opportunistic citizen science data are widespread for some. Here, we took advantage of citizen science data to investigate distributional changes of Odonata.

Location Germany.

Methods We compiled over 1 million occurrence records from different regional databases. We used occupancy-detection models to account for imperfect detection and estimate annual distributions for each species during 1980-2016 within 5 x 5 km quadrants. We also compiled data on species attributes that were hypothesized to affect species' sensitivity to different drivers and related them to the changes in species' distributions. We further developed a novel approach to cluster groups of species with similar patterns of distributional change to represent multispecies indicators.

Results More species increased (45%) than decreased (29%) or remained stable (26%) in their distribution (i.e. number of occupied quadrants). Species showing increases were generally warm-adapted species and/or running water species, while species showing decreases were cold-adapted species using standing water habitats such as bogs. Time series clustering defined five main patterns of change-each associated with a specific combination of species attributes, and confirming the key roles of species' temperature and habitat preferences. Overall, our analysis predicted that mean quadrant-level species richness has increased over most of the time period.

Main conclusions Trends in Odonata provide mixed news-improved water quality, coupled with positive impacts of climate change, could explain the positive trends of many species. At the same time, declining species point to conservation challenges associated with habitat loss and degradation. Our study demonstrates the great value of citizen science and the work of natural history societies for assessing large-scale distributional change.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24763
Bowler, D.E., Eichenberg, D., Conze, K.-J., Suhling, F., Baumann, K., Benken, T., Bönsel, A., Bittner, T., Drews, A., Günther, A., Isaac, N.J.B., Petzold, F., Seyring, M., Spengler, T., Trockur, B., Willigalla, C., Bruelheide, H., Jansen, F., Bonn, A. (2021):
Winners and losers over 35 years of dragonfly and damselfly distributional change in Germany
Divers. Distrib. 27 (8), 1353 - 1366 10.1111/ddi.13274