The degradation of natural habitats is causing ongoing homogenization of biological communities and declines in terrestrial insect biodiversity, particularly in agricultural landscapes. Orthoptera are focal species of nature conservation and experienced significant diversity losses over the past decades. However, the causes underlying these changes are not yet fully understood. We analysed changes in Orthoptera assemblages surveyed in 1988, 2004 and 2019 on 198 plots distributed across four major grassland types in Central Europe. We demonstrated compositional differences in Orthoptera assemblages found in wet, dry and mesic grasslands, as well as ruderal habitats decreased, indicating biotic homogenization. However, mean α-diversity of Orthoptera assemblages increased over the study period. We detected increasing numbers of species with preferences for higher temperatures in mesic and wet grasslands. By analysing the temperature, moisture and vegetation preferences of Orthoptera, we found that additive homogenization was driven by a loss of species adapted to extremely dry and nitrogen-poor habitats and a parallel spread of species preferring warmer macroclimates.

Blumenstraße 5 85395 Wolfersdorf Germany

Büro für Faunistik und Umweltbildung Herrleinstr 2 97437 Hassfurt Germany

Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology Biocenter Julius Maximilians University Würzburg Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany

Feodorenstraße 12 98617 Meiningen Germany

Field Station Fabrikschleichach Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology Julius Maximilians University Würzburg Glashüttenstraße 5 96181 Rauhenebrach Germany

Hessisches Landesamt für Naturschutz Umwelt und Geologie Staatliche Vogelschutzwarte Hessen Europastraße 10 D 35394 Gießen

Institute of Entomology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 1160 31 37005 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Obere Torstraße 12 97475 Zeil am Main Germany

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Temperature preferences drive additive biotic homogenization of Orthoptera assemblages

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figshare
10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5976644