Historical, local and landscape factors determine the success of grassland restoration for arthropods
Ben A. Woodcock, Richard F. Pywell, Nicholas A. Macgregor, Mike Edwards, John W. Redhead, Lucy E. Ridding, Péter Batáry, Marek Czerwiński, Simon J. Duffield
Abstract
In Europe, extensively managed grasslands have undergone large-scale declines due to intensive agriculture and abandonment. Their restoration supports arthropod biodiversity within farming systems. We investigated limiting factors for arthropod establishment during grassland restoration across a chronosequence of 52 restoration sites established by either natural regenerating or direct seeding. Our study covered 363 arthropod species of 10 orders, including detritivores, herbivores, predators and pollinators. These were sampled using pitfall traps, suction sampling and transect walks. The similarity of plant communities on restoration sites to target species rich grasslands was positively correlated with the similarity of the arthropod communities to these same grasslands.