Local and landscape scale variables shape insect diversity in an urban biodiversity hotspot.

Local community structure is shaped by processes acting at local and landscape scales.  The relative importance of drivers operating across different spatial scales are difficult to test without observations across regional or latitudinal gradients.  Cities exhibit strong but predictable environmental gradients overlaying a mosaic of highly variable but repeated habitat types within a constrained area.  Thus, cities present a unique opportunity to explore how both local and landscape factors influence local biotic communities.  We used insect communities to examine the interactions among local environmental variables (such as temperature and relative humidity), local habitat characteristics (such as plant community composition), and broad-scale patterns of urbanization (including biophysical, human-built, and socio-economic variables) on local insect abundance, species richness, and species composition in Los Angeles, a hot, dry, near-desert city.  After accounting for seasonal trends, ...