Functional diversity of ground beetles improved aphid control but did not increase crop yields on European farms

Land-use intensification is often associated with a decline in functional diversity, potentially undermining the provision of ecosystem services. However, how changes in traits affect ecosystem processes remains poorly understood. Variation in trait values among species in a community may drive ecosystem processes. Alternatively, the mass ratio hypothesis proposes that trait values of the dominant species in a local community are related to ecosystem processes. Using data from 159 farms in six European countries, we quantified the impact of local and landscape-level land-use intensity on ground beetles as pest control agents. We then assessed the extent to which functional diversity and community-weighted mean trait values relate to pest control and cereal yield. In addition, we assessed how the responses to land use and the effects of different species on pest control and yield varied with their traits to compare the relative impact of the traits studied. Functional diversity of ground..., , , # Functional diversity of ground beetles improved aphid control but did not increase crop yields on European farms

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pc866t1zs](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pc866t1zs)

The data set contains ground beetle community and trait information, local and landscape-level land use data, data on aphid removal, and crop yield. The data has been collected in the framework of the EuroDiversity programm-AGRIPOPES originating from six countries (France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden; This is a sub-set of the full data limited by the availability of aphid removal data). Trait information has been gathered in the framework of the Biodiversa-FunProd project. The empirical data has been collected in 2007 from spring to summer on 159 farms (mainly winter wheat, rarely winter barley). Ground beetle community data and aphid removal trials were done twice, samples are pooled.

## Description of the data and file structure

1\) Table with following tabs:

a) s...