Data from: Long-term species loss and homogenization of moth communities in Central Europe

As global biodiversity continues to decline steeply, it is becoming
increasingly important to understand diversity patterns at local and
regional scales. Changes in land use and climate, nitrogen deposition and
invasive species are the most important threats to global biodiversity.
Because land use changes tend to benefit a few species but impede many,
the expected outcome is generally decreasing population sizes, decreasing
species richness at local and regional scales, and increasing similarity
of species compositions across sites (biotic homogenization).
Homogenization can be also driven by invasive species or effects of soil
eutrophication propagating to higher trophic levels. In contrast, in the
absence of increasing aridity, climate warming is predicted to generally
increase abundances and species richness of poikilotherms at local and
regional scales. We tested these predictions with data from one of the few
existing monitoring programmes on biodiversity in the world dating to the
1960s, where the abundance of 878 species of macro-moths have been
measured daily at seven sites across Hungary. Our analyses revealed a
dramatic rate of regional species loss and homogenization of community
compositions across sites. Species with restricted distribution range,
specialized diet or dry grassland habitat were more likely than others to
disappear from the community. In global context, the contrasting effects
of climate change and land use changes could explain why the predicted
enriching effects from climate warming are not always realized.