Contrasting latitudinal patterns in diversity and stability in a high-latitude species-rich moth community

Aim

Biodiversity is currently undergoing rapid restructuring across the globe. However, the nature of biodiversity change is not well understood, as community‐level changes may hide differential responses in individual population trajectories. Here, we quantify spatio‐temporal community and stability dynamics using a long‐term high‐quality moth monitoring dataset.

Location

Finland, Northern Europe.

Time period

1993–2012.

Major taxa studied

Nocturnal moths (Lepidoptera).

Methods

We quantified patterns of change in species richness, total abundance, dominance and temporal variability at different organizational levels over a 20 year period and along a latitudinal gradient of 1,100 km. We used mixed‐effects and linear models to quantify temporal trends for the different community and stability metrics and to test for latitudinal (or longitudinal) effects.

Results

We found contrasting patterns for different community metrics, and strong...