Data from: Species-habitat networks reveal conservation implications that other community analyses do not detect

Grassland restoration is an important conservation intervention supporting declining insect pollinators, particularly in threatened calcareous grassland landscapes. While restoration is often assessed using simple diversity or the similarity to a target community metrics, this can fail to represent key aspects of community reconstruction. Here, we compare a new method, species-habitat networks, with techniques previously relied upon to understand the process of pollinator community restoration. The species-habitat network approach reveals details relevant to insect conservation that are not visible using standard measures of species richness, abundance, community similarity or network metrics. For instance, a shared set of butterflies and bumblebees found in ancient extensively managed grassland, the target community for restoration, were more likely to inhabit previously disturbed grassland than recently disturbed or reverting grasslands. We propose that species-habitat networks should be part of the standard analytical toolkit assessing the effectiveness of restoration, particularly for mobile species such as insects.