Data from: Trophic rewilding restructure the insect communities according to their functional traits: Insights from a multitaxa study

Trophic rewilding, or returning vertebrate megaherbivores to defaunated
ecosystems, is advocated for restoring ecosystems and biodiversity
conservation. As many groups of modern insects radiated during the Neogene
era into landscapes inhabited by abundant megafauna, they should be
adapted to disturbances provided by megaherbivores’ presence. In the Czech
Republic, 11 fenced localities have been trophically rewilded by horse,
the reconstructed “aurochs”, wisent, and water buffalo, in various
combinations, since 2016 onwards. At these localities, we established 1-ha
plots in a rewilded/control design, characterised their vegetation, and
surveyed butterflies (passive monitoring since the rewilding onset),
macro-moths, bees and wasps, ants, and orthopterans (single-season
rewilded/control surveys). We analysed the data using mixed linear models
to compare insect species’ richness and abundances, and constrained
ordinations with interpretation of ordination scores by the life history
traits to investigate effects on species’ composition. Trophically
rewilded plots hosted more species and individuals of bees+wasps and
orthopterans. They did not differ from controls in the other groups.
Rewilding affected species’ composition in all targeted groups, supporting
smaller-sized, specialised, and less mobile species; butterflies and moths
developing on small forbs; and ant trait composition did not respond to
rewilding. Synthesis and applications. Presence of large ungulates
increased richness and abundance of some insect taxa. Across taxa, it
supported life history traits declining in modern industrialised
landscapes. Trophic rewilding thus represents a way to remedy undesirable
effects of land use intensification, and to mimic conditions in which a
substantial proportion of temperate insect biodiversity has evolved.

营养级再野化（Trophic rewilding），即让脊椎动物巨型草食动物回归动物区系缺失的生态系统，被倡导用于生态系统修复与生物多样性保护。由于现代多数昆虫类群在新近纪时期于栖息有丰富巨型动物的景观中发生辐射演化，它们理应适应巨型草食动物存在所带来的环境扰动。
自2016年起，捷克共和国已有11处围栏样地通过引入马、复原的原牛、欧洲野牛与水牛的不同组合模式完成了营养级再野化。我们在这些样地中采用野化/对照实验设计设立了1公顷样地，对其植被特征进行了表征，并针对不同类群开展调查：蝶类（自野化启动以来的被动监测）、大型蛾类、蜂类与胡蜂类、蚁类以及直翅目昆虫（单季野化/对照调查）。
我们采用混合线性模型对数据进行分析，以比较昆虫类群的物种丰富度与个体丰度；同时通过约束排序分析，并结合生活史性状对排序得分进行解读，以探究野化对物种组成的影响。
营养级再野化样地中的蜂类+胡蜂类以及直翅目昆虫拥有更高的物种丰富度与个体数量，其余类群的样地与对照样地并无显著差异。
野化对所有目标类群的物种组成均产生了影响，偏向于保留体型更小、特化程度更高且活动性更弱的物种；其中蝶类与蛾类依赖小型非禾本科草本植物完成发育；而蚁类的性状组成并未对野化产生响应。
综合与应用：大型有蹄类动物的存在提升了部分昆虫类群的物种丰富度与个体丰度。在所有类群中，野化均对在现代工业化景观中趋于衰退的生活史性状具有保护作用。因此，营养级再野化是一种能够弥补土地利用集约化带来的不良影响，并模拟温带多数昆虫生物多样性演化所处环境的有效手段。