Current evidence suggests that landscape simplification can filter and homogenize community functional traits. Until now research has focused on understanding functional trait variation caused by species turnover completely neglecting intraspecific variation. It also remains unknown if the measured changes in functional traits actually affect ecosystem services including pollination and biological control. Here we want to disentangle the effect of species turnover and intraspecific variation on functional traits in pollinator, herbivore and natural enemy communities. We also want to test, in the field and experimentally, what the consequences of landscape-mediated changes in functional traits are on ecosystem services such as crop productivity. By studying the effects of landscape simplification on herbivore, pollinator, and natural enemies’ functional traits we will be able to disentangle the effects of intraspecific and interspecific variation of functional traits on ecosystem services. Our results of this research will allow us to recommend targeted management practices aimed at preserving not only species, but functional traits that might be more important for the sustainable long-term maintenance of ecosystem services.
Funded by the USDA, we have contacted and secured collaborators from around the world to contribute body size data from dozens of pollinators, herbivores, and natural enemies in a wide variety of cropping systems, in addition to landscape composition data and other useful metrics. Thus far we have in our database 50 full datasets, with a total of 60 expected datasets within the next several months. Global lab and university shutdowns prevented many of our collaborators from meeting our data submission deadlines, and while this limited our progress it also provided the opportunity to reach out to even more collaborators than originally planned. Our collaborators currently represent 21 different countries and 19 US states, with several more potentially to be added.