Connectivity and climate influence diversity–stability relationships across spatial scales in European butterfly metacommunities

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Abstract Aim Anthropogenic‐driven biodiversity loss can impact ecosystem stability. However, most studies have only evaluated the diversity–stability relationship at the local scale and we do not fully understand which factors stabilize animal populations and communities across scales. Here, we investigate the role of species dispersal ability, climate, spatial distance and different facets of biodiversity on the stability of butterfly populations and communities across multiple spatial scales. Location Primarily Western Europe. Time Period 2005–2016. Major Taxa Studied Butterflies (Rhopalocera) of Europe. Methods We assembled a continent‐wide database of European butterflies' abundance and used Structural Equation Modelling to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of multiple stabilizing mechanisms. In parallel, we tested the effect of dispersal ability on the stability at multiple spatial scales, using a butterfly mobility index as an indicator of dispersal capacity. Results Regional stability strongly reflected local stability, which in turn was driven by both taxonomic and functional α‐diversity. Spatial asynchrony was also important for regional stability and it was driven by both functional β‐diversity and metapopulation asynchrony, which in turn increased with spatial distance among communities. We observed a positive effect of temperature on functional α‐diversity and on local stability, whereas precipitation negatively influenced local diversity. Finally, spatial asynchrony contributed more to the regional stability of less mobile species compared to highly mobile ones, indicating that both extrinsic and intrinsic determinants of connectivity impact regional stability indirectly. Main Conclusions Our results demonstrate the importance of local and regional processes for regional stability. However, the relative contribution of spatial asynchrony and metapopulation asynchrony increases with connectivity loss, especially for less mobile species, indicating that landscape management should be tailored depending on the dispersal capacity of organisms. Both local biodiversity loss and regional biotic homogenization destabilize metacommunities, with potential implications for the reliable provision of ecosystem functions.

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