A functional diversity approach indicates that dragonflies and damselflies are a resilient insect order to land use change

Abstract

Abstract Functional diversity is one sound approach to understand how communities respond and structure themselves in the face of anthropogenic disturbance. We here used historical collection records and functional proxies to investigate whether Mexican odonate insects (123 species of Anisoptera and 107 of Zygoptera) respond functionally to land use intensification within hydrological regions. To do this, we used eco-morphological indices as functional trait hypotheses, with which we measured the effective number of species, richness, and functional divergence. Our findings suggest that, in general, Mexican odonates exhibit functional redundancy and are not affected by land use intensification as a functional environmental filter. These results, along with others that have analyzed species richness and turnover, suggest that odonates appear to be resilient to land use change. In the face of current insect extinction crisis, odonates do not seem equally affected.