Reconciling agriculture and biodiversity: High-quality butterfly communities in Northern Italian agroecosystems

Agricultural intensification caused widespread biodiversity loss. However, agroecosystems occupy much of the European territory and may act as surrogate habitats for wildlife. Using butterflies as indicator species, we investigated whether agroecosystems can support both a quantitatively and qualitatively significant share of biodiversity, thereby contributing to conservation. From 2010 to 2019, we surveyed butterfly communities in four agroecosystems in Northern Italy: pastures, orchards, rice fields, and vineyards. To assess the “quantity” of biodiversity, we calculated diversity indexes and compared estimated species richness with the regional pool. To evaluate “quality,” we analysed community composition through distance-based redundancy analysis (db-RDA) and applied Indicator Species Analysis and functional traits to explore community specialization and functional diversity. More than 60% of the regional species pool was found in agroecosystems, with the highest richness in pastures and vineyards, followed by rice fields and orchards. The agroecosystems hosted distinct and specialized communities. Indicator species analysis revealed marked agroecosystem-specific butterfly assemblages, with pastures harboring the greatest number and functional diversity of indicator species, vineyards supporting a smaller assemblage dominated by xerophilous and ecotonal species, rice fields characterized by few low-altitude and hygrophilous species, and orchards lacking indicator species altogether. In the context of climate change and land-use transformation, these findings highlight the potential of agroecosystems for butterfly conservation in human-dominated landscapes, as they can function as surrogate habitats for semi-open and open natural systems.