The Interplay of Habitat Heterogeneity and Climate in Shaping Butterfly Diversity Across Densely-Populated while Non-Protected Areas

Habitat heterogeneity and climate are influencing factors in butterfly diversity, however their interplay remained little assessed. This study focuses on the central-southern Hebei Province, China, facing ecological pressures from urbanization and agriculture in densely-populated while non-protected areas, to explore this issue. A combination of transect line surveys and environmental parameter recordings (temperature, humidity, elevation) was utilized in the investigation. This research involved 44 sampling sites across five habitat types (farmland, forest, grassland, shrubland, and wetland) during the period from June to August 2024. A total of 944 individual butterflies representing 17 species from four families were recorded. Among these, Pieris rapae constituted 50.1% of all observations, a generalist species prevalent in disturbed habitats, highlighting underlying biodiversity loss. Eight habitat-specialist species were identified, emphasizing the conservation significance of habitat heterogeneity. Shannon diversity (H′) varied significantly among habitats: forests exhibited the highest diversity (H′ = 1.916, 13 species), while farmlands the lowest (H′ = 1.144, 6 species). Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis indicated comparable species composition between forest and shrubland habitats (Stress = 0.12), whereas farmland exhibited significant divergence. The effects of temperature were habitat-dependent: warming increased diversity in forest and shrubland habitats (ΔH′ = 0.23/°C, p < 0.01), but decreased it in farmland and wetland (ΔH′ = −0.17/°C, p < 0.05). Based on this study, some conservation recommendations are suggested, such as establishing vegetation buffer zones comprising ≥10% coverage within agricultural landscapes, maintaining shrubland–wetland corridors, and restoring reed zones within wetlands. Information & Authors Information Version history Copyright This work is licensed under a Non Exclusive No Reuse License.

Authors Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 133views 71downloads Citations Download citation Yuhui Sun, Yuxia Yang, Haoyu Liu. The Interplay of Habitat Heterogeneity and Climate in Shaping Butterfly Diversity Across Densely-Populated while Non-Protected Areas. Authorea. 04 August 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.175431305.58925380/v1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.175431305.58925380/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.