Aim Historical and contemporary environmental factors are hypothesised to influence the degree of ecological specialisation of species. Long‐term climate stability might facilitate specialisation by promoting stable environments and diversification (climate stability hypothesis). In contrast, current stress–productivity gradients could also moderate specialisation through: (i) environmental filtering in stressful (e.g., arid)...

Following alarming studies on insect declines, evidence for contrasting patterns in temporal insect trends is growing. Differences in environmental conditions (e.g., climate), anthropogenic pressures (e.g., land‐use and climate change), and insect community composition may drive contrasting trends. With increasing elevation, these factors change quickly, which makes elevational gradients an ideal study case to disentangle thei...

Decomposition, vegetation regeneration, and biological control are essential ecosystem functions, and animals are involved in the underlying processes, such as dung removal, seed removal, herbivory, and predation. Despite evidence for declines of animal diversity and abundance due to climate change and land-use intensification, we poorly understand how animal-mediated processes respond to these global change drivers. We experi...