Plant species and floral traits shape arthropod communities in restored prairies more than neonicotinoid contamination

Agricultural practices are significant drivers of biodiversity loss, leading to reductions in ecological function and services across regions. To mitigate these effects, habitat restorations within agroecosystems have gained prominence as a strategy to enhance ecological stability and increase biodiversity. However, the pervasive use of neonicotinoids in agroecosystems has raised concerns about their impact on restored habitats in agriculturally dominant regions. This study investigates the multi-trophic effects of neonicotinoid contamination on arthropod community structure and plant fitness in early prairie restoration ecosystems. Using a manipulated field experiment and structural equation modeling, we assessed how neonicotinoid exposure influences arthropod abundances across different feeding guilds, abundance interactions between feeding guilds, and plant fitness, measured by seed set and aboveground biomass. Our findings reveal that neonicotinoid contamination does not uniformly affect arthropod feeding guilds; instead, floral characteristics predominantly drive community composition and interactions.

While neonicotinoid exposure significantly increased pollinator visitation and decreased omnivore abundance in one of our models, plant species and inflorescence abundance were significantly more impactful on arthropod feeding guilds and community structure. These results underscore the importance of plant community composition in promoting prairie restoration stability and suggest that the benefits of increasing restored prairie habitats outweigh the potential risks of more critical for ecosystem resilience than mitigating neonicotinoid contamination.