Exploring the link between insect diversity and environmental factors across Southern California

Documenting biodiversity is a fundamental first step in understanding the complex interactions between organisms and their environment. While there has been a large effort to document mammals, birds, herps, and other large fauna, significantly less effort has been put into documenting insects. This is of particular concern as insects are the most diverse animal lineage on Earth, with 80-90% of species yet to be described. The vast majority of insects depend on environmental cues for their development and life cycle. As extreme weather patterns and events become more frequent, it will be increasingly important to understand how insect diversity will respond to an unpredictable climate. Using a year-long dataset collected as part of the California Insect Barcode Initiative, we investigated the relationship between abiotic environmental variables and insect diversity at a landscape level. We collected bulk insect samples with malaise traps from five localities across southern California that captured four distinct habitat types; coastal, montane forests, transition zone between mountains and desert, and the desert. Using DNA barcode data generated from our bulk insect samples, we present results exploring what abiotic environmental factors are most associated with insect diversity. We present these results at a landscape scale as well as between and within the four distinct habitat types. We investigate these relationships in more detail within two insect orders, Hymenoptera and Diptera, the two most abundant orders in malaise traps. Our results will provide critical knowledge that can inform future insect monitoring programs and contribute to broader insect conservation efforts.