Abstract

Land use intensification favours particular trophic groups which can induce architectural changes in food-webs. These changes can deeply impact ecosystem functioning, stability and robustness to extinctions. However, the imprint of land management intensity on food-web architecture has rarely been characterised across large spatial extent and various land uses. We investigated the influence of land management intensity on six facets of food-web architecture for 67,051 European tetrapod communities, and its dependency on land use and climate. We found that intensification promoted lower proportions of both apex and basal species, with more connected and less compartmentalized food-webs, and unexpectedly, favoured longer trophic chains in cities and decreased omnivory in mediterranean climates. By favouring mesopredators and undermining basal tetrapods, intensification might lead to new forestry and agricultural pest outbreaks. Our results support mesopredator regulation and apex predator protection where possible, but urban and mediterranean contexts might need alternative strategies.