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.