Climate change and anthropogenic alteration of landscapes negatively impact the abundance and diversity of plant and animal communities worldwide. Much less is known about the effects on phylogenetic diversity and community functioning. Here we use long-term observation data (1980 – 2022) from the Austrian Alps to assess how butterfly communities adjust community structures and functionality to increasing temperatures along the elevation gradient and how these changes are linked to trait expression and community functioning? Diversity significantly decreased at low and intermediate, and increased at high altitudes. Functional attribute diversity was significantly lower than expected by a random model at intermediate and high altitudes and increased with time at high, but not at intermediate and low altitudes. Multifunctionality significantly decreased at intermediate and high altitudes Phylogenetic diversity did not show significant temporal trends at low altitude, but significantly increased with time at intermediate and high altitudes. Multifunctionality was not significantly correlated with FAD, but decreased with increasing phylogenetic diversity. We conclude that the ongoing homogenisation of Alpine butterfly communities strongly affect species, functional and phylogenetic diversity. The directions of these changes heavily depend on altitude and therefore on specific climatic conditions. Higher altitudes face decreasing butterfly multifunctionality despite of increasing species richness due to climate induced altitudinal up-hill shifts of many species. The assessment of species richness and diversity alone, as provided by common species surveys, might give a false impression about the state and functioning of Alpine insect communities in the course of climate change.