1,721,076 research outputs found
A systematic revision of Draculoides (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Part I: the Western Pilbara
No full textAbrams, Kym M., Huey, Joel A., Hillyer, Mia J., Didham, Raphael K., Harvey, Mark S. (2020): A systematic revision of Draculoides (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Part I: the Western Pilbara. Zootaxa 4864 (1): 1-75, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4864.1.
Experimental evidence that even minor livestock trampling has severe effects on land snail communities in forest remnants
No full textLand-use intensification is increasing dramatically in production systems world-wide. Livestock production is an important component of production land use, and increases in livestock densities have had a wide range of negative consequences. The off-site effects of livestock grazing and trampling on native vegetation adjacent to pastoral land have received less attention than on-farm effects. Moreover, where significant ecological effects of livestock spillover have been identified, the mechanistic determinants of these effects have not typically been investigated. Here, we tested the mechanistic drivers of livestock trampling effects on land snail communities in forest remnants using simulated trampling under field conditions. We used a factorial combination of leaf-litter manipulation and trampling treatments to partition different causal drivers of livestock impacts on land snail communities and related them to five environmental variables that are altered by livestock. We show that even very low frequency trampling caused severe changes to land snail communities. Land snail density, even under the lowest trampling frequency, declined by an average of 42individualsm(-2) and land snail species richness decreased by an average of 10 species per plot compared with control plots. The underlying drivers of changes in land snail communities varied, but were primarily linked to leaf-litter mass, rather than soil compaction.Synthesis and applications. Overall, these results suggest that even minimal disturbance by livestock has large effects on land snail communities, but the underlying drivers of these effects require further investigation in longer duration and more intensive studies. Our results provide strong support for livestock exclusion as an important management tool for native forest remnants embedded within production landscapes. Overall, these results suggest that even minimal disturbance by livestock has large effects on land snail communities, but the underlying drivers of these effects require further investigation in longer duration and more intensive studies. Our results provide strong support for livestock exclusion as an important management tool for native forest remnants embedded within production landscapes
Matrix habitat restoration alters dung beetle species responses across tropical forest edges
No full textExternal threats from agricultural intensification, fire encroachment, species invasion and illegal harvesting present major conservation challenges in isolated tropical forest remnants. These processes can greatly exacerbate the magnitude of edge effects as the degree of patch to matrix contrast increases. Theory suggests that mitigation of these effects should be possible through conservation strategies that remove external threats and restore adjacent matrix structure, but this has not been tested experimentally. In the rapidly-dwindling Afromontane rainforests of Nigeria, where nature reserves have the least protection of all African conservation areas, we created an experimental matrix restoration treatment in which we excluded livestock by fencing, maintained a fire-exclusion break, and passively revegetated a 200 m buffer zone in the surrounding matrix at replicated edges. After three years, dung beetle communities in remnant forests showed a 53% increase in abundance at sites adjacent to the restored matrix. Over 90% of the common dung beetle species differed in the magnitude of their edge responses between forest-to-restored versus forest-to-degraded matrix sites. Moreover, a significant difference in species richness across the forest-to-degraded matrix edge became non-significant following matrix restoration, and there was also a significant decrease in community dissimilarity across the edge gradient in these regenerating sites. Just three years after excluding threatening processes from comparatively small areas of matrix habitat, we found that these efforts not only reduced edge effects, but also (1) enhanced dung beetle populations in the adjacent reserve, (2) led to an increase in dung beetle capture rates in the regenerating matrix, and (3) facilitated re-establishment of species that were absent due to matrix degradation. Therefore, regenerating buffers can substantially increase effective reserve size and restore invertebrate communities in landscape mosaics where remnant habitats are embedded within anthropogenic landscapes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Arachnura Vinson 1863
No full textArachnura sp. indet. (juvenile) (Figs. 11; 13) Material examined. AUSTRALIA: Queensland: Edmonton (17°01’S, 145°45’E), 24.viii.1970, R. E. Mascord (2 immatures, AM KS32635). Remarks. Two juvenile Arachnura were collected in northern Queensland. Their somatic morphology (Figs. 11A, B) does not match any of the species treated here and they likely represent a different taxon. The specimens were also found far outside the known range of other Arachnura in Australia (Fig. 13). They have a unique colouration and are illustrated here to facilitate a future, more comprehensive revision of the genus Arachnura. As they do not represent mature spiders they are not formally described here.Published as part of Castanheira, Pedro De S., Didham, Raphael K., Vink, Cor J. & Framenau, Volker W., 2019, The scorpion-tailed orb-weaving spiders (Araneae, Araneidae, Arachnura) in Australia and New Zealand, pp. 147-170 in Zootaxa 4706 (1) on pages 166-168, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4706.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/356517
GlobalAnts: a new database on the geography of ant traits (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Get PDFIn recent years the focus in ecology has shifted from species to a greater emphasis on functional traits. In tandem with this shift, a number of trait databases have been developed covering a range of taxa. Here, we introduce the GlobalAnts database. Globally, ants are dominant, diverse and provide a range of ecosystem functions. The database represents a significant tool for ecology in that it (i) contributes to a global archive of ant traits (morphology, ecology and life history) which complements existing ant databases and (ii) promotes a trait-based approach in ant and other insect ecology through a broad set of standardised traits. The GlobalAnts database is unique in that it represents the largest online database of functional traits with associated georeferenced assemblage-level data (abundance and/or occupancy) for any animal group with 9056 ant species and morphospecies records for entire local assemblages across 4416 sites. We describe the structure of the database, types of traits included and present a summary of data coverage. The value of the database is demonstrated through an initial examination of trait distributions across subfamilies, continents and biomes. Striking biogeographic differences in ant traits are highlighted which raise intriguing questions as to the mechanisms generating them
Disappearing edge: the flowering period changes the distribution of insect pollinators in invasive goldenrod patches
No full textThe response of animals to the edge reveals the potential mechanism underlying the impact of invasive plants on native pollinators. Many invasive plants flower only during a part of the growing season, which creates a temporal pattern of the availability of resources. This can lead to the emergence or disappearance of the edge effect in the pollinator community in the patches dominated by alien plants. We tested whether the variability in the supply of flower resources created by dense stands of flowering invasive goldenrods could create a temporal edge effect for pollinating insects in a grassland landscape. We surveyed pollinator communities along transects perpendicular to the goldenrod-grassland edge. To understand the variation in edge effects, we surveyed the number of flowers, which are the main food resources for pollinators. We found positive edge responses of abundance and species richness of all pollinator groups from the edges to the grassland interior before the goldenrod flowering period. During the goldenrod flowering period abundance and species richness of bees showed a neutral edge response, the response of butterflies and hoverflies towards the centre of the goldenrod patch were negative and positive respectively. Our results revealed that the emergence of the edge effect in a pollinating insect community is associated with temporal usability of invasive plants as a food source. Thus, the combined outcome of the available resources and invasion of alien plants can help to understand the edge effect on pollinator distributions in the invaded landscapes
The role of species traits in mediating functional recovery during matrix restoration.
No full textReversing anthropogenic impacts on habitat structure is frequently successful through restoration, but the mechanisms linking habitat change, community reassembly and recovery of ecosystem functioning remain unknown. We test for the influence of edge effects and matrix habitat restoration on the reassembly of dung beetle communities and consequent recovery of dung removal rates across tropical forest edges. Using path modelling, we disentangle the relative importance of community-weighted trait means and functional trait dispersion from total biomass effects on rates of dung removal. Community trait composition and biomass of dung beetle communities responded divergently to edge effects and matrix habitat restoration, yielding opposing effects on dung removal. However, functional dispersion--used in this study as a measure of niche complementarity--did not explain a significant amount of variation in dung removal rates across habitat edges. Instead, we demonstrate that the path to functional recovery of these altered ecosystems depends on the trait-mean composition of reassembling communities, over and above purely biomass-dependent processes that would be expected under neutral theory. These results suggest that any ability to manage functional recovery of ecosystems during habitat restoration will demand knowledge of species' roles in ecosystem processes
Phylogenetic diversity and coevolutionary signals among trophic levels change across a habitat edge gradient
Get PDF1. Incorporating the evolutionary history of species into community ecology enhances understanding of community composition, ecosystem functioning and responses to environmental changes. 2. Phylogenetic history might partly explain the impact of fragmentation and land-use change on assemblages of interacting organisms, and even determine potential cascading effects across trophic levels. However, it remains unclear whether phylogenetic diversity of basal resources is reflected at higher trophic levels in the food web. In particular, phylogenetic determinants of community structure have never been incorporated into habitat edge studies, even though edges are recognised as key factors affecting communities in fragmented landscapes. 3. Here we test whether phylogenetic diversity at different trophic levels (plants, herbivores, parasitoids) and signals of coevolution (i.e. phylogenetic congruence) among interacting trophic levels change across an edge gradient between native and plantation forests. To ascertain whether there is a signal of coevolution across trophic levels, we test whether related consumer species generally feed on related resource species. 4. We found differences across trophic levels in how their phylogenetic diversity responded to the habitat edge gradient. Plant and native parasitoid phylogenetic diversity changed markedly across habitats, while phylogenetic variability of herbivores (which were predominantly native) did not change across habitats, though phylogenetic evenness declined in plantation interiors. Related herbivore species did not appear to feed disproportionately on related plant species (i.e. there was no signal of coevolution) even when considering only native species, potentially due to the high trophic generality of herbivores. However, related native parasitoid species tended to feed on related herbivore species, suggesting the presence of a coevolutionary signal at higher trophic levels. Moreover, this signal was stronger in plantation forests, indicating that this habitat may impose stresses on parasitoids that constrain them to attack only host species for which they are best adapted. 5. Overall, changes in land use across native to plantation forest edges differentially affected phylogenetic diversity across trophic levels, and may also exert a strong selective pressure for particular coevolved herbivore-parasitoid interactions.Fil: Peralta, Guadalupe. University Of Canterbury; Nueva Zelanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas; ArgentinaFil: Frost, Carol. University Of Canterbury; Nueva ZelandaFil: Didham, Raphael. University of Western Australia; Australia. Csiro Ecosystem Sciences, Centre For Environment And Li; AustraliaFil: Varsani, Arvind. University Of Canterbury; Nueva Zelanda. Electron Microscope Unit, University Of Cape Town; Sudáfrica. University Of Florida; Estados Unidos. Biomolecular Interaction Centre; Nueva ZelandaFil: Tylianakis, Jason. Imperial College London; Reino Unido. Allan Wilson Centrefor Molecular Ecology And Evolution; Nueva Zelanda. University Of Canterbury; Nueva Zeland
Complementary distribution patterns of arthropod detritivores (woodlice and millipedes) along forest edge-to-interior gradients
No full text© 2016 The Royal Entomological Society Worldwide, forest fragmentation induces edge effects, thereby strongly altering the forest microclimate and abiotic characteristics in the forest edge compared to the forest interior. The impact of edge-to-interior gradients on abiotic parameters has been extensively studied, but we lack insights on how biodiversity, and soil communities in particular, are structured along these gradients. Woodlice (Isopoda) and millipedes (Diplopoda) are dominant macro-detritivores in temperate forests with acidic sandy soils. We investigated the distribution of these macro-detritivores along forest edge-to-interior gradients in six different forest stands with sandy soils in northern Belgium. Woodlouse abundance decreased exponentially with distance from the forest edge, whereas millipede abundance did not begin to decrease until 7 m inside the forest stands. Overall, these patterns were highly species specific and could be linked to the species' desiccation tolerance. Whereas the observed abundance patterns were independent from forest stand and dominant tree species, tree species had a large effect on community structure. Edge gradients in macro-detritivores may consequently have implications for nutrient cycling, especially in smaller forest fragments with a large edge-to-interior ratio.sponsorship: P.D.S. and W.P. each hold a doctoral fellowship of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). A.D.S. and P.D.F. each hold a postdoctoral fellowship of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). We would like to thank the Agency for Nature and Forest (ANB) and the private forest owners and their ground keepers for allowing access to their forests. L.B. and D.B. are funded by the FWO research network on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of biotic interactions. Special thanks to Luc Willems for technical support during the research. (Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), FWO research network on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of biotic interactions)status: Publishe
Draculoides catho
No full textDraculoides catho (Framenau, Hamilton, Finston, Humphreys, Abrams, Huey and Harvey, 2018) (Figs. 1–8) http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 04A7E113-EA1C-4BE3-B3CC-AF18FCA22571 Paradraculoides catho Framenau, Hamilton, Finston, Humphreys, Abrams, Huey and Harvey 2018: 521, figs. 6–7. Draculoides catho (Framenau, Hamilton, Finston, Humphreys, Abrams, Huey and Harvey): Abrams et al. 2019 MPE 106532: 8, fig. 2. Material examined. Holotype female. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Mt Stuart Station, Catho Well, 82.6 km S. of Pannawonica, 22°23’18”S, 116°15’11”E, 13–16 October 2008, troglofauna trap, 20 m, G. Humphreys, M. Menz (Biota Environmental Sciences, CWRC281 P4 T2–1) (WAM T 93192) (DNA: COI, ITS2). Other material. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: See Framenau et al. (2018). Diagnosis. Males of Draculoides catho are unknown, and although the setal arrangement on the female flagellum places this species closest to D. trinity, it is currently not possible to differentiate the two species on morphology alone. Draculoides catho can be diagnosed from all other Draculoides species that were sequenced at COI, 12S and ITS2 by the 50bp mini-barcodes shown in Figures 3, 5, and 7. Description. See Framenau et al. (2018). Remarks. Draculoides catho is known from three localities known as Catho Well, Western Australia (Fig. 1C). All specimens were collected from bore holes using troglofauna traps, and were collected from sites less than 3.5 km apart.Published as part of Abrams, Kym M., Huey, Joel A., Hillyer, Mia J., Didham, Raphael K. & Harvey, Mark S., 2020, A systematic revision of Draculoides (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Part I: the Western Pilbara, pp. 1-75 in Zootaxa 4864 (1) on pages 38-39, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4864.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/441684
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