Coastal heathland succession influences butterfly community composition and threatens endangered butterfly species

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Schirmel ◽  
Thomas Fartmann
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
Butterfly Community

The successional pathway of the tree community and how it shapes the fruit-feeding butterfly community in an Afrotropical forest

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anu Valtonen ◽  
Geoffrey M. Malinga ◽  
Margaret Nyafwono ◽  
Philip Nyeko ◽  
Arthur Owiny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Vegetation Structure ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
Secondary Forests ◽  
Forest Age ◽  
Insect Communities ◽  
Tree Community ◽  
Local Topography ◽  
Butterfly Community

Abstract:The relative importance of different bottom-up-mediated effects in shaping insect communities in tropical secondary forests are poorly understood. Here, we explore the roles of vegetation structure, forest age, local topography (valley vs. hill top) and soil variables in predicting fruit-feeding butterfly and tree community composition, and tree community composition in predicting fruit-feeding butterfly community composition, in different-aged naturally regenerating and primary forests of Kibale National Park, Uganda. We also examine which variables are best predictors of fruit-feeding butterfly species richness or diversity. Butterflies (88 species) were sampled with a banana-baited trap and trees (98 taxa) with a 40 × 20-m sampling plot at 80 sampling sites. The environmental variables explained 31% of the variation in the tree community composition, the best predictors being local topography, forest age and cover of Acanthus pubescens (a shrub possibly arresting succession). The fruit-feeding butterfly community composition was better predicted by tree community composition (explaining 10% of the variation) rather than vegetation structure, local topography or soil factors. Environmental variables and tree species richness (or diversity) were poor predictors of butterfly species richness (or diversity). Our results emphasize the importance of tree community to recovery of herbivorous insect communities in tropical secondary forests.

scholarly journals Butterfly diversity throughout Midnapore urban area in West Bengal, India

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 14816-14826
Author(s):  
Surjyo Jyoti Biswas ◽  
Debarun Patra ◽  
Soumyajit Roy ◽  
Santosh Kumar Giri ◽  
Suman Pal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Total Population ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
Butterfly Diversity ◽  
Butterfly Community ◽  
Butterfly Communities ◽  
High Diversity

Butterflies have always attracted attention due to their unique colourations.  As most butterflies are highly specific in their niche utilisation, abundance of the species in a locality may advocate status of ecosystem functioning and environmental health.  In recent times, different anthropogenic activities and unscientific management of nature have resulted in a decline of butterfly communities at a rapid rate.  The objective of the present study is to study butterfly diversity in and around Midnapore Town, West Bengal, India.  A total of 82 butterfly species belonging to six families were recorded during the two years of the study period.  Of the six families Nymphalidae is the most abundant family comprising 42.54% of the total population followed by Lycaenidae (22.5%), Pieridae (19.03%), Papilionidae (8.58%), Hesperiidae (7.24%), and Riodinidae (0.11%).  Different diversity indices, Lorenz curve, Whittaker plot, and Gini index show high diversity in the butterfly community structure.  As Midnapore Town is the connecting area between the plains of Bengal and Chota Nagpur Plateau, the present study may be the baseline for further ecological, environmental, and conservation studies. 

scholarly journals Local Habitat Characteristics Determine Butterfly Diversity and Community Structure in a Threatened Kihansi Gorge Forest, Southern Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfan Abeid Rija
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
Heterogeneous Habitats ◽  
Udzungwa Mountains ◽  
Butterfly Community ◽  
Butterfly Communities ◽  
Local Habitat

Abstract Background Many species inhabiting Kihansi gorge ecosystem in Southern Udzungwa mountains, Tanzania are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss caused by constructed hydropower plant that diverted over 90% of the water off the Kihansi River. Understanding ecological correlates and structure of an animal community in perturbed ecosystems is an important way to enhancing species conservation particularly in this system where several species are already threatened with extinction. This study assessed influences of local habitat characteristics on the butterfly abundance, species richness and diversity and examined how the butterfly community structures across three structurally heterogeneous habitats in the Kihansi gorge forest. Butterfly abundance data were collected using baited traps and measured environmental variables in the field where trapping occurred. To understand the diversity and butterfly richness, these parameters were computed under Primer software. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and analysis of community similarity were used to analyse the butterfly community structure. Further, the generalized linear models were used to assess how the measured variables explained observed species diversity, abundance, and richness. Results In total, 72 species of butterfly in five families were recorded. Butterfly, species diversity and richness did not vary across the habitat types or elevation gradient but showed strong correlation with some habitat characteristics. Also, there was evidence of butterfly communities structuring into distinct groups that showed greater separation associated with the habitat characteristics they utilise. Further, across the study area, butterfly species diversity was mostly likely to increase in high canopy and in trees with smaller diameter at breast height and at lower ground cover. Similarly, abundance significantly increased in the woodland and wooded grassland habitats, where there was high canopy and where tree density was high. Furthermore, butterfly species richness was strongly positively associated with high canopy cover and was mostly likely to increase in sites closer to water source. Conclusion Assessing habitat correlates of the butterfly communities provide important information on what components of the habitats are most useful to target when planning conservation especially in threatened ecosystems. This also helps to reveal existing gaps in important knowledge that would be useful to improving long-term monitoring of biodiversity in in fragile systems such as the Kihansi gorge forest.

Butterfly species richness and community composition in forests affected by ENSO-induced burning and habitat isolation in Borneo

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel F. R. Cleary ◽  
Arne Ø. Mooers
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Habitat Isolation ◽  
Butterfly Species ◽  
Continuous Forest ◽  
Large Scale Disturbance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Burned Forest

Landscape-scale studies of community traits such as species richness and community composition are sorely needed to explore the impact of large-scale disturbance events such as ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation)-induced burning and habitat isolation on rain-forest communities. Here we assess butterflies in continuous forest, in unburned isolates surrounded by burned forest and in burned forest, in addition to areas sampled before the most recent (1997/98) large-scale burn event in Borneo. Overall levels of species richness were significantly higher pre-ENSO and in continuous forest than in unburned isolates and burned forest. There was, however, some variation among butterfly families in these patterns, with no significant differences among habitats (continuous forest, isolates and burned forest) for the Hesperiidae and significant differences for the other butterfly families. Patterns of community composition showed that similarity was greater between distant continuous forest and isolates than between either of these and burned forest. Since the unburned isolates were surrounded by the burned forest this indicates that the habitat (burned or unburned) overrides geographical differences. Dominant species that contributed substantially to differences among habitats were often completely absent from either burned or unburned forest. The combined patterns of species richness and community structure suggest that burning affects forest ecosystems by a replacement of dominant species while habitat isolation may affect areas by leading to the local extinction of rare species.

Butterfly Community Composition Across a Successional Gradient in a Human-disturbed Afro-tropical Rain Forest

Biotropica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Nyafwono ◽  
Anu Valtonen ◽  
Philip Nyeko ◽  
Heikki Roininen
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Tropical Rain Forest ◽  
Butterfly Community ◽  
Successional Gradient
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