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

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.

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Tree community composition and vegetation structure predict butterfly community recovery in a restored Afrotropical rain forest

Biodiversity and Conservation ◽

10.1007/s10531-015-0870-3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 1473-1485 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Margaret Nyafwono ◽

Anu Valtonen ◽

Philip Nyeko ◽

Arthur Arnold Owiny ◽

Heikki Roininen

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Vegetation Structure ◽

Rain Forest ◽

Community Recovery ◽

Tree Community ◽

Butterfly Community

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Farmed landscapes, trees and forest conservation in Saint Lucia (West Indies)

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892912000446 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 211-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

BRADLEY B. WALTERS ◽

LISA HANSEN

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Species Richness ◽

Vegetation Structure ◽

West Indies ◽

Collaborative Management ◽

Secondary Forests ◽

Marginal Lands ◽

Watershed Protection ◽

Crop Farming ◽

Saint Lucia

SUMMARYIslands of the West Indies are among the most historically impacted by agriculture, yet agricultural influences on forests there have been little studied. This research compared tree species richness and vegetation structure between farmed lands, post-agriculture secondary forests and mature remnant forests in two watersheds in Saint Lucia, and sought to understand the current distribution of these habitats in terms of land use and watershed topography. Farms devoted to annual crops had few trees and much exposed soil. By contrast, agroforests had abundant (mostly planted) trees and vegetation structure comparable to secondary forests. Secondary forests had highest overall species richness, but mature forests had the most developed vegetation structure. Variations in habitat distribution reflected different land use histories, with the more rugged west coast long dominated by tree crop farming and the east coast experiencing a recent boom-bust cycle in bananas. Mature and secondary forests were more likely found at higher altitude, further from roads and at sites more difficult to access, the combined result of government protection of key forest and watershed reserves and farmers’ preferential abandonment of marginal lands. For conservationists, this return of forests is reason for optimism and it presents strategic opportunities for public land acquisition or collaborative management to further forest and watershed protection objectives.

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

10.21203/rs.3.rs-811050/v1 ◽

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.

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

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467404001312 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 359-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

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.

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

Journal of Insect Conservation ◽

10.1007/s10841-014-9619-7 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 111-120 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Jens Schirmel ◽

Thomas Fartmann

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Butterfly Species ◽

Butterfly Community

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Efecto de la riqueza de especies y la estructura de la vegetación en el almacenamiento de carbono en sistemas agroforestales en la Amazonía sur de Bolivia

Revista de Biología Tropical ◽

10.15517/rbt.v66i4.32489 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 66 (4) ◽

pp. 1481

Author(s):

Ernesto Gómez Cardozo ◽

Guillaume Xavier Rousseau ◽

Danielle Celentano ◽

Heriberto Fariñas Salazar ◽

Christoph Gehring

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Aboveground Biomass ◽

Vegetation Structure ◽

Strong Relationship ◽

Agroforestry Systems ◽

Secondary Forests ◽

System A ◽

Use Of Resources ◽

Dead Trees ◽

Logarithmic Functions

Diverse agroforestry systems conciliate food production, biodiversity conservation, and the provision of ecosystem services as atmospheric carbon sequestration. However, the role of floristic richness in the production of biomass in these systems is not clear. This study evaluated the effect of species richness and vegetation structure on aboveground biomass carbon in different agroforestry systems in the Southern Amazon of Bolivia. For that, 25 agroforestry systems and 4 secondary forests were studied in the departments of Santa Cruz and Beni. In each system, a 1 963 m2 circular plot was installed, where the vegetation (trees, shrubs and herbaceous) and necromass (leaf litter, branches and dead trees) were sampled. Linear and logarithmic functions were used to evaluate the effect of vegetation richness and structure on carbon, and the variance partition was used to examine the pure and shared effect of the richness and vegetation structure variables on carbon. Regressions showed a positive strong relationship between species richness and carbon (r2 = 0.74; P < 0.001). The partition of carbon variance showed that richness, structure and variation of the structure explained 85.7 %. Alone the richness explained 12.7 %, the structure 8.8 % and the variation of the structure 4.8 %. These results confirm that carbon in the aboveground biomass increases with species richness and structural variation of the vegetation. Therefore, more biodiverse and stratified agroforestry systems are more efficient in the use of resources and can contribute with climate change mitigation.

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Spatial and temporal variation in community composition of herbivorous insects on Neoboutonia macrocalyx in a primary tropical rain forest

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467413000151 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 229-241 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kaisa Heimonen ◽

Jeremiah S. Lwanga ◽

Marko Mutanen ◽

Tommi Nyman ◽

Heikki Roininen

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Temporal Variation ◽

Community Composition ◽

Rain Forest ◽

Tropical Rain Forest ◽

Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽

Herbivorous Insects ◽

Herbivorous Insect ◽

Insect Communities ◽

Study Sites

Abstract:Spatial and temporal variation of tropical insect communities has rarely been studied, although such variation influences estimates of global species richness. Therefore, we compared spatial and temporal variation of herbivorous insect communities on Neoboutonia macrocalyx trees among seven sites over 1 y in a primary tropical rain forest in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The distance between the study sites varied from 4.8 to 31.2 km and altitudinal differences ranged from 20 to 242 m. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed significant spatial changes in community composition of the herbivorous insects and study sites differed also in insect abundance (6.9–26.2 individuals m−2 of leaf area). This is likely to be caused by differences in vegetation, altitude and microclimate among the study sites. The similarity of insect species composition was negatively correlated with geographic and altitudinal distances among sites and positively correlated with the similarity of tree community composition. Species richness varied significantly between sampling dates, ranging from 33 to 41 species. Also community compositions changed between sampling dates, which likely follows from marked seasonal changes in climate and the phenology of other host plants used by the generalist insect species also living on Neoboutonia macrocalyx. In general our study supports the idea of high variability of herbivorous insect communities in primary rain forests even at a small spatial scale. This should be considered when estimations of insect biodiversity are made.

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Avian Breeding Season Diversity and Community Composition in Camden White Gum and Slash Pine Plantations

Forest Science ◽

10.1093/forsci/fxaa050 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elizabeth J Messick ◽

Christopher E Comer ◽

Michael A Blazier ◽

T Bently Wigley

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Species Richness ◽

Community Composition ◽

Pinus Elliottii ◽

The United States ◽

Slash Pine ◽

Planted Forests ◽

Eucalyptus Plantation ◽

Short Rotation Woody Crops ◽

Eucalyptus Plantations

Abstract In the southern United States, some landowners have established plantations of eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) and are managing them on short rotations (<15 years) to provide wood for fiber and other potential uses. Establishment of short-rotation woody crops dominated by nonnative species has implications for resident fauna in the United States that are largely unknown. We compared avifauna abundance, diversity, and community composition in newly established Camden white gum (Eucalyptus benthamii) plantations with slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations of the same age and height (one to two and six to seven years old, respectively) in southwestern Louisiana, USA. Species richness, diversity, and community composition in newly established eucalyptus plantations and six- to seven-year-old pines were similar. More birds were observed, and bird detections varied less in eucalyptus plantations. Indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea) and other shrub-associated species were detected more often in eucalyptus stands. In contrast, species that inhabit herbaceous-dominated communities, such as eastern meadowlarks (Sturnella magna), or that were associated with a dense graminoid community (e.g., Bachman’s sparrow [Peucaea aestivalis]) were detected less often in eucalyptus. Overall, breeding bird communities in eucalyptus plantations one to two years postestablishment differed little from plantations dominated by slash pine. Study Implications Compared with slash pine (Pinus elliottii Englem) plantations of similar age and height (one to two years and six to seven years old, respectively) we found one- to two-year-old eucalyptus (Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden & Cambage) plantations supported similar avian species richness and diversity to six- to seven-year-old pine stands. Furthermore, we found these eucalyptus plantations (E13) supported an avian community that was intermediate to similar aged pine (S13) and pine of similar height (S08). However, avian communities will likely change as eucalyptus plantations age (Christian et al. 1997). Continued monitoring and assessment of community composition, richness, and abundance is important for determining the magnitude of this change. Future investigations focused on nest success, fecundity, postfledging monitoring, and survivorship compared with other types of planted forests and native cover types would help us better understand eucalyptus plantation effects on avifauna demographics (Van Horne 1983, Martin 1998, Jones 2001, Wood et al. 2004, Sage et al. 2006, Riffell et al. 2011).

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