scholarly journals Distribution of long-horn beetles (Cerambycidae: Coleoptera) within the Fijian archipelago

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hilda V. F. Waqa-Sakiti ◽  
Simon Hodge ◽  
Linton Winder
Keyword(s):  
Positive Relationship ◽  
New Records ◽  
Ecological Significance ◽  
Island Size ◽  
Sample Number ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Collecting Methods ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship

Long-horn beetles (Family: Cerambycidae) in Fiji consist of 124 described species within 45 genera, of which 110 (88.7%) species are considered endemic. Despite their conservation value, ecological significance and cultural importance, little scientific research has been conducted on the taxonomy or ecology of Cerambycidae in Fiji. This biogeographical study surveyed Cerambycidae by Malaise trapping on ten Fijian Islands. A total of 438 individuals and 44 species of Cerambycidae were recorded. Thirty three of the species collected are endemic to Fiji; three other species are native and eight species are new records for Fiji and/or new species. Twenty seven species were recorded from only one island and 20 species were recorded only as singletons. There was an expected significant relationship between the number of species collected on an island and the number of sampling events. The highest number of species, 23, was recorded on the largest island, Viti Levu, followed by Gau with 13 species and Vanua Levu and Kadavu with 12 species each. There was a positive relationship between species richness and island size but this was lost if the effect of sample number was taken into account. The results indicate that the species-area relationship may hold for Fijian Cerambycidae, but additional collecting events, over more of the annual cycle, and involving multiple collecting methods may be required to fully catalogue the current Fijian fauna.

Organisation de la richesse et de la composition floristiques d'îles de la Méditerranée occidentale (sud-est de la France)

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Médail ◽  
Éric Vidal
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Habitat Diversity ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
Plant Dispersal ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Continental Islands ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship

The effects of physiographic variables (area, isolation, elevation, and substrate) and habitat diversity on plant species richness and composition have been investigated on some Mediterranean islands (southeastern France). The number of species - area relationship is significant but there are more diverse vegetation patterns on smallest islands (area smaller than 3.5 ha and, ultimately, 0.2 ha). Although the species composition is positively correlated to the distance from the continent, the effect of isolation is not so obvious because of the small distance of these continental islands from the continent. Some islands nearest to shore show very different plant species composition, suggesting a nonselective plant dispersal through some narrow stretches of sea. Habitat diversity represents one of the major explanatory factors of the species richness; nevertheless, it is not possible to settle between the two hypotheses effect of habitat diversity versus effect of area per se because of the correlation between the two factors. Key words: Mediterranean islands, insular biogeography, number of species - area relationship, isolation, habitat diversity, islets.

scholarly journals Wood ant assemblages of Formica rufa group on lake islands and in mainland woodland in Central Finland

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jouni Sorvari
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Occurrence Probability ◽  
Island Size ◽  
Formica Rufa ◽  
Wood Ants ◽  
Formica Rufa Group ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Island Community ◽  
Species Area Relationship ◽  
Formica Lugubris

Associations of island size and isolation on the occurrence and species richness of five wood ant species of the Formica rufa group (F. rufa, F. aquilonia, F. lugubris, F. polyctena and F. pratensis) was tested in the Lake Konnevesi archipelago in Central Finland. In addition, the species composition was compared to that of mainland forests of the same region. Island isolation had no associations with the wood ant occurrence in this archipelago, but for most species, increasing island size was positively associated with the occurrence probability. According to the findings among the five species, Formica lugubris is the best adapted for insular living. There was a positive species–area relationship as the species richness of wood ants increased with an increasing island size. The island community of wood ants was dominated by colonies of the monogynous (single queen) species whereas the mainland community was dominated by those of polygynous (multiple queen) species.

scholarly journals Correlation/causation in ecology: towards mechanistic explanations for the Species-Area Relationship

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andersonn Prestes
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Biotic And Abiotic Factors ◽  
Mechanistic Explanations ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Recurrent Patterns

There is a common intuition in biology that strict laws are very difficult to be found. Still, there are recurrent patterns in nature, suggesting broad generalizations and understanding of phenomena. The problem is that many generalizations in biology, especially in the form of correlations, might be decoupled from causality, weakening their power of explanation. Here, I bring an example on the Species-Area Relationship (SAR). The SAR is a well-known generalization in biology. The recurrent pattern states a positive relationship between area size and species richness. Understanding the mechanisms why there is a correlation between area and diversity remains a major challenge. I suggest an explicitly focus on mechanistic explanations for the SAR. I propose to use the integration, comparison and interpretation of other (associated or secondary) natural patterns in the searching for causal explanations. Area per se might not account for causality in species diversification or absolute species richness in larger regions. Biotic and abiotic factors of a given area might be studied in order to discover the causal underpinnings of the SAR.

Spatial Scale and Species Diversity: Building Species–Area Curves from Species Incidence

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack J. Lennon ◽  
William Edward Kunin
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Simple Graph ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Species Incidence ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reductionist Approach

This chapter is largely focused on the species–area relationship (SAR), although it may not seem so for much of the time. Bear with us; we will get there in the end. Our aim is to provide insights into how the relationship works, and how it is built. This leads us to take a rather reductionist approach, and to break down the SAR into its component parts. We will spend a substantial section of this chapter examining these pieces and their properties. We will then explore the logic by which the parts are reassembled, and will explore how biological and biogeographical properties of a system may affect the SAR. Before attempting this feat, however, we should begin with a brief discussion of the SAR itself, to explain why it is worth making such a fuss over. The SAR is, after all, only a simple graph: a plot of the number of species found in a sample as a function of the area sampled. Ecologists being an argumentative lot, we cannot even all agree on what this plot should look like; Gleason (1922, see also Williams 1964) argued that the absolute number of species should be plotted as a function of the logarithm of area, whereas Arrhenius (1921, see also Preston 1960) suggested that both species and area should be plotted logarithmically. Connor and McCoy (1979) found cases that fit both models, and two others besides (log species by untransformed area, and neither variable transformed). However it’s plotted, the SAR is not even a particularly attractive or elegant graph—at its best (!) it is simply a straight diagonal line within a tight scatter of datapoints on a rectangular plot. Hardly something to set the pulse racing. Yet the SAR is exciting stuff; that simple line encapsulates a great deal of information about the diversity of biological systems across a wide range of scales.

scholarly journals Influence of urbanization on the avian species-area relationship: insights from the breeding birds of Rome

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Di Pietro ◽  
Cristina Mantoni ◽  
Simone Fattorini
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Breeding Birds ◽  
Urban Gradient ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThe species-area relationship (SAR) is one of the most investigated patterns in ecology and conservation biology, yet there is no study testing how different levels of urbanization influence its shape. Here we tested the impact of urbanization on avian SARs along a rural-urban gradient using the breeding birds of Rome (Central Italy). We divided the city into 360 cells of 1 km2. Each cell was classified as rural, suburban or urban using the proportion of impervious surface calculated from remote sensing data. For each of these three landscape categories, we constructed a SAR as a species accumulation curve (Gleason function) using bird species distribution data. SAR intercepts (i.e. the number of species per unit area) decreased from rural to urban areas, which indicates that urbanization depressed the number of species, reflecting the loss of specialized species strictly associated with natural habitats. The slope was highest for the rural curve, indicating that natural landscapes have the highest turnover due to their higher habitat heterogeneity. A higher slope for the urban cells, compared to the suburban ones, can be explained by the presence of green spaces embedded in the built-up matrix which host different avian communities. Previous studies that compared whole cities with natural areas failed to find differences in the respective SARs. Our study, which constructed SARs for different levels of urbanization, indicated significant changes in the SARs along the rural-urban gradient. Further analyses in other cities and taxa will be useful to test how general are our findings.

A strong species?area relationship for eukaryotic soil microbes: island size matters for ectomycorrhizal fungi

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 470-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kabir G. Peay ◽  
Thomas D. Bruns ◽  
Peter G. Kennedy ◽  
Sarah E. Bergemann ◽  
Matteo Garbelotto
Keyword(s):  
Ectomycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Soil Microbes ◽  
Island Size ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship

scholarly journals The species–area relationship and evolution

2006 ◽  
Vol 241 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lawson ◽  
Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Species Area ◽  
Species Area Relationship

Amphipod biodiversity of shallow water in the Taranto seas (north-western Ionian Sea)

2005 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Prato ◽  
F. Biandolino
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
New Records ◽  
Maximum Depth ◽  
Ionian Sea ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Gammarus Aequicauda ◽  
Different Depths ◽  
North Western

This study was carried out to determine the amphipod fauna in Mar Piccolo, Mar Grande and the Gulf of Taranto. Material in this study was obtained from 96 stations at different depths (maximum depth: −50 m) using various methods depending on the substrata. A total of 65 species was determined and 25 species are new records in the seas of Taranto. Microdeutopus gryllotalpa, Ericthonius brasiliensis, Monocorophium insidiosum, Elasmopus rapax, Gammarus aequicauda, Gammarus insensibilis, Leucothoe spinicarpa, Lysianassa costae and Pseudoprotella phasma were the dominant species and have been found in all areas considered. The comparison of the data shows that the area examined presents a high difference regarding biocenotic index. The highest number of species was collected in the Gulf with 1944 individuals, belonging to 58 species and 19 families, followed by Mar Grande with 1448 individuals belonging to 36 species and 11 families; finally Mar Piccolo with 698 individuals, 12 species and 6 families, in the First Inlet and 546 individuals, 18 species and 6 families, in the Second Inlet.

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