scholarly journals Influence of European Beech (Fagales: Fagaceae) Rot Hole Habitat Characteristics on Invertebrate Community Structure and Diversity

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan P Cuff ◽  
Fredric M Windsor ◽  
Emma C Gilmartin ◽  
Lynne Boddy ◽  
T Hefin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
European Beech ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Invertebrate Communities ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Veteran Trees ◽  
Hole Dimensions

Abstract Hollows of veteran trees (i.e., rot holes) provide habitat for many rare and threatened saproxylic invertebrates. Rot holes are highly heterogeneous, particularly in terms of substrate and microclimate conditions. There is, however, a dearth of information regarding the differences in biological communities inhabiting rot holes with different environmental conditions. Invertebrates were sampled from European beech (Fagus sylvatica) rot holes in Windsor, Savernake, and Epping Forests (United Kingdom). For each rot hole, physical and environmental conditions were measured, including tree diameter, rot hole dimensions, rot hole height, substrate density, water content, and water potential. These parameters were used to assess the influence of environmental conditions and habitat characteristics on invertebrate communities. Rot hole invertebrate communities were extremely diverse, containing both woodland generalist and saproxylic specialist taxa. Large variation in community structure was observed between rot holes and across woodlands; all sites supported threatened and endangered taxa. Environmental conditions in rot holes were highly variable within and between woodland sites, and communities were predominantly structured by these environmental conditions. In particular, turnover between invertebrate communities was linked to high β-diversity. The linked heterogeneity of environmental conditions and invertebrate communities in rot holes suggests that management of deadwood habitats in woodlands should strive to generate environmental heterogeneity to promote invertebrate diversity. Additional research is required to define how management and conservation activities can further promote enhanced biodiversity across rot holes.

scholarly journals Habitat use and the effect of shrimp trawling on fish and invertebrate communities over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf

2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (9) ◽  
pp. 1610-1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. David Wells ◽  
James H. Cowan ◽  
William F. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Habitat Use ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Fish Community Structure ◽  
Remotely Operated Vehicle ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Invertebrate Communities ◽  
Northern Gulf Of Mexico

Abstract Wells, R. J. D., James H. Cowan Jr, and William F. Patterson III. 2008. Habitat use and the effect of shrimp trawling on fish and invertebrate communities over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1610–1619. The goals of this study were to characterize habitat-specific fish and invertebrate community structure over sand, shell-rubble, and natural reef substrata, and to assess the effects of trawling on the sand and shell-rubble habitats and their associated communities during quarterly trawl surveys over a 2-year period. Fish and invertebrate communities differed significantly among habitat types [analysis of similarities (ANOSIM); Global R = 0.436, p < 0.001), and with respect to trawling exposure (ANOSIM; Global R = 0.128, p < 0.001). Habitat characteristics were quantified from video transects sampled with a remotely operated vehicle, and included percentage coverage of tubeworms, bryozoans, anemones, corals, and algae, significantly affecting fish community structure. Diversity indices differed among habitats, with the highest Shannon diversity (H′) and Pielou's evenness (J′) over shell-rubble, specifically non-trawled shell-rubble. In addition, higher values of H′ and J′ were found over trawled sand relative to non-trawled sand habitats. Length frequency distributions of several abundant fish species showed truncated size distributions over trawled and non-trawled habitats and were both habitat- and species-specific. The study describes habitat-specific differences in community structure, highlighting the differences between trawled and non-trawled areas on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf.

scholarly journals Strong but opposing β -diversity–stability relationships in coral reef fish communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1777) ◽  
pp. 20131993 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Mellin ◽  
C. J. A. Bradshaw ◽  
D. A. Fordham ◽  
M. J. Caley
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Reef Fish ◽  
Marine Protected Areas ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Spatial Turnover ◽  
Temporal Turnover ◽  
The Relationship

The ‘diversity–stability hypothesis’, in which higher species diversity within biological communities buffers the risk of ecological collapse, is now generally accepted. However, empirical evidence for a relationship between β -diversity (spatial turnover in community structure) and temporal stability in community structure remains equivocal, despite important implications for theoretical ecology and conservation biology. Here, we report strong β -diversity–stability relationships across a broad sample of fish taxa on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. These relationships were robust to random sampling error and spatial and environmental factors, such as latitude, reef size and isolation. While β -diversity was positively associated with temporal stability at the community level, the relationship was negative for some taxa, for example surgeonfishes (Acanthuridae), one of the most abundant reef fish families. This demonstrates that the β -diversity–stability relationship should not be indiscriminately assumed for all taxa, but that a species’ risk of extirpation in response to disturbance is likely to be taxon specific and trait based. By combining predictions of spatial and temporal turnover across the study area with observations in marine-protected areas, we conclude that protection alone does not necessarily confer temporal stability and that taxon-specific considerations will improve the outcome of conservation efforts.

scholarly journals Habitat and community structure modulate fish interactions in a neotropical clearwater river

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas T. Nunes ◽  
Renato A. Morais ◽  
Guilherme O. Longo ◽  
José Sabino ◽  
Sergio R. Floeter
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Agonistic Interaction ◽  
Tropical Rivers ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Habitat Variation ◽  
Clearwater River ◽  
Fish Interactions

ABSTRACT Species interactions can modulate the diversity and enhance the stability of biological communities in aquatic ecosystems. Despite previous efforts to describe fish interactions in tropical rivers, the role of habitat characteristics, community structure, and trophic traits over these interactions is still poorly understood. To investigate among-habitat variation in substratum feeding pressure and agonistic interactions between fishes, we used remote underwater videos in three habitats of a clearwater river in the Central Western, Brazil. We also performed visual surveys to estimate the abundance and biomass of fishes and proposed a trophic classification to understand how these variables can affect fish interactions. Community structure was the main factor affecting the variation in the interactions among the habitats. Biomass was the main variable determining which habitat a fish will feed on, while species abundance determined with how many other species it will interact in the agonistic interaction networks for each habitat. Specific habitats are not only occupied, but also used in distinct ways by the fish community. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of the heterogeneity of habitats in tropical rivers for the interactions performed by the fishes and how the intensity of these interactions is affected by community structure.

Changes in microbial community structure by methane fluxes at arctic cold seeps

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Carrier ◽  
Dimitri Kalenitchenko ◽  
Friederike Gründger ◽  
Mette M. Svenning
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Microbial Community Structure ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Cold Seeps ◽  
Reaction Products ◽  
Microbial Biodiversity ◽  
Biological Communities ◽  
Methane Fluxes ◽  
Community Types

&lt;p&gt;Cold seeps are areas of the seafloor where hydrocarbon-rich fluids, primarily composed of methane (CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;), migrate from below reservoirs through the sediments to reach the seafloor surface. This CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; is an important energy source for biological communities at cold seeps and it is taken up by specialized archaeal and bacterial methane oxidizers in anaerobic and aerobic environments. Reaction products, such as sulphide, are thereafter cycled into the microbial food web, by other microbial functional groups, underlining the importance of microorganisms in supporting biological production at cold seeps. However, large gaps of knowledge on total microbial biodiversity at these methane seeps and their spatial distribution remain, especially at high latitudes. South of Svalbard, five geological mounds shaped by the formation of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; gas hydrates (gas hydrate pingos GHPs), have been described recently. While one GHP was inactive, four of them showed CH&lt;sub&gt;4 &lt;/sub&gt;seeping activity with flares primarily concentrated at the summits. This suggest that the environmental conditions gradually change from the rim of the GHP toward the summit. We hypothesized that the microbial biodiversity varies along that gradient, where the summits would harbor the highest abundances of methane oxidizers. In order to test this hypothesis, we investigated the microbial community structure at two active GHPs, an inactive GHP and a reference site. Porewater chemistry and sequencing-based community analyses of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes were investigated at several depths of the sediment along a distance gradient from the summit to the rim of each GHP. We show that local environmental conditions, such as the presence of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, do affect the microbial community structure and composition. The anaerobic methane oxidizing ANME-1 dominates the archaeal libraries and are detected various types of sulphate-reducing bacteria, although none demonstrated a clear co-occurrence with the predominance of ANME-1. Additional common taxa observed in these CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;-rich sediments that likely benefited from the metabolites of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; oxidation were sulphide oxidizing Epsilonproteobactaerota, as well as organic matter degraders, such as Bathyarchaeota, Woesearchaeota or thermoplasmatales MBG-D, and heterotrophic ciliates and Cercozoa. Beyond our expectations, the distribution of the different community types were not separated in concentric zones around the GHPs and similar methane oxidizing communities could be retrieved at different location over a GHP.&lt;/p&gt;

Dissolved oxygen and temperature best predict deep-sea fish community structure in the Gulf of California with climate change implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 159-180
Author(s):  
ND Gallo ◽  
M Beckwith ◽  
CL Wei ◽  
LA Levin ◽  
L Kuhnz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Community Structure ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Demersal Fish ◽  
Fish Community Structure ◽  
Explained Variance

Natural gradient systems can be used to examine the vulnerability of deep-sea communities to climate change. The Gulf of California presents an ideal system for examining relationships between faunal patterns and environmental conditions of deep-sea communities because deep-sea conditions change from warm and oxygen-rich in the north to cold and severely hypoxic in the south. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ‘Doc Ricketts’ was used to conduct seafloor video transects at depths of ~200-1400 m in the northern, central, and southern Gulf. The community composition, density, and diversity of demersal fish assemblages were compared to environmental conditions. We tested the hypothesis that climate-relevant variables (temperature, oxygen, and primary production) have more explanatory power than static variables (latitude, depth, and benthic substrate) in explaining variation in fish community structure. Temperature best explained variance in density, while oxygen best explained variance in diversity and community composition. Both density and diversity declined with decreasing oxygen, but diversity declined at a higher oxygen threshold (~7 µmol kg-1). Remarkably, high-density fish communities were observed living under suboxic conditions (<5 µmol kg-1). Using an Earth systems global climate model forced under an RCP8.5 scenario, we found that by 2081-2100, the entire Gulf of California seafloor is expected to experience a mean temperature increase of 1.08 ± 1.07°C and modest deoxygenation. The projected changes in temperature and oxygen are expected to be accompanied by reduced diversity and related changes in deep-sea demersal fish communities.

scholarly journals Riparian Vegetation Structure Influences Terrestrial Invertebrate Communities in an Agricultural Landscape

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Cristina Popescu ◽  
Mihaela Oprina-Pavelescu ◽  
Valentin Dinu ◽  
Constantin Cazacu ◽  
Francis J. Burdon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Riparian Vegetation ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Riparian Buffers ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Invertebrate Community ◽  
Invertebrate Communities ◽  
Terrestrial Invertebrate ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity

Stream and terrestrial ecosystems are intimately connected by riparian zones that support high biodiversity but are also vulnerable to human impacts. Landscape disturbances, overgrazing, and diffuse pollution of agrochemicals threaten riparian biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. We assessed how terrestrial invertebrate communities respond to changes in riparian vegetation in Romanian agricultural catchments, with a focus on the role of forested riparian buffers. Riparian invertebrates were sampled in 10 paired sites, with each pair consisting of an unbuffered upstream reach and a downstream reach buffered with woody riparian vegetation. Our results revealed distinct invertebrate community structures in the two site types. Out of 33 invertebrate families, 13 were unique to either forested (6) or unbuffered (7) sites. Thomisidae, Clubionidae, Tetragnathidae, Curculionidae, Culicidae, and Cicadidae were associated with forested buffers, while Lycosidae, Chrysomelidae, Staphylinidae, Coccinellidae, Tettigoniidae, Formicidae, and Eutichuridae were more abundant in unbuffered sites. Despite statistically equivocal results, invertebrate diversity was generally higher in forested riparian buffers. Local riparian attributes significantly influenced patterns in invertebrate community composition. Our findings highlight the importance of local woody riparian buffers in maintaining terrestrial invertebrate diversity and their potential contribution as a multifunctional management tool in agricultural landscapes.

An inter-dependence of flood and drought: disentangling amphibian beta diversity in seasonal floodplains

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (11) ◽  
pp. 2115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo F. B. Moreira ◽  
Tainá F. Dorado-Rodrigues ◽  
Vanda L. Ferreira ◽  
Christine Strüssmann
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Ecological Role ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Amphibian Community ◽  
Dry Seasons

Species composition in floodplains is often affected by different structuring factors. Although floods play a key ecological role, habitat selection in the dry periods may blur patterns of biodiversity distribution. Here, we employed a partitioning framework to investigate the contribution of turnover and nestedness to β-diversity patterns in non-arboreal amphibians from southern Pantanal ecoregion. We investigated whether components of β-diversity change by spatial and environmental factors. We sampled grasslands and dense arboreal savannas distributed in 12 sampling sites across rainy and dry seasons, and analysed species dissimilarities using quantitative data. In the savannas, both turnover and nestedness contributed similarly to β diversity. However, we found that β diversity is driven essentially by turnover, in the grasslands. In the rainy season, balanced variation in abundance was more related to altitude and factors that induce spatial patterns, whereas dissimilarities were not related to any explanatory variable during dry season. In the Pantanal ecoregion, amphibian assemblages are influenced by a variety of seasonal constraints on terrestrial movements and biotic interactions. Our findings highlighted the role of guild-specific patterns and indicated that mass effects are important mechanisms creating amphibian community structure in the Pantanal.

scholarly journals Invertebrates Diversity of Merta Segara and Nyangnyang Beach: Comparison Study of Two Beaches with Different Characteristics

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Buya Azmedia Istiqlal ◽  
I Wayan Kasa ◽  
Deny Suhernawan Yusup
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Line Transect ◽  
Substrate Type ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
Different Characteristics

The diversity of intertidal invertebrates in Bali was believed to be affected by human activities, due to high rate of development in tourism industry. In order to reveal the real natural invertebrate diversity, it is necessary to investigate it at a kind of untouched beach of Bali. This study was perform by comparing invertebrate diversity (species richness, density, community structure) and human activity (Type, frequency) in Merta Segara Beach, as the beach with frequent human activities, and Nyangnyang Beach, as the beach with little human activities. Invertebrates sample were taken within intertidal zone using line transect-quadrate during low tide. Human activities were observed in the afternoon from March to April 2016. The result showed a significant different in density and community structure between both Merta Segara and Nyangnyang beach as the consequences of different substrate type of both beaches. Walking on substrate or trampling was believed to be the most influencing activity for invertebrate diversity, especially for Merta Segara Beach. Next, a thorough study must be performed to conclusively tie the human activity to the alteration of invertebrate diversity in a coastal area. The high diversity, density and abundance of intertidal invertebrate of Nyangnyang Beach has literally shown that how diverse the biodiversity could be if the beach were protected from overexploited by tourism visitation and activity.

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