Patterns of species diversity in different spatial scales and spatial heterogeneity on beta diversity

Abstract

Patterns of species diversity are essential to understand community structure. We aimed to determine species diversity and patterns of beta diversity in different spatial scales. We sampled three thousand individuals between the coordinates 22°10'S to 22°16'S and 47°47'W to 48°00'W to assess species diversity in three spatial scales (maximum distances of 80 m, 1,400 m, and 12,000 m), using the point-centered-quarter method. We partitioned gamma diversity into alpha and beta components. Beta diversity was partitioned into dissimilarities produced by spatial species turnover and nestedness. The contribution of beta diversity to gamma diversity was greater than that of alpha diversity in all scales, although the patterns of species diversity were similar for the evaluated scales, and was similar to that described for larger spatial scales. The sampled fragments presented means of 15 exclusive species and 47.5 species per fragment, and dissimilarities [β(SØR)=0.7] almost completely explained (94 %) by spatial species turnover. The results indicate that the remnant fragments are residual patches of an originally heterogeneous vegetation. The fragmentation processes could have progressed differently in each portion of the original vegetation, producing the current heterogeneous vegetation. Thus, there is a potential of high local species extinctions if the remnant fragments are deforested.

Diversity patterns along ecological succession in tropical dry forests: a multi‐taxonomic approach

“…Overall, α‐diversity contributed least to γ‐diversity when all groups were analyzed together. Most studies with diversity partitioning along successional gradients in tropical forests were carried out with plants, and detected a similar pattern (Carneiro et al 2016, Bartha et al 2020, Soares et al 2020, Mangueira et al 2021) which is usually related to the fact that a few species have a wide distribution and several species occur in a few or in a single location (Gardner et al 2009, Soares et al 2020). On the other hand, for the insect groups studied here, α‐diversity was consistently higher for butterflies and dung beetles.…”

Diversity of ground‐dwelling ants across three severely threatened South American subtropical forests: are diversity patterns influenced by spatial or climatic variables?

“…Beta diversity was more influenced by species replacement (β SIM ) than nestedness (β SNE ). The same result was found in other highly diverse ecosystems, such as Amazon tropical dry forests and Cerrado in Brazil (Apgaua et al ., 2014; Silva et al ., 2017; Vasconcelos et al ., 2018; Soares et al ., 2020). The higher contribution of species replacement and the relatively low correlation coefficient between dissimilarity and geographical distance suggest that the ant species and assemblages are distributed along a discrete rather than a continuous gradient encompassing the three subtropical forests studied.…”