Regional variations in occupancy frequency distribution patterns between odonate assemblages in Fennoscandia

Abstract

Abstract. Odonate (damselfly and dragonfly) species richness and species occupancy frequency distributions (SOFDs) were analyzed in relation to geographical location in standing waters (lakes and ponds) in Fennoscandia, from southern Sweden to central Finland. In total, 46 dragonfly and damselfly species were recorded from 292 waterbodies. Species richness decreased to the north and increased with waterbody area in central Finland, but not in southern Finland or in Sweden. Species occupancy ranged from 1 up to 209 lakes and ponds. Over 50% of the species occurred in <10% of the waterbodies, although this proportion decreased to the north. In the southern lakes and ponds, none of the species occurred in all lakes, whereas in the north, many species were present in all of the studied waterbodies. The dispersal ability of the species did not explain the observed species occupancy frequencies, but generalist species with a large geographical range occurred in a higher percentage of the waterbodies. At Fennoscandia scale, we found that the unimodal satellite pattern was predominant. However, at smaller scale, we found geographical variations in odonate species SOFD patterns. The most southern communities followed the unimodal satellite-dominant pattern, whereas in other regions, communities fitted best with the bimodal core-satellite patterns. It seems that the richer species pool in the southern locations, and the larger distribution range of the northern species, skewed the unimodal pattern into a bimodal satellite-dominant pattern.

Temporally Stable Species Occupancy Frequency Distribution and Abundance–Occupancy Relationship Patterns in Urban Wintering Bird Assemblages

“…During winter, the regional species pool is smaller and many species are concentrated in urban habitats, at least in northern latitudes like in Finland. Some earlier studies have found some variability in the SOFD pattern among regions (Heatherly et al, 2007;Jokimäki et al, 2016;Korkeamäki et al, 2018). Our results suggest that the SOFD pattern slightly changed with the latitude, southern towns having more satellite species than the northern towns, probably due to a higher number of migratory species in the south.…”

“…First, we study whether wintering birds will show either a bimodal or a unimodal satellite SOFD pattern. Because the wintering bird species pool is richer in southern than in northern Finland (Jokimäki et al, 1996;Väisänen, 2003), we expected that the relative number of satellite species will be higher in the southern than in the northern regions (Gaston et al, 1998;McGeoch and Gaston, 2002;Korkeamäki et al, 2018, but see Jokimäki et al, 2016. Second, we predicted that the SOFD pattern will differ between large-and small-sized towns as indicated in a previous study of European breeding birds in urban core zone areas (Jokimäki et al, 2016).…”

Rapid functional traits turnover in boreal dragonfly communities (Odonata)

“…All voucher specimens are stored in the RLAS laboratory at Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden. In two previous publications, the senior author (GS) has used the records of species occurrences (presence/absence) at the sites in 1997 to analyse biodiversity indicators 61 , and the data from three sampling years has been used as part of the dataset for investigating occupancy frequency distribution patterns in odonate species assemblies 62 . Here we use the data in a different way.…”

Spatial and temporal changes in occupancy frequency distribution patterns of freshwater macrophytes in Finland

“…Describing SOFD patterns in species assemblages yields valuable information for evaluating ecological processes across different spatial (Jenkins, 2011; Jokimäki et al., 2016; Korkeamäki et al., 2018; McGeoch & Gaston, 2002; van Rensburg et al., 2000; Suhonen & Jokimäki, 2019) and temporal scales (Heino, 2008; Jenkins, 2011; McGeoch & Gaston, 2002; Suhonen & Jokimäki, 2019; Tokeshi, 1992). Such patterns are known to be affected by both methodological and biological factors (Brown, 1984; Collins & Glenn, 1997; Hui, 2012; McGeoch & Gaston, 2002; Mehranvar & Jackson, 2001; van Rensburg et al., 2000; Tokeshi, 1992).…”

“…Overall, spatial variations in SOFD patterns have been more thoroughly investigated than temporal variation (Collins & Glenn, 1997; Korkeamäki et al., 2018; McGeoch & Gaston, 2002; Mehranvar & Jackson, 2001; Suhonen & Jokimäki, 2019), which has been analyzed in only a few studies. Most previous work has suggested that SOFDs tend to be rather stable over time (Collins & Glenn, 1997; Heino, 2008; Suhonen & Jokimäki, 2019), although seasonal variation in SOFD patterns has been reported in insects (Gaston & Lawton, 1989; Tokeshi, 1992).…”