Spatial Modeling of Butterfly Species Richness Using Tiger Beetles (Cicindelidae) as a Bioindicator Taxon

Carroll, Steven S.; Pearson, David L.

doi:10.1890/1051-0761(1998)008[0531:smobsr]2.0.co;2

Cited by 81 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…This implies that, if using a simple but informative diversity index, we may rank the Azorean NFRs in a similar way using only some of the arthropod taxa. The same type of result was obtained by Gaston (1996) and Carroll and Pearson (1998). This is an important result because in the next two years the authors aim to confirm the conservation importance of these 16 NFRs sites, performing a standardized sampling program directed to only some of the orders.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

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Borges

Serrano

Quartau

2000

Journal of Insect Conservation

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Endemic arthropods were used to evaluate the conservation value of the 16 Natural Forest Reserves (NFRs) of the Azores (Macaronesia). For each of the 280 known Azorean endemic species of arthropods, a rarity index was calculated, using distribution and abundance data obtained from the literature. In addition, several scoring indices were used to rank the 16 NFRs. Frequency distributions of the rarity index indicated that there was a tendency for a greater proportion of the commonest species being represented in the NFRs in contrast with a lower representation of the rarest species. About 60% of the endemic arthropod species that were recorded from the NFRs are 'single NFR endemics', that is, are known from only one of the 16 NFRs. Species richness was considered to be a very good surrogate measure of the conservation value of the 16 NFRs under study. The fact that the six highest ranked NFRs (using a composite multi-criteria index) are located in different islands has some important conservation management implications; to preserve a large proportion of the Azorean arthropod biodiversity there is a need to protect sites in all islands. If the five highest ranked NFRs are correctly managed in terms of conservation, then at least 80% of the endemic arthropods known from the NFRs could be protected. Most of the tested taxa (AcariOribatei; Lepidoptera; Diptera; Coleoptera) are good surrogates of the overall total set of species present in the 16 NFRs when using a species richness index.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

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Borges

Serrano

Quartau

2000

Journal of Insect Conservation

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“…In the tropics, the congruence of diversity patterns between different taxa has mostly been studied across large geographical regions (e.g., Beccaloni and Gaston 1995, Carroll and Pearson 1998, Oliver et al 1998, Myers et al 2000, Moore et al 2002, Duque et al 2005, Tushabe et al 2006, Larsen et al 2007, McKnight et al 2007. Only four studies have compared small-scale changes in taxonomically diverse groups along gradients of land use within tropical landscapes (Lawton et al 1998, Schulze et al 2004, Barlow et al 2007, No¨ske et al 2008; see Plate 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpha and beta diversity of plants and animals along a tropical land‐use gradient

Kessler

Abrahamczyk

Bos

et al. 2009

Ecological Applications

126

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Assessing the overall biological diversity of tropical rain forests is a seemingly insurmountable task for ecologists. Therefore, researchers frequently sample selected taxa that they believe reflect general biodiversity patterns. Usually, these studies focus on the congruence of α diversity (the number of species found per sampling unit) between taxa rather than on β diversity (turnover of species assemblages between sampling units). Such approaches ignore the potential role of habitat heterogeneity that, depending on the taxonomic group considered, can greatly enhance β diversity at local and landscape scales. We compared α and β diversity of four plant groups (trees, lianas, terrestrial herbs, epiphytic liverworts) and eight animal groups (birds, butterflies, lower canopy ants, lower canopy beetles, dung beetles, bees, wasps, and the parasitoids of the latter two) at 15 sites in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that represented natural rain forest and three types of cacao agroforests differing in management intensity. In total, we recorded 863 species. Patterns of species richness per study site varied strongly between taxonomic groups. Only 13-17% of the variance in species richness of one taxonomic group could be predicted from the species richness of another, and on average 12-18% of the variance of β diversity of a given group was predicted by that in other groups, although some taxon pairs had higher values (up to 76% for wasps and their parasitoids). The degree of congruence of patterns of α diversity was not influenced by sampling completeness, whereas the indicator value for β diversity improved when using a similarity index that accounts for incomplete sampling. The indication potential of α diversity for β diversity and vice versa was limited within taxa (7-20%) and virtually nil between them (0-4%). We conclude that different taxa can have largely independent patterns of α diversity and that patterns of β diversity can be more congruent. Thus, conservation plans on a landscape scale need to put more emphasis on the high heterogeneity of agroforests and the overarching role of β diversity shaping overall diversity patterns. Abstract. Assessing the overall biological diversity of tropical rain forests is a seemingly insurmountable task for ecologists. Therefore, researchers frequently sample selected taxa that they believe reflect general biodiversity patterns. Usually, these studies focus on the congruence of a diversity (the number of species found per sampling unit) between taxa rather than on b diversity (turnover of species assemblages between sampling units). Such approaches ignore the potential role of habitat heterogeneity that, depending on the taxonomic group considered, can greatly enhance b diversity at local and landscape scales. We compared a and b diversity of four plant groups (trees, lianas, terrestrial herbs, epiphytic liverworts) and eight animal groups (birds, butterflies, lower canopy ants, lower canopy beetles, dung beetles, bees, wasps, and the parasitoids of the latter two) at 15 ...

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“…Of previous analyses of species richness and co-occurrence patterns (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16), umbrella taxa (17), and complementarity among taxa (18) at a variety of geographic scales, few (4) have systematically evaluated the effectiveness of typical schemes for identifying surrogate species from a practical standpoint. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the utility and limitations of commonly used flagship, umbrella, and indicator schemes by evaluating patterns of spatial cooccurrence between surrogate species and regional biota in three conservation databases representing different spatial scales and regions of concern.…”

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confidence: 99%

Umbrellas and flagships: Efficient conservation surrogates or expensive mistakes?

Andelman

Fagan

2000

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

588

398

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The use of umbrella and flagship species as surrogates for regional biota whose spatial distributions are poorly known is a popular conservation strategy. Yet many assumptions underlying the choice of surrogate species remain untested. By using biodiversity databases containing spatial incidence data for species of concern for (i) the southern California coastal sage scrub habitat, (ii) the Columbia Plateau ecoregion, and (iii) the continental United States, we evaluate the potential effectiveness of a range of conservation surrogate schemes (e.g., big carnivores, charismatic species, keystone species, wide-ranging species), asking how many species potentially are protected by each scheme and at what cost in each habitat area. For all three databases, we find that none of the surrogate schemes we evaluated performs significantly better than do a comparable number of species randomly selected from the database. Although some surrogate species may have considerable publicity value, based on the databases we analyzed, representing diverse taxa on three different geographic scales, we find that the utility of umbrella and flagship species as surrogates for regional biodiversity may be limited.F or many regions of the world, scientists lack detailed distribution and abundance data for most species of conservation concern. Nevertheless, decisions about which lands to allocate for conservation often cannot be postponed until more data are available, even though additional data might facilitate the identification of more economically efficient reserve networks (1, 2). In such cases, conservationists must seek effective shortcuts to conserve biodiversity. One popular shortcut is to focus conservation planning efforts on a relatively small number of focal or surrogate species (3-5) and assume that if we protect the surrogates we will also do an adequate job of protecting much of the regional biota. Three classes of surrogate species schemes are prevalent: (i) flagships (i.e., charismatic species that attract public support); (ii) umbrellas (i.e., species requiring such large areas of habitat that their protection might automatically protect other species); and (iii) biodiversity indicators (i.e., sets of species or taxa whose presence may indicate areas of high species richness) (5,6).Although surrogate schemes are often used to set conservation priorities (7,8), the choice of particular surrogates has largely been ad hoc (9), and assumptions underlying those choices usually are implicit, not explicit. Of previous analyses of species richness and co-occurrence patterns (10-16), umbrella taxa (17), and complementarity among taxa (18) at a variety of geographic scales, few (4) have systematically evaluated the effectiveness of typical schemes for identifying surrogate species from a practical standpoint. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the utility and limitations of commonly used flagship, umbrella, and indicator schemes by evaluating patterns of spatial cooccurrence between surrogate species and regional biota in thre...

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Spatial Modeling of Butterfly Species Richness Using Tiger Beetles (Cicindelidae) as a Bioindicator Taxon

Cited by 81 publications

References 40 publications

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Alpha and beta diversity of plants and animals along a tropical land‐use gradient

Umbrellas and flagships: Efficient conservation surrogates or expensive mistakes?

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