Vegetation structure determines insect herbivore diversity in seasonally dry tropical forests

Leal, Camila Rabelo Oliveira; Silva, Jhonathan O.; Sousa-Souto, Leandro; Neves, Frederico S.

doi:10.1007/s10841-016-9930-6

Cited by 37 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…It has been documented in some studies that terrestrial arthropod abundances declined as disturbance increased (Kimberling et al, 2001;M'Rabet et al, 2007). However, other studies have found that disturbance may lead to an increase in species richness and abundances of arthropods (Brunbjerg et al, 2015;Oliveira Leal et al, 2016). These studies in general were focused at the family or order taxonomic level; thus, comparisons with the results obtained in our study need to be made with caution.…”

contrasting

confidence: 54%

Do disturbed environments affect density of the tunnel-web spider Acanthogonatus centralis (Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae) from native grasslands in Argentina?

Pompozzi¹,

Schwerdt‍²,

Copperi³

et al. 2019

Turk J Zool

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It has been recognized that disturbance is an important factor affecting community composition and biodiversity in natural ecosystems (Brunbjerg et al., 2015). Agriculture, urbanization, and tourism are disturbances that considerably alter local landscapes and climates and are increasing in intensity, constituting some of the greatest threats to ecosystems (Brooks et al., 2006). These threats often lead to a reduction in vegetation cover, modifications in habitat complexity, heat retention, and landscape connectivity (Bierwagen, 2007; Cadenasso et al., 2007; Yuan and Bauer, 2007). Moreover, they have an important effect on biodiversity, driving major changes in species abundances and distributions (McKinney, 2008). The Ventania hill system is a unique upland ecosystem in central Argentina. In addition, it is one of the last relicts of relatively well-conserved areas of Pampean grassland where several endemic taxa and unique habitat types can be found (Zalba and Cozzani, 2004; Delucchi, 2006). Unfortunately, this hill system shows many ecosystem disturbances: overgrazing by large and exotic herbivores including feral horses and livestock (Loydi and Distel, 2010; Scorolli and López-Cazorla, 2010); invasion of pine and other exotic plants (Zalba and Villamil, 2002; de Villalobos et al., 2011); tourism and urbanization (Gil et al., 2014). It has been demonstrated that spiders are good candidates for studies related to human impact and conservation, and may be useful as biological indicators for particular ecosystems (Scott et al., 2006; Ghione et al., 2013; Schwerdt et al., 2017). Arguably, knowing the density and distributional patterns of a common spider species could be very important in elucidating the potential of the species as a biological indicator for assessing the conservation degree of native grassland. Nemesiidae spiders are widely distributed across the tropical and subtropical regions of South America, but data about their biology and ecology is scarce, with only notes and some particular ecological studies available from a few species from

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contrasting

confidence: 54%

Do disturbed environments affect density of the tunnel-web spider Acanthogonatus centralis (Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae) from native grasslands in Argentina?

Pompozzi¹,

Schwerdt‍²,

Copperi³

et al. 2019

Turk J Zool

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“…Tropical zones provide an optimal environment for studies on specificity patterns of ecological interactions (Novotný & Basset, ). The Neotropical savanna (Brazilian Cerrado), for example, is a biome with a very diverse vegetation (Simon et al ., ), which influences the distribution of phytophagous insects and their guilds (Leal et al ., ; Ferreira et al ., ). Despite this variety of resources to be explored, the plant community of Neotropical savannas shows high levels of sclerophylly (Ribeiro & Fernandes, ; Silva & Batalha, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Comparing the plant–herbivore network topology of different insect guilds in Neotropical savannas

Oliveira

Faria

Borges

et al. 2019

Ecological Entomology

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1. Herbivorous insects can be classified into several trophic guilds with different levels of specialisation on their host plants, which may influence the topological structure of their trophic networks. The present study tested the hypothesis that the structure of plant-herbivore networks differs between guilds of galling, sucking, and chewing insects.2. Six areas of Neotropical savannas were studied in two localities in the North of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In each area, interactions between plant and insect species were used to build networks for different guilds.3. In total, 18 plant-herbivore networks were built, comprising 317 insect morphospecies, 50 plant species, and 489 distinct interactions. The networks were characterised using species richness and different network topological measures (connectance, modularity, nestedness, and specialisation).4. The results obtained showed no difference in species richness, network size, and connectance between distinct insect herbivore guilds. However, it was found that modularity was higher for exophagous than galling insect networks and nestedness was higher for chewers than for other guilds. On the other hand, galling insect networks showed higher specialisation than exophagous insect networks, and sucking insect networks were more specialised than chewing insect networks.5. The findings of the present study indicate that, although species richness did not differ between insect guilds of herbivores in Neotropical savannas, the topological structure of networks is sensitive to biological and ecological differences between these herbivore groups. The present study stands out as the first to systematically compare the network structure of different herbivore guilds in Neotropical savannas.

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“…Gove et al 2005, Delsinne et al 2007, Zelikova and Breed 2008, Neves et al 2010, Neves et al 2013, Sousa-Souto et al 2016, with few studies examining larger spatial scales (but see Delsinne et al 2010, Silvestre et al 2012, and Marques and Schoereder 2014. High plant richness and density, which are good proxies for habitat heterogeneity (Ribas et al 2003, Neves et al 2014, Leal et al 2016, likely influence insect communities since more heterogeneous habitats have been assumed to provide greater resource availability and variety (Stein et al 2014, Leal et al 2016. Ant community studies in TDFs have explored the effects of environmental heterogeneity on species richness at local scales, mainly in terms of tree richness and density (Neves et al 2010, Sousa-Souto et al 2016, but general patterns of ant community responses to these environmental variables have not been reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant diversity in Brazilian tropical dry forests across multiple vegetation domains

Silva

Souza

Solar

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Understanding the environmental drivers of biodiversity persistence and community organization in natural ecosystems is of great importance for planning the conservation of those ecosystems. This comprehension is even more important in severely threatened ecosystems. In this context, we analyzed ant communities in tropical dry forests (TDFs) in Brazil. These forests are embedded within other biomes, such as Cerrado and Caatinga. In this study, we asked whether (i) ant species richness and composition changes between TDFs within different vegetation domains; (ii) whether ant species richness and b-diversity increase north-to-south, possibly related to changes in tree richness and tree density; and (iii) species replacement contributes relatively more to b-diversity than does nestedness. We found that species composition is unique to each TDF within different biomes, and that species richness and b-diversity differ among the vegetation domains, being smaller in the Caatinga. We also found that replacement contributes most to b-diversity, although this contribution is lower in Caatinga than in Cerrado. We show that regional context is the main driver of species diversity, which is likely to be driven by both historical and ecological mechanisms. By analyzing large spatial scale variation in TDF environmental characteristics, we were able to evaluate how ant diversity changes along an environmental gradient. The high levels of species replacement and unique species composition of each region indicates that, to fully conserve TDFs, we need to have various conservation areas distributed across the entire range of vegetation domains in which these forests can be found. Thus, we demonstrate that a landscape-wise planning is urgent and necessary in order to preserve tropical dry forests.

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Vegetation structure determines insect herbivore diversity in seasonally dry tropical forests

Cited by 37 publications

References 51 publications

Do disturbed environments affect density of the tunnel-web spider Acanthogonatus centralis (Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae) from native grasslands in Argentina?

Do disturbed environments affect density of the tunnel-web spider Acanthogonatus centralis (Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae) from native grasslands in Argentina?

Comparing the plant–herbivore network topology of different insect guilds in Neotropical savannas

Ant diversity in Brazilian tropical dry forests across multiple vegetation domains

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