Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Distribution of Ground-dwelling Arthropods in Tropical Countryside Habitats

Distribution of Ground-dwelling Arthropods in Tropical Countryside Habitats The future of biodiversity depends to a great extent on the conservation value of human-dominated and semi-natural habitats. In a mixed agricultural landscape in southern Costa Rica, we compared the richness and composition of terrestrial arthropod communities occurring in three habitat types along a gradient of increasing disturbance: in a large (227 ha) forest fragment, small (3.8–5.3 ha) forest fragments, and sun coffee (1–3 ha) plantations. Pitfall trap sampling revealed decreasing morphospecies richness with increasing disturbance. Moreover, the number of species unique to a habitat type was lower in the smaller forest fragments and the coffee sites. We found significant changes in community composition associated with habitat at the levels of order (all arthropods), family (beetles), and morphospecies (carabids, scarabs, and ants). We identified no significant correlation of richness among the taxonomic orders, meaning these taxa are unable to serve as biodiversity indicators (for each other or for all arthropods) in the study region. Arthropod diversity presently found in countryside habitats is certainly lower, and perhaps less sustainable, than that of the extensive forested habitats fragmented < 40 years ago. It nonetheless remains substantial, suggesting a conservation opportunity in human-dominated landscapes of the tropics. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Insect Conservation Springer Journals

Distribution of Ground-dwelling Arthropods in Tropical Countryside Habitats

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/distribution-of-ground-dwelling-arthropods-in-tropical-countryside-DLP1Z09aE0

References (55)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Subject
Life Sciences; Human Genetics; Evolutionary Biology; Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
ISSN
1366-638X
eISSN
1572-9753
DOI
10.1023/A:1020905307244
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The future of biodiversity depends to a great extent on the conservation value of human-dominated and semi-natural habitats. In a mixed agricultural landscape in southern Costa Rica, we compared the richness and composition of terrestrial arthropod communities occurring in three habitat types along a gradient of increasing disturbance: in a large (227 ha) forest fragment, small (3.8–5.3 ha) forest fragments, and sun coffee (1–3 ha) plantations. Pitfall trap sampling revealed decreasing morphospecies richness with increasing disturbance. Moreover, the number of species unique to a habitat type was lower in the smaller forest fragments and the coffee sites. We found significant changes in community composition associated with habitat at the levels of order (all arthropods), family (beetles), and morphospecies (carabids, scarabs, and ants). We identified no significant correlation of richness among the taxonomic orders, meaning these taxa are unable to serve as biodiversity indicators (for each other or for all arthropods) in the study region. Arthropod diversity presently found in countryside habitats is certainly lower, and perhaps less sustainable, than that of the extensive forested habitats fragmented < 40 years ago. It nonetheless remains substantial, suggesting a conservation opportunity in human-dominated landscapes of the tropics.

Journal

Journal of Insect Conservation – Springer Journals

Published: Oct 12, 2004

There are no references for this article.