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The implementation of habitat destruction methods that promote native survival under invasion. Biol Invasions 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s10530-022-02985-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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Hung KLJ, Sandoval SS, Ascher JS, Holway DA. Joint Impacts of Drought and Habitat Fragmentation on Native Bee Assemblages in a California Biodiversity Hotspot. INSECTS 2021; 12:insects12020135. [PMID: 33562453 PMCID: PMC7914906 DOI: 10.3390/insects12020135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2020] [Revised: 01/28/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2021] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Simple Summary Global climate change is causing more frequent and severe droughts, which can have serious impacts on our environment. To examine how a severe drought in 2014 impacted wild bees in scrub habitats of San Diego, California, we compared bee samples collected before and after the drought. We also investigated whether habitat loss and fragmentation worsened the impacts of drought on wild bees by comparing samples collected from large natural reserves to those from small fragments of scrub habitat embedded in urban areas. Samples collected after the drought contained fewer bee species and fewer individual bees of most species, indicating that bee populations suffered losses during the drought. However, after-drought samples contained large numbers of Dialictus sweat bees, indicating that some bee species benefitted from environmental conditions present during the drought. The impact of drought on the composition of bee samples was three fold higher than the impact of habitat fragmentation, and habitat fragmentation did not appear to have exacerbated the impacts of drought. Our findings highlight the importance of studying how impacts of climate change compare with impacts of habitat loss and other threats to biodiversity conservation. Abstract Global climate change is causing more frequent and severe droughts, which could have serious repercussions for the maintenance of biodiversity. Here, we compare native bee assemblages collected via bowl traps before and after a severe drought event in 2014 in San Diego, California, and examine the relative magnitude of impacts from drought in fragmented habitat patches versus unfragmented natural reserves. Bee richness and diversity were higher in assemblages surveyed before the drought compared to those surveyed after the drought. However, bees belonging to the Lasioglossum subgenus Dialictus increased in abundance after the drought, driving increased representation by small-bodied, primitively eusocial, and generalist bees in post-drought assemblages. Conversely, among non-Dialictus bees, post-drought years were associated with decreased abundance and reduced representation by eusocial species. Drought effects were consistently greater in reserves, which supported more bee species, than in fragments, suggesting that fragmentation either had redundant impacts with drought, or ameliorated effects of drought by enhancing bees’ access to floral resources in irrigated urban environments. Shifts in assemblage composition associated with drought were three times greater compared to those associated with habitat fragmentation, highlighting the importance of understanding the impacts of large-scale climatic events relative to those associated with land use change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keng-Lou James Hung
- Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California—San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; (S.S.S.); (D.A.H.)
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada
- Correspondence:
| | - Sara S. Sandoval
- Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California—San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; (S.S.S.); (D.A.H.)
| | - John S. Ascher
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore;
| | - David A. Holway
- Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California—San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; (S.S.S.); (D.A.H.)
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Willmott NJ, Henneken J, Selleck CJ, Jones TM. Artificial light at night alters life history in a nocturnal orb-web spider. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5599. [PMID: 30324009 PMCID: PMC6183507 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2018] [Accepted: 08/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing rapidly around the world. The potential physiological costs of this night lighting are often evident in life history shifts. We investigated the effects of chronic night-time exposure to ecologically relevant levels of LED lighting on the life history traits of the nocturnal Australian garden orb-web spider (Eriophora biapicata). We reared spiders under a 12-h day and either a 12-h natural darkness (∼0 lux) or a 12-h dim light (∼20 lux) night and assessed juvenile development, growth and mortality, and adult reproductive success and survival. We found that exposure to ALAN accelerated juvenile development, resulting in spiders progressing through fewer moults, and maturing earlier and at a smaller size. There was a significant increase in daily juvenile mortality for spiders reared under 20 lux, but the earlier maturation resulted in a comparable number of 0 lux and 20 lux spiders reaching maturity. Exposure to ALAN also considerably reduced the number of eggs produced by females, and this was largely associated with ALAN-induced reductions in body size. Despite previous observations of increased fitness for some orb-web spiders in urban areas and near night lighting, it appears that exposure to artificial night lighting may lead to considerable developmental costs. Future research will need to consider the detrimental effects of ALAN combined with foraging benefits when studying nocturnal insectivores that forage around artificial lights.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikolas J Willmott
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Jessica Henneken
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Caitlin J Selleck
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Therésa M Jones
- School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Fusco NA, Zhao A, Munshi-South J. Urban forests sustain diverse carrion beetle assemblages in the New York City metropolitan area. PeerJ 2017; 5:e3088. [PMID: 28316891 PMCID: PMC5356479 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2016] [Accepted: 02/14/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Urbanization is an increasingly pervasive form of land transformation that reduces biodiversity of many taxonomic groups. Beetles exhibit a broad range of responses to urbanization, likely due to the high functional diversity in this order. Carrion beetles (Order: Coleoptera, Family: Silphidae) provide an important ecosystem service by promoting decomposition of small-bodied carcasses, and have previously been found to decline due to forest fragmentation caused by urbanization. However, New York City (NYC) and many other cities have fairly large continuous forest patches that support dense populations of small mammals, and thus may harbor relatively robust carrion beetle communities in city parks. In this study, we investigated carrion beetle community composition, abundance and diversity in forest patches along an urban-to-rural gradient spanning the urban core (Central Park, NYC) to outlying rural areas. We conducted an additional study comparing the current carrion beetle community at a single suburban site in Westchester County, NY that was intensively surveyed in the early 1970’s. We collected a total of 2,170 carrion beetles from eight species at 13 sites along this gradient. We report little to no effect of urbanization on carrion beetle diversity, although two species were not detected in any urban parks. Nicrophorus tomentosus was the most abundant species at all sites and seemed to dominate the urban communities, potentially due to its generalist habits and shallower burying depth compared to the other beetles surveyed. Variation between species body size, habitat specialization, and % forest area surrounding the surveyed sites also did not influence carrion beetle communities. Lastly, we found few significant differences in relative abundance of 10 different carrion beetle species between 1974 and 2015 at a single site in Westchester County, NY, although two of the rare species in the early 1970’s were not detected in 2015. These results indicate that NYC’s forested parks have the potential to sustain carrion beetle communities and the ecosystem services they provide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole A Fusco
- Louis Calder Center-Biological Field Station, Fordham University , Armonk , NY , USA
| | - Anthony Zhao
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland at College Park , College Park , MD , USA
| | - Jason Munshi-South
- Louis Calder Center-Biological Field Station, Fordham University , Armonk , NY , USA
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Hanna C, Naughton I, Boser C, Holway D. Testing the effects of ant invasions on non-ant arthropods with high-resolution taxonomic data. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2015; 25:1841-1850. [PMID: 26591450 DOI: 10.1890/14-0952.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Invasions give rise to a wide range of ecological effects. Many invasions proceed without noticeable impacts on the resident biota, whereas others shift species composition and even alter ecosystem function. Ant invasions generate a broad spectrum of ecological effects, but controversy surrounds the extent of these impacts, especially with regard to how other arthropods are affected. This uncertainty in part results from the widespread use of low-resolution taxonomic data, which can mask the presence of other introduced species and make it difficult to isolate the effects of ant invasions on native species. Here, we use high-resolution taxonomic data to examine the effects of Argentine ant invasions on arthropods on Santa Cruz Island, California. We sampled arthropods in eight pairs of invaded and uninvaded plots and then collaborated with taxonomic experts to identify taxa in four focal groups: spiders, bark lice, beetles, and ants. Spiders, bark lice, and beetles made up ~40% of the 9868 non-ant arthropod individuals sampled; the majority of focal group arthropods were putatively native taxa. Although our results indicate strong negative effects of the Argentine ant on native ants, as is well documented, invaded and uninvaded plots did not differ with respect to the richness, abundance, or species composition of spiders, bark lice, and beetles. One common, introduced species of bark louse was more common in uninvaded plots than in invaded plots, and including this species into our analyses changed the relationship between bark louse richness vs. L. humile abundance from no relationship to a significant negative relationship. This case illustrates how failure to differentiate native and introduced taxa can lead to erroneous conclusions about the effects of ant invasions. Our results caution against unqualified assertions about the effects of ant invasions on non-ant arthropods, and more generally demonstrate that accurate assessments of invasion impacts depend on adequate information about species identity.
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Lowe EC, Wilder SM, Hochuli DF. Urbanisation at multiple scales is associated with larger size and higher fecundity of an orb-weaving spider. PLoS One 2014; 9:e105480. [PMID: 25140809 PMCID: PMC4139358 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2014] [Accepted: 07/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Urbanisation modifies landscapes at multiple scales, impacting the local climate and changing the extent and quality of natural habitats. These habitat modifications significantly alter species distributions and can result in increased abundance of select species which are able to exploit novel ecosystems. We examined the effect of urbanisation at local and landscape scales on the body size, lipid reserves and ovary weight of Nephila plumipes, an orb weaving spider commonly found in both urban and natural landscapes. Habitat variables at landscape, local and microhabitat scales were integrated to create a series of indexes that quantified the degree of urbanisation at each site. Spider size was negatively associated with vegetation cover at a landscape scale, and positively associated with hard surfaces and anthropogenic disturbance on a local and microhabitat scale. Ovary weight increased in higher socioeconomic areas and was positively associated with hard surfaces and leaf litter at a local scale. The larger size and increased reproductive capacity of N.plumipes in urban areas show that some species benefit from the habitat changes associated with urbanisation. Our results also highlight the importance of incorporating environmental variables from multiple scales when quantifying species responses to landscape modification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth C. Lowe
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Shawn M. Wilder
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Dieter F. Hochuli
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Bernal V, Espadaler X. Invasive and socially parasitic ants are good bioindicators of habitat quality in Mediterranean forest remnants in northeast Spain. Ecol Res 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s11284-013-1083-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Jackson HB, Zeccarias A, Cronin JT. Mechanisms driving the density-area relationship in a saproxylic beetle. Oecologia 2013; 173:1237-47. [PMID: 23812109 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-013-2697-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2013] [Accepted: 05/28/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Mechanisms underlying density-area relationships (correlations between population density and patch size) have rarely been tested experimentally. It is often assumed that higher density on large patches is evidence that large patches are high quality (i.e. have greater survival and reproduction), but the same pattern could result from disproportionate movement from small to large patches. Movement-based and within-patch processes must be experimentally separated to show that large patches are indeed of higher quality, but few studies have done so. We experimentally tested movement-based and within-patch hypotheses to explain the positive density-area relationship observed for a saproxylic (decayed wood-dependent) beetle, Odontotaenius disjunctus Illiger (Coleoptera: Passalidae). In separate experiments we quantified (1) immigration into and (2) finite growth rate within logs (=patches) that varied in size and density of conspecific beetles. A log was 11.7-fold [95 % confidence interval (CI) 3.4-40.8) and 10.5-fold (95 % CI 2.7-40.9) more likely to contain a new immigrant if it was large or contained a conspecific pair of beetles, respectively. Neither log size nor conspecific density was associated with changes in finite growth rate that would lead to higher density: decreased log size and increased conspecific density reduced finite growth rate in direct proportion to the loss in available resources per mating pair. We conclude that movement behavior rather than habitat quality is responsible for the positive density-area relationship for O. disjunctus. An important implication of our results is that population density is an imperfect indicator of habitat quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather B Jackson
- Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, 107 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA,
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Knapp CR, Perez-Heydrich C. Using non-conspicuous metrics to examine selected impacts of disturbance on a long-lived reptile. ENDANGER SPECIES RES 2012. [DOI: 10.3354/esr00424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
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Jakob EM, Porter AH, Ginsberg H, Bednarski JV, Houser J. A 4-year study of invasive and native spider populations in Maine. CAN J ZOOL 2011. [DOI: 10.1139/z11-050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Invasive spiders pose potential threats to native spiders. In 2002, the European spider Linyphia triangularis (Clerck, 1757) (Araneae: Linyphiidae) was discovered in all but one county in Maine. At Acadia National Park, we conducted a 4-year study of L. triangularis and three native linyphiid species of a similar size ( Frontinella communis (Hentz, 1850), Pityohyphantes subarcticus Chamberlin and Ivie, 1943, and Neriene radiata (Walckenaer, 1842)). Using line-transect surveys, we measured population densities in coastal and forest habitat. The density of L. triangularis varied across years but was always significantly higher on the coast than in the forest. In contrast, only one native species was present on the coast and at very low numbers. Coastal L. triangularis were larger and in better condition than those in the forest, and numbers and biomass of insect prey were also higher on the coast. In 2 years, we also conducted transects at a second coastal location in Maine where the invader was at low density. At that site, native densities were substantially higher than at either Acadia site. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that L. triangularis is reducing populations of native spiders. Companion studies suggest that L. triangularis negatively impacts natives by usurping both web sites and webs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth M. Jakob
- Department of Psychology, Tobin Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Adam H. Porter
- Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, Fernald Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Howard Ginsberg
- USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Coastal Field Station, Woodward Hall-PLS, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA
| | - Julie V. Bednarski
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Morrill Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Jeremy Houser
- Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, Morrill Hall, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
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Frank T, Aeschbacher S, Barone M, Künzle I, Lethmayer C, Mosimann C. Beneficial Arthropods Respond Differentially to Wildflower Areas of Different Age. ANN ZOOL FENN 2009. [DOI: 10.5735/086.046.0607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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