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Uhey DA, Hofstetter RW, Earl S, Holden J, Sprague T, Rowe H. Living on the edge: The sensitivity of arthropods to development and climate along an urban-wildland interface in the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0297227. [PMID: 38635739 PMCID: PMC11025936 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 04/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Preservation of undeveloped land near urban areas is a common conservation practice. However, ecological processes may still be affected by adjacent anthropogenic activities. Ground-dwelling arthropods are a diverse group of organisms that are critical to ecological processes such as nutrient cycling, which are sensitive to anthropogenic activities. Here, we study arthropod dynamics in a preserve located in a heavily urbanized part of the Sonoran Desert, Arizona, U.S.. We compared arthropod biodiversity and community composition at ten locations, four paired sites representing the urban edge and one pair in the Preserve interior. In total, we captured and identified 25,477 arthropod individuals belonging to 287 lowest practical taxa (LPT) over eight years of sampling. This included 192 LPTs shared between interior and edge sites, with 44 LPTs occurring exclusively in interior sites and 48 LPTs occurring exclusively in edge sites. We found two site pairs had higher arthropod richness on the preserve interior, but results for evenness were mixed among site pairs. Compositionally, the interior and edge sites were more than 40% dissimilar, driven by species turnover. Importantly, we found that some differences were only apparent seasonally; for example edge sites had more fire ants than interior sites only during the summer. We also found that temperature and precipitation were strong predictors of arthropod composition. Our study highlights that climate can interact with urban edge effects on arthropod biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek A. Uhey
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona
| | | | - Stevan Earl
- Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
| | - Jerry Holden
- McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Citizen Science Program, Scottsdale, Arizona
| | | | - Helen Rowe
- McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Citizen Science Program, Scottsdale, Arizona
- School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona
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Barrile GM, Chalfoun AD, Estes‐Zumpf WA, Walters AW. Wildfire influences individual growth and breeding dispersal, but not survival and recruitment in a montane amphibian. Ecosphere 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel M. Barrile
- Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Program in Ecology, Department of Zoology and Physiology University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming USA
| | - Anna D. Chalfoun
- U.S. Geological Survey, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology and Program in Ecology University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming USA
| | | | - Annika W. Walters
- U.S. Geological Survey, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology and Program in Ecology University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming USA
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Uhey DA, Bowker MA, Haubensak KA, Auty D, Vissa S, Hofstetter RW. Habitat Type Affects Elevational Patterns in Ground-dwelling Arthropod Communities. JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE (ONLINE) 2022; 22:9. [PMID: 35983692 DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/ieac046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Understanding factors that drive biodiversity distributions is central in ecology and critical to conservation. Elevational gradients are useful for studying the effects of climate on biodiversity but it can be difficult to disentangle climate effects from resource differences among habitat types. Here we compare elevational patterns and influences of environmental variables on ground-dwelling arthropods in open- and forested-habitats. We examine these comparisons in three arthropod functional groups (detritivores, predators, and herbivores) and two taxonomic groups (beetles and arachnids). We sampled twelve sites spanning 1,132 m elevation and four life zones, collecting 4,834 individual ground arthropods identified to 123 taxa. Elevation was a strong predicator for arthropod composition, however, patterns differed among functional and taxonomic groups and individual species between open- and forested-habitats. Beetles, arachnids, and predators decreased with elevation in open habitats but increased in forests showing a significant interaction between habitat type and elevation. Detritivores and herbivores showed no elevational patterns. We found 11 arthropod taxa with linear elevational patterns, seven that peaked in abundance at high elevations, and four taxa at low elevations. We also found eight taxa with parabolic elevational patterns that peaked in abundance at mid-elevations. We found that vegetation composition and productivity had stronger explanatory power for arthropod composition in forested habitats, while ground cover was a stronger predictor in open habitats. Temperature and precipitation were important in both habitats. Our findings demonstrate that relationships between animal diversity and elevation can be mediated by habitat type, suggesting that physiological restraints and resource limitations work differently between habitat types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek A Uhey
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Matthew A Bowker
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Karen A Haubensak
- Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, 617 North Beaver Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - David Auty
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Sneha Vissa
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
| | - Richard W Hofstetter
- School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 East Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
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Perry KI, Sivakoff FS, Wallin KF, Wenzel JW, Herms DA. Forest disturbance and arthropods: small‐scale canopy and understory disturbances alter movement of mobile arthropods. Ecosphere 2021. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3771] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Kayla I. Perry
- Department of Entomology The Ohio State University 1680 Madison Avenue Wooster Ohio 44691 USA
| | - Frances S. Sivakoff
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology The Ohio State University 1465 Mount Vernon Avenue Marion Ohio 43302 USA
| | - Kimberly F. Wallin
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont Aiken Center Burlington Vermont 05405 USA
- USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station Aiken Burlington Vermont 05405 USA
| | - John W. Wenzel
- Powdermill Nature Reserve Carnegie Museum of Natural History 1795 Route 381 Rector Pennsylvania 15677 USA
| | - Daniel A. Herms
- Department of Entomology The Ohio State University 1680 Madison Avenue Wooster Ohio 44691 USA
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Responses of Ground-Dwelling Spider (Arachnida: Araneae) Communities to Wildfire in Three Habitats in Northern New Mexico, USA, with Notes on Mites and Harvestmen (Arachnida: Acari, Opiliones). DIVERSITY-BASEL 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/d12100396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Catastrophic wildfire is increasingly common in forests of the western United States because climate change is increasing ambient temperatures and periods of drought. In 2011, the Las Conchas wildfire burned in the Santa Fe National Forest of New Mexico, including portions of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests, and grasslands in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a large, high-elevation volcanic caldera. Following the fire, Caldera staff began monitoring abiotic, plant, and animal responses. In this study, ground-dwelling arachnids were collected in pitfall traps in burned and unburned habitats from 2011–2015. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) mostly at the genus level with some higher taxon levels showed significant fire, year, and interaction effects. Abundance was at or near unburned levels by 2014, but species composition changed in burned areas. Pardosa and Haplodrassus were dominant genera across habitats. Linyphiids were strong indicators of unburned sites. Harvestmen were among the dominant species in the forest habitats, and erythraeid mites were abundant in the burned ponderosa pine forest and the grassland. Years were not significantly autocorrelated, unsurprising given the interannual variation in precipitation in this generally arid region. Although fire is a common feature of these habitats, future fires may be outside of historical patterns, preventing spider communities from re-establishing fully.
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Chase JM, Jeliazkov A, Ladouceur E, Viana DS. Biodiversity conservation through the lens of metacommunity ecology. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2020; 1469:86-104. [PMID: 32406120 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 04/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Metacommunity ecology combines local (e.g., environmental filtering and biotic interactions) and regional (e.g., dispersal and heterogeneity) processes to understand patterns of species abundance, occurrence, composition, and diversity across scales of space and time. As such, it has a great potential to generalize and synthesize our understanding of many ecological problems. Here, we give an overview of how a metacommunity perspective can provide useful insights for conservation biology, which aims to understand and mitigate the effects of anthropogenic drivers that decrease population sizes, increase extinction probabilities, and threaten biodiversity. We review four general metacommunity processes-environmental filtering, biotic interactions, dispersal, and ecological drift-and discuss how key anthropogenic drivers (e.g., habitat loss and fragmentation, and nonnative species) can alter these processes. We next describe how the patterns of interest in metacommunities (abundance, occupancy, and diversity) map onto issues at the heart of conservation biology, and describe cases where conservation biology benefits by taking a scale-explicit metacommunity perspective. We conclude with some ways forward for including metacommunity perspectives into ideas of ecosystem functioning and services, as well as approaches to habitat management, preservation, and restoration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan M Chase
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Computer Sciences, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
| | - Alienor Jeliazkov
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Computer Sciences, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
| | - Emma Ladouceur
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Computer Sciences, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.,Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Duarte S Viana
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany.,Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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