A stochastic model for integrating changes in species richness and community similarity across spatial scales

Abstract Habitat loss and landscape fragmentation are often associated with changes in biological communities at different spatial scales. Our goal in this study was to identify fragment characteristics and environmental variables linked to palm species richness, abundance and community similarity at local and landscape spatial scales and to contrast these patterns between adults and juveniles. We sampled palm communities in 22 fragments of Chocó rainforest in and around the Mache-Chindul Ecological Reserve in north-western Ecuador, where we recorded 9991 individuals of 23 palm species. At the landscape scale, fragment size and surrounding forest cover were not associated with species richness or abundance for either adults or juveniles. However, community similarity of juveniles was related to surrounding forest cover and the abundance of juveniles and adults increased with elevation. At the local scale, adults and juveniles differed in their relationships to environmental variables and distance to fragment edge: juveniles showed reduced species richness and different community composition near fragment edges compared with interior habitat, but adults did not. These results provide baseline information on palm communities in a poorly studied conservation hotspot and highlight the importance of considering multiple spatial scales and life stages in studies of habitat fragmentation.

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Predicting Mammal Species Richness from Remotely Sensed Data at Different Spatial Scales

The Open Remote Sensing Journal ◽

10.2174/1875413900801010007 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 7-16

Author(s):

Boniface Oluoch Oindo

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Remotely Sensed ◽

Remotely Sensed Data ◽

Mammal Species

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Complex community responses underpin biodiversity change following invasion

Biological Invasions ◽

10.1007/s10530-021-02559-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alessandra R. Kortz ◽

Anne E. Magurran

Keyword(s):

Invasive Species ◽

Species Richness ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Species Abundance ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Mechanistic Approach ◽

Α Diversity ◽

Biodiversity Change ◽

Insight Into

AbstractHow do invasive species change native biodiversity? One reason why this long-standing question remains challenging to answer could be because the main focus of the invasion literature has been on shifts in species richness (a measure of α-diversity). As the underlying components of community structure—intraspecific aggregation, interspecific density and the species abundance distribution (SAD)—are potentially impacted in different ways during invasion, trends in species richness provide only limited insight into the mechanisms leading to biodiversity change. In addition, these impacts can be manifested in distinct ways at different spatial scales. Here we take advantage of the new Measurement of Biodiversity (MoB) framework to reanalyse data collected in an invasion front in the Brazilian Cerrado biodiversity hotspot. We show that, by using the MoB multi-scale approach, we are able to link reductions in species richness in invaded sites to restructuring in the SAD. This restructuring takes the form of lower evenness in sites invaded by pines relative to sites without pines. Shifts in aggregation also occur. There is a clear signature of spatial scale in biodiversity change linked to the presence of an invasive species. These results demonstrate how the MoB approach can play an important role in helping invasion ecologists, field biologists and conservation managers move towards a more mechanistic approach to detecting and interpreting changes in ecological systems following invasion.

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How wide to cast the net? Cross-taxon congruence of species richness, community similarity and indicator taxa in ponds

Freshwater Biology ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2427.2006.01505.x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 578-590 ◽

Cited By ~ 94

Author(s):

DAVID T. BILTON ◽

LOUISE MCABENDROTH ◽

ALAN BEDFORD ◽

PAUL M. RAMSAY

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Community Similarity ◽

Indicator Taxa

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Altitudinal Vascular Plant Richness and Climate Change in the Alpine Zone of the Lefka Ori, Crete

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13010022 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 22

Author(s):

George Kazakis ◽

Dany Ghosn ◽

Ilektra Remoundou ◽

Panagiotis Nyktas ◽

Michael A. Talias ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Species Richness ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Vascular Plant ◽

Monitoring Network ◽

Mediterranean Area ◽

Mean Annual Temperature ◽

High Mountain ◽

Species Loss ◽

Total Species Richness

High mountain zones in the Mediterranean area are considered more vulnerable in comparison to lower altitudes zones. Lefka Ori massif, a global biodiversity hotspot on the island of Crete is part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) monitoring network. The paper examines species and vegetation changes with respect to climate and altitude over a seven-year period (2001–2008) at a range of spatial scales (10 m Summit Area Section-SAS, 5 m SAS, 1 m2) using the GLORIA protocol in a re-survey of four mountain summits (1664 m–2339 m). The absolute species loss between 2001–2008 was 4, among which were 2 endemics. At the scale of individual summits, the highest changes were recorded at the lower summits with absolute species loss 4 in both cases. Paired t-tests for the total species richness at 1 m2 between 2001–2008, showed no significant differences. No significant differences were found at the individual summit level neither at the 5 m SAS or the 10 m SAS. Time series analysis reveals that soil mean annual temperature is increasing at all summits. Linear regressions with the climatic variables show a positive effect on species richness at the 5 m and 10 m SAS as well as species changes at the 5 m SAS. In particular, June mean temperature has the highest predictive power for species changes at the 5 m SAS. Recorded changes in species richness point more towards fluctuations within a plant community’s normal range, although there seem to be more significant diversity changes in higher summits related to aspects. Our work provides additional evidence to assess the effects of climate change on plant diversity in Mediterranean mountains and particularly those of islands which remain understudied.

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Body size, reef area and temperature predict global reef-fish species richness across spatial scales

Global Ecology and Biogeography ◽

10.1111/geb.12851 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 315-327 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

D. R. Barneche ◽

E. L. Rezende ◽

V. Parravicini ◽

E. Maire ◽

G. J. Edgar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Body Size ◽

Reef Fish ◽

Fish Species ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Reef Area ◽

Reef Fish Species

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The conservation value of South East Asia's highly degraded forests: evidence from leaf-litter ants

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2011.0031 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 366 (1582) ◽

pp. 3256-3264 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Paul Woodcock ◽

David P. Edwards ◽

Tom M. Fayle ◽

Rob J. Newton ◽

Chey Vun Khen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Leaf Litter ◽

Oil Palm ◽

Species Turnover ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Forest Conversion ◽

Conservation Value ◽

Natural Forests ◽

Ant Communities ◽

Logged Forest

South East Asia is widely regarded as a centre of threatened biodiversity owing to extensive logging and forest conversion to agriculture. In particular, forests degraded by repeated rounds of intensive logging are viewed as having little conservation value and are afforded meagre protection from conversion to oil palm. Here, we determine the biological value of such heavily degraded forests by comparing leaf-litter ant communities in unlogged (natural) and twice-logged forests in Sabah, Borneo. We accounted for impacts of logging on habitat heterogeneity by comparing species richness and composition at four nested spatial scales, and examining how species richness was partitioned across the landscape in each habitat. We found that twice-logged forest had fewer species occurrences, lower species richness at small spatial scales and altered species composition compared with natural forests. However, over 80 per cent of species found in unlogged forest were detected within twice-logged forest. Moreover, greater species turnover among sites in twice-logged forest resulted in identical species richness between habitats at the largest spatial scale. While two intensive logging cycles have negative impacts on ant communities, these degraded forests clearly provide important habitat for numerous species and preventing their conversion to oil palm and other crops should be a conservation priority.

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Beyond Species Richness: Community Similarity as a Measure of Cross-Taxon Congruence for Coarse-Filter Conservation

Conservation Biology ◽

10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00337.x ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 167-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 193

Author(s):

JEFFREY C. SU ◽

DIANE M. DEBINSKI ◽

MARK E. JAKUBAUSKAS ◽

KELLY KINDSCHER

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Community Similarity ◽

Coarse Filter

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The pitfalls of biodiversity proxies: Differences in richness patterns of birds, trees and understudied diversity across Amazonia

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-55490-3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Camila D. Ritter ◽

Søren Faurby ◽

Dominic J. Bennett ◽

Luciano N. Naka ◽

Hans ter Steege ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Large Scale ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Local Environment ◽

Life Forms ◽

Taxonomic Group ◽

Diversity Gradients ◽

Richness Patterns ◽

Taxonomic Groups ◽

Micro Organisms

AbstractMost knowledge on biodiversity derives from the study of charismatic macro-organisms, such as birds and trees. However, the diversity of micro-organisms constitutes the majority of all life forms on Earth. Here, we ask if the patterns of richness inferred for macro-organisms are similar for micro-organisms. For this, we barcoded samples of soil, litter and insects from four localities on a west-to-east transect across Amazonia. We quantified richness as Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) in those samples using three molecular markers. We then compared OTU richness with species richness of two relatively well-studied organism groups in Amazonia: trees and birds. We find that OTU richness shows a declining west-to-east diversity gradient that is in agreement with the species richness patterns documented here and previously for birds and trees. These results suggest that most taxonomic groups respond to the same overall diversity gradients at large spatial scales. However, our results show a different pattern of richness in relation to habitat types, suggesting that the idiosyncrasies of each taxonomic group and peculiarities of the local environment frequently override large-scale diversity gradients. Our findings caution against using the diversity distribution of one taxonomic group as an indication of patterns of richness across all groups.

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