Correlations in species richness between taxa depend on habitat, scale and landscape context

Ekroos, Johan; Kuussaari, Mikko; Tiainen, Juha; Heliölä, Janne; Seimola, Tuomas; Helenius, Juha

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.06.015

Cited by 38 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…However, despite birds showing higher and more consistent spatial congruence with invertebrates than did other vertebrate groups, the level of congruence was still low. Birds are also typically poor surrogates for non-epigeic taxa (Lawton et al 1998, French 1999, Lund and Rahbek 2002, Vessby et al 2002, Williams et al 2006, Ekroos et al 2013, Foord et al 2013, Eglington et al 2015. These findings concur with the vast majority of bird-invertebrate congruence studies, which consistently show birds to be poor surrogates for ground-dwelling invertebrates (Burbidge et al 1992, Lawton et al 1998, Vessby et al 2002, de Andrade et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Vertebrates are poor umbrellas for invertebrates: cross‐taxon congruence in an Australian tropical savanna

Oberprieler

Andersen

Gillespie³

et al. 2019

Ecosphere

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Invertebrates are commonly ignored in conservation planning due to their vast diversity, difficulties with species identification, a poor understanding of their spatial patterns, and the impracticability of carrying out comprehensive sampling. Conservation planning for fauna is therefore often based on patterns of diversity and distribution of vertebrates, under the assumption that these are representative of animal diversity more generally. Here, we evaluate how well vertebrates act as umbrellas for invertebrate diversity and distribution in a highly diverse tropical savanna landscape, and we investigate the effect of vertebrate sampling intensity (i.e., number of surveys) on congruence results. We assessed congruence between each of the four classes of terrestrial vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals) and twelve invertebrate families (representing four dominant invertebrate taxa: ants, beetles, flies, and spiders) by applying a range of modeling approaches to analyze patterns of cross-taxon congruence in species richness and composition across sampling sites. To investigate drivers of congruence, we applied generalized and distance-based linear models to identify environmental associations of richness and composition for each taxon, then examined variation in environmental associations across taxa. Vertebrate and invertebrate richness was weakly (<30%) associated, and~60% of the significant associations were negative. Correlations in species composition between vertebrate and invertebrate taxa were also weak, with a maximum of 13% congruence. In most cases, pairwise correlation scores using data from single surveys of vertebrates were only marginally lower than those from multiple surveys. Poor among-site congruence between vertebrates and invertebrates was reflected by marked variation among taxa in their environmental associations. Our findings show that vertebrates are poor umbrellas for invertebrates in the tropical savannas of northern Australia in terms of geographic patterns of diversity and distribution and that this is not just an artifact of low vertebrate sampling intensity. Our study is one of the most comprehensive regional analyses of the congruence of vertebrate and invertebrate diversity, and it significantly adds to the growing evidence that empirical data on invertebrate diversity and distribution are required for conservation planning that effectively protects all faunal diversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ã P < 0.05; ÃÃ P < 0.01; ÃÃÃ P < 0.001. richness and composition, respectively (Yong et al 2018). Birds are also typically poor surrogates for non-epigeic taxa (Lawton et al 1998, French 1999, Lund and Rahbek 2002, Vessby et al 2002, Williams et al 2006, Ekroos et al 2013, Foord et al 2013, Eglington et al 2015.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertebrates are poor umbrellas for invertebrates: cross‐taxon congruence in an Australian tropical savanna

Oberprieler

Andersen

Gillespie³

et al. 2019

Ecosphere

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“…An indicator for the wider biodiversity spectrum was not identified. There is probably a dichotomy here, since an indicator of wider spectrum of biodiversity could be better by indicating "more biodiversity", but at the same time could lose precision because the correlation between indicator and indicandum could be more susceptible to influences from variation of habitat, scale and landscape context (Ekroos et al, 2013). For example, the results showed that species richness/diversity of overall vascular plants and overall bryophytes were the most studied indicandums, but no correlation with strong evidence was found between them and their indicators.…”

Section: Importance Of Structural Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…correlations in species richness between taxa vary with habitat, scale and landscape context (e.g. Ekroos et al, 2013). Vessby et al (2002) studied the extent of covariation between species richness of six different taxa (plants, birds, butterflies, bumblebees, ground beetles and dung beetles) in non-forested ecosystems (31 Swedish semi-natural grasslands) and found few correlations between taxa.…”

Section: Saproxylic Beetles 3 Standmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviewing the strength of evidence of biodiversity indicators for forest ecosystems in Europe

Gao

Nielsen

Hedblom

2015

Ecological Indicators

162

113

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“…According to the IUCN Habitats Classification Scheme [31] and the European Habitats Directive [32], natural habitat types can be mapped at a global scale by means of remote sensing in a harmonized way, avoiding the bias associated with sampling efforts [33][34][35][36][37]. Species data at the global scale might be biased due to differential sampling efforts related to location or taxa, whereas remote sensing data about habitats can be obtained more systematically and globally [38][39][40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally through Optimized Image Segmentation and Classification

et al. 2016

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Protected areas (PAs) need to be assessed systematically according to biodiversity values and threats in order to support decision-making processes. For this, PAs can be characterized according to their species, ecosystems and threats, but such information is often difficult to access and usually not comparable across regions. There are currently over 200,000 PAs in the world, and assessing these systematically according to their ecological values remains a huge challenge. However, linking remote sensing with ecological modelling can help to overcome some limitations of conservation studies, such as the sampling bias of biodiversity inventories. The aim of this paper is to introduce eHabitat+, a habitat modelling service supporting the European Commission's Digital Observatory for Protected Areas, and specifically to discuss a component that systematically stratifies PAs into different habitat functional types based on remote sensing data. eHabitat+ uses an optimized procedure of automatic image segmentation based on several environmental variables to identify the main biophysical gradients in each PA. This allows a systematic production of key indicators on PAs that can be compared globally. Results from a few case studies are illustrated to show the benefits and limitations of this open-source tool.

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Correlations in species richness between taxa depend on habitat, scale and landscape context

Cited by 38 publications

References 46 publications

Vertebrates are poor umbrellas for invertebrates: cross‐taxon congruence in an Australian tropical savanna

Vertebrates are poor umbrellas for invertebrates: cross‐taxon congruence in an Australian tropical savanna

Reviewing the strength of evidence of biodiversity indicators for forest ecosystems in Europe

Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally through Optimized Image Segmentation and Classification

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