Cross-taxon congruence of α and β diversity among five leaf litter arthropod groups in Colombia

Abstract

In this study a and b diversity patterns of five leaf litter arthropod groups (ants, predatory ants, oribatid mites, spiders and other arachnids) were described and compared in 39 sampling patches of a transformed landscape in southwestern Colombia, that represented five vegetation types: secondary forest, riparian forest, giant bamboo forest, pasture and sugarcane crop. It was also assessed whether some taxa could be used as diversity surrogates. A total of 6,765 individuals grouped in 290 morphospecies were collected. Species richness in all groups was lower in highly transformed vegetation types (pasture, sugarcane crop) than in native ones (forests). In contrast, there were no clear tendencies of b diversity among vegetation types. Considering sampling patches, 0.1-42% of the variation in a diversity of one taxonomic group could be explained from the a diversity of another, and 0.2-33% of the variation of b diversity of a given taxon was explained by that in other groups. Contrary to recent findings, we concluded that patterns of a diversity are more congruent than patterns of b diversity. This fact could be attributed to a sampling effect that promotes congruence in a diversity and to a lack of a clear regional ecological gradient that could promote congruent patterns of b diversity. We did Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (not find evidence for an ideal diversity surrogate although diversity patterns of predatory ants had the greatest congruencies. These results support earlier multi-taxon evaluations in that conservation planning should not be based on only one leaf litter arthropod group.

Scale dependent biodiversity patterns in Mediterranean river catchments: a multi taxa approach

“…However, this result is in line with other studies demonstrating higher cross-taxon concordance in b, rather than a-diversity (McKnight et al 2007;Kessler et al 2009; but see Cabra-Garcia et al 2012). This is partly explainable by the fact that a-diversity does not take into account information on taxonomic composition, in opposite to bdiversity.…”

Influence of regions, land uses and soil properties on termite and ant communities in agricultural landscapes of the Colombian Llanos

“…In the present case, this is clearly supported by the difference between savanna and improved pastures on the one side, and rubber plantations and oil palm plantations on the other. Past research suggests that ecosystems with trees are more complex and offer a higher diversity of micro-habitats and niches, which could allow them to host a higher ant diversity [36]. However, in this study improved pastures showed the highest numbers of species followed by savannas, and they share 31 species in total [16].…”

Cross‐taxon congruence of multiple diversity facets of freshwater assemblages is determined by large‐scale processes across China

“…The energy hypothesis, a climatically based hypothesis, claims that species richness within an area is limited by energy availability (Clarke & Gaston, 2006). These three hypotheses have received increasing support in explaining cross-taxon congruence in multiple terrestrial and marine taxa, including mammals, birds, insects, and vascular plants (Cabra-García, Bermúdez-Rivas, Osorio, & Chacón, 2012;Miranda & Parrini, 2015;Oertli et al, 2005). In contrast, the heterogeneity hypothesis states that species richness is higher in larger and more heterogeneous areas through increasing habitat availability and diversity (Whittaker et al, 2001).…”