Environmental and landscape factors influencing ant and plant diversity in suburban riparian corridors

Ives, Christopher D.; Hose, Grant C.; Nipperess, David A.; Taylor, Mark Patrick

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.08.009

Cited by 53 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Riparian forest is known to function as habitat/refuge and corridor for species, including exotic ones (Ives et al . ). All the variables were measured using the program Google Earth.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…As mentioned above, to identify what features of urban green areas have stronger influence on ant biodiversity, we analyzed the following landscape variables: park size (area); age; perimeter; distance to the city center; distance to the outskirts; and distance to the river Guadalquivir, which crosses both cities, as possible sources of species. Riparian forest is known to function as habitat/refuge and corridor for species, including exotic ones (Ives et al 2011). All the variables were measured using the program Google Earth.…”

Section: Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of park age, size, shape and isolation on ant assemblages in two cities of Southern Spain

Carpintero

Reyes-López

2013

Entomological Science

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In the context of conservation biology, we have searched for the most influential characteristics of urban parks on ecological diversity. In this study, therefore, we studied the ant community of 24 parks in two cities of Southern Spain (Cordoba and Seville). In total, 46 species were found. Abundant and widely distributed species were synanthropic ones, such as Lasius grandis, Pheidole pallidula or Tapinoma nigerrimum, and exotic species such as Cardiocondyla mauritanica. However some parks also harbored natural habitatpreferring species. Park size, shape and distance to city outskirts were the most important predictors of species richness and diversity. Likewise, park age influenced the composition of the ant fauna.

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“…Riparian forest is known to function as habitat/refuge and corridor for species, including exotic ones (Ives et al . ). All the variables were measured using the program Google Earth.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of park age, size, shape and isolation on ant assemblages in two cities of Southern Spain

Carpintero

Reyes-López

2013

Entomological Science

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“…Of these, we included studies of dispersal, occupancy, or abundance in patches connected versus unconnected by corridors. We did not include studies that reported abundance of invasive species within corridors if there was no comparison with connected or unconnected patches (e.g., Stohlgren et al ; Ives et al ). We did not include studies that speculated on corridor use based on observations of animal behaviors only within patches or corridors (e.g., Deckers et al ; Bridgman et al ), and we did not include studies investigating increased connectivity through sources other than corridors (e.g., Alofs & Fowler ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Negative Ecological Effects of Corridors

Haddad

Brudvig

Damschen

et al. 2014

Conservation Biology

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Despite many studies showing that landscape corridors increase dispersal and species richness for disparate taxa, concerns persist that corridors can have unintended negative effects. In particular, some of the same mechanisms that underlie positive effects of corridors on species of conservation interest may also increase the spread and impact of antagonistic species (e.g., predators and pathogens), foster negative effects of edges, increase invasion by exotic species, increase the spread of unwanted disturbances such as fire, or increase population synchrony and thus reduce persistence. We conducted a literature review and meta-analysis to evaluate the prevalence of each of these negative effects. We found no evidence that corridors increase unwanted disturbance or non-native species invasion; however, these have not been well-studied concerns (1 and 6 studies, respectively). Other effects of corridors were more often studied and yielded inconsistent results; mean effect sizes were indistinguishable from zero. The effect of edges on abundances of target species was as likely to be positive as negative. Corridors were as likely to have no effect on antagonists or population synchrony as they were to increase those negative effects. We found 3 deficiencies in the literature. First, despite studies on how corridors affect predators, there are few studies of related consequences for prey population size and persistence. Second, properly designed studies of negative corridor effects are needed in natural corridors at scales larger than those achievable in experimental systems. Third, studies are needed to test more targeted hypotheses about when corridor-mediated effects on invasive species or disturbance may be negative for species of management concern. Overall, we found no overarching support for concerns that construction and maintenance of habitat corridors may result in unintended negative consequences. Negative edge effects may be mitigated by widening corridors or softening edges between corridors and the matrix. Other negative effects are relatively small and manageable compared with the large positive effects of facilitating dispersal and increasing diversity of native species.

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“…An example of a landscape structure in which movements have been studied by many researchers are riparian corridors, which provide habitats and migration pathways across human-modified landscapes for a large group of species and thus contribute to the conservation of terrestrial wildlife [ 2 - 4 ]. Riverbank buffer zones, which have historically been left astray because of susceptibility to flooding [ 3 ], are nowadays often protected by or managed according to environmental regulations [ 5 , 6 ]. Riverbanks are also influenced by high levels of soil moisture [ 7 ] and flood-based natural disturbance dynamics that can maintain a continuum of successional habitats [ 8 - 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dual role of rivers in facilitating or hindering movements of the false heath fritillary butterfly

2015

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BackgroundSpecies movement responses to landscape structures have been studied using a variety of methods, but movement research is still in need of simple methods that help predicting and comparing movements across structurally different landscapes. We demonstrate how habitat-specific movement models can be used to disentangle causes of differentiated movement patterns in structurally different landscapes and to predict movement patterns in altered and artificial landscapes. In our case study, we studied the role of riparian landscapes to the persistence of the endangered false heath fritillary butterfly (Melitaea diamina) in its newly discovered coastal distribution region in Finland. We compared the movement parameters of the riparian population to two reference populations by using capture-recapture data and habitat-specific diffusion modelling, and analysed the role of the river and riverbank buffer zones in facilitating or hindering false heath fritillary movement with movement simulations.ResultsThe riparian population of the false heath fritillary did not show major differences to reference populations in terms of movement parameters within breeding habitat, high-quality matrix and low-quality matrix. However, movement simulations showed that the habitat-specific movement parameters estimated for the false heath fritillary can lead into markedly different movement patterns in structurally different landscapes. An artificial riparian landscape mimicking those of the coastal distribution resulted into more directional, longitudinal movements both parallel and perpendicular to the river than a more mosaic-like landscape, but the existence of the river in the landscape reduced movements across the river.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates how habitat-specific movement models enable comparisons of movement patterns across structurally different real, altered and artificial landscapes. As such, they can be used to compare movement parameters across populations, to study the effects of management interventions to endangered species and to identify areas that have high sensitivity to individual movement. In our case study, the river is shown to perform a dual role for the movements of the riparian false heath fritillary population. Whereas the river acts as a moderate movement barrier for the false heath fritillary, the longitudinal configuration of riverbank habitats provides a means especially for the male false heath fritillaries to move across the landscape.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-015-0031-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Environmental and landscape factors influencing ant and plant diversity in suburban riparian corridors

Cited by 53 publications

References 64 publications

Effect of park age, size, shape and isolation on ant assemblages in two cities of Southern Spain

Effect of park age, size, shape and isolation on ant assemblages in two cities of Southern Spain

Potential Negative Ecological Effects of Corridors

The dual role of rivers in facilitating or hindering movements of the false heath fritillary butterfly

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