Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Communities of a Sky Island Mountain Range in Southeastern Arizona, USA: Obtaining a Baseline for Assessing the Effects of Climate Change

Meyer, Wallace M.; Eble, Jeff A.; Franklin, Kimberly; McManus, Reilly; Brantley, Sandra L.; Henkel, Jeff; Marek, Paul E.; Hall, W. Eugene; Olson, Carl A.; McInroy, Ryan; Loaiza, Emmanuel M. Bernal; Brusca, Richard C.; Moore, Wendy

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135210

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In the latter, a different pattern of the spider diversity shift was detected among the two studied slopes with different precipitation regimes (Foord & Dippenaar‐Schoeman, ). Additionally, Meyer et al () revealed seasonal differences in ground‐dwelling arthropod communities along an elevational gradient in the subtropical southwestern US but did not further dissect their patterns or drivers. All these studied areas are also characterized by intra‐annual cycles of dry and wet seasons similar to our tropical locality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seasonal shifts of biodiversity patterns and species’ elevation ranges of butterflies and moths along a complete rainforest elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon

Maicher

Sáfián

Murkwe

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Temporal dynamics of biodiversity along tropical elevational gradients are unknown. We studied seasonal changes of Lepidoptera biodiversity along the only complete forest elevational gradient in the Afrotropics. We focused on shifts of species richness patterns, seasonal turnover of communities and seasonal shifts of species’ elevational ranges, the latter often serving as an indicator of the global change effects on mountain ecosystems. Location Mount Cameroon, Cameroon. Taxon Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). Methods We quantitatively sampled nine groups of Lepidoptera by bait‐trapping (16,800 trap‐days) and light‐catching (126 nights) at seven elevations evenly distributed along the elevational gradient from sea level (30 m a.s.l.) to timberline (2,200 m a.s.l.). Sampling was repeated in three seasons. Results Altogether, 42,936 specimens of 1,099 species were recorded. A mid‐elevation peak of species richness was detected for all groups but Eupterotidae. This peak shifted seasonally for five groups, most of them ascending during the dry season. Seasonal shifts of species’ elevational ranges were mostly responsible for these diversity pattern shifts along elevation: we found general upward shifts in fruit‐feeding butterflies, fruit‐feeding moths and Lymantriinae from beginning to end of the dry season. Contrarily, Arctiinae shifted upwards during the wet season. The average seasonal shifts of elevational ranges often exceeded 100 m and were even several times higher for numerous species. Main conclusions We report seasonal uphill and downhill shifts of several lepidopteran groups. The reported shifts can be driven by both delay in weather seasonality and shifts in resource availability, causing phenological delay of adult hatching and/or adult migrations. Such shifts may lead to misinterpretations of diversity patterns along elevation if seasonality is ignored. More importantly, considering the surprising extent of seasonal elevational shifts of species, we encourage taking account of such natural temporal dynamics while investigating the global climate change impact on communities of Lepidoptera in tropical mountains.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Seasonal shifts of biodiversity patterns and species’ elevation ranges of butterflies and moths along a complete rainforest elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon

Maicher

Sáfián

Murkwe

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Making comparisons of species richness is difficult among and within regions, particularly with ground‐dwelling spiders, because an enormous, resource‐intensive effort is required to obtain a relatively complete inventory (Meyer et al. ). Because of the number of species we collected and the scale of our study, our results suggest that Southern California, particularly Claremont, CA, harbors a fairly diverse spider assemblage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Meyer et al. () found 102 spider species in six plant biomes along an elevation gradient in the Santa Catalina Mountains in Arizona using a much higher number of pitfall traps (660 over two seasons; 9240 trap days) and sampling an area with six distinct plant biomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when comparing Southern California species richness to other areas in the southwestern US, Southern California spider assemblage is fairly diverse. For example, Meyer et al (2015) found 102 spider species in six plant biomes along an elevation gradient in the Santa Catalina Mountains in Arizona using a much higher number of pitfall traps (660 over two seasons; 9240 trap days) and sampling an area with six distinct plant biomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effects of development, vegetation‐type conversion, and fire on low‐elevation Southern California spider assemblages

Spear

Adams

Boyd

et al. 2017

Invertebrate Biology

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California sage scrub (CSS), a native ecosystem type of low‐elevation areas of Southern California, is increasingly threatened by urban development, altered fire regimes, and vegetation‐type conversion to non‐native grasslands. Using pitfall traps, we examined how suburbanization, type conversion, and fire influence ground‐dwelling spider assemblages in eastern Los Angeles County, CA, by surveying spiders in three habitats (CSS, non‐native grasslands, and suburban areas) before and after a fire that occurred in a small portion of our study site. Spider assemblages in the suburban habitat differed from those in CSS and non‐native grassland habitats, but CSS and grassland assemblages did not significantly differ. This suggests that the urban development, but not vegetation‐type conversion to non‐native grasslands, has significant effects on ground‐dwelling spider assemblages. Fire had no observable effect on assemblages. Because ground‐dwelling spiders were not impacted by fire and type conversion, increased fire frequencies, which often result in the establishment of non‐native grasses, may not deleteriously influence this animal group, a differing pattern from other taxonomic groups. However, the rapid urban development occurring in low‐elevation areas of Southern California means that species requiring non‐suburban sites for their survival (15 species, 24.1%) may be threatened and require conservation assessment.

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“…Pilot data collected in 2010 suggested this design effectively captured the ground-dwelling arthropod community we observed through visual observations at these sites, and similar trapping schemes have been used to investigate ground-dwelling arthropod communities in the region (e.g., McCluney & Sabo, 2012;Meyer et al, 2015). Pilot data collected in 2010 suggested this design effectively captured the ground-dwelling arthropod community we observed through visual observations at these sites, and similar trapping schemes have been used to investigate ground-dwelling arthropod communities in the region (e.g., McCluney & Sabo, 2012;Meyer et al, 2015).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissimilarity in the riparian arthropod communities along surface water permanence gradients in aridland streams

Moody

Sabo

2017

Ecohydrology

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The riparian areas around streams and rivers are often thought of as distinct habitats with unique species. Research on riparian zones has traditionally focused on those bordering perennial waterways; thus, we know much less about riparian species supported by intermittent and ephemeral streams. As nonperennial streams make up the vast majority of stream channels in many landscapes, we aimed to investigate how surface water permanence affects riparian communities.We focus on riparian ground-dwelling arthropods, a group that often depends on resources derived from surface and/or ground water. We sampled riparian ground-dwelling arthropods along surface water permanence gradients in 3 replicated stream channels in southeastern Arizona to assess patterns in diversity and community similarity. We found that alpha diversity did not differ between reach types, but high species turnover led to significant community dissimilarity among perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral riparian zones. Further, intermittent and ephemeral riparian zones harbored more unique species not found at other reach types than did perennial reaches. These patterns were strongest during the dry season, when intermittent and ephemeral reaches are most likely to lack surface water. Our results suggest not only that the riparian zones of nonperennial streams host equivalent arthropod diversity to their perennial counterparts but also that these communities have little overlap with those at perennial reaches.As a result, intermittent and ephemeral stream channels should receive greater consideration than they currently do in efforts to conserve regional biodiversity.

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Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Communities of a Sky Island Mountain Range in Southeastern Arizona, USA: Obtaining a Baseline for Assessing the Effects of Climate Change

Cited by 21 publications

References 57 publications

Seasonal shifts of biodiversity patterns and species’ elevation ranges of butterflies and moths along a complete rainforest elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon

Seasonal shifts of biodiversity patterns and species’ elevation ranges of butterflies and moths along a complete rainforest elevational gradient on Mount Cameroon

The effects of development, vegetation‐type conversion, and fire on low‐elevation Southern California spider assemblages

Dissimilarity in the riparian arthropod communities along surface water permanence gradients in aridland streams

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