Odonata community structure and patterns of land use in the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Region (Ghana)

Abstract

Recent studies have indicated that frequent anthropogenic disturbances in tropical developing countries are primary drivers of reduction in community diversity and local extinction of many arthropods, including dragonflies. We assessed the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on odonate assemblages across three different land use types, in a biodiverse nature reserve in Ghana. A total of 37 transects (100 x 10 m) were used to survey odonate species over two seasons and three rivers which pass through agricultural, matured forest and forest margin habitats. A total of 6940 individuals, belonging to 53 species (23 Zygoptera and 30 Anisoptera) in eight families, were recorded. Sapho ciliata (15% relative abundance) was the most abundant zygopteran, whereas Orthetrum julia (4.8% Relative abundance) was the dominant anisopteran. Rarer species like Umma cincta, Chlorocnemis sp. and Elattoneura sp. were represented by < 50 individuals. The effective number of species was affected by the surrounding terrestrial habitat type and this most strongly reflected the difference between agricultural habitats (8.09 ± s.e. 0.41) and matured forests (5.0 ± s.e. 0.24). A canonical correspondence analysis revealed that turbidity, surface water temperature, canopy cover and channel width were the key factors that influenced odonate assemblages. Degraded habitats were dominated by generalist and heliophilic dragonflies, while matured forest habitat included more stenotopic damselflies and dragonflies. These findings improve our understanding of the drivers of odonata distributions and diversity and will help river managers use odonates to monitor riverine health, as part of conservation activities.

Effectiveness of organic terrace rice cultivation in conservation of odonates in Sikkim, Eastern Himalaya, India

“…Alpha diversity and abundance were slightly higher in the TRC compared to NFS. Other studies have also reported higher abundance and richness of odonates in agricultural land compared to forest areas (Hofhansl & Schneeweihs, 2008;Seidu et al, 2017). However, the differences in alpha diversity parameters between the two communities were statistically non-significant in our study.…”

“…Orthetrum triangulare in particular is known to be tolerant to disturbances and can be considered as an indicator of habitat alteration (Dow, 2010a). Additionally, most of the species under family Libellulidae are swift fliers, which requires open areas for active thermoregulation to compensate for the energy lost during their flight (Corbet & May, 2008;Seidu et al, 2017). The dominance of Libellulidae in the rice cultivation ecosystem has been reported by many other studies as well (Dwari & Mondal, 2017;Kulkarni & Subramanian, 2013;Rohmare et al, 2016).…”

“…NFS harboured the highest diversity of Zygoptera among the recorded odonate families. Most zygopterans requires vegetative substrate for oviposition and hence are favoured in habitats with good vegetation cover (Seidu et al, 2017). In NFS, Platycnemididae was the most dominant family both in terms of species richness and abundance.…”

“…Odonates depend on a large number of environmental factors and their species assemblages are determined by different characteristics of the habitat, including water quality (Corbet, 1999;Gibbons, Reed, & Chew, 2002;Scher & Thiery, 2005). Alteration of natural habitat causes the replacement of forest specialists by generalist groups of odonates (Clausnitzer, 2003;Samways, 2003;Seidu, Danquah, AyineNsor, Amaning Kwarteng, & Lancaster, 2017). Studies from southern Brazil (Dalzochio, Baldin, Stenert, & Maltchik, 2016), north-western Italy (Giuliano & Bogliani, 2019) and Japan (Baba et al, 2019) have indicated the positive effect of environmental friendly practices of rice cultivation on odonate communities.…”

Short Communication: Community structure and diversity of Odonata in Suranadi Natural Park, West Lombok Indonesia

“…Based on the number of species found, in the Anisoptera order, only species from the family Libellulidae were found, whereas in the suborder Zygoptera species from the Coenagrionidae family were more common than other families. Similar to the results of other Odonata community researches, the Odonata community was dominated by species from the family Libellulidae from the suborder Anisoptera and species from the family Coenagrionidae from the suborder Zygoptera (Mapi-ot et al 2013; Dayakrishna and Arya 2015; Siregar and Bakti 2016;Seidu et al 2017;Ilhamdi 2018).…”