Terrestrial Arthropod Assemblages: Their Use in Conservation Planning

Abstract

Arthropods, the most diverse component of terrestrial ecosystems, occupy a tremendous variety of functional niches and microhabitats across a wide array of spatial and temporal scales. We propose that conservation biologists should take advantage of terrestrial arthropod diversity as a rich data source for conservation planning and management. For reserve selection and design, documentation of the microgeography of selected arthropod taxa can delineate distinct biogeographic zones, areas of endemism, community types, and centers of evolutionary radiation to improve the spatial resolution of conservation planning. For management of natural areas, monitoring of terrestrial arthropod indicators can provide early warnings of ecological changes, and can be used to assay the effects of further fragmentation on natural areas that no longer support vertebrate indicator species. Many arthropod indicators respond to environmental changes more rapidly than do vertebrate indicators, which may exhibit population responses that do not become evident until too late for proactive management. Not all arthropod taxa are equally effective as indicators for conservation planning, and the qualities of indicators can differ for purposes of inventory versus monitoring. Assemblages of arthropod taxa used as biogeographic probes in inventories should exhibit relatively high species diversity, high endemism, and encompass the geographic range of interest. For monitoring purposes, indicator assemblages should exhibit varying sensitivity to environmental perturbations and a diversity of life‐history and ecological preferences.

Vegetation Description, Rare Plant Inventory, and Vegetation Monitoring for Craig Mountain, Idaho.

“…In response to this direction, wildlife and vegetation monitoring strategies are proposed for Craig Mountain that complement recent inventory work. Inventory and monitoring are recognized as essential and interrelated components for scientific conservation planning (Kremen et al 1993).…”

Habitats and trophic relationships of Chironomidae insect larvae from the Sepotuba River basin, Pantanal of Mato Grosso, Brazil

“…A definition of biodiversity includes all terrestrial and freshwater organisms -including plants, animals, and microbes -at scales ranging from genetic diversity within populations, to species diversity, to community diversity across landscapes (Sala et al, 2000). In this context, invertebrates are recognised as important components of biodiversity (Kim, 1993;Kremen et al, 1993;Oliver and Beattie, 1996;Yen and Butcher, 1997), because they are important in all ecosystems in terms of species numbers and biomass.…”

Drosophilid assemblages as a bioindicator system of human disturbance in the Brazilian Savanna

“…Insects are regarded as an effective group for bioindication (Brown 1991(Brown , 1997Kremen et al 1993;McGeoch 1998;Hilty and Merenlender 2000;Andersen 2004;Samways 2005), and have indeed played an important role in the development and progress in this field of investigation (McGeoch 2007). However, despite their known sensitivity to environmental condition, studies involving insects rarely include a verification of proposed bioindicators, and there remains a narrow range of bioindicator scenarios and geographic regions for which insect bioindicators have been developed (McGeoch 2007).…”