The influence of distance to perennial surface water on ant communities in Mopane woodlands, northern Botswana

Dalerum, Fredrik; Retief, Tarryn A.; Havemann, Carl P.; Chimimba, Christian T.; Rensburg, Berndt J. van

doi:10.1002/ece3.4692

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…We found a predicted scale dependency of beta diversity, with the patch scale (sample station) having lower beta diversity than the intermediate (transect) or landscape scales, and the intermediate scale having lower beta diversity than the landscape scale. These results contradict observations pointing to a strong importance of local characteristics and processes for shaping biodiversity patterns in plants (Marini, Scotton, Klimek, & Pecile, ) and invertebrates (Dalerum et al, , ), and instead suggest that broad‐scale environmental variation may have been more important for the spatial heterogeneity of plant communities than patch level characteristics. Although local characteristics such as snow cover (When, Lundemo, & Holten, ), soil and topographic properties (Marini, Scotton, Klimek, Isselstein, & Pecile, ), and geological substrate (Trigas, Tsiftsis, Tsiripidis, & Iatrou, ) all influence local plant communities, the magnitude of effects of local conditions may be dictated by constraints set by landscape characteristics.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

“…We also tested for nested and modular patterns of community composition, and if these corresponded to altitude. Such quantifications of how biodiversity shifts with altitude are paramount for our ability to form testable hypothesis regarding the processes underlying spatial biodiversity variation (Dalerum, Retief, Havemann, Chimimba, & Rensburg, ). At northern latitudes, with the amplified effects of global warming (Anasimov et al, ), mechanistic understanding is particularly important for our abilities to manage ecosystems under environmental change (Waide et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Altitude effects on spatial components of vascular plant diversity in a subarctic mountain tundra

Naud

Måsviken

Freire

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Environmental gradients are caused by gradual changes in abiotic factors, which affect species abundances and distributions, and are important for the spatial distribution of biodiversity. One prominent environmental gradient is the altitude gradient. Understanding ecological processes associated with altitude gradients may help us to understand the possible effects climate change could have on species communities. We quantified vegetation cover, species richness, species evenness, beta diversity, and spatial patterns of community structure of vascular plants along altitude gradients in a subarctic mountain tundra in northern Sweden. Vascular plant cover and plant species richness showed unimodal relationships with altitude. However, species evenness did not change with altitude, suggesting that no individual species became dominant when species richness declined. Beta diversity also showed a unimodal relationship with altitude, but only for an intermediate spatial scale of 1 km. A lack of relationships with altitude for either patch or landscape scales suggests that any altitude effects on plant spatial heterogeneity occurred on scales larger than individual patches but were not effective across the whole landscape. We observed both nested and modular patterns of community structures, but only the modular patterns corresponded with altitude. Our observations point to biotic regulations of plant communities at high altitudes, but we found both scale dependencies and inconsistent magnitude of the effects of altitude on different diversity components. We urge for further studies evaluating how different factors influence plant communities in high altitude and high latitude environments, as well as studies identifying scale and context dependencies in any such influences.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altitude effects on spatial components of vascular plant diversity in a subarctic mountain tundra

Naud

Måsviken

Freire

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…We also observed spatial community structures that were nested according to other environmental characteristics than altitude. Similar findings have been reported both for vascular plants (Jacquemyn, Honnay, & Pailler, 2007;Naud et al, 2019) and arthropods (Dalerum, Retief, Havemann, Chimimba, & Janse van Rensburg, 2019;Dalerum et al, 2017), and we suggest that spatial variation of species communities in a given location and area likely are formed by complex interactions of processes across several spatial and temporal scales (Willig, Kaufman, & Stevens, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Third, our sampling design did not allow any evaluations of altitudinal and latitudinal effects on plant communities across several spatial scales. Since scale dependence previously has been suggested as important when quantifying diversity along environmental gradients (Dalerum et al, 2019; Naud et al, 2019; Rahbek, 2005), we suggest that future studies adopt experimental designs that allow for evaluations across different spatial scales. Despite these limitations, this study is one of the first studies in this region to investigate the alpine vegetation patterns on several mountains across a latitudinal span in one single year, adding information to the yet small body of knowledge on alpine vegetation patterns in Scandinavia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting altitudinal variation of alpine plant communities along the Swedish mountains

Måsviken

Dalerum

Cousins

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Changes in abiotic factors along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients cause powerful environmental gradients. The topography of alpine areas generates environmental gradients over short distances, and alpine areas are expected to experience greater temperature increase compared to the global average. In this study, we investigate alpha, beta, and gamma diversity, as well as community structure, of vascular plant communities along altitudinal gradients at three latitudes in the Swedish mountains. Species richness and evenness decreased with altitude, but the patterns within the altitudinal gradient varied between sites, including a sudden decrease at high altitude, a monotonic decrease, and a unimodal pattern. However, we did not observe a decline in beta diversity with altitude at all sites, and plant communities at all sites were spatially nested according to some other factors than altitude, such as the availability of water or microtopographic position. Moreover, the observed diversity patterns did not follow the latitudinal gradient. We observed a spatial modularity according to altitude, which was consistent across sites. Our results suggest strong influences of site‐specific factors on plant community composition and that such factors partly may override effects from altitudinal and latitudinal environmental variation. Spatial variation of the observed vascular plant communities appears to have been caused by a combination of processes at multiple spatial scales.

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“…Ant and termite distributions are influenced primarily by rainfall, geology (soil type), degree of inundation and interactions with vegetation (e.g. Dalerum et al, 2019; Davies et al, 2014; Lind & Davies, 2019). For instance, mound‐building Macrotermes in Kruger National Park (hereafter, KNP) are associated with woody vegetation, granitic soils, areas of lower rainfall and higher elevations (Davies et al, 2014), while mound‐building Odontotermes prefer undulating topography and granitic soils (Meyer et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the distribution and habitat suitability for aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) in Kruger National Park, South Africa

et al. 2021

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Cryptic, nocturnal or rare species pose a conservation challenge. Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) occur across sub-Saharan Africa, but local or regional distribution is frequently unclear. We investigated the habitat relationships of aardvarks within Kruger National Park, South Africa, using non-invasive driving and walking surveys of aardvark sign. We used generalised linear and Maxent models in an exploratory analysis to evaluate our predictions that the distribution of suitable habitat would be influenced by elevation, vegetation productivity, potential termite activity, potential presence of large predators and amount of sand in the soils. We surveyed 1,786 km of roads and conducted 247 short walking surveys, detecting aardvark sign in 601 locations. Relative habitat use by aardvarks was positively correlated with elevation and vegetation productivity and was negatively correlated with surface water occurrence, suggesting that aardvarks avoided areas with high densities of predators, and favoured higher elevations and areas with greener vegetation. Mean annual rainfall, employed as an index of termite activity, was only weakly correlated with habitat suitability, and soil components had little predictive power. We generated predictive maps of aardvark habitat distribution within the Kruger National Park. Our sampling technique could be employed to investigate aardvark distribution and habitat relationships more broadly.

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The influence of distance to perennial surface water on ant communities in Mopane woodlands, northern Botswana

Cited by 7 publications

References 75 publications

Altitude effects on spatial components of vascular plant diversity in a subarctic mountain tundra

Altitude effects on spatial components of vascular plant diversity in a subarctic mountain tundra

Contrasting altitudinal variation of alpine plant communities along the Swedish mountains

Estimating the distribution and habitat suitability for aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) in Kruger National Park, South Africa

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