The selection, testing and application of terrestrial insects as bioindicators

McGeoch, Melodie A.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.1997.tb00029.x

Cited by 591 publications

(262 citation statements)

References 91 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

220

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…There are several characteristics required for species to be useful bioindicators (McGeogh 1998). This 517 review has examined just one of these; whether responses of bats to lower intensity agricultural 518 systems reflect responses by other taxa.…”

Section: Lacking 516mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity: bats and their potential role as bioindicators

Park

2015

Mammalian Biology

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1Agriculture is a dominant land use worldwide with approximately 40% of the land's surface used for 2 farming. In many countries, particularly parts of Europe, this figure is substantially higher and most 3 agricultural land is under intensive practices aimed at maximising the production of food. The 4 intensification and expansion of modern agricultural practices led to the biological simplification of 5 the farmed environment, which has resulted in declines in farmland biodiversity during the last 6 century. As with other taxa, many bat species have suffered severe population declines during the 7 20th century, with agriculture believed to be one of the main drivers reducing roost availability and 8 foraging habitat. Lower intensity farming methods, and the creation or management of habitat features 9 on farmland could potentially mitigate some of these negative impacts but the effects of this on bats, 10 in comparison to other taxa, have received relatively little attention. Here, I review evidence on the 11 impacts of efforts to increase biodiversity in agricultural landscapes on bat populations, and explore 12 whether responses of bats to agricultural activities are similar to those of other taxa, a necessary 13 requirement if they are to be used as bioindicator species. 14 The review revealed that there are relatively few studies with which to assess the effects of 15 management interventions on bats in agricultural landscapes, and these are restricted to only a few 16 countries. Nevertheless, there is evidence that bats benefit from lower intensity agricultural systems, 17 specifically organic farming and shaded agroforestry: these systems tend to be associated with higher 18 bat abundance, species richness and diversity, and are more heavily utilised by foraging bats. Whilst 19very few studies have explicitly tested the utility of bats as bioindicators in agricultural landscapes, 20 overall, the response of bats to lower intensity agricultural systems also reflect responses by other 21 taxa. These studies have been largely restricted to temperate regions, however. The review highlights 22 several major gaps in our knowledge of bats in agricultural landscapes and where future research 23 could be usefully directed including: 1) a broader geographical range of studies examining both the 24 efficacy, and the underlying mechanisms through which lower intensity agricultural systems may 25 benefit bats; 2) the potential for lower intensity systems in key crops such as oil-palm; 3) studies of 26 the demographic effects of conservation management on bats; 4) in order to assess the potential of 27 bats as bioindicators, studies quantifying the response of both bats and other taxa to environmental 28 change in a wider range of biomes and regions are needed. 29 30 31

show abstract

Section: Lacking 516mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity: bats and their potential role as bioindicators

Park

2015

Mammalian Biology

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Arthropods are nearly ubiquitous, hyperdiverse, and form important parts of most terrestrial food webs. Certain arthropod groups are also widely used as indicator species to examine environmental, ecological, and biodiversity changes (McGeogh 2007). Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) have been considered useful indicator species in a variety of contexts and have recently been designated as one of the Fundamental Sentinel Units for the National Ecological Observatory Network in the U.S. (http://www.neoninc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta‐analysis of the effects of urbanization on ground beetle communities

Martinson

Raupp

2013

Ecosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Urbanization is one of the most disruptive forms of land use, and its effects on ecological communities are likely to increase as the human population continues to shift from rural to urban living. Whether the myriad changes encompassed by urbanization (e.g., habitat fragmentation, the urban heat island effect, disturbance) affect biological communities in predictable ways remains unresolved. In this study, we employed meta-analysis to quantify the overall effects of urbanization on ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), an ecologically diverse and important group that has been relatively well-studied in cities. We calculated effect sizes for carabid species richness, the total abundance of beetles at a site (assemblage abundance), and the abundances of individual species at urban compared to rural forested sites. We found that the number of carabid species in cities was only 77.6% that of corresponding rural sites, whereas assemblage abundance was relatively consistent between rural and urban sites. Such assemblage-level patterns resulted from the loss of certain species from urban sites and the increase in abundance of others. We hypothesized that differences among species would be largely attributable to their ecological traits (body size, habitat affinity, dispersal ability, trophic position). Through model selection based on information theoretic measures, we found support for the importance of the simple and interactive effects of beetle size, habitat affinity, and trophic position, with the most negative effect sizes for large, forest-specialist beetles that were predatory or omnivorous. Although species traits were key to understanding variation in species abundance effect sizes, several remaining sources of variation in carabid beetle responses to urbanization remain. Specifically, although many species exhibited consistent responses across the studies in which they were sampled and might therefore be considered urban avoiders or urban exploiters, many others were either relatively insensitive to the urbanization gradients or exhibited widely disparate responses across studies. Furthermore, we were unable to attribute variation in species richness and assemblage abundance effect sizes to available measures such as city size and study duration. Instead, additional mechanistic studies across the urbanization gradient will be necessary to understand such variation among studies and for species exhibiting variable responses.

show abstract

“…Therefore, despite the publication of a number of valuable reviews of the congruence literature 15,28,[30][31][32][33][34] , one important theme has yet to be addressed; namely, the observation that congruence is often highly variable when measured in different locations or at different times 29,35,36 . A key property of biodiversity surrogates and indicators is that they should be able to be applied with confidence in novel contexts 37 , and so this lack of consistency has the potential to undermine the usefulness of biodiversity surrogates in ecology and conservation 38 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Global meta-analysis reveals low consistency of biodiversity congruence relationships

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge of the number and distribution of species is fundamental to biodiversity conservation efforts, but this information is lacking for the majority of species on earth. Consequently, subsets of taxa are often used as proxies for biodiversity; but this assumes that different taxa display congruent distribution patterns. Here we use a global meta-analysis to show that studies of cross-taxon congruence rarely give consistent results. Instead, species richness congruence is highest at extreme spatial scales and close to the equator, while congruence in species composition is highest at large extents and grain sizes. Studies display highest variance in cross-taxon congruence when conducted in areas with dissimilar areal extents (for species richness) or latitudes (for species composition). These results undermine the assumption that a subset of taxa can be representative of biodiversity. Therefore, researchers whose goal is to prioritize locations or actions for conservation should use data from a range of taxa.

show abstract

The selection, testing and application of terrestrial insects as bioindicators

Cited by 591 publications

References 91 publications

Mitigating the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity: bats and their potential role as bioindicators

Mitigating the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity: bats and their potential role as bioindicators

A meta‐analysis of the effects of urbanization on ground beetle communities

Global meta-analysis reveals low consistency of biodiversity congruence relationships

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About