Comparison of isopod assemblages (Crustacea: Isopoda: Oniscidea) among four different habitats—Evergreen forest, exotic bamboo plantation, grass and urban habitat

Abstract

Exotic plantations and urbanization are serious threats to biodiversity. This study compared community structures of terrestrial isopods among urban habitat, grass, exotic bamboo forest and broad-leaved forest. A total of 9553 terrestrial isopod specimens from 11 native and 5 exotic species were collected from 102 sites. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and non-hierarchical clustering showed that the community structure in exotic bamboo forest was similar to that in broad-leaved forest, and the communities were characterized by four native and one exotic species. However, the abundance in exotic bamboo forest was the lowest among the four habitats. The urban habitat was dominated by exotic species, and the species richness was the highest out of the four habitats. The results showed that exotic bamboo forest maintained an isopod community similar to that in broad-leaved forest, and that urbanization encouraged invasion of exotic species and increased species richness at a local scale.