Abstract
The soil-surface dwelling invertebrate assemblage of four sites (habitat patches) in Luchaba Nature Reserve was assessed using pitfall traps. A total of 335 specimens in three phyla (Arthropoda, Annelida and Mollusca) were sampled. Of the nine arthropod orders recorded, four were identified to seven families and ten species while five orders and two phyla (Annelida and Mollusca) were separated into 15 morphospecies. The eucalypt site supported fewer taxa compared to indigenous acacia and grassland patches while the mixed alien patch attracted the highest numbers of invertebrate families, species and individuals. Although species composition across sites was not significantly different (P>0.05), specimen counts showed significant differences (P<0.05). The implications of these preliminary results suggest that habitat-patch level management for conserving action in the short term should consider eradicating the species-poor eucalypt stands from the reserve while replacing all alien plants in the reserve area with native flora in the medium to long term. Furthermore, widespread/abundant species that occurred in all four sites e.g. Crematogaster sp, Pardosa crassipalpis and Pheidole sp. and habitat-restricted taxa can be used as potential bio-indicators for assessing the conservation value of habitat patches in Luchaba Nature Reserve and other protected areas of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality. Key words: Soil-surface dwelling invertebrates, nature reserve, indigenous plants, alien invasive plants.
Highlights
Anthropogenic activities tend to accelerate the problem of alien invasions, which in turn affect agriculture, forestry and human health, resulting in biotic homogenization worldwide (Richardson and van Wilgen, 2004; Pimentel et al, 2005; Usio et al, 2009)
Even though flying arthropod species e.g. flies, wasps and butterflies were collected in pitfall traps across habitat patches during the study period, these arthropod taxa were not included in the analysis as pitfall trapping was not the conventional method for sampling them
Species rank abundance (Kdominance) curves showed that the mixed alien site had a greater species evenness trend than the other three sites while the eucalypt patch had the highest species dominance with Pardosa crassipalpis and Pheidole spp having above 59% level of dominance (Figure 3a)
Summary
Anthropogenic activities tend to accelerate the problem of alien invasions, which in turn affect agriculture, forestry and human health, resulting in biotic homogenization worldwide (Richardson and van Wilgen, 2004; Pimentel et al, 2005; Usio et al, 2009). Apart from the impact on human communities, invasive alien plants are responsible for the local extinction of many indigenous species in South Africa (Samways et al, 1996; Magoba and Samways, 2008), and regarded as the second major threat (after habitat destruction) to the biodiversity of any particular area (Richardson and van Wilgen, 2004; Macdonald et al, 2003; Olckers and Hulley, 1991). Given that there is strong association between most arthropods and native vegetation or the microhabitat it creates (Mgobozi et al., 2008; Olckers and Hulley, 1991), any decrease, extinction or alteration of the physical characteristics of some native plant species or habitats after alien plant colonization may negatively impact on species-specific herbivores (Palmer et al, 2004; Pauchard and Alback, 2004)
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