Implications of design and data quality for the analysis of a nationwide biodiversity monitoring scheme

Effects of grassland management on plants and invertebrates in Transylvania, Romania : a threat to local biodiversity hotspots

Effects of land use on butterfly (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) abundance and diversity in the tropical coastal regions of Guyana and Australia

The effect of land use type on butterfly abundance, species richness, and biodiversity was studied at Masako Forest Reserve in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. The study was conducted in a primary (PF) and secondary forest (SF), fallow (FW), and an agricultural field (AF). Three bait traps were used; each trap had a cylinder consisting of two metal rings of 30.48 cm diameter and 106.68 cm length with a 15.24 cm cone top. The cylinder and top were nylon mosquito netting with a 55.88 cm zipper sewn into the seam of the cylinder to provide access into the trap to remove butterflies. Traps with rotten bananas as baits were placed at three sites in each of the land use type for 24 h. Trapped butterflies were counted, identified, photographed and released. Results showed that land use type significantly affected butterfly species abundance (p=0.0003) and alpha biodiversity (p=0.0001). The fallow had the highest butterfly species abundance and biodiversity. Cymothoe caenis was the most dominant and Acrea lycoa the least abundant species. Butterflies biodiversity indices significantly correlated with longitude (0.58 to 0.79). These results suggested that land use type and geographic coordinates may have an impact on butterflies at Masako Forest Reserve. More studies are needed to better understand the effect of land use type and longitude on butterfly biodiversity. Key words: Butterfly, forest, land use type, species, abundance, biodiversity.

شاخص‏های تنوع زیستی ابزاری نیرومند برای ارزیابی پایداری نظام های کشاورزی محسوب می شوند. در این تحقیق که به منظور ارزیابی تنوع زیستی محصولات زراعی و باغی شهرستان های استان اصفهان و همچنین بررسی روابط موجود بین تنوع زیستی و عوامل اقلیمی ‏این استان صورت گرفت، سطح زیر کشت، غنای گونه ای، یکنواختی، تنوع گونه ای و تنوع آلفا و بتای محصولات زراعی و باغی محاسبه شده و مورد ارزیابی قرار گرفتند. بدین منظور، اطلاعات مربوط به سطح زیر کشت گیاهان زراعی و باغی شهرستان‏های مختلف استان اصفهان در سال زراعی 92-1391 از طریق اطلاعات سازمان جهاد کشاورزی استان و همچنین پرسشنامه‏هایی جمع‏آوری گردید. محصولات زراعی به هشت گروه غلات، حبوبات، جالیزی، سبزیجات، علوفه ای، صنعتی و دارویی و محصولات باغی به دو گروه درختان میوه معتدله و گرمسیری طبقه بندی شدند. تنوع آلفا و بتا نیز با استفاده از رابطه غنای گونه‏ای مساحت برای اقلیم‏های مختلف استان محاسبه شد. نتایج نشان داد که در گروه محصولات باغی، درختان میوه معتدله (2/76 درصد) بیشترین و در گروه محصولات زراعی غلات (36/59 درصد) و گیاهان دارویی (09/1 درصد) به ترتیب بیشترین و کمترین سطح زیر کشت را دارا هستند. شهرستان های سمیرم و برخوار و میمه به ترتیب بیشترین و کمترین سطح زیر کشت محصولات باغی را به خود اختصاص دادند. بیشترین سطح زیر کشت محصولات زراعی در شهرستان اصفهان و کمترین آن در شهرستان خوروبیابانک مشاهده شد. شهرستان-های کاشان، لنجان، و نطنز با 17 گونه گیاهی، بیشترین و آران و بیدگل با سه گونه گیاهی کمترین غنای گونه ای محصولات باغی استان را در برداشتند. بیشترین و کمترین شاخص یکنواختی محصولات باغی به ترتیب مربوط به شهرستان های اصفهان (83/0) و سمیرم (192/0) بود. شهرستان های فلاورجان، خمینی شهر، کاشان، نایین و نجف آباد دارای بیشترین شاخص یکنواختی در محصولات زراعی و شهرستان اصفهان کمترین میزان این شاخص را نشان داد. به طور میانگین بیشترین و کمترین شاخص تنوع زیستی شانون- وینر در محصولات زراعی به ترتیب مربوط به گیاهان علوفه ای (929/0) و جالیزی (442/0) بود. این شاخص برای درختان معتدله بیش از دو برابر درختان گرمسیری گزارش شد. بیشترین و کمترین میزان تنوع آلفا به ترتیب در شهرستان‏های واقع در اقلیم‏های معتدل و بیابانی گرم مشاهده شد. اقلیم بیابانی معتدل نیز بالاترین میزان تنوع بتا را شامل شد.

Semi-natural grasslands including hay meadows belong to the most species-rich habitats in central Europe and are therefore of high conservation value. The high biodiversity of these grasslands has been maintained for many centuries through the regular disturbance by traditional management practices. In the Valais, an arid mountain region of Switzerland, traditional management of hay meadows includes irrigation by open water channels. In the past decades, however, the traditional irrigation technique was increasingly replaced by more efficient sprinkler-irrigation systems or irrigation was stopped on marginal and poorly accessible areas. Within the scope of this thesis, four studies were conducted to investigate different aspects of these changes in meadow irrigation. The aim of the first study was to examine whether land-use abandonment resulting from the cessation of irrigation influenced the biodiversity of hay meadows in the Valais. For this purpose, plant and gastropod surveys were conducted in three serial stages of succession (hay meadows, early abandoned meadows and young forests). Meadow abandonment resulted in an increase in gastropod species richness and a loss of plant and gastropod species characteristic for open grassland habitats. Furthermore, functional traits of plants (plant height, the start of seed shedding and the type of reproduction) and gastropods (shell size) were affected by abandonment. Traditional meadow irrigation is assumed to distribute the water more heterogeneously than sprinkler irrigation, which might affect meadow biodiversity as well as the distribution of plants in a small scale. The aim of the second study was to examine whether the change from traditional to sprinkler irrigation affected the local biodiversity (plants and gastropods) of hay meadows in the Valais. A high plant species richness was found in the hay meadows investigated. The diversity and composition of plant and gastropod species did not differ between traditionally and sprinkler-irrigated meadows. However, the installation of sprinkler systems resulted in an increase in the grass-to-forb ratio and affected the leaf distribution and the start of seed shedding in plants. The third study aimed to investigate whether the change in irrigation technique affected the small-scale distribution of plants and soil characteristics in these hay meadows. Three sampling plots consisting of 13 subplots of increasing size were installed in traditionally and sprinkler-irrigated meadows to assess plant species richness and soil characteristics within subplots. The type of irrigation technique did not affect the shape of the plant species-area relationship. Furthermore, spatial autocorrelation in the soil characteristics examined was low and their small-scale distributions were mostly not influenced by the irrigation technique. These findings indicate a pronounced small-scale heterogeneity in the distribution of plant species and soil characteristics in the hay meadows investigated. Therefore, as practiced in our study areas, the distribution of water by sprinklers might be less homogenous than commonly assumed. The abandonment of traditional management practices of semi-natural grasslands is suggested to result in a reduced landscape heterogeneity, which in turn might contribute to the loss of local plant diversity. The fourth study aimed to investigate whether the change from traditional to sprinkler irrigation resulted in alterations in the surrounding landscape of species-rich hay meadows. Furthermore, we asked if plant diversity of differently irrigated meadows is influenced by landscape composition and the heterogeneity of the surrounding landscape. Landscape composition was more diverse for traditionally than for sprinkler-irrigated meadows, but did not differ prior to the installation of sprinklers. A diverse small-scale landscape composition in the close surroundings of hay meadows had a positive effect on the number of generalists but not on total plant species richness or the number of specialists. Finally, sprinkler-irrigated meadows had an increased number of generalist plant species. The findings of this thesis suggest that the installation of sprinklers did not affect the local species richness of plants and gastropods in the hay meadows investigated. Nevertheless, the change in irrigation technique influenced functional aspects of plant diversity (plant traits, grass-to-forb ratio and generalist species). Furthermore, the installation of sprinklers was associated with a homogenization of the landscape, which may eventually result in an intensification of land use. For the conservation of the biodiversity of these hay meadows it is recommended to maintain the relatively extensive irrigation and management practices.

Plant species diversity of Sinocalycanthus chinensis community in Dalei mountain of Zhejiang Province was determined by using the index of species richness,species diversity and community evenness,and the relationships between the biodiversity indices and soil factors were studied by employing correlation analysis.According to the statistics of ten plots,there are altogether 74 families of vascular plants which can be subdivided into 193 species,165 genera.Most of them are distributed in the temperate zone in terms of the geographic composition of seed plant genera.In different communities,the species richness and species diversity index of the woody plants were highest in Cunninghamia lanceolata+Schima superba forest,the community evenness was highest in C.lanceolata forest,and these index were lowest in bamboo grove.The species richness of the herbal plants was highest in C.lanceolata+Pinus massoniana forest and lowest in C.lanceolata forest.The species diversity index and community evenness of the herbal plants was highest in bamboo grove and lowest in Quercus serrata var.brevipetiolata+Eurya muricata forest.In the vertical structure of these different communities,the species richness and species diversity index of tree layer were lower than those of shrub layer,the species diversity of herb layer was greatly varied in different communities.The correlation analysis showed that there was great correlation existing between the species diversity of S.chinensis community and soil organic matter content in which organic matter content was positively related to species diversity of the woody plants but negative to the herbal plants significantly,respectively.

The functional diversity and redundancy of corals

From Feburary, 2002 to January, 2003, we monthly investigated the biodiversity of butterflies of the Dajiaosi Experimental Forest at Jiaosi Township in Yilan County. There were 1,005 individuals of 36 species and 4 families, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphlidae, and Lycaenidae distributed in the forest. This paper not only states the butterfly fauna in this area, but also reports the fluctuation on butterfly species and numbers in each butterfly family monthly. The Radena similis similis is the only one species that can be seen all year round. In this research, investigating results of July and August of 1992 and 2003 from a different site, the Cilan Forest Recreation Area at Datong Township, in Yilan County are also reported and used to be compared with. The comparing results indicate that the family and species numbers of butterflies at Cilan Forest Recreation Area are both greater than those at Dajiaosi Experimental Forest. The abundance of butterfly fauna in 1992 was greater than that in 2003 at Cilan Forest Recreation Area. This implicates the requirement of efforts such as planting the larval host plants and adult's nectar plants, pre venting the artificial destruction and the interference of visitors to maintain the biodiversity of butterflies at Dajiaosi and Cilan Area.

Evaluating the effect of habitat diversity on the species-area relationship using land-bridge islands in Thousand Island Lake, China.

Although urbanization is threatening biodiversity worldwide, the increasing green urban spaces could harbor relatively high biodiversity. Therefore, how to maintain the biodiversity in urban ecosystem is crucial for sustainable urban planning and management, especially in arid and semiarid regions with relatively fragile environment and low biodiversity. Here, for the first time we linked species richness, phylogenetic and functional structure of bird assemblages in university campuses in northern China with plant species richness, glacial-interglacial climate change, contemporary climate, and anthropogenic factors to compare their relative roles in shaping urban bird diversity. Bird surveys were conducted in 20 university campuses across Inner Mongolia, China. Ordinary least squares models and simultaneous autoregressive models were used to assess the relationships between bird species richness, phylogenetic and functional structure with environmental factors. Structural equation models were used to capture the direct and indirect effects of these factors on the three components of bird diversity. Single-variable simultaneous autoregressive models showed that mean annual precipitation was consistently a significant driver for bird species richness, phylogenetic and functional structure. Meanwhile, mean annual temperature and plant species richness were also significant predictors for bird species richness. This study suggests that campuses with warmer and wetter climate as well as more woody plant species could harbor more bird species. In addition, wetter campuses tended to sustain over-dispersed phylogenetic and functional structure. Our findings emphasize the dominant effect of precipitation on bird diversity distribution in this arid and semiarid region, even in the urban ecosystem.

Intensification or abandonment of agricultural land use has led to a severe decline of semi-natural habitats across Europe. This can cause immediate loss of species but also time-delayed extinctions, known as the extinction debt. In a pan-European study of 147 fragmented grassland remnants, we found differences in the extinction debt of species from different trophic levels. Present-day species richness of long-lived vascular plant specialists was better explained by past than current landscape patterns, indicating an extinction debt. In contrast, short-lived butterfly specialists showed no evidence for an extinction debt at a time scale of c. 40 years. Our results indicate that management strategies maintaining the status quo of fragmented habitats are insufficient, as time- delayed extinctions and associated co-extinctions will lead to further biodiversity loss in the future.

Insects are well recognised as being the major contributor to global biodiversity, and for their critical involvement in many biotic interactions. Most of the insect diversity is found in tropical rainforests. However, these forests are threatened by high rates of clearing and the subsequent fragmentation of remaining habitat. The effects on biota, particularly insects, are poorly understood as are the mechanisms mediating faunal changes. Reforestation could potentially alleviate some of the deleterious effects of forest loss and fragmentation. However, because reforestation is a relatively new endeavour, it is little known just how much insect biodiversity can be supported by reforestation and what factors influence insect colonisation. These issues were investigated in the Atherton Tablelands of north-eastern Australia, a landscape whose rainforest has been heavily cleared and fragmented over the last 80 years, but is also the focus of reforestation efforts. To quantify the effects of rainforest loss and fragmentation, pasture sites were compared with small rainforest fragments, and with the edges and interiors of large rainforest fragments (24 sites in total). Sites with replanted rainforest (planted with a high diversity of plants) were also included. These varied in their age (2-17 yrs) and their distance (0-4.5 km) from existing rainforest (24 sites in total). Another set of reforested sites was also studied but these differed in their planting style (number of plant species, spacing etc). This second set of sites was located in two regions: the Atherton Tablelands (50 sites), and in the subtropics of eastern Australia (54 sites). At each site, beetle assemblages were surveyed using methods that sample beetles near the ground (four ground-based flight interception traps in the first set of sites and ten pitfall traps in the second set of sites), and then the assemblages among site-types were compared. Over 32,000 beetles were caught and identified to the level of family, and of these, 15,206 were identified further to the level of species. Very few beetle species were present in pasture, suggesting that converting rainforest into pasture has a very strong negative effect on beetle diversity and species composition. Irrespective of rainforest fragment size, beetle species composition in drier rainforest habitats was different from that of moister rainforest. Beetle species composition also differed between small remnants and interior rainforest: drier-associated species were more abundant in small remnants, whereas wetter-associated species were more abundant in interiors. This pattern can be best attributed to a fragmentation effect mediated by differences in microclimate. With the exception of differences between rainforest and pasture, these results were generally not observed among beetle assemblages identified to coarser taxonomic groups (family, feeding guild, and body size). Among replanted rainforest, older sites and those adjacent to rainforest had a more rainforest-like beetle species composition. However, even the closer and older sites had a substantially lower abundance and richness of rainforest-associated beetles than did rainforest. Age effects were generally stronger than distance effects. Beetle assemblage similarity to rainforest was more strongly correlated with structural similarity to rainforest than with site age or distance from rainforest. Thus the use of revegetation techniques which lead to more rainforest-like structural conditions appears to be of over-riding importance in catalysing the rapid acquisition of rainforest beetle assemblages in the initial stages of restoration. Nevertheless, not all beetle species were equally affected by the factors tested. Large-bodied beetle species (>5 mm) were more strongly influenced by distance than small-bodied species (<5 mm), suggesting that small-bodied species are better dispersers, and thus are amongst the first to colonise new habitats. Spatial ubiquity in rainforest was not a good predictor of a species' dispersal ability. Interestingly, fewer of the broader groups (family, feeding guild, and body size) showed the response to distance evident at the species level although they showed differences between reforested sites differing in age, and between reforested and reference site-types. Therefore, these results and those from the fragmentation study suggest that information at the species level is more sensitive to environmental change than data identified to a coarser level of taxonomy or grouped according to feeding ecology or body size. For the pitfall-trapped beetles in the second reforested site network, beetle assemblages in all styles of reforestation were intermediate in species composition between pasture and rainforest. The similarity of beetle assemblages to intact rainforest increased with the age and structural complexity of reforested sites, although again structural complexity appeared to be of overriding importance. This study has shown that even small patches of rainforest and reforested areas can support diverse rainforest-dependent beetle assemblages. A range of factors influence the development of beetle assemblages in reforested sites although not all species are equally affected. However, even structurally complex reforested sites cannot provide a short- or medium-term substitute for the retention of intact rainforest.

Climate change will significantly affect avian biodiversity on a global scale. Increasing temperatures over the next century will lead to shifts in species distributions, alterations in the timing of breeding and migration, changes in morphology and shifts in genetic frequencies among avian populations. The global hotspots of avian diversity are found in mountainous rainforests, regions which may be difficult to access. Therefore, effective ways of monitoring rainforest bird assemblages are vital, for both ecologists and conservationists. This thesis addresses the challenge of monitoring the effects of climate change on rainforest bird assemblages. I used two methods, point counts and automated acoustic recording, to sample the rainforest birds occupying three elevational gradients in rainforests on the east coast of Australia. In doing so, I had the following aims: 1) to determine whether biodiversity data from automated acoustic recordings made using automated recording units (ARUs) was comparable to data generated using a traditional method (point counts), 2) to assess the ability of ARUs to monitor cryptic rainforest species for long time periods, 3) to identify birds that could be used as indicator species of elevation for the purpose of long-term climate change monitoring, and 4) to investigate the driving factors of bird species richness and abundance along elevational gradients in Australian rainforests. Existing studies showed contrasting results when comparing the effectiveness of traditional avian sampling methodologies with ARUs. To address this in an Australian rainforest context, we collected data on the birds of Eungella National Park in central Queensland over two sampling periods. We found that data from point counts and ARUs was broadly similar. On average, point counts detected more species than recordings of the same duration. The respective strengths and weaknesses of point counts and ARUs are complementary, and they should be used simultaneously in future biodiversity surveys. ARUs can sample remotely, simultaneously, and for long time periods. Using ARUs, we collected a year’s worth of data on two cryptic species inhabiting rainforest in north-eastern New South Wales. Bassian Thrush Zoothera lunulata and Russet-tailed Thrush Z. heinei are secretive inhabitants of wet forests on the eastern coast of Australia. We found that the two species had differential elevational preferences: Bassian Thrush preferred elevations above 900m asl, and Russet-tailed Thrush preferred elevations below 700m asl. Recordings of song indicated that Russet-tailed Thrush bred earlier than Bassian Thrush in 2015. This, along with the elevational preferences of the two species, may be related to temperature. The use of ARUs enabled us to quantify the elevational preferences and likely breeding times of these cryptic species. Populations of Bassian Thrush in north-eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland are likely to decline with increasing temperatures. Upwards shifts in the elevational ranges of rainforest birds are expected due to increasing global temperatures. Identifying the current elevational distributions of indicator species has been suggested as one way of monitoring such upwards shifts. Previous research in our study region had identified indicator species among various invertebrate and plant taxa, but information on vertebrate indicators was lacking. Using data on the elevational preferences of birds collected over one year, we identified avian indicators of lowland and highland rainforest sites in north-eastern New South Wales. These indicators may be used to detect future shifts in species elevational preferences in the region. Previous research in tropical rainforests of the Wet Tropics identified temperature as an important driver of bird species’ distributions. There was a comparative lack of information for the subtropical rainforests of north-eastern New South Wales. Our data from elevational gradients in this region indicated that temperature was significantly positively correlated with both avian species richness and abundance. Species richness declined with elevation; there was no consistent elevational pattern in abundance. We found that species’ functional traits mediated their responses to the changes in environmental conditions along the gradient: large-bodied and small-bodied species are likely to be affected in different ways by increasing temperatures. My research has determined effective ways of monitoring the effects of climate change on rainforest bird assemblages. In doing so, I have also addressed major gaps in the knowledge of two relatively understudied biodiversity hotspots on the eastern coast of Australia. The baseline data presented in this thesis allows future researchers to detect changes in the avian biodiversity of the study regions, and represents a significant contribution to ornithology and climate change research in Australia and internationally.

Assessing the vulnerability of Thailand's forest birds to global change

Extensively managed pastures harbour rare and endangered species and have a decisive role in maintaining grassland biodiversity. Traditional herding of local robust cattle breeds is considered as a feasible tool for preserving these habitats. We studied the scale-dependent effects of grazing on the species richness and composition of three dry grassland types in the Great Hungarian Plain: Achilleo setaceae-Festucetum pseudovinae and Artemisio santonici-Festucetum pseudovinae alkaline grasslands, and Potentillo arenariae-Festucetum pseudovinae sand grassland. We asked the following questions: (1) Does extensive grazing have a scale-dependent effect on plant species richness of alkaline and sand grasslands? (2) How does grazing affect the proportion of specialists, generalists and weeds in the three grassland types? We sampled ten sites of each grassland type, including five extensively grazed and five non-grazed sites (altogether we had 30 sites). We used a series of nested plots each consisting of 10 plots from the size of 0.01 m² to 16 m². We revealed that grazing has contrasting effects in the three grassland types, and had a considerable effect on their species richness even at small scales. In both alkaline grassland types, total species richness was overall higher in grazed plots but it increased in a similar manner for both ungrazed and grazed habitats across plot sizes. Small-scale heterogeneity likely due to the uneven distribution of grazing, trampling and defecation together with mitigated rate of competition allowed more species to co-exist even at small scales in grazed alkaline grasslands. Grazing increased the richness of specialists, but likely due to the salt stress, establishment of weeds was hampered. Open gaps formed by trampling likely supported the establishment of several specialist species such as Plantago tenuiflora and Puccinellia limosa which are typical to open alkali grasslands. Contrary, in sand grasslands, we did not detect any effect of grazing on total species richness, likely due to the adverse effect of grazing on the species richness of specialists and weeds. In contrast with the former findings we detected significantly higher species richness in 0.01 m² and 0.0625 m² plots in the grazed sand grasslands, but found no differences at larger scales. Whilst species richness of specialists was significantly decreased, richness of weeds was increased by grazing. Decrease in the specialist species richness was likely due to the lack of their evolutionary adaptation to grazing. Degradation caused by grazing and trampling together with the propagule pressure from the neighbouring anthropo-genic habitats resulted in an increased richness of weeds in the grazed sites.