SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIATION IN THE DIVERSITY OF HYMENOPTERA ACROSS A TROPICAL HABITAT GRADIENT

Abstract

Understanding global biodiversity patterns requires analyses at multiple spatial and temporal scales, across a variety of different habitat types. We used a highly replicated study in coastal Ecuador to examine simultaneously for the first time spatial and temporal species turnover and the contribution of five different habitat types (rice, pasture, coffee agroforests, abandoned coffee agroforests, and native forest fragments) to regional diversity in the tropics, using the experimental placement of standardized nesting structures for bees and wasps. There was notable overlap in the communities of different habitat types, indicating that even intensively managed land can provide a valuable contribution to the overall biodiversity of the landscape mosaic. Importantly, there was a significant effect of habitat type on temporal variation in diversity. While intensive cropping systems such as rice and pasture exhibited higher diversity in certain months, greater species turnover through time in the abandoned coffee and forest plots accounted for the higher overall diversity in these habitats. Overall, spatial and temporal turnover explained 38.6% and 23.1%, respectively, of partitioned regional species richness. A quantitative analysis revealed that the relative habitat specificity of Hymenoptera decreased with increasing habitat disturbance.