千岛湖雀形目鸟类群落嵌套结构分析

2006年4月至2007年11月, 采用截线法对千岛湖20个岛屿上的雀形目鸟类种类组成进行调查, 检验其群落是否符合嵌套式分布的格局。此外通过野外直接记录与辨认法对岛屿上的植物种类组成进行调查, 同时通过查阅文献资料和野外调查获得鸟类体长、分布宽度和生境专属性等生活史特征参数, 以及采用GIS分析测定岛屿面积和隔离度参数, 进而分析和探讨雀形目鸟类群落嵌套格局的影响因素。结果显示, 千岛湖岛屿雀形目鸟类群落呈现显著的嵌套结构, 岛屿面积、植物物种丰富度和生境专属性对其嵌套结构具显著性的影响。千岛湖岛屿雀形目鸟类存在着选择性灭绝过程; 植物物种丰富度和鸟类生境专属性则通过影响鸟类在不同生境下的分布对鸟类群落嵌套结构产生影响。上述结果表明千岛湖岛屿雀形目鸟类群落嵌套格局同时受到栖息地和物种两方面因素的影响, 为此我们认为应更多地关注那些面积较大和植物物种丰富度较高的岛屿, 以及生境专属性较高的种类等鸟类多样性及其栖息地的保护策略。     

生境片段化对千岛湖地表甲虫物种多样性的影响

在千岛湖片段化景观中选取20个陆桥岛屿和8个大陆样点,从2012年7月到2014年4月,按季度(春、夏、秋季)6次采用巴氏陷阱法收集地表甲虫,分析其物种多度、组成、多样性和季节动态,以及不同岛屿上的地表甲虫的物种多样性与岛屿面积和隔离度等岛屿空间特征的关系.结果表明: 共收集记录到地表甲虫26科101种3370头.大陆和大岛地表甲虫的物种丰富度有显著差异,且小岛地表甲虫密度显著高于大陆;大陆地表甲虫的物种组成变化较大,而岛屿上分布的地表甲虫的物种组成则变化较小.地表甲虫的物种丰富度与岛屿面积呈显著正相关,密度与隔离度呈显著正相关.夏季岛屿上地表甲虫物种丰富度高于春秋两季,岛屿与大陆样地的Shannon指数、Simpson指数和Pielou均匀度指数均在夏季最高、秋季最低.     

千岛湖两栖爬行类动物群落结构嵌套分析

生境片段化是导致生物多样性降低的主要原因之一.该文采用样线法对千岛湖23个岛屿的两栖爬行类进行了调查,并结合植物种类调查数据和GIS技术提取的栖息地景观参数,使用“BINMATNEST”软件和Spearman相关性分析等方法,对这些岛屿上的两栖爬行类群落的分布格局及其影响因素进行分析.结果表明,千岛湖两栖爬行类群落整体上呈现嵌套分布格局;嵌套格局与岛屿面积和生境类型相关显著.因此,在制定千岛湖地区两栖爬行动物保护措施时,应优先考虑面积较大和生境类型多的岛屿.     

千岛湖岛屿维管植物β多样性及其影响因素

通过样地调查方法、Jaccard相异性指数、Spearman回归分析和非度量多维标度(NMDS)排序分析,研究了千岛湖154个岛屿上不同植物群落β多样性及其主要影响因素。结果表明不同的景观参数对不同植物生长型有不同程度的影响,其中(1)藤本、灌木的β多样性形成的主导因素是面积,即面积差越大的区域间的β多样性越高;(2)乔木的β多样性主要受到岛屿间距离的限制,岛屿间距离越远,β多样性越高;(3)草本植物的β多样性分布与岛屿面积差及岛屿间距离并未呈现出显著相关,即其分布不受这两种因素限制;(4)NMDS分析结果显示岛屿面积、形状、边缘面积比和岛屿到大陆最小距离等特征对千岛湖岛屿上植物β多样性起决定性的作用。千岛湖陆桥岛屿组成的片段化生境中植物β多样性受扩散限制和生态位假说的共同影响。     

地表蚂蚁在云南萨王纳地区植被恢复过程中的指示作用

为了查清地表蚂蚁在萨王纳地区人工植被恢复过程中的指示作用,采用陷阱法调查了云南省萨王纳地区人工林和自然植被地表蚂蚁多样性。(1)群落物种组成:采集蚂蚁40467头,隶属于5亚科19属47种。扁平虹臭蚁Iridomyrmes anceps是保护较好自然植被的常见种;而迈氏小家蚁Monomorium mayri是干扰较大的自然植被及多数人工林的常见种。(2)多度和α多样性:在人工林中,印楝林地表蚂蚁群落多度和α多样性最高,桉树林次之,新银合欢林最低。(3)群落相似性及β多样性:印楝林地表蚂蚁群落与自然植被灌草丛较接近,而其它人工林蚂蚁物种组成不相似;新银合欢林β多样性最高,βCs值在0.481—0.935;印楝林较低,βCs值在0.200—0.478。(4)相关性分析:地表蚂蚁群落物种丰富度S值及ACE值和草本植物群落S值及ACE值均正相关。印楝林和桉树林具有较高的α多样性,在当地生物多样性保护中具有积极意义;而新银合欢林是生境极度退化区域的重要植被恢复模式之一,这3种人工林对于萨王纳地区植被恢复具有重要作用。蚂蚁群落α多样性能够作为生物多样性的指示物,指示云南萨王纳地区植被恢复中生物多样性的状况。     

千岛湖栖息地片段化效应对鸟类巢捕食风险的影响

为了解栖息地片段化对鸟类巢捕食风险的影响,我们于2010年4-8月,在千岛湖地区选取16个岛屿,分别在岛屿边缘和内部区域用放置鸡蛋(大型卵)和鹌鹑(Coturnix japonica)蛋(小型卵)的方法进行人工模拟地面巢试验,研究不同体积大小鸟卵的巢捕食率及其差异,分析巢捕食率与岛屿面积、隔离度、形状指数和植物物种丰富...     

片段化景观中壳斗科植物种子捕食和扩散模式

生境片段化伴随的面积效应和边缘效应, 可改变分散贮食动物的竞争强度、觅食行为以及隐蔽条件, 影响种子捕食和扩散模式。阐明生境片段化对多物种种子捕食和扩散的影响, 对理解片段化生境中的植物更新和生物多样性维持十分重要。该研究在浙江省千岛湖地区的岛屿和大陆上开展了针对6种壳斗科植物的种子捕食和扩散实验, 分析了物种、分散贮食动物相对多度、种子产量、岛屿大小和边缘效应如何共同影响种子命运和种子扩散距离。主要结果: (1)种子命运和扩散距离在物种间存在显著差异; (2)大陆比岛屿有更长的种子留存时间, 小岛种子留存时间最短, 岛屿内部比岛屿边缘有更长的种子留存时间; (3)物种和岛屿大小对种子原地取食率存在交互作用, 白栎(Quercus fabri)种子在大岛上有更高的原地取食率; (4)种子在小岛上有最高的扩散率, 分散贮食动物相对多度对种子扩散后贮藏率有负效应。表明在千岛湖地区, 生境片段化改变了种子捕食和扩散模式, 且面积效应对不同物种的种子捕食和扩散模式产生了不同作用, 从而影响森林群落更新和生物多样性维持。     

千岛湖岛屿小型兽类群落分布格局及其影响因素

2007年秋季和2008年春季,采用夹夜法对千岛湖14个岛屿进行小型兽类群落组成调查,研究其群落空间分布格局及其影响因素。两季度共布置夹16 800只,捕获小型兽类1 037只,隶属2目2科7属11种。其中啮齿目（Rodenria）鼠科（Muridae）9种,食虫目（Insectivora）鼩鼱科（Soricdae）2种。结果显示：千岛湖小型兽类群落呈非随机分布格局;嵌套分析表明,千岛湖岛屿小型兽类群落呈现极显著嵌套格局,植物丰富度和生境专属性两项参数对其嵌套格局的形成具有显著影响,从而使适应力强的物种能够在多样的环境中生存,而适应力弱的物种则局限在特定的环境中。由于取样强度差异会过高地估计嵌套程度,故在研究中应尽量去除取样强度的干扰。     

千岛湖岛屿小型兽类群落的多样性

2007 年秋季和2008 年春季,选取千岛湖地区14 个岛屿和2 个半岛作为样地,采用夹夜法进行小型兽类群落组成调查。两季度共布夹20 400 个,捕获小型兽类1 141 只,隶属2 目3 科9 属13 种,啮齿目(Rodentia)鼠科(Muridae)10 种和仓鼠科(Cricetidae)1 种,食虫目(Insectivora)鼩鼱科(Soricidae)2 种。利用以上结果分析其群落多样性,结果显示:14 个岛屿小型兽类群落春、秋两季的多样性指数、均匀度指数和优势度指数均呈现极显著差异且优势种发生变化;对可能影响岛屿小型兽类群落多样性的岛屿面积、距最近陆地距离、距最近大岛距离和植物丰富度等因素进行逐步回归分析,发现只有植物丰富度对小型兽类群落的物种丰富度有显著影响;对16 个样地按照物种组成比进行聚类,许源半岛样地与14 个岛屿聚为一类,姚家半岛样地单独归为一类,相似性指数比较结果亦显示姚家半岛样地与其它样地的相似性指数偏低。结论:景观破碎化导致千岛湖岛屿小型兽类群落的稳定性下降,物种多样性季节变化强烈;随岛屿面积的增加,小型兽类物种丰富度并非总是增加的,而是出现反复,呈现明显的小岛效应;14 个岛屿的物种与许源半岛样地物种构成比接近,推断在水库未形成前属同一生境。     

北京密云农业景观步甲群落空间分布格局

采用陷阱法对北京密云县西田各庄南部农业景观中玉米地、花生地、果园及半自然林地4种典型生境中的步甲群落进行调查分析.结果表明: 果园步甲群落α多样性最高,花生地最低,林地与玉米地居中,且二者无显著差异;林地、花生地及果园的步甲群落结构明显不同,但均与玉米地的步甲群落结构有不同程度的相似性.果园维持着较多的捕食性步甲和兼食性步甲个体数;且不同生境间捕食性步甲的物种周转率与兼食性步甲的差异更明显.低集约化的果园生境可能较半自然生境林地维持更高的步甲群落α多样性,但多样化的景观组成有利于维持步甲群落及捕食性步甲较高的β多样性.重视景观多样性和低集约化农田生境的保护对保护农业景观步甲群落多样性和实现其害虫控制功能具有重要的意义.     

Revealing Beta-Diversity Patterns of Breeding Bird and Lizard Communities on Inundated Land-Bridge Islands by Separating the Turnover and Nestedness Components

Beta diversity describes changes in species composition among sites in a region and has particular relevance for explaining ecological patterns in fragmented habitats. However, it is difficult to reveal the mechanisms if broad sense beta-diversity indices (i.e. yielding identical values under nestedness and species replacement) are used. Partitioning beta diversity into turnover (caused by species replacement from site to site) and nestedness-resultant components (caused by nested species losses) could provide a unique way to understand the variation of species composition in fragmented habitats. Here, we collected occupancy data of breeding birds and lizards on land-bridge islands in an inundated lake in eastern China. We decomposed beta diversity of breeding bird and lizard communities into spatial turnover and nestedness-resultant components to assess their relative contributions and respective relationships to differences in island area, isolation, and habitat richness. Our results showed that spatial turnover contributed more to beta diversity than the nestedness-resultant component. The degree of isolation had no significant effect on overall beta diversity or its components, neither for breeding birds nor for lizards. In turn, in both groups the nestedness-resultant component increased with larger differences in island area and habitat richness, respectively, while turnover component decreased with them. The major difference among birds and lizards was a higher relevance of nestedness-resultant dissimilarity in lizards, suggesting that they are more prone to local extinctions derived from habitat fragmentation. The dominance of the spatial turnover component of beta diversity suggests that all islands have potential conservation value for breeding bird and lizard communities.     

Tree diversity promotes predator but not omnivore ants in a subtropical Chinese forest

1. Epigeic ants are functionally important arthropods in tropical and subtropical forests, particularly by acting as predators. High predation pressure has been hypothesised to be a mechanism facilitating high diversity across trophic levels. 2. In this study, standardised pitfall traps were used in a highly diverse subtropical forest to test if and how ant species richness is related to tree species richness and a comprehensive set of other environmental variables such as successional age, soil properties or elevation. 3. A total of 13 441 ant individuals belonging to 3839 species occurrences and 71 species were collected, of which 26 species were exclusive predators and 45 species were omnivores. 4. Occurrence and species richness of total and omnivore ants were positively related to soil pH. Predator ant occurrence was unrelated to all environmental variables tested. 5. The species richness of predator ants increased with tree species richness but decreased with leaf functional diversity and shrub cover. Elevation negatively influenced only total ant species richness. 6. The evenness of predators increased with tree species richness, while the evenness of all ants decreased with shrub cover. Omnivore ant evenness decreased with tree evenness, but increased with successional age. 7. The results highlight the value of diverse forests in maintaining species richness and community evenness of a functionally important predator group. Moreover, the results stress the importance of analysing trophic groups separately when investigating biodiversity effects.     

Ant communities on small tropical islands: effects of island size and isolation are obscured by habitat disturbance and ‘tramp’ ant species

Aim Comparisons among islands offer an opportunity to study the effects of biotic and abiotic factors on small, replicated biological communities. Smaller population sizes on islands accelerate some ecological processes, which may decrease the time needed for perturbations to affect community composition. We surveyed ants on 18 small tropical islands to determine the effects of island size, isolation from the mainland, and habitat disturbance on ant community composition. Location Thousand Islands Archipelago (Indonesian name: Kepulauan Seribu) off Jakarta, West Java, Indonesia. Methods Ants were sampled from the soil surface, leaf litter and vegetation in all habitat types on each island. Island size, isolation from the mainland, and land‐use patterns were quantified using GIS software. The presence of settlements and of boat docks were used as indicators of anthropogenic disturbance. The richness of ant communities and non‐tramp ant species on each island were analysed in relation to the islands’ physical characteristics and indicators of human disturbance. Results Forty‐eight ant species from 5 subfamilies and 28 genera were recorded from the archipelago, and approximately 20% of the ant species were well‐known human‐commensal ‘tramp’ species. Islands with boat docks or human settlements had significantly more tramp species than did islands lacking these indicators of anthropogenic disturbance, and the diversity of non‐tramp species decreased with habitat disturbance. Main conclusions Human disturbance on islands in the Thousand Islands Archipelago promotes the introduction and/or establishment of tramp species. Tramp species affect the composition of insular ant communities, and expected biogeographical patterns of ant richness are masked. The island with the greatest estimated species richness and the greatest number of unique ant species, Rambut Island, is a forested bird sanctuary, highlighting the importance of protected areas in preserving the diversity of species‐rich invertebrate faunas.     

Species richness and structure of ant communities in a dynamic archipelago: effects of island area and age

Aim To assess how ant species richness and structure of ant communities are influenced by island age (disturbance history) in a dynamic archipelago. Location Cabra Corral dam, Salta Province, north‐west Argentina (25°08′ S, 65°20′ W). Methods Ant species richness on remaining fragments (islands) of a flooded forest was determined, as well as island area, isolation and age. Simple linear regressions were performed to assess relationships between ant species richness and those insular variables. Furthermore, a stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the relative influence of each insular variable on ant species richness. Islands were categorized in two age classes (old and young) and co‐occurrence analyses were applied within each class to evaluate changes in community structure because of interspecific competition. Results Simple regression analyses indicated a moderate, positive effect of island area on ant species richness. Weak, marginally non‐significant relationships were found between ant species richness and both island isolation and island age, showing the tendency for there to be a decrease in ant species richness with island isolation and that ant species richness might be higher in old islands. The multiple regression analysis indicated that island isolation and age had no significant effects on the number of ant species, island area being the only independent variable retained in the analysis. On the contrary, whereas a random pattern of species co‐occurrence was found on young islands, ant communities in old islands showed a significantly negative pattern of species co‐occurrence, suggesting that the effect of competition on community structure was stronger on older islands than on younger islands. Main conclusions Island area was the most important variable explaining ant species richness on the islands of Cabra Corral dam. However, both island isolation and island age (or disturbance history) might also contribute to shape the observed community patterns. The present study also shows that island age significantly affects the strength with which interspecific interactions structure ant communities on islands.     

Richness and composition of plants and birds on land‐bridge islands: effects of island attributes and differential responses of species groups

Aim To test relationships between the richness and composition of vascular plants and birds and attributes of habitat fragments using a model land‐bridge island system, and to investigate whether the effects of fragmentation differ depending on species natural history traits. Location Thousand Island Lake, China. Methods We compiled presence/absence data of vascular plant and bird species through exhaustive surveys of 41 islands. Plant species were assigned to two categories: shade‐intolerant and shade‐tolerant species; bird species were assigned to three categories: edge, interior, and generalist species. We analysed the relationships between island attributes (area, isolation, elevation, shape complexity, and perimeter to area ratio) and species richness using generalized linear models (GLMs). We also investigated patterns of composition in relation to island attributes using ordination (redundancy analysis). Results We found that island area explained a high degree of variation in the species richness of all species groups. The slope of the species–area relationship (z) was 0.16 for all plant species and 0.11 for all bird species. The lowest z‐value was for generalist birds (0.04). The species richness of the three plant species groups was associated with island area per se, while that of all, generalist, and interior birds was explained mainly by elevation, and that of edge bird species was associated primarily with island shape. Patterns of species composition were most strongly related to elevation, island shape complexity, and perimeter to area ratio rather than to island area per se. Species richness had no significant relationship with isolation, but species composition did. We also found differential responses among the species groups to changes in island attributes. Main conclusions Within the Thousand Island Lake system, the effects of fragmentation on both bird and plant species appear to be scale‐dependent and taxon‐specific. The number of plant species occurring on an island is strongly correlated with island area, and the richness of birds and the species composition of plants and birds are associated with variables related to habitat heterogeneity. We conclude that the effects of fragmentation on species diversity and composition depend not only on the degree of habitat loss but also on the specific patterns of habitat fragmentation.     

Habitat diversity associated to island size and environmental filtering control the species richness of rock‐savanna plants in neotropical inselbergs

Disentangling the multiple factors controlling species diversity is a major challenge in ecology. Island biogeography and environmental filtering are two influential theories emphasizing respectively island size and isolation, and the abiotic environment, as key drivers of species richness. However, few attempts have been made to quantify their relative importance and investigate their mechanistic basis. Here, we applied structural equation modelling, a powerful method allowing test of complex hypotheses involving multiple and indirect effects, on an island‐like system of 22 French Guianan neotropical inselbergs covered with rock‐savanna. We separated the effects of size (rock‐savanna area), isolation (density of surrounding inselbergs), environmental filtering (rainfall, altitude) and dispersal filtering (forest‐matrix openness) on the species richness of all plants and of various ecological groups (terrestrial versus epiphytic, small‐scale versus large‐scale dispersal species). We showed that the species richness of all plants and terrestrial species was mainly explained by the size of rock‐savanna vegetation patches, with increasing richness associated with higher rock‐savanna area, while inselberg isolation and forest‐matrix openness had no measurable effect. This size effect was mediated by an increase in terrestrial‐habitat diversity, even after accounting for increased sampling effort. The richness of epiphytic species was mainly explained by environmental filtering, with a positive effect of rainfall and altitude, but also by a positive size effect mediated by enhanced woody‐plant species richness. Inselberg size and environmental filtering both explained the richness of small‐scale and large‐scale dispersal species, but these ecological groups responded in opposite directions to altitude and rainfall, that is positively for large‐scale and negatively for small‐scale dispersal species. Our study revealed both habitat diversity associated with island size and environmental filtering as major drivers of neotropical inselberg plant diversity and showed the importance of plant species growth form and dispersal ability to explain the relative importance of each driver.     

Plants on small islands revisited: the effects of spatial scale and habitat quality on the species–area relationship

Understanding how species diversity is related to sampling area and spatial scale is central to ecology and biogeography. Small islands and small sampling units support fewer species than larger ones. However, the factors influencing species richness may not be consistent across scales. Richness at local scales is primarily affected by small‐scale environmental factors, stochasticity and the richness at the island scale. Richness at whole‐island scale, however, is usually strongly related to island area, isolation and habitat diversity. Despite these contrasting drivers at local and island scales, island species–area relationships (SARs) are often constructed based on richness sampled at the local scale. Whether local scale samples adequately predict richness at the island scale and how local scale samples influence the island SAR remains poorly understood. We investigated the effects of different sampling scales on the SAR of trees on 60 small islands in the Raja Ampat archipelago (Indonesia) using standardised transects and a hierarchically nested sampling design. We compared species richness at different grain sizes ranging from single (sub)transects to whole islands and tested whether the shape of the SAR changed with sampling scale. We then determined the importance of island area, isolation, shape and habitat quality at each scale on species richness. We found strong support for scale dependency of the SAR. The SAR changed from exponential shape at local sampling scales to sigmoidal shape at the island scale indicating variation of species richness independent of area for small islands and hence the presence of a small‐island effect. Island area was the most important variable explaining species richness at all scales, but habitat quality was also important at local scales. We conclude that the SAR and drivers of species richness are influenced by sampling scale, and that the sampling design for assessing the island SARs therefore requires careful consideration.     

The effects of biogeography on ant diversity and activity on the Boston Harbor Islands, Massachusetts, U.S.A

Many studies have examined how island biogeography affects diversity on the scale of island systems. In this study, we address how diversity varies over very short periods of time on individual islands. To do this, we compile an inventory of the ants living in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, Boston, Massachusetts, USA using data from a five-year All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory of the region's arthropods. Consistent with the classical theory of island biogeography, species richness increased with island size, decreased with island isolation, and remained relatively constant over time. Additionally, our inventory finds that almost half of the known Massachusetts ant fauna can be collected in the BHI, and identifies four new species records for Massachusetts, including one new to the United States, Myrmica scabrinodis. We find that the number of species actually active on islands depended greatly on the timescale under consideration. The species that could be detected during any given week of sampling could by no means account for total island species richness, even when correcting for sampling effort. Though we consistently collected the same number of species over any given week of sampling, the identities of those species varied greatly between weeks. This variation does not result from local immigration and extinction of species, nor from seasonally-driven changes in the abundance of individual species, but rather from weekly changes in the distribution and activity of foraging ants. This variation can be upwards of 50% of ant species per week. This suggests that numerous ant species on the BHI share the same physical space at different times. This temporal partitioning could well explain such unexpectedly high ant diversity in an isolated, urban site.     

Response of the ant community to attributes of fragments and vegetation in a northeastern Atlantic Rain Forest area, Brazil

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of forest fragmentation on ant richness in a landscape of Atlantic Forest in Northeast Brazil. More specifically, the ant richness was related to the attributes of fragments (area and distance from the fragment central point to the edge), landscape (forest cover surrounding the fragments), and tree community (plant density, richness, and percentage of shade tolerant species). The surveys were carried out in 19 fragments located in Alagoas State from October 2007 to March 2008. Samples were collected through a 300 m transect established in the center of each fragment, where 30 1-m2 leaf litter samples were collected at 10 m intervals. A total of 146 ant species was collected, which belonged to 42 genera, 24 tribes and nine subfamilies. The attributes of fragments and landscape did not influence ant richness. On the other hand, tree density explained ca. 23% of ant richness. In relation to functional groups, both density and richness of trees explained the richness of general myrmicines (the whole model explained ca. 42% of the variation in this group) and percentage of shade tolerant trees explained the richness of specialist predator ants (30% for the whole model). These results indicate that ant fauna is more influenced by vegetation integrity than by fragment size, distance to edge or forest cover surrounding fragments.