Wyniki wyszukiwania - Biblioteka Nauki

1

Altitudinal gradients in a volcanic island: effect on biodiversity and species richness of the dipteran fauna

100%

Ferreira T. , Ribeiro E. , Duarte-Rodrigues P. , Boavida M.-J.

Polish Journal of Ecology

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2012

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tom 60

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nr 3

EN

Although research on environmental gradients is relatively common, the altitudinal gradient is one of the least explored. The discrepancies between earlier studies attributing highest diversity to lowest altitude and more recent studies where this altitudinal pattern is not maintained justify the pertinence of investigating the way diversity gradually changes with altitude. The studied altitudinal gradient is located inside the volcanic cone, on one of volcanic island Azores, and the investigated altitudes were 450, 600 and 800 meters a.s.l. Malaise traps were used to capture insects and Diptera were selected for this study. Application of the Zipt-Mandelbrot model to rank-abundance curves of Diptera sampled at three different altitudes, as well as analyses of richness, diversity and evenness, led to the conclusion that medium altitude was the stratum with the highest niche diversity, the highest specific diversity and the highest predictability. Non-metric multidimensional scaling allowed an excellent separation of the three altitudes sampled, suggesting that habitat characteristics significantly differ with altitude. The study, undertaken in a volcanic island of the Azores, Atlantic Ocean, will have heuristic interest to the scientific community in general and especially to those researchers studying environmental gradients. The results of this research will underpin further work on the insect biodiversity in the Azores Archipelago.

2

Small-scale effect of habitat heterogeneity on invertebrate assemblages in sandy grasslands (Hungarian Great Plain)

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Galle R. , Torma A. , Kormoczi L.

Polish Journal of Ecology

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2010

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tom Vol. 58, nr 2

333-346

EN

Numerous environmental factors are confirmed to have significant influence on the habitat choice of invertebrates and thus on the assemblage structure. In dry, sandy grasslands the vegetation cover and height are assumed to be the most important factors in shaping the distribution of spiders and true bugs. The present study was carried out at a natural sand dune area in the Kiskunsag region of the Hungarian Great Plain. Two adjacent sand dunes and the dune valley between them were sampled using a transect consisting of pitfall traps. The traps were arranged in 4 parallel transects, running from the sand dune top through the dune valley to the adjacent sand dune. Each row consisted of 40 traps, three meters apart. The effect of microhabitat parameters on the species richness and abundance of invertebrate assemblages were tested with linear regressions with forward selection procedure. A total number of 1447 spider and 1580 true-bug individuals of 58 and 55 species were collected, respectively. The mean number of spider species along the transects was 10.5 [plus or minus] 3.7 and 9.8 [plus or minus] 3.0 for true bugs. Although our data did not show a significant effect of the plant species number on species richness and abundance of the two studied taxa along this gradient, the results of the canonical correspondence analysis and the Mantel test emphasized the importance of the total coverage and vegetation composition on the distribution of invertebrate species. The correspondence analysis and the multivariate ANOVA revealed different spider and true-bug assemblages on the two slopes (multivariate ANOVA: Araneae: F = 3.609, P <0.001, Heteroptera: F = 5.248, P <0.001), possibly due to the more dense and diverse vegetation on the north facing slope, which is presumably brought about by the different insolation and moisture conditions of the slopes.

3

Environmental gradients across wetland vegetation groups in the arid slopes of Western Alborz Mountains, N. Iran

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Kamrani A. , Naqinezhad A. , Jalili A. , Attar F.

Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae

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2010

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tom 79

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nr 4

EN

Mountain wetlands are unique ecosystems in the arid southern slopes of Alborz range, the second largest range in Iran. The spatial distribution characteristics of wetland vegetation in the arid region of the Alborz and the main factors affecting their distributional patterns were studied. A classification of vegetation and ecological characteristics were carried out using data extracted from 430 relevés in 90 wetland sites. The data were analyzed using Two Way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). The wetland vegetation of Alborz Mountain was classified into four large groups. The first vegetation group was calcareous rich vegetation, mainly distributed in the river banks and characterized by helophytes such as Bolboschoenus affinis as indicator species. The second group was saline transitional vegetation, distributed in the ecotone areas and dominated by Phragmites australis. The third vegetation group is wet meadow vegetation which mainly consists of geophytes, endemic and Irano-Turanian species, distributed in the higher altitudes. This vegetation is mainly characterized by indicator species such as Carex orbicularis, high level concentration of Fe2+ and percentage of organic matter in the soil. The fourth vegetation group is aquatic vegetation, distributed in the lakeshores. The aquatic group species are mainly hydrophytic such as Batrachium trichophyllum. The TWINSPAN vegetation groups could be also recognized in the DCA graphs and ecologically differentiated by ANOVA of studied variables. Four vegetation groups can be differentiated on two first axes of indirect ordination. There is a gradient of pH, EC and organic matter associated with altitude on the DCA diagram. Correlation analysis between the axes of DCA and environmental factors shows that altitude, soil texture and other dependant environmental variables (e.g. pH) are the main environmental factors affecting the distribution of wetland vegetation groups.

4

Can naturalness indicator values reveal habitat degradation? A test of four methodological approaches

100%

Erdos L. , Batori Z. , Penksza K. , Denes A. , Kevey B. , Kevey D. , Magnes M. , Sengl P. , Tolgyesi C.

Polish Journal of Ecology

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2017

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tom 65

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nr 1

EN

Assessing habitat naturalness belongs to the most current issues in conservation biology. It has been recognized that plants are able to indicate the naturalness of their habitat. Thus, species may be given relative naturalness indicator values (i.e. scores on an ordinal scale), reflecting their different tolerances against habitat degradation. In the present study, our first goal was to test whether relative naturalness indicator values are able to reveal known differences in naturalness levels. Our second purpose was to compare four different methodological approaches in order to identify which is the most reliable when analyzing habitat naturalness. We compared near-natural and degraded plots on the bases of (1) unweighted plot means, (2) plot medians, (3) unweighted naturalness indicator value populations, and (4) frequency-weighted naturalness indicator value populations. We found that relative naturalness indicator values performed well in differentiating among near-natural and degraded vegetation. Unweighted mean indicator values were the most reliable, but frequency-weighted indicator value populations were nearly as efficient as unweighted means. We conclude that relative naturalness indicator values provide a simple but reliable tool for estimating habitat deterioration.