Long-term monitoring of Azorean forest spiders – Part 2

The data we present hereafter are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores). This project started in 2012, and focuses on arthropod monitoring, with the aim to understand the impact of the drivers of biodiversity erosion on Azorean native forests (Azores, Macaronesia, Portugal). In this publication, we describe the second SLAM sampling database for the arachnofauna of native forests on two islands (Pico and Terceira), collected between 2019 and 2021.FUNDING: Direcção Regional do Ambiente – LIFE-BETTLES (LIFE18 NAT_PT_000864). - FEDER - AZORESBIOPORTAL –PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) - Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) - MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Long-term monitoring of Azorean forest arthropods

Since 2012 we are conducting in Azorean Islands (Portugal) native and exotic forests a long-term monitoring study named SLAM - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores. This long-term monitoring study is monitoring arthropods (Arthropoda), aiming to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers in Azorean native forests arthropod distribution, abundance and diversity. The current dataset represents arthropods that were recorded using a total of 42 passive SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) deployed inside native and exotic forest fragments in seven Azorean Islands (Flores, Faial, Pico, Graciosa, Terceira São Miguel and Santa Maria). This manuscript is the fifth data-paper contribution based on data from this long-term project. We provide data of terrestrial arthropods belonging to Arachnida (excluding Acari), Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Insecta classes (excluding Collembola, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera) from seven Azorean Islands during the 2012-2021 period. Data from spiders (Araneae) from the Pico and Terceira Islands is not included in this publication since this data was already published elsewhere (Costa and Borges 2021; Lhoumeau et al. 2022). We collected a total of 176007 specimens, of which 168565 (95.7%) were identified at species or subspecies level. Among these identified specimens, 106 350 (62%) were adults. For Araneae and some Hemiptera species, juveniles are also included in the data presented in this paper, since the low diversity in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 316 species and subspecies, belonging to 25 orders, 106 families and 260 genera. The ten most abundant species are composed mostly of endemic or native non-endemic species and only one exotic species (Ommatoiulus moreleti (Lucas, 1860)). They include 107 330 individuals (60%) of all sampled specimens and can be considered as the dominant species in the Azorean native forests for the target studied taxa. The Hemiptera order was the most abundant taxa, with 90 127 (50,4%) specimens. The Coleoptera order was the most diverse taxa with 30 (28,3%) family sampled. We registered 72 new species records (two for Flores, eight for Faial, 24 for Graciosa, 23 for Pico, eight for Terceira, three for São Miguel and four for Santa-Maria). None of them are new for the Azores archipelago. Most of the new records are introduced species, however abundance of such species is still low on the studied islands. This publication contributes to increase the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the arthropods of the studied sites and the knowledge of the arthropod fauna of the native forests of the Azores, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity throughout seasons and years.This manuscript was also partly financed by Portuguese FCT-NETBIOME –ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011 (between 2012 and 2015), Portuguese National Funds, through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within the project UID/BIA/00329/2013-2020, the project from Direcção Regional do Ambiente - PRIBES (LIFE17 IPE/PT/000010) (2019), Direcção Regional do Ambiente – LIFE-BETTLES (LIFE18 NAT_PT_000864) (2020); AZORESBIOPORTAL –PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) (2019); Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022 (2022); FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1 – integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity) (2019-2022); Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) - MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021) (2022).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores: IV - The spiders of Terceira and Pico Islands (2019-2021) and general diversity patterns after ten years of sampling

BACKGROUND: Long-term studies are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity erosion, such as land-use change and habitat degradation, climate change, invasive species or pollution. The long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) started in 2012 and focuses on arthropod monitoring, using SLAM (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) traps, aiming to understand the impact of the drivers of biodiversity erosion on Azorean native forests (Azores, Portugal). This is the fourth contribution including SLAM project data and the second focused on the spider fauna (Arachnida, Araneae) of native forests on two islands (Pico and Terceira). In this contribution, we describe data collected between 2019 and 2021 and we analyse them together with a previously published database that covered the 2012-2019 period, in order to describe changes in species abundance patterns over the last ten years. NEW INFORMATION: We present abundance data of Azorean spider species for the 2019-2021 period in two Azorean Islands (Terceira and Pico). We also present analyses of species distribution and abundance of the whole sampling period. In the period of 2019-2021, we collected a total of 5110 spider specimens, of which 2449 (48%) were adults. Most juveniles, with the exception of some exotic Erigoninae, were also included in the data presented in this paper, since the low diversity of spiders in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 45 species, belonging to 39 genera and 16 families. The ten most abundant species were composed mostly of endemic or native non-endemic species and only two exotic species (Tenuiphantes tenuis (Blackwall, 1852) and Dysdera crocata C. L. Koch, 1838). They included 4308 individuals (84%) of all sampled specimens and were the dominant species in Azorean native forests. The family Linyphiidae was the richest and most abundant taxon, with 15 (33%) species and 2630 (51%) specimens. We report Cheiracanthium mildei L. Koch, 1864, a non-native species, from Pico Island for the first time. We found no new species records on Terceira Island. This publication contributes to increasing the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the spiders on the studied sites and the knowledge of the arachnofauna of the native forests of Terceira and Pico, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity across seasons for a 10 years period.AMCS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program (RYC2020-029407-I), financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. IRA and MB were supported by FCT - DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0004 and /CT0001, respectively. PAVB and RG performed reserach within the project -Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022. Data curation and Open Access of this manuscript was supported by the project MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Updated Checklist of Arthropods from Azores (Portugal)

The data we present consists in an updated checklist of the Azorean arthropods. The checklist compile known records based on published literature, unpublished data, and new records at archipelago and island levels. This publication represents the most recent information about distribution of introduced, native and endemic arthropods in the Azores archipelago. Currently the total number of terrestrial arthropod taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azores is estimated of about 2417 belonging to 14 classes, 53 orders, 438 families, 1554 genera and 2397 species and 149 individual subspecies. The most diverse orders of Azorean arthropods are: Coleoptera (585 taxa), Diptera (422 taxa), Hemiptera (338 taxa), Hymenoptera (162 taxa), Lepidoptera (159 taxa) and Araneae (132 taxa). A total of 275 endemic taxa are currently known (231 species and 44 subspecies), belonging to 8 classes and 22 orders. São Miguel, Terceira and Pico are the islands with higher number of endemic species and subspecies. Compared to the other nearest Macaronesian archipelagos (Madeira and Canaries), the Azorean arthropod fauna is characterized by a lower percentage of endemism and a high proportion of exotic introduced species.FUNDING: This work was financed by two main projects: FEDER - AZORESBIOPORTAL –PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) and Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022. Open access was funded by the project FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1 – integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Festa do Bioblitz Açores: a diversidade dos artrópodes do Jardim Duque da Terceira.

Como detalhamos em um outro artigo deste mesmo volume do Pingo de Lava, o BioBlitz Açores 2023 foi um sucesso educativo, lúdico e científico, com o registo de 188 espécies de líquenes, plantas, aves e artrópodes (Amorim et al., 2023). Como é habitual neste tipo de atividades de ciência cidadã ou participativa, os artrópodes foram o grupo melhor representado (86 espécies). Devido aos seus valores de biodiversidade, à sua importância ecológica e ao desconhecimento que o público tem dos artrópodes, neste artigo faz-se uma descrição mais detalhada deste grupo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An Updated Checklist of Azorean Arthropods (Arthropoda)

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SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forests of Azores: V - New records of terrestrial arthropods after ten years of SLAM sampling

BACKGROUND: A long-term study monitoring arthropods (Arthropoda) is being conducted since 2012 in the forests of Azorean Islands. Named "SLAM - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores", this project aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers in the distribution, abundance and diversity of Azorean arthropods. The current dataset represents arthropods that have been recorded using a total of 42 passive SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) deployed in native, mixed and exotic forest fragments in seven Azorean Islands (Flores, Faial, Pico, Graciosa, Terceira, São Miguel and Santa Maria). This manuscript is the fifth data-paper contribution, based on data from this long-term monitoring project. NEW INFORMATION: We targeted taxa for species identification belonging to Arachnida (excluding Acari), Chilopoda, Diplopoda, Hexapoda (excluding Collembola, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera (but including only Formicidae)). Specimens were sampled over seven Azorean Islands during the 2012-2021 period. Spiders (Araneae) data from Pico and Terceira Islands are not included since they have been already published elsewhere (Costa and Borges 2021, Lhoumeau et al. 2022). We collected a total of 176007 specimens, of which 168565 (95.7%) were identified to the species or subspecies level. For Araneae and some Hemiptera species, juveniles are also included in this paper, since the low diversity in the Azores allows a relatively precise species-level identification of this life-stage. We recorded a total of 316 named species and subspecies, belonging to 25 orders, 106 families and 260 genera. The ten most abundant species were mostly endemic or native non-endemic (one Opiliones, one Archaeognatha and seven Hemiptera) and only one exotic species, the Julida Ommatoiulus moreleti (Lucas, 1860). These ten species represent 107330 individuals (60%) of all sampled specimens and can be considered as the dominant species in the Azorean native forests for the target studied taxa. The Hemiptera were the most abundant taxa, with 90127 (50.4%) specimens. The Coleoptera were the most diverse with 30 (28.6%) families. We registered 72 new records for many of the islands (two for Flores, eight for Faial, 24 for Graciosa, 23 for Pico, eight for Terceira, three for São Miguel and four for Santa Maria). These records represent 58 species. None of them is new to the Azores Archipelago. Most of the new records are introduced species, all still with low abundance on the studied islands. This publication contributes to increasing the baseline information for future long-term comparisons of the arthropods of the studied sites and the knowledge of the arthropod fauna of the native forests of the Azores, in terms of species abundance, distribution and diversity throughout seasons and years.AMCS is supported by the Ramón y Cajal program (RYC2020-029407-I), financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. IRA and MB were funded by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Norma Transitória – DL 57/2016/CP1375/CT0003 and DL 57/2016/CP1375/CT0001, respectively. Several projects supported the acquisition of traps during the last ten years, namely: EUFCT-NETBIOME –ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011 (between 2012 and 2015); Portuguese National Funds, through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, within the project UID/BIA/00329/2013-2020; Direcção Regional do Ambiente - PRIBES (LIFE17 IPE/PT/ 000010) (2019); Direcção Regional do Ambiente – LIFE-BETTLES (LIFE18 NAT_PT_000864) (2020); AZORESBIOPORTAL – PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145- FEDER-000072) (2019); (FCT) - MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021) (2021-2022). Data curation and open Access of this manuscript were supported by the project MACRISK-Trait-based prediction of extinction risk and invasiveness for Northern Macaronesian arthropods (FCT-PTDC/BIA-CBI/0625/2021).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Festa do Bioblitz Açores 2023: tantas espécies que vivem no Jardim!

No passado dia 17 de junho de 2023 a Terceira, conhecida entre os açorianos como a ilha festeira, recebeu novamente a festa do bioblitz – BioBlitz Açores 2023. Tal como no primeiro BioBlitz Açores em 2019, o Jardim Duque da Terceira em Angra do Heroísmo foi o local escolhido para a realização desta cada vez mais conhecida atividade de ciência cidadã: “cidadãos comuns” sem formação formal em ciência, orientados por especialistas, participaram na produção de conhecimento científico, neste caso em particular, sobre a biodiversidade que existe nos Açores. E como de um BioBlitz se trata, foram seguidas as diretrizes para este tipo de evento, isto é, a inventariação da biodiversidade, realizada conjuntamente por cientistas e participantes leigos, ocorreu durante um período limitado, sessões com cerca de duas horas, e numa área bem definida, o Jardim Duque da Terceira.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing the Impact of Insect Decline in Islands: Exploring the Diversity and Community Patterns of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Arthropods in the Azores Native Forest over 10 Years

The ongoing decline of insect populations highlight the need for long-term ecological monitoring. As part of the “SLAM—Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change on the Natural Forests of Azores” project, we investigated changes in arthropod diversity and community structure over a ten-year period (2012–2022) in the native forest of the island of Terceira (Azores). Focused on two arthropod assemblages (indigenous and non-indigenous species) monitored with SLAM traps, we asked if there was a distinguishable pattern in the diversity and structure of the studied arthropod subsets in a pristine island native forest. Species richness remained relatively constant. Endemic arthropods dominated and remained stable over time, indicating the forest’s ecological stability. In contrast, the assemblage of native non-endemic arthropods underwent changes, including increased hyperdominance and decreased biomass. The introduced arthropod assemblage showed more erratic dynamics driven by species turnover. Results suggested that temporal variation in each subset may be due to different ecological processes and that niche filtering may limit the establishment and spread of introduced arthropods. This research contributes to our understanding of the temporal dynamics of arthropods in native island forests and highlights the need for ongoing conservation efforts to protect these fragile ecosystems

PTK7: A cell polarity receptor with multiple facets

International audienc