Herbivore Assemblages along an Altitudinal Gradient: Indicators of Climate Change?

I will be presenting the results from a baseline study I conducted as part of an expedition in a subtropical forest in Queensland, where 55 scientists from 14 countries came together to conduct specific projects that would identify arthropods and plant groups that may become suitable indicator species for monitoring long-term changes in the different forest types. This study focused on host-specialist and generalist moth larva (caterpillars) feeding on the understory plants along the elevational gradients of South Queensland’s Lamington National Park. My hypothesis was that species from the lower elevational forests were more likely to migrate up the elevation as the climate warms up. I surveyed the range of related trees species that a particular moth species feeds on along the elevation gradient (300 m to 1100 m above sea level. The average temperature change between the altitudes ranged from 1.5°C to a full range of approximately 7.5°C. The caterpillars were collected by hand from target tree species and bred through to the adult in the field. An estimate of the leaf loss by tree species, altitude and canopy stratum was calculated using image analysis techniques. The host feeding preference of the caterpillars that were collected included species, family, and supra-family specialists. Species specialists showed a mid-altitudinal peak at 700 m a.s.l. and were dominant at all altitude. The overall species richness, and abundance also peaked at the 700 m elevational forest site. The results may have considerable implications in attempting to predict ecological changes which will accompany predicted global warming

Larva and possible food plant of Ancyloneura varipes (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Pergidae) in Papua New Guinea

Volume: 107Start Page: 463End Page: 46

Genomics, population divergence and historical demography of the world’s largest and endangered butterfly, the Queen Alexandra’s birdwing

The world’s largest butterfly is the microendemic Papua New Guinean Ornithoptera alexandrae. Despite years of conservation efforts to protect its habitat and breed this up-to-28-cm butterfly, this species still figures as endangered in the IUCN Red List and is only known from two allopatric populations occupying a total of only ∼140 km². Here we aim at assembling reference genomes for this species to investigate its genomic diversity, historical demography and determining whether the population is structured, which could provide guidance for conservation programs attempting to (inter)breed the two populations. Using a combination of long and short DNA reads and RNA sequencing, we assembled six reference genomes of the tribe Troidini, with four annotated genomes of O. alexandrae and two genomes of related species O. priamus and Troides oblongomaculatus. We estimated the genomic diversity of the three species, and we proposed scenarios for the historical population demography using two polymorphism-based methods taking into account the characteristics of low-polymorphic invertebrates. Indeed, chromosome-scale assemblies reveal very low levels of nuclear heterozygosity across Troidini, which appears to be exceptionally low for O. alexandrae (lower than 0.01%). Demographic analyses demonstrate low and steadily declining Ne throughout O. alexandrae history, with a divergence into two distinct populations about 10,000 years ago. These results suggest that O. alexandrae distribution has been microendemic for a long time. It should also make local conservation programs aware of the genomic divergence of the two populations, which should not be ignored if any attempt is made to cross the two populations

Macrolepidopteran assemblages along an altitudinal gradient in subtropical rainforest - exploring indicators of climate change

Moth assemblages have been widely used to estimate patterns of beta-diversity in forest ecosystems. As part of the IBISCA-Queensland project we examined patterns of diversity in a large subset of night-flying moths along an altitudinal gradient in subtropical rainforest. The permanent IBISCA-Queensland transect located in Lamington National Park, south-east Queensland, Australia, spans altitudes from 300 metres (m) to 1100 m above sea level (a.s.l.) within continuous, undisturbed rainforest. We sampled four replicate plots at each of five altitudes (300, 500, 700, 900, 1100 m a.s.l.). A total of 11 379 individual moths were sampled, belonging to approximately 865 morphospecies. Moth assemblages displayed a strong altitudinal signal at each of two sampling periods (October 2006 and March 2007). The results show that cloud forest above 900 m a.s.l. where Nothofagus moorei becomes dominant, contains a number of moth species that are restricted to the high elevation forest and these species may be most threatened by climatic change. The analyses presented here suggest a set of 18 moth species which may be useful as part of a multi-taxon predictor set for future monitoring of the impact of global warming on forest biodiversity. © The State of Queensland (Queensland Museum) 2011.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Macrolepidopteran assemblages along an altitudinal gradient in subtropical rainforest - exploring indicators of climate change

Volume: 55Start Page: 375End Page: 38

Predator pressure, herbivore abundance and plant damage along a subtropical altitudinal gradient

Volume: 55Start Page: 451End Page: 46

IBISCA-Panama, a large-scale study of arthropod beta-diversity and vertical stratification in a lowland rainforest: rationale, description of study sites and field methodology

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

IBISCA-Panama, a large-scale study of arthropod beta-diversity and vertical stratification in a lowland rainforest : rationale, study sites and field protocols.

IBISCA-Panama (?Investigating the BIodiversity of Soil and Canopy Arthropods?, Panama module) represents a large-scale research initiative to quantify the spatial distribution of arthropod biodiversity in a Neotropical forest, using a combination of (1) international collaboration, (2) a set of common research questions, and (3) an integrated experimental design. Here, we present the rationale of the programme, describe the study sites, and outline field protocols. In the San Lorenzo Protected Area of Panama, twelve 20 x 20 m sites, all less than 2 km apart, were surveyed for plants and arthropods, from the ground to the upper canopy. Access to the canopy and its fauna was facilitated by fogging, single-rope techniques and a variety of devices such as a canopy crane, the ?SolVin-Bretzel? canopy raft, the canopy bubble and Ikos. IBISCA-Panama represented the first attempt to combine these complementary techniques of canopy access in a large-scale investigation. Such techniques provided spatial replication during initial field work performed in September-October 2003. Temporal replication across seasons consisted of subsequent field work of varying intensity during dry, early wet and late wet periods in 2004. Arthropods were surveyed using 14 different protocols targeting the soil, litter, understorey, mid-canopy and upper canopy habitats. These protocols included: WINKLER sifting; BERLESE-TULLGREN; hand-collecting of galls and social insects; fogging; beating; woodrearing; baits; and various types of traps such as pitfall, small and large flight-interception, sticky, light, and Malaise traps. Currently, analyses of arthropod distribution in this forest concentrate on a set of 63 focal taxa representing different phylogenies and lifehistories. IBISCA-Panama may be considered as a model for largescale research programmes targeting invertebrate biodiversity. Its collaborative modus operandi can be applied to answer a variety of pressing ecological questions related to forest biodiversity, as evidenced by the recent development of further IBISCA programmes in other parts of the world