The world’s biogeographical regions: cluster analyses based on bat distributions

Aim: Both floral kingdoms and faunal regions have so far been intuitively defined. This study was conducted to compare these with an analytical regionalization based on cluster analyses in a fairly homogeneous, globally distributed group of organisms: the bats (order Chiroptera). This comparison was used to discuss the possibilities of employing clustering techniques in global biogeography. Location: The study considered bat distributions world-wide. Methods: Analyses were conducted both for presence/absence of genera and species, and for the number of species in each genus. Clusters distinguished at selected dissimilarity values were mapped. Results: A set of c. 10 regional clusters recurred in the analyses, broadly corresponding not only to the world’s accepted faunal regions and subregions, but also to the floral kingdoms and subkingdoms. Main conclusions: This study is an analytical confirmation of the fact that similar global distribution patterns are to be found in different groups of organisms. Cluster analyses can be used to refine global regionalization schemes, and, with the accumulation of such data for different taxa and ecologically defined groups, shared patterns can be used to draft one common global biogeographical regionalization. At the same time, differences between the regionalization schemes derived for different groups can be used to partial out the role of dispersal abilities, body size, evolutionary age, etc., in determining global distribution patterns.Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biolog

Herbivores, but not other insects, are scarce on alien plants

Understanding how the landscape-scale replacement of indigenous plants with alien plants influences ecosystem structure and functioning is critical in a world characterized by increasing biotic homogenization. An important step in this process is to assess the impact on invertebrate communities. Here we analyse insect species richness and abundance in sweep collections from indigenous and alien (Australasian) woody plant species in South Africa’s Western Cape. We use phylogenetically relevant comparisons and compare one indigenous with three Australasian alien trees within each of Fabaceae: Mimosoideae, Myrtaceae, and Proteaceae: Grevilleoideae. Although some of the alien species analysed had remarkably high abundances of herbivores, even when intentionally introduced biological control agents are discounted, overall, herbivorous insect assemblages from alien plants were slightly less abundant and less diverse compared with those from indigenous plants – in accordance with predictions from the enemy release hypothesis. However, there were no clear differences in other insect feeding guilds.We conclude that insect assemblages from alien plants are generally quite diverse, and significant differences between these and assemblages from indigenous plants are only evident for herbivorous insects.Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biolog

Land use determinants of small mammals abundance and distribution in a plague endemic area of Lushoto District, Tanzania

Small mammals are considered to be involved in the transmission cycle of bubonic plague, still occurring in different parts of the world, including the Lushoto district in Tanzania. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between land use types and practices and small mammal abundance and distribution. A field survey was used to collect data in three landscapes differing in plague incidences. Data collection was done both in the wet season (April-June 2012) and dry season (August-October 2012). Analysis of variance and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) modelling technique were used to establish the relationship between land use and small mammal abundance and distribution. Significant variations (p ≤ 0.05) of small mammal abundance among land use types were identified. Plantation forest with farming, natural forest and fallow had higher populations of small mammals than the other aggregated land use types. The influence of individual land use types on small mammal abundance level showed that, in both dry and wet seasons, miraba and fallow tended to favour small mammals’ habitation whereas land tillage practices had the opposite effect. In addition, during the wet season crop types such as potato and maize appeared to positively influence the distribution and abundance of small mammals which was attributed to both shelter and food availability. Based on the findings from this study it is recommended that future efforts to predict and map spatial and temporal human plague infection risk at fine scale should consider the role played by land use and associated human activities on small mammal abundance and distribution

Island properties dominate species traits in determining plant colonizations in an archipelago system

The extrinsic determinants hypothesis emphasizes the essential role of environmental heterogeneity in species' colonization. Consequently, high resident species diversity can increase community susceptibility to colonizations because good habitats may support more species that are functionally similar to colonizers. On the other hand, colonization success is also likely to depend on species traits. We tested the relative importance of environmental characteristics and species traits in determining colonization success using census data of 587 vascular plant species collected about 70 yr apart from 471 islands in the archipelago of SW Finland. More specifically, we explored potential new colonization as a function of island properties (e.g. location, area, habitat diversity, number of resident species per unit area), species traits (e.g. plant height, life-form, dispersal vector, Ellenberg indicator values, association with human impact), and species' historical distributions (number of inhabited islands, nearest occurrence). Island properties and species' historical distributions were more effective than plant traits in explaining colonization outcomes. Contrary to the extrinsic determinants hypothesis, colonization success was neither associated with resident species diversity nor habitat diversity per se, although colonization was lowest on sparsely vegetated islands. Our findings lead us to propose that while plant traits related to dispersal and establishment may enhance colonization, predictions of plant colonizations primarily require understanding of habitat properties and species' historical distributions.Peer reviewe

Human impacts in pine forests: past, present, and future

Pines (genus Pinus) form the dominant tree cover over large parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Human activities have affected the distribution, composition, and structure of pine forests for millennia. Different human-mediated factors have affected different pine species in different ways in different regions. The most important factors affecting pine forests are altered fire regimes, altered grazing/browsing regimes, various harvesting/construction activities, land clearance and abandonment, purposeful planting and other manipulations of natural ecosystems, alteration of biotas through species reshuffling, and pollution. These changes are occurring against a backdrop of natural and anthropogenically driven climate change. We review past and current influence of humans in pine forests, seeking broad generalizations. These insights are combined with perspectives from paleoecology to suggest probable trajectories in the face of escalating human pressure. The immense scale of impacts and the complex synergies between agents of change calls for urgent and multifaceted action.Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biolog

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. Conclusions Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record

Congruence and diversity of butterfly-host plant associations at higher taxonomic levels

We aggregated data on butterfly-host plant associations from existing sources in order to address the following questions: (1) is there a general correlation between host diversity and butterfly species richness?, (2) has the evolution of host plant use followed consistent patterns across butterfly lineages?, (3) what is the common ancestral host plant for all butterfly lineages? The compilation included 44,148 records from 5,152 butterfly species (28.6% of worldwide species of Papilionoidea) and 1,193 genera (66.3%). The overwhelming majority of butterflies use angiosperms as host plants. Fabales is used by most species (1,007 spp.) from all seven butterfly families and most subfamilies, Poales is the second most frequently used order, but is mostly restricted to two species-rich subfamilies: Hesperiinae (56.5% of all Hesperiidae), and Satyrinae (42.6% of all Nymphalidae). We found a significant and strong correlation between host plant diversity and butterfly species richness. A global test for congruence (Parafit test) was sensitive to uncertainty in the butterfly cladogram, and suggests a mixed system with congruent associations between Papilionidae and magnoliids, Hesperiidae and monocots, and the remaining subfamilies with the eudicots (fabids and malvids), but also numerous random associations. The congruent associations are also recovered as the most probable ancestral states in each node using maximum likelihood methods. The shift from basal groups to eudicots appears to be more likely than the other way around, with the only exception being a Satyrine-clade within the Nymphalidae that feed on monocots. Our analysis contributes to the visualization of the complex pattern of interactions at superfamily level and provides a context to discuss the timing of changes in host plant utilization that might have promoted diversification in some butterfly lineages

The world's biogeographical regions: Cluster analyses based on bat distributions

Aim: Both floral kingdoms and faunal regions have so far been intuitively defined. This study was conducted to compare these with an analytical regionalization based on cluster analyses in a fairly homogeneous, globally distributed group of organisms: the bats (order Chiroptera). This comparison was used to discuss the possibilities of employing clustering techniques in global biogeography. Location: The study considered bat distributions world-wide. Methods: Analyses were conducted both for presence/absence of genera and species, and for the number of species in each genus. Clusters distinguished at selected dissimilarity values were mapped. Results: A set of c. 10 regional clusters recurred in the analyses, broadly corresponding not only to the world's accepted faunal regions and subregions, but also to the floral kingdoms and subkingdoms. Main conclusions: This study is an analytical confirmation of the fact that similar global distribution patterns are to be found in different groups of organisms. Cluster analyses can be used to refine global regionalization schemes, and, with the accumulation of such data for different taxa and ecologically defined groups, shared patterns can be used to draft one common global biogeographical regionalization. At the same time, differences between the regionalization schemes derived for different groups can be used to partial out the role of dispersal abilities, body size, evolutionary age, etc., in determining global distribution patterns. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Articl

The origin of marine mites: interpreting geographical and ecological patterns

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