Quantifying the impact of environmental factors on the spatiotemporal structure of insect communities in a semi-arid Sabkha ecosystem
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Science, Entomology
- Keywords
- entomological biodiversity, Sabkha Djendli, insect community ecology, pitfall trapping, Algeria, ecological niche, functional groups, wetlands, conservation biology, semi-arid lands.
- Copyright
- © 2015 Chenchouni et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Quantifying the impact of environmental factors on the spatiotemporal structure of insect communities in a semi-arid Sabkha ecosystem. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e741v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.741v2
Abstract
The current study highlights some knowledge on the diversity and structure of insect communities and trophic groups living in Sabkha Djendli (semi-arid area of Northeastern Algeria). The entomofauna was monthly sampled from March to November 2006 using pitfall traps at eight sites located at the vicinity of the Sabkha. Structural and diversity parameters (species richness, Shannon index, evenness) were measured for both insect orders and trophic guilds. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was applied to determine how vegetation parameters (species richness and cover) influence spatial and seasonal fluctuations of insect assemblages. The catches totalled 434 insect individuals classified into 75 species, 62 genera, 31 families and 7 orders, where Coleoptera and Hymenoptera were the most abundant and constant over seasons and study stations. Spring and autumn presented the highest values of diversity parameters. Individual-based Chao-1 species richness estimator indicated 126 species for the total individuals captured in the Sabkha. Based on catch abundances, the structure of functional trophic groups was predators (37.3%), saprophages (26.7%), phytophages (20.5%), polyphages (10.8%), coprophages (4.6%); whereas in terms of numbers of species, they can be classified as phytophages (40%), predators (25.3%), polyphages (13.3%), saprophages (12%), coprophages (9.3%). The CCA demonstrated that phytophages and saprophages as well as Coleoptera and Orthoptera were positively correlated with the two parameters of vegetation, especially in spring and summer. While the abundance of coprophages was positively correlated with species richness of plants, polyphage density was positively associated with vegetation cover. The insect community showed high taxonomic and functional diversity that is closely related to diversity and vegetation cover in different site stations and seasons.
Author Comment
This PrePrint is the uncorrected version of the manuscript accepted for publication in PeerJ.
Supplemental Information
Raw count-data of insect species
Taxonomic list of insect species with their number of individuals trapped during three seasons (2006) and at eight stations around Sabkha Djendli (northeast Algeria)
Total abundances of insect species
Model of total raw data (multiple individual-based abundance samples) utilized for species richness estimation using the program EstimateS 9.1.0.
Raw input data at station scale
Model of raw data used for the analysis of shared species estimators and indices using EstimateS 9.1.0 based insect species abundances recorded at the eight sampled stations of Sabkha Djendli.
Daily climatic data of 2006
Daily mean temperatures, precipitation, mean humidity, mean wind speed, and indicator for occurrence of rain in the Sabkha of Djendli (Batna, northeast Algeria) during 2006.
Statistics of estimated species richness and diversity
Diversity statistics (accumulated species and individuals, richness estimators, species diversity indices) computed by EstimateS 9 based on total captures of insects in Sabkha Djendli (northeast Algeria).
Shared species statistics
Shared species statistics computed by EstimateS 9 forsample-based abundance data of insects trapped at eight stations of Sabkha Djendli (northeast Algeria).