Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies

Abstract Species community structures respond strongly to habitat changes. These are either driven by nature or human activities. The biota of East African drylands responds highly sensitively to natural and anthropogenic impacts. Thus, seasonality strongly influences resource availability in a cycl...

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Autores principales:	Thomas Schmitt, Werner Ulrich, Andjela Delic, Mike Teucher, Jan Christian Habel
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d57ffed2982043cd8e5ef39fc8ca908f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d57ffed2982043cd8e5ef39fc8ca908f2021-12-02T16:17:18ZSeasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies10.1038/s41598-021-94274-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/d57ffed2982043cd8e5ef39fc8ca908f2021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-94274-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Species community structures respond strongly to habitat changes. These are either driven by nature or human activities. The biota of East African drylands responds highly sensitively to natural and anthropogenic impacts. Thus, seasonality strongly influences resource availability in a cyclic manner during the year, with cyclic appearance of the different developmental stages of invertebrates, while man-made landscape transformations profoundly and permanently modify habitat structures and, as a consequence, species communities. Butterflies are an excellent model group for the study of the effects of seasonality, and to test for biodiversity responses to anthropogenic activities such as habitat modification, degradation and destruction. We performed transect counts of adult butterflies in riparian forests and their adjoining areas, either dry savannahs with occasional pasturing (i.e. near-natural status) or farmland areas with fields, gardens and settlements (i.e. highly degraded status with lack of original vegetation). Transects were set along the river beds as well as at 250 m and 500 m distances parallel to these rivers, with eight transects per distance class and site (i.e. 48 transects in total). We recorded habitat structures for each transect. Counts were conducted during the dry and the rainy season, with 16 repetitions for each single transect, i.e. eight per season and transect. We compiled trait data on morphology, geographic distribution, ecology, behaviour, and life-history for all butterfly species encountered. Our results show higher species richness and numbers of individuals in farmland transects compared with the savannah region. Seasonal fluctuations of the detectable species abundances between the rainy and dry season were severe. These fluctuations were much more pronounced for the savannah than the farmland area, i.e. was buffered by human activities. Farmland and savannah support two distinct butterfly communities, with generalist species being more common in the farmland communities. Strict habitat associations were comparatively weak and typical dry savannah and riparian forest species were not clearly restricted to the near natural landscape.Thomas SchmittWerner UlrichAndjela DelicMike TeucherJan Christian HabelNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Thomas Schmitt Werner Ulrich Andjela Delic Mike Teucher Jan Christian Habel Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
description	Abstract Species community structures respond strongly to habitat changes. These are either driven by nature or human activities. The biota of East African drylands responds highly sensitively to natural and anthropogenic impacts. Thus, seasonality strongly influences resource availability in a cyclic manner during the year, with cyclic appearance of the different developmental stages of invertebrates, while man-made landscape transformations profoundly and permanently modify habitat structures and, as a consequence, species communities. Butterflies are an excellent model group for the study of the effects of seasonality, and to test for biodiversity responses to anthropogenic activities such as habitat modification, degradation and destruction. We performed transect counts of adult butterflies in riparian forests and their adjoining areas, either dry savannahs with occasional pasturing (i.e. near-natural status) or farmland areas with fields, gardens and settlements (i.e. highly degraded status with lack of original vegetation). Transects were set along the river beds as well as at 250 m and 500 m distances parallel to these rivers, with eight transects per distance class and site (i.e. 48 transects in total). We recorded habitat structures for each transect. Counts were conducted during the dry and the rainy season, with 16 repetitions for each single transect, i.e. eight per season and transect. We compiled trait data on morphology, geographic distribution, ecology, behaviour, and life-history for all butterfly species encountered. Our results show higher species richness and numbers of individuals in farmland transects compared with the savannah region. Seasonal fluctuations of the detectable species abundances between the rainy and dry season were severe. These fluctuations were much more pronounced for the savannah than the farmland area, i.e. was buffered by human activities. Farmland and savannah support two distinct butterfly communities, with generalist species being more common in the farmland communities. Strict habitat associations were comparatively weak and typical dry savannah and riparian forest species were not clearly restricted to the near natural landscape.
format	article
author	Thomas Schmitt Werner Ulrich Andjela Delic Mike Teucher Jan Christian Habel
author_facet	Thomas Schmitt Werner Ulrich Andjela Delic Mike Teucher Jan Christian Habel
author_sort	Thomas Schmitt
title	Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
title_short	Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
title_full	Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
title_fullStr	Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
title_full_unstemmed	Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies
title_sort	seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of east african butterflies
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d57ffed2982043cd8e5ef39fc8ca908f
work_keys_str_mv	AT thomasschmitt seasonalityandlandscapecharacteristicsimpactspeciescommunitystructureandtemporaldynamicsofeastafricanbutterflies AT wernerulrich seasonalityandlandscapecharacteristicsimpactspeciescommunitystructureandtemporaldynamicsofeastafricanbutterflies AT andjeladelic seasonalityandlandscapecharacteristicsimpactspeciescommunitystructureandtemporaldynamicsofeastafricanbutterflies AT miketeucher seasonalityandlandscapecharacteristicsimpactspeciescommunitystructureandtemporaldynamicsofeastafricanbutterflies AT janchristianhabel seasonalityandlandscapecharacteristicsimpactspeciescommunitystructureandtemporaldynamicsofeastafricanbutterflies
_version_	1718384258097086464

Seasonality and landscape characteristics impact species community structure and temporal dynamics of East African butterflies

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