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Subtle Ecological Gradient in the Tropics Triggers High Species-Turnover in a Local Geographical Scale

PloS one, 2016-06, Vol.11 (6), p.e0156840-e0156840 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

COPYRIGHT 2016 Public Library of Science ;COPYRIGHT 2016 Public Library of Science ;2016 Nguyen, Gómez-Zurita. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;2016 Nguyen, Gómez-Zurita 2016 Nguyen, Gómez-Zurita ;ISSN: 1932-6203 ;EISSN: 1932-6203 ;DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156840 ;PMID: 27276228

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Title:
Subtle Ecological Gradient in the Tropics Triggers High Species-Turnover in a Local Geographical Scale
Author: Nguyen, Dinh T ; Gómez-Zurita, Jesús
Chiang, Tzen-Yuh
Subjects: Animals ; Beetles ; Biodiversity ; Biological diversity ; Biology and Life Sciences ; Chrysomelidae ; Clustering ; Coleoptera ; Coleoptera - classification ; Coleoptera - physiology ; Communities ; Community ecology ; Community structure ; Coniferous forests ; Conservation ; Deciduous forests ; Deoxyribonucleic acid ; DNA ; Ecological effects ; Ecologists ; Ecology and Environmental Sciences ; Electron Transport Complex IV - genetics ; Elevation ; Endangered species ; Environmental conditions ; Evolutionary biology ; Forest conservation ; Forest management ; Forests ; Genetic aspects ; Insect Proteins - genetics ; Leaves ; Mitochondrial DNA ; Mitochondrial Proteins - genetics ; Molecular chains ; National parks ; Plant communities ; Plant populations ; Plant protection ; Rainforests ; Rarefaction ; Research and Analysis Methods ; Small scale ; Spatial discrimination ; Species diversity ; Species richness ; Studies ; Taxonomy ; Tropical Climate ; Tropical environments ; Vietnam
Is Part Of: PloS one, 2016-06, Vol.11 (6), p.e0156840-e0156840
Description: Our perception of diversity, including both alpha- and beta-diversity components, depends on spatial scale. Studies of spatial variation of the latter are just starting, with a paucity of research on beta-diversity patterns at smaller scales. Understanding these patterns and the processes shaping the distribution of diversity is critical to describe this diversity, but it is paramount in conservation too. Here, we investigate the diversity and structure of a tropical community of herbivorous beetles at a reduced local scale of some 10 km2, evaluating the effect of a small, gradual ecological change on this structure. We sampled leaf beetles in the Núi Chúa National Park (S Vietnam), studying changes in alpha- and beta-diversity across an elevation gradient up to 500 m, encompassing the ecotone between critically endangered lowland dry deciduous forest and mixed evergreen forest at higher elevations. Leaf beetle diversity was assessed using several molecular tree-based species delimitation approaches (with mtDNA cox1 data), species richness using rarefaction and incidence-based diversity indexes, and beta-diversity was investigated decomposing the contribution of species turnover and nestedness. We documented 155 species in the area explored and species-richness estimates 1.5-2.0x higher. Species diversity was similar in both forest types and changes in alpha-diversity along the elevation gradient showed an expected local increase of diversity in the ecotone. Beta-diversity was high among forest paths (average Sørensen's dissimilarity = 0.694) and, tentatively fixing at 300 m the boundary between otherwise continuous biomes, demonstrated similarly high beta-diversity (Sørensen's dissimilarity = 0.581), with samples clustering according to biome/elevation. Highly relevant considering the local scale of the study, beta-diversity had a high contribution of species replacement among locales (54.8%) and between biomes (79.6%), suggesting environmental heterogeneity as the dominant force shaping diversity at such small scale, directly and indirectly on the plant communities. Protection actions in the Park, especially these addressed at the imperative conservation of dry forest, must ponder the small scale at which processes shape species diversity and community structure for inconspicuous, yet extraordinarily diverse organisms such as the leaf beetles.
Publisher: United States: Public Library of Science
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 1932-6203
EISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156840
PMID: 27276228
Source: PLoS
GFMER Free Medical Journals
MEDLINE
PubMed Central
Directory of Open Access Journals
ProQuest Central

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Subtle Ecological Gradient in the Tropics Triggers High Species-Turnover in a Local Geographical Scale

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