IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0108207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Community Structure of Skipper Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae) along Elevational Gradients in Brazilian Atlantic Forest Reflects Vegetation Type Rather than Altitude

Author

Listed:
  • Eduardo Carneiro
  • Olaf Hermann Hendrik Mielke
  • Mirna Martins Casagrande
  • Konrad Fiedler

Abstract

Species turnover across elevational gradients has matured into an important paradigm of community ecology. Here, we tested whether ecological and phylogenetic structure of skipper butterfly assemblages is more strongly structured according to altitude or vegetation type along three elevation gradients of moderate extent in Serra do Mar, Southern Brazil. Skippers were surveyed along three different mountain transects, and data on altitude and vegetation type of every collection site were recorded. NMDS ordination plots were used to assess community turnover and the influence of phylogenetic distance between species on apparent community patterns. Ordinations based on ecological similarity (Bray-Curtis index) were compared to those based on phylogenetic distance measures (MPD and MNTD) derived from a supertree. In the absence of a well-resolved phylogeny, various branch length transformation methods were applied together with four different null models, aiming to assess if results were confounded by low-resolution trees. Species composition as well as phylogenetic community structure of skipper butterflies were more prominently related to vegetation type instead of altitude per se. Phylogenetic distances reflected spatial community patterns less clearly than species composition, but revealed a more distinct fauna of monocot feeders associated with grassland habitats, implying that historical factors have played a fundamental role in shaping species composition across elevation gradients. Phylogenetic structure of community turned out to be a relevant additional tool which was even superior to identify faunal contrasts between forest and grassland habitats related to deep evolutionary splits. Since endemic skippers tend to occur in grassland habitats in the Serra do Mar, inclusion of phylogenetic diversity may also be important for conservation decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Eduardo Carneiro & Olaf Hermann Hendrik Mielke & Mirna Martins Casagrande & Konrad Fiedler, 2014. "Community Structure of Skipper Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae) along Elevational Gradients in Brazilian Atlantic Forest Reflects Vegetation Type Rather than Altitude," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-11, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0108207
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108207
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108207
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108207&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0108207?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. Nogués-Bravo & M. B. Araújo & T. Romdal & C. Rahbek, 2008. "Scale effects and human impact on the elevational species richness gradients," Nature, Nature, vol. 453(7192), pages 216-219, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. D. R. Bhardwaj & Habibullah Tahiry & Prashant Sharma & Nazir A. Pala & Dhirender Kumar & Amit Kumar & Bharti, 2021. "Influence of Aspect and Elevational Gradient on Vegetation Pattern, Tree Characteristics and Ecosystem Carbon Density in Northwestern Himalayas," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Hei Gao & Yubing Weng & Yutian Lu & Yan Du, 2022. "An Innovative Framework on Spatial Boundary Optimization of Multiple International Designated Land Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-33, January.
    3. Ya-Huang Luo & Jie Liu & Shao-Lin Tan & Marc William Cadotte & Yue-Hua Wang & Kun Xu & De-Zhu Li & Lian-Ming Gao, 2016. "Trait-Based Community Assembly along an Elevational Gradient in Subalpine Forests: Quantifying the Roles of Environmental Factors in Inter- and Intraspecific Variability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-20, May.
    4. J Sebastián Tello & Jonathan A Myers & Manuel J Macía & Alfredo F Fuentes & Leslie Cayola & Gabriel Arellano & M Isabel Loza & Vania Torrez & Maritza Cornejo & Tatiana B Miranda & Peter M Jørgensen, 2015. "Elevational Gradients in β-Diversity Reflect Variation in the Strength of Local Community Assembly Mechanisms across Spatial Scales," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Tim Szewczyk & Christy M McCain, 2016. "A Systematic Review of Global Drivers of Ant Elevational Diversity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, May.
    6. Youssef Chebli & Mouad Chentouf & Jean-François Cabaraux & Samira El Otmani, 2023. "Floristic Composition, Diversity, Palatability, and Forage Availability of Forest Rangelands in the Southern Mediterranean Region of Northern Morocco," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Hongdi Ding & Sicong Dong, 2023. "Elevation and fog-cloud similarity in Tibeto-Burman languages," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Rubén G Mateo & Ángel M Felicísimo & Julien Pottier & Antoine Guisan & Jesús Muñoz, 2012. "Do Stacked Species Distribution Models Reflect Altitudinal Diversity Patterns?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-9, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0108207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.