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- Astor, Tina, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring feeding traits of a range of litter-consuming terrestrial snails: leaf litter consumption, faeces production and scaling with body size
- 2015
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 178, s. 833-845
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plant litter decomposition is an essential ecosystem function that contributes to energy and nutrient cycling above- and belowground. Terrestrial gastropods can affect this process in various ways: they consume and fragment leaf litter and create suitable habitats for microorganisms through the production of faeces and mucus. We assessed the contributions of ten litter-feeding terrestrial snail species to leaf litter mass loss and checked whether consumption rate and faeces production scale with body size (i.e. shell size and shape), which may indicate that morphological traits can serve as proxies for consumption rate. Additionally, we compared the consumption rates of a subset of these species among litter types of two plant species which differ in resource quality (Fraxinus excelsior and Betula pendula). These snail species differed in their litter consumption rates. Consumption rates differed between the two litter types, whereas the rank order of litter consumption by the different species was independent of litter quality. Consumption rate and faeces production were positively related to shell size, whereas relative consumption rate and faeces production were related to shell shape, with more elongated snail species having lower relative consumption rates and faeces production rates. Our results show that easily measurable morphological traits scale with the feeding traits of snails, and represent useful proxies for consumption rate and faeces production, which are laborious to measure. Thus, estimated potential total consumption rates of snail communities along environmental gradients may be inferred from shell-size distributions. Our study contributes to a systematic trait-based evaluation of the importance of gastropods to litter decomposition.
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| 2. |
- Astor, Tina, et al.
(författare)
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Underdispersion and overdispersion of traits in terrestrial snail communities on islands
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ecology and Evolution. - : Wiley. - 2045-7758. ; 4:11, s. 2090-2102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Understanding and disentangling different processes underlying the assembly and diversity of communities remains a key challenge in ecology. Species can assemble into communities either randomly or due to deterministic processes. Deterministic assembly leads to species being more similar (underdispersed) or more different (overdispersed) in certain traits than would be expected by chance. However, the relative importance of those processes is not well understood for many organisms, including terrestrial invertebrates. Based on knowledge of a broad range of species traits, we tested for the presence of trait underdispersion (indicating dispersal or environmental filtering) and trait overdispersion (indicating niche partitioning) and their relative importance in explaining land snail community composition on lake islands. The analysis of community assembly was performed using a functional diversity index (Rao's quadratic entropy) in combination with a null model approach. Regression analysis with the effect sizes of the assembly tests and environmental variables gave information on the strength of under- and overdispersion along environmental gradients. Additionally, we examined the link between community weighted mean trait values and environmental variables using a CWM-RDA. We found both trait underdispersion and trait overdispersion, but underdispersion (eight traits) was more frequently detected than overdispersion (two traits). Underdispersion was related to four environmental variables (tree cover, habitat diversity, productivity of ground vegetation, and location on an esker ridge). Our results show clear evidence for underdispersion in traits driven by environmental filtering, but no clear evidence for dispersal filtering. We did not find evidence for overdispersion of traits due to diet or body size, but overdispersion in shell shape may indicate niche differentiation between snail species driven by small-scale habitat heterogeneity. The use of species traits enabled us to identify key traits involved in snail community assembly and to detect the simultaneous occurrence of trait underdispersion and overdispersion.
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| 3. |
- Dahms, Henriette, et al.
(författare)
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Restoration of Seminatural Grasslands : What is the Impact on Ants?
- 2010
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Ingår i: Restoration Ecology. - 1061-2971 .- 1526-100X. ; 18:3, s. 330-337
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The number of species-rich seminatural grasslands in Northern Europe has decreased significantly due to the abandonment of traditional land use practices. To preserve these habitats, an increasing number of abandoned and overgrown grasslands have been restored by cutting down trees and shrubs and reintroducing grazing. These practices are considered a useful tool to recover the species richness of vascular plants, but their impact on other taxa is hardly known. Here we studied ants as one important group of grassland insects. We investigated (1) the effects of restoration of nongrazed and afforested seminatural grasslands, compared to continuously managed reference sites; and (2) the modulating impacts of habitat characteristics and time elapsed since restoration. We found a total of 27 ant species, 11 of these were characteristic of open habitats and seven characteristic of forests. Neither species richness per site nor the number of open-habitat species, nor the number of forest species differed between restored and reference sites. Yet, within the restored sites, the total species richness and the number of open-habitat species was positively related to the time since restoration and the percentage of bare rock. High frequencies of most open-habitat species were associated with low vegetation, older restored sites, and reference sites. Most forest species showed their highest frequencies in tree- and shrub-dominated habitat. We conclude that restoration efforts have been successful in terms of retrieving species richness. A regular and moderate grazing regime subsequent to the restoration is suggested in order to support a high abundance of open-habitat species.
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| 8. |
- Lenoir, Lisette
(författare)
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Ant species composition and richness in different types of semi-natural grasslands
- 2009
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Ingår i: Russian Journal of Ecology. - 1067-4136 .- 1608-3334. ; 40, s. 471-476
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The distribution of ant species was studied across different types of semi-natural grasslands in a mosaic landscape in which data on land use history and conservation values were available. The twenty-nine grasslands selected were non-fertilised and had an uninterrupted history of management, but they differed from each other in soil texture and grazing practices and were therefore sub-divided into six different types. Species abundance of mound-building ants were investigated in these grasslands in 2003. Additionally, ants were sampled using the pitfall trapping method in 13 semi-natural grasslands (in 2003 and 2005). Ant species richness and nest frequency of individual ant species differed between the different types of grassland and was associated with soil texture and grazing practices. The results also showed that even small grasslands have a very high ant species richness. This study showed that for the conservation of ants, habitat diversity and heterogeneity rather than habitat size are of great importance. I conclude that different types of semi-natural grassland contribute to heterogeneity in the farmland landscape and, thus, support higher ant diversity at the landscape scale.
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| 9. |
- Lenoir, Lisette
(författare)
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Effects of ants on plant diversity in semi-natural grasslands
- 2009
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Ingår i: Arthropod-Plant Interactions. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1872-8855 .- 1872-8847. ; 3, s. 163-172
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ants (L. niger and L. flavus) build conspicuous mounds that are covered with vegetation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the vegetation on ant mounds in semi-natural grasslands differed from that around the mounds. Another aim was to investigate whether the changes in the vegetation on ant mounds were influenced by grazing management or by habitat characteristics, semi-dry versus moist. Here, the total number of plant species and total plant cover were lower on ant mounds than in patches off-mound. The plant cover of perennials that form rosettes was twice as high on mounds inhabited by L. niger than on those inhabited by L. flavus. Only a few plant species were restricted to either ant mounds or adjacent field and the effects of ants on the plant diversity in semi-natural grasslands seemed to be low. Grazing management did not affect the differences in the vegetation on ant mounds and in equal-sized patches off-mound, whereas habitat characteristics affected ant-induced changes in vegetation cover of some plant species.
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| 10. |
- Lenoir, Lisette, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of timing of grazing on arthropod communities in semi-natural grasslands
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Insect Science. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1536-2442. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arthropod communities were investigated in two Swedish semi-natural grasslands, each subject to two types of grazing regime: conventional grazing from May to September (continuous grazing) and traditional late management from mid-July (late grazing). Pitfall traps were used to investigate abundance of carabids, spiders, and ants over the grazing season. Ant abundance was also measured by mapping nest density during three successive years. Small spiders, carabids and ants (Myrmica spp.) were more abundant in continuous grazing than in late grazing while larger spiders, carabids, and ants (Formica spp.) were more abundant in late grazing. The overall abundance of carabids was higher in continuous grazing in the early summer but higher in late grazing in the late summer. The switch of preference from continuous to late grazing coincided with the time for larvae hibernating species replacing adult hibernating. We discuss possible explanations for the observed responses in terms of effects of grazing season on a number of habitat variables for example temperature, food resources, structure of vegetation, litter layer, competition, and disturbance.
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