The effects of land-use change on arthropod richness and abundance on Santa Maria Island (Azores): unmanaged plantations favour endemic beetles
- July 9th, 2011
- Biodiversity
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Meijer, S.S., Whittaker, R.J. & Borges, P.A.V. (2011). The effects of land-use change on arthropod richness and abundance on Santa Maria Island (Azores): unmanaged plantations favour endemic beetles. Journal of Insect Conservation, 15: 505-522
Arthropod community composition was significantly different between the four habitat types. In the semi-natural pasture, the number of SIE species decreased with increasing distance from the native forest, and in the exotic forest the abundance of both Azorean endemics and SIEs decreased with increasing distance from the native forest. There is a gradient of decreasing arthropod richness and abundance from the native forest to the intensive pasture. Although this study demonstrates the important role of the native forest in arthropod conservation in the Azores, it also shows that unmanaged exotic forests have provided alternative habitat suitable for some native species of forest specialist arthropods, particularly saproxylic beetles