Invertebrate diversity and composition on fragmented heathland
Invertebrate diversity and composition on fragmented heathland
Invertebrates faunas sampled from mature dry Calluna heathland at 25 sites in the Poole Basin, Dorset, which differed in their areas and the extent to which they were isolated from other heathland. The relations between the diversities or the Aransas and of the Coleoptera faunas and sits area, isolation and vegetation were examined. For the Coleoptera, diversity decreased with increasing site area end with decreasing Isolation. For the Araneae there was no relation between diversity and site area or isolation, but for 60 species of Aransas known to be loyal to heathland diversity weakly increased with increasing site area. Variables describing the vegetation or the sites wore also correlated with site area and isolation, end were often equally successful in explaining variation in Araneae and Coleoptera diversities. Variation in the composition of the Araneae and Coleoptera faunas was investigated using ordination and clustering techniques. Variation could not be reduced to a few dimensions without severe loss of information, but the first axis of each ordination was correlated with site area. For the 60 species or heathland-loyal Araneae there was some evidence that the species which tended to be more abundant on large sites than on small had poorer dispersal abilities than those more equally represented on large and small sites. Variation in the composition of the Aransas and Coleoptera faunas appeared to be continuous, with no clustering of the sites based on species composition. The Araneae faunas of 5 of the 25 sites were sampled more intensively and evidence was sought for competition between Aransas species by examining their distributions in time and space and their morphological similarities. A method to detect interactions between spatially dynamic populations was described and illustrated using the Araneae fauna. The implications of a dynamic model of competitive interactions were discussed. The implications of the results of the thesis for the conservation of heathland invertebrate faunas were discussed.
University of Southampton
1983
Hopkins, Peter James
(1983)
Invertebrate diversity and composition on fragmented heathland.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Invertebrates faunas sampled from mature dry Calluna heathland at 25 sites in the Poole Basin, Dorset, which differed in their areas and the extent to which they were isolated from other heathland. The relations between the diversities or the Aransas and of the Coleoptera faunas and sits area, isolation and vegetation were examined. For the Coleoptera, diversity decreased with increasing site area end with decreasing Isolation. For the Araneae there was no relation between diversity and site area or isolation, but for 60 species of Aransas known to be loyal to heathland diversity weakly increased with increasing site area. Variables describing the vegetation or the sites wore also correlated with site area and isolation, end were often equally successful in explaining variation in Araneae and Coleoptera diversities. Variation in the composition of the Araneae and Coleoptera faunas was investigated using ordination and clustering techniques. Variation could not be reduced to a few dimensions without severe loss of information, but the first axis of each ordination was correlated with site area. For the 60 species or heathland-loyal Araneae there was some evidence that the species which tended to be more abundant on large sites than on small had poorer dispersal abilities than those more equally represented on large and small sites. Variation in the composition of the Aransas and Coleoptera faunas appeared to be continuous, with no clustering of the sites based on species composition. The Araneae faunas of 5 of the 25 sites were sampled more intensively and evidence was sought for competition between Aransas species by examining their distributions in time and space and their morphological similarities. A method to detect interactions between spatially dynamic populations was described and illustrated using the Araneae fauna. The implications of a dynamic model of competitive interactions were discussed. The implications of the results of the thesis for the conservation of heathland invertebrate faunas were discussed.
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Published date: 1983
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Local EPrints ID: 459627
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/459627
PURE UUID: 8d167a00-35ba-45f8-81b7-d80cb0ca27dd
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 17:15
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 17:15
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Author:
Peter James Hopkins
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