Effects of agricultural landscape dynamics on the species diversity of ground arthropods in woodlands
Biodiversity is one of the most limiting factors for ecosystem services. It is well known that there are very close connections between agricultural ecosystems and species diversity. Large numbers of non-agricultural wildlife rely on the food and habitats provided by the agricultural landscape. Natural and semi-natural habitats ( such as farmland boundaries, woodland, hedges, and creeks ) in agro-landscapes have very important effects on ground arthropods inhabiting these microenvironments. The lower reaches of the Yellow River, China, is a major grain producing areas in China, and is important for the security of the national food supply. It is crucial to study the relationships between regional agro-landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity to maximize ecosystem services and to maintain ecosystem stability. In this study, Fengqiu County in Henan Province, which is a typical agricultural region in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, was selected to investigate the effects of agricultural landscape dynamics on the species diversity of ground arthropods in woodlands. The Shannon diversity index and species richness were applied to explore the relationships between landscape changes and arthropod diversity from 1984 to 2012. The role of the landscape context on ground arthropod diversity in woodlands was evaluated by a multi-model inference ( MMI) based on the Akaike information criterion ( AIC) . Five competing models of landscape context were used to analyze how it impacts arthropods. These models included habitat quality (H1, 2012), matrix quality (H2, 2012), habitat change (H3, 1984—2012), matrix quality change (H4, 1984—2012), and soil-environmental conditions ( H5, 2012) . All of these models were measured respectively at four spatial scales ( 100, 250, 350, and 500 m) to examine how spatial scales impact ground arthropod diversity. The relationship between the response variables and the predictor variables was analyzed by Generalized Linear Models ( GLM ) in R statistical software. From 1984 to 2013 in the study area, woodland area increased significantly, while agricultural landscape heterogeneity increased substantially. The dominant groups of ground arthropods included Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Amphipoda, and Araneae. The impacts of landscape context on ground arthropod diversity in woodlands were significantly scale-dependent. Habitat quality ( H1) was the highest supported model for explaining Shannon diversity index and species richness of the ground arthropod community at a small scale (100 m). As the spatial scale increased, the Shannon diversity index and species richness responded mostly to habitat change quality (H3) in the broader surroundings (250, 350, and 500 m). No significant correlation was observed between matrix quality and soil-environmental conditions ( H2 and H5 ) . The responses to landscape context of ground arthropod species richness and Shannon diversity index were fairly consistent, significantly responding to habitat quality. Approximately 40% of variation in ground arthropod diversity was explained by the landscape context. In the study area, habitat quality ( H1) may represent a good indicator for the Shannon diversity index and species richness. The analytical results showed that historic landscape change also has a predominant influence on the present features of ground arthropod diversity in woodlands;thus, the temporal dynamics of the landscape context may help towards improving our understanding about the interactions between landscape context change and ground arthropod diversity in woodlands. To enhance the explanation for the effects of landscape context on ground arthropods, further studies should consider additional landscape competing models and multi-scale spatiotemporal analysis.
multi-model inferenceAkaike information criterionground arthropodsbiodiversitywoodlandsagricultural landscape
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NSTL
万方数据
维普
