Insect diversity in different stand types of urban forest: A case study at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain, Nanjing

doi:10.17520/biods.2022357

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: This research aimed to clarify the correlation between various environmental factors, such as anthropogenic impacts, and the insect diversity in urban forests, which can lead to the elucidation of key factors that can affect insect diversity in urban forests. Furthermore, this could result in the development and implementation of more efficient conservation guidelines and conservation strategies for the protection of urban species diversity.

Methods: From late July 2020 to early July 2021, with the use of sweeping method and Malaise traps, we collected insects from six habitats with different stand types from Zijin Mountain, Nanjing, including greenway in artificial broadleaf forest, greenway in broadleaf-conifer mixed forest, wetland in broadleaf-conifer mixed forest, as well as woodlands in artificial coniferous forest, broadleaf-conifer mixed forest, and broadleaf mixed forest. Insects were identified using morphological guides from taxonomic monographs. Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Pielou evenness index, Margalef richness index, and Simpson diversity index were used to evaluate α-diversity. Differences between insect diversity in different habitats and taxonomic orders were evaluated by Kruskal-Wallis analyses. Insect diversity in different habitats was estimated by rarefaction and extrapolation analyses. Bray-Curtis distance was calculated to evaluate the similarity of insect diversity and richness between different habitats. The influence of different environmental variables, both abiotic and biotic, on insect diversity was evaluated by redundancy analysis and Pearson correlation. Both samplings of the whole year and a part of summer were used.

Results: A total of 59,648 insects belonging to 145 species in 78 families and 9 orders were collected. Among these, the orders Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera had the highest number of species and relative abundance. Most species were captured between July and September. Rarefaction and extrapolation analyses showed that the collections of specimens can represent the insect communities of each habitat. The α-diversity analyses indicated that woodland in broadleaf mixed forest had the highest insect diversity among sampled habitats, while woodland in artificial coniferous forest had the lowest. Although most habitats do not differ significantly in α-diversity, in terms of species composition, only the wetland in broadleaf-conifer mixed forest was moderately similar to the woodland in broadleaf mixed forest. Other habitats were all moderately dissimilar or very dissimilar to each other. The redundancy analyses showed that artificial interference of vegetation, pedestrian volume, altitude, temperature, sunshine duration, and precipitation were the major variables that significantly impacted insect diversity at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain. In addition, Pearson analyses indicated that most variables are correlated to insect diversity. Despite the different effects environmental variables have on the α-diversity of major insect orders, artificial interference of vegetation had the most significant effect, as our results showed that insect diversity significantly decreased with the increase of artificial interference of vegetation. Considering the correlations between insect diversity and other variables that can be attributed to artificial interferences, we determined that vegetation structure was the variable that has the highest degree of influence on insect diversity in urban forests.

Conclusion: This study clarifies key factors affecting insect diversity in urban forests. This could potentially provide theoretical guidance in urban species diversity conservation. Scientific planning and management of vegetation structure may be the key to preserving insect diversity in urban forests. It is thus suggested that more research on the dominant factors affecting the diversity of the major insect groups be carried out. This, even at a smaller scale according to local conditions, could greatly benefit the dynamic management of urban forests.

Key words: urban forest, insect diversity, influencing factors, artificial interference, Zijin Mountain

Chufei Tang, Cheng Ge, Ye Cao, Hongyi Cao, Xiaoxiao Song, Huaijian Liao. Insect diversity in different stand types of urban forest: A case study at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain, Nanjing[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2023, 31(2): 22357.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2022357

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2023/V31/I2/22357

Figures/Tables 8

Fig. 1 Distribution of sampling sites for insect diversity survey at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain

Table 1 Insect communities of different sampling periods at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain

类群 Order	科数 No. of families		种数 No. of species		个体数 No. of individuals
类群 Order	7月下旬至9月 Late July to the end of September	全年 Whole year	7月下旬至9月 Late July to the end of September	全年 Whole year	7月下旬至9月 Late July to the end of September	全年 Whole year
膜翅目 Hymenoptera	7	8	13	13	2,740	9,679
鞘翅目 Coleoptera	7	9	15	17	232	1,698
半翅目 Hemiptera	14	14	20	20	1,645	6,807
直翅目 Orthoptera	5	11	7	12	25	245
螳螂目 Mantodea	1	1	1	1	4	4
鳞翅目 Lepidoptera	10	10	29	30	1,861	4,155
蜻蜓目 Odonata	3	3	7	7	59	98
脉翅目 Neuroptera	2	3	2	3	25	30
双翅目 Diptera	19	19	40	42	5,176	36,932
合计 Total	68	78	134	145	11,767	59,648

Fig. 2 Number of species and individuals of each insect order at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain. Each box represents the number of species or individuals of an order collected in every sample. No significant difference exists between the number of species/individuals of two orders when they share the same letters. The difference in letters indicates a significant difference between orders (P < 0.05).

Fig. 3 Insect diversity in different habitats at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain. Each violin represents the diversity index of each sample in each habitat. No significant difference exists between the number of species/individuals of two habitats when they share the same letters. The difference in letters indicates a significant difference between habitats (P < 0.05). The meanings of habitat abbreviations are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 Estimation of insect diversity in different habitats at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain based on rarefaction and extrapolation analyses. (a) Estimation based on Shannon-Wiener diversity index; (b) Estimation based on Margalef richness index; (c) Estimation based on Simpson diversity index. The solid curves were plotted based on interpolated data and the dashed curves were based on extrapolated data. The meanings of habitat abbreviations are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 Similarity cluster of insect communities in different habitats at the southern foot of Zijin Mountain. The meanings of habitat abbreviations are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 RDA (Redundancy analysis) sequence diagram of community diversity of insects and environmental factors at the southern foot of the Zijin Mountain. (a) Results based on samplings of Insecta from late July to the end of September; (b) Results based on the whole-year samplings of Insecta; (c) Results based on samplings of Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera from late July to the end of September; (d) Results based on the whole year samplings of Diptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera. LOD, Length of daytime; UVI, Ultra-violet index. For figures a-b, diversity indices are in purple. Factors significantly affected insect diversity are in green. Factors irrelevant to insect diversity are in grey. For figures c-d, factors significantly affected insect diversity are in black. Factors irrelevant to insect diversity are in grey. Diversity indices are in colors. Orange corresponds to Lepidoptera, green corresponds to Hymenoptera, red corresponds to Hemiptera, and blue corresponds to Diptera. ‘D’ represents the Simpson diversity index. ‘H’ represents the Shannon-Wiener diversity index. ‘J’ represents the Pielou evenness index. ‘R’ represents the Margalef richness index.

Fig. 7 The correlation between insect diversity and environmental factors from samplings of the southern foot of the Zijin Mountain. The area and color of the circles refer to the strength of correlations. The stronger the correlation is, the larger and deeper the circle is. Circles are in blue if the correlation is positive and in red if the correlation is negative. LOD, Length of daytime; UVI, Ultra-violet index. ‘*’ refer to significance at the 0.05 level. ‘**’ refer to significance at the 0.01 level. ‘***’ refer to significance at the 0.001 level.

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