Nested assemblages of aphid species in the Thousand Island Lake: The importance of island area and host plant diversity

doi:10.17520/biods.2023183

Abstract

Abstract:

Aims: Nested subset pattern (nestedness) of species distributions is widespread in fragmented habitats. This study aims to explore the nested distribution pattern of aphid communities and the potential influencing mechanisms, including the effects of plant-aphid interaction and ant-aphid interaction on aphid community nesting structure, in the fragmented landscape of the Thousand Island Lake, China.

Methods: We surveyed aphid communities on 18 land-bridge islands from May to August in both 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, we surveyed host plant communities and mutualistic ant communities that have close interspecific interactions with aphid communities, along with integral plant communities in the aphid habitats. We analyzed the nestedness of the aphid communities and the integral plant communities by using NODF (nestedness metrics based on overlap and decreasing fill). We also used the random placement model to evaluate whether the passive sampling hypothesis played a major role in generating the nestedness of aphid communities. Moreover, we evaluated the role of island variables (island area and degree of isolation) in generating nestedness based on multiple linear regression. We also used the piecewise structural equation model to analyze the influence of island variables (island plant richness, host plant richness, and mutualistic ant richness) on the nestedness of aphid communities.

Results: (1) Aphid assemblages were significantly nested in the Thousand Island Lake; (2) The nestedness of aphids was not caused by passive sampling; (3) The nestedness of aphid communities had a significantly positive correlation with island area in the Thousand Island Lake, which supports the hypothesis of selective extinction. The nestedness of integral plant communities also supports the hypothesis of habitat nestedness; (4) The piecewise structural equation models showed that the diversity of host plants had a significant and positive influence on the nested ranking of aphid assemblages.

Conclusion: Our study showed that the nestedness of aphid communities in the Thousand Island Lake was driven by selective extinction and habitat nestedness, and the plant-aphid interaction, as an important intermediate factor, had a significantly direct effect on the nestedness. Therefore, the roles of interspecific interactions involving focus species should be fully considered when analyzing the underlying mechanism generating nested subset pattern.

Key words: island area, host plant, structural equation model, Thousand Island Lake, nested subset pattern, habitat fragmentation, aphid, interspecific interaction

Cai Chang, Zhang Xue, Zhu Chen, Zhao Yuhao, Qiao Gexia, Ding Ping. Nested assemblages of aphid species in the Thousand Island Lake: The importance of island area and host plant diversity[J]. Biodiv Sci, 2023, 31(12): 23183.

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URL: https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/10.17520/biods.2023183

https://www.biodiversity-science.net/EN/Y2023/V31/I12/23183

Figures/Tables 7

References 64

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岛屿编号 Island code	面积 Area (ha)	距最近大陆距离 Distance to the nearest mainland (m)	距最近岛屿距离 Distance to the nearest island (m)	样带数量 Number of transect	样带总长度 Total transect length (m)	嵌套序列 Nested matrix rank	蚜虫物种丰富度 Aphid richness	生境植物物种丰富度 Habitat plant species richness	寄主植物物种丰富度 Host plant species richness	互惠蚂蚁物种丰富度 Mutualistic ant species richness
B2	128.040	1,452.275	27.072	5	2,000	1	16	113	20	21
S07	0.488	2,105.772	15.236	1	400	2	12	38	17	5
B6	51.889	950.346	31.812	4	1,600	3	11	67	18	18
B7	29.054	1,938.729	67.309	3	1,200	4	10	76	16	17
S30	4.058	2,588.229	26.041	2	800	5	10	41	15	14
S01	0.434	3,725.022	89.542	1	400	6	9	36	12	8
S02	0.623	3,204.960	71.298	1	400	7	9	34	11	7
S46	1.035	727.554	14.890	2	800	8	9	57	15	9
S11	1.560	1,098.858	53.295	2	800	9	8	44	14	7
S17	0.715	892.695	143.517	1	400	10	8	32	14	10
S26	9.729	2,163.768	135.660	2	800	11	8	46	14	10
S43	2.233	1,187.389	77.688	2	800	12	8	46	11	14
S05	0.588	2,320.772	29.648	1	400	13	7	36	12	8
S09	1.819	1,046.338	121.168	2	800	14	7	55	12	15
S48	0.887	356.092	62.151	1	400	15	7	41	11	8
S19	0.338	1,529.966	52.729	1	400	16	6	21	6	8
S31	0.079	2,567.282	47.085	1	400	17	6	28	8	7
S33	0.289	3,039.890	87.270	1	400	18	5	28	5	9

岛屿编号 Island code	面积 Area (ha)	距最近大陆距离 Distance to the nearest mainland (m)	距最近岛屿距离 Distance to the nearest island (m)	样带数量 Number of transect	样带总长度 Total transect length (m)	嵌套序列 Nested matrix rank	蚜虫物种丰富度 Aphid richness	生境植物物种丰富度 Habitat plant species richness	寄主植物物种丰富度 Host plant species richness	互惠蚂蚁物种丰富度 Mutualistic ant species richness
B2	128.040	1,452.275	27.072	5	2,000	1	16	113	20	21
S07	0.488	2,105.772	15.236	1	400	2	12	38	17	5
B6	51.889	950.346	31.812	4	1,600	3	11	67	18	18
B7	29.054	1,938.729	67.309	3	1,200	4	10	76	16	17
S30	4.058	2,588.229	26.041	2	800	5	10	41	15	14
S01	0.434	3,725.022	89.542	1	400	6	9	36	12	8
S02	0.623	3,204.960	71.298	1	400	7	9	34	11	7
S46	1.035	727.554	14.890	2	800	8	9	57	15	9
S11	1.560	1,098.858	53.295	2	800	9	8	44	14	7
S17	0.715	892.695	143.517	1	400	10	8	32	14	10
S26	9.729	2,163.768	135.660	2	800	11	8	46	14	10
S43	2.233	1,187.389	77.688	2	800	12	8	46	11	14
S05	0.588	2,320.772	29.648	1	400	13	7	36	12	8
S09	1.819	1,046.338	121.168	2	800	14	7	55	12	15
S48	0.887	356.092	62.151	1	400	15	7	41	11	8
S19	0.338	1,529.966	52.729	1	400	16	6	21	6	8
S31	0.079	2,567.282	47.085	1	400	17	6	28	8	7
S33	0.289	3,039.890	87.270	1	400	18	5	28	5	9

	嵌套度量化 Nestedness metric	观测值 N_obs	期望值 N_exp	标准差 SD	Z值 Z-score	P
蚜虫 Aphid	总NODF	62.86	36.52	2.00	13.22	< 0.001
	岛屿NODF_C	57.78	37.58	2.31	8.75	< 0.001
	物种NODF_R	72.03	41.54	3.28	9.29	< 0.001
生境植物 Habitat plant	总NODF	57.74	30.15	0.63	44.12	< 0.001

	嵌套度量化 Nestedness metric	观测值 N_obs	期望值 N_exp	标准差 SD	Z值 Z-score	P
蚜虫 Aphid	总NODF	62.86	36.52	2.00	13.22	< 0.001
	岛屿NODF_C	57.78	37.58	2.31	8.75	< 0.001
	物种NODF_R	72.03	41.54	3.28	9.29	< 0.001
生境植物 Habitat plant	总NODF	57.74	30.15	0.63	44.12	< 0.001

	回归系数 Coefficient			截距 Intercept	校正决定系数 Adjusted R-squared $(R_{\mathrm{adj}}^2)$	F
	岛屿面积 Island area	距最近大陆距离 Distance to the nearest mainland	距最近岛屿距离 Distance to the nearest island	截距 Intercept	校正决定系数 Adjusted R-squared $(R_{\mathrm{adj}}^2)$	F
蚜虫岛屿嵌套程度 Island nestedrank of aphid communities (A'_K)	0.112^**	< 0.001	-0.002	0.443^*	0.479	6.21^**
生境植物物种丰富度 Habitat plant species richness	0.172^***	< -0.001	-0.001	3.818^***	0.751	18.13^***
寄主植物物种丰富度 Host plant speices richness	0.119^**	< -0.001	-0.001	2.597^***	0.397	4.731^*
互惠蚂蚁物种丰富度 Mutualistic ant species richness	0.167^***	< -0.001	0.001	2.151^***	0.638	10.98^***