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Monitoring fruit-feeding butterfly assemblages in two vertical strata in seasonal Atlantic Forest: temporal species turnover is lower in the canopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2017

Jessie Pereira dos Santos Open the ORCID record for Jessie Pereira dos Santos [Opens in a new window] ,
Cristiano Agra Iserhard ,
Junia Yasmin Oliveira Carreira  and
André Victor Lucci Freitas
Jessie Pereira dos Santos*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6109, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
Cristiano Agra Iserhard
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecologia, Zoologia e Genética, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, P.O. Box 354, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul 96160-000
Junia Yasmin Oliveira Carreira
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6109, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
André Victor Lucci Freitas
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, P.O. Box 6109, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-970, Brazil
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract:

To address how seasonality affects the richness and abundance of tropical insects, we compared the canopy and understorey communities of fruit-feeding butterflies in a seasonal Atlantic forest in south-eastern Brazil. Butterflies were sampled over 1 y using a standardized design with baited traps. A total of 2047 individuals in 69 species were recorded (1415 in the canopy, 632 in the understorey). Clear differences were found between canopy and understorey, with significantly higher butterfly abundances in the canopy. We observed two marked peaks of abundance and richness in both strata; one at the transition from dry to the wet seasons, and the other at the transition from wet to dry seasons. We found lower species turnover throughout the year in the canopy. We interpret this as evidence that temperature is more important than rainfall in explaining the yearly variation of abundance in vertical strata. The higher temperatures found in the canopy may allow butterflies to maintain activity in this stratum all year round, whereas the understorey is subject to colder temperatures, thus presenting a higher species turnover. These results improve our understanding of diversity gradients between evergreen and seasonal tropical forests, allowing insights into how climate and beta diversity gradients interact.

Keywords

beta diversitycommunity ecologydiversitygradientsLepidopteravertical stratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 345 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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