Arthropod Distribution in a Tropical Rainforest: Tackling a Four Dimensional Puzzle

Yves Basset (1, 2) , Lukas Cizek (1) , Philippe Cuénoud , Raphael Didham , Vojtech Novotny (1) , Frode Ødegaard , Tomas Roslin , Alexey Tishechkin , Jürgen Schmidl (3) , Neville Winchester (4) , David Roubik (5) , Henri-Pierre Aberlenc (6) , Johannes Bail , Hector Barrios , Jonathan Bridle (7) , Gabriela Castaño-Meneses (8) , Bruno Corbara (9) , Gianfranco Curletti , Wesley Duarte da Rocha (10) , Domir de Bakker (11) , Jacques H.C. Delabie (12) , Alain Dejean (13) , Laura Fagan , Andreas Floren (14) , Roger Kitching (15) , Enrique Medianero , Evandro Gama de Oliveira , Jérôme Orivel (16) , Marc Pollet , Mathieu Rapp (17) , Sérvio Ribeiro (18) , Yves Roisin (19) , Jesper Schmidt , Line Sørensen , Thomas Lewinsohn (20) , Maurice Leponce (11)

1 University of South Bohemia
2 Universidad de Panamá
3 FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg = University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
4 UVIC - University of Victoria [Canada]
5 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
6 UMR CBGP - Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations
7 University of Bristol [Bristol]
8 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico
9 LMGE - Laboratoire Microorganismes : Génome et Environnement
10 UFMG - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais = Federal University of Minas Gerais [Belo Horizonte, Brazil]
11 RBINS - Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
12 UESC - Universidade Estadual De Santa Cruz [Brazil]
13 UMR ECOFOG - Ecologie des forêts de Guyane
14 JMU - Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
15 Griffith University [Brisbane]
16 EDB - Evolution et Diversité Biologique
17 Auteur indépendant
18 UFOP - Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto
19 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
20 UNICAMP - Universidade Estadual de Campinas = University of Campinas

Quantifying the spatio-temporal distribution of arthropods in tropical rainforests represents a first step towards scrutinizing the global distribution of biodiversity on Earth. To date most studies have focused on narrow taxonomic groups or lack a design that allows partitioning of the components of diversity. Here, we consider an exceptionally large dataset (113,952 individuals representing 5,858 species), obtained from the San Lorenzo forest in Panama, where the phylogenetic breadth of arthropod taxa was surveyed using 14 protocols targeting the soil, litter, understory, lower and upper canopy habitats, replicated across seasons in 2003 and 2004. This dataset is used to explore the relative influence of horizontal, vertical and seasonal drivers of arthropod distribution in this forest. We considered arthropod abundance, observed and estimated species richness, additive decomposition of species richness, multiplicative partitioning of species diversity, variation in species composition, species turnover and guild structure as components of diversity. At the scale of our study (2km of distance, 40m in height and 400 days), the effects related to the vertical and seasonal dimensions were most important. Most adult arthropods were collected from the soil/litter or the upper canopy and species richness was highest in the canopy. We compared the distribution of arthropods and trees within our study system. Effects related to the seasonal dimension were stronger for arthropods than for trees. We conclude that: (1) models of beta diversity developed for tropical trees are unlikely to be applicable to tropical arthropods; (2) it is imperative that estimates of global biodiversity derived from mass collecting of arthropods in tropical rainforests embrace the strong vertical and seasonal partitioning observed here; and (3) given the high species turnover observed between seasons, global climate change may have severe consequences for rainforest arthropods.

Mots clés: Arthropoda; Species diversity; Trees; Forests; Tropical rainforests; Biodiversity; Seasons; Surveys

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Ecosystèmes

Yves Basset, Lukas Cizek, Philippe Cuénoud, Raphael Didham, Vojtech Novotny, et al.. Arthropod Distribution in a Tropical Rainforest: Tackling a Four Dimensional Puzzle. PLoS ONE, 2015, 10 (12), pp.e0144110. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0144110⟩. ⟨hal-01983602⟩