Large uncertainty in trait responses across insects among overall declines in a subtropical city
Corresponding Author
Nicholas A. Federico
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Correspondence
Nicholas A. Federico and Michael W. Belitz, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, Museum Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources, Data curation
Search for more papers by this authorRobert P. Guralnick
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Contribution: Writing - review & editing, Resources, Supervision, Conceptualization
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Michael W. Belitz
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Correspondence
Nicholas A. Federico and Michael W. Belitz, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, Museum Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Project administration, Supervision, Data curation
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Nicholas A. Federico
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Correspondence
Nicholas A. Federico and Michael W. Belitz, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, Museum Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources, Data curation
Search for more papers by this authorRobert P. Guralnick
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Contribution: Writing - review & editing, Resources, Supervision, Conceptualization
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Michael W. Belitz
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
Correspondence
Nicholas A. Federico and Michael W. Belitz, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Dickinson Hall, Museum Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Email: [email protected] and [email protected]
Contribution: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Validation, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Project administration, Supervision, Data curation
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
- Continued and rapid development of urban environments presents many challenges to organisms living in and around cities. Insects are among the most abundant and diverse class of animals but surprisingly little is known about how most species respond to urbanisation across clades with varying life histories, especially in the subtropics and tropics.
- In this study, we sample insect abundance and diversity across an urbanisation gradient in a subtropical region to assess the impact of urbanisation on 43 phototactic species of insects representing eight distinct orders. We also attempted to determine which life history traits best explain how species respond to urbanisation.
- We predicted an overall loss of abundance and richness with increasing urbanisation, with smaller, generalist species being the least impacted. We also predicted that species with above ground larval habitats would be less affected by urbanisation.
- Overall, urban development decreased both species richness and the abundance of individuals per order, with abundance being most reduced for Hymenoptera but least reduced for Coleoptera. At a species-specific level, urban development negatively impacted most but not all species, although uncertainty around these estimates was high. We did not identify key traits that determined a species' sensitivity to urbanisation.
- Our results showcase that urbanisation may impact ecosystem function given overall reduction in the number of individual insects per order, despite wide variability in species-specific responses. Our study also emphasises the importance of species selection when designing studies that examine responses of multiple taxa across an environmental gradient.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in InsectUrbanization: Code for Manuscript Re-Submission at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10419482.
Supporting Information
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| icad12731-sup-0001-TableS1.xlsxExcel 2007 spreadsheet , 16.9 KB | Table S1. Order abundance, species abundance, urbanization levels, and traits. |
| icad12731-sup-0002-Supinfo01.docxWord 2007 document , 1.2 MB | Figure S1. Graphical posterior predictive checks of species richness model. Figure S2. Graphical posterior predictive checks of mode estimating order-specific abundance. Figure S3. Graphical posterior predictive checks of model estimating species-specific abundance. Figure S4. Estimated response of total abundance across an urban development gradient. Figure S5. Community and order-level effects of urban development on abundance per order after removing the most abundant species from the dataset. A) The community-level effect of urban development on abundance per order is shown by the grey vertical line with grey dotted lines showing 95% BCI. The posterior distribution of order-specific responses to urban development are shown with the dot representing the mean estimate and the error bars displaying 95% BCI. B) Community response of pooled abundance per order to urban development with 95% BCI. Each coloured point represents the abundance of an order at a site. Figure S6. Posterior distributions of Bayesian hierarchical model estimating species-specific abundance per site when the most abundant species is removed from the dataset. The left panel of the figure shows response of insect abundance to life-history traits. The right panel of the figure shows the response of insect abundance to urban development (last row) and the interactions between development and traits. Coefficient estimates with 95% Bayesian credible intervals that encompass zero are shaded in grey, while those with 95% BCI that do not encompass zero are purple. Table S2.1. Richness model coefficient estimates. Table S2.2. Fixed effect coefficient estimates of model estimating order-specific abundance. Table S2.3. Fixed effect coefficient estimates of model estimating species-specific abundance. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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