Biodiversity and status of butterflies in the Ballarat Region, Victoria
- Authors: Ambrose, Graeme
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian Naturalist Vol. 122, no. 1 (2005), p. 21-34
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- Description: The butterfly fauna of the Ballarat Vic region is not well known, reflecting a lack of comprehensive surveys. The characteristics of the Ballarat region are described and butterfly species found locally are documented. Some 45 species from five families and 31 genera are now known for the region, including one introduced species. Management issues include habitat fragmentation and degradation. Some species are insufficiently known in the region to permit the development of management strategies (A).
- Description: 2003001059
Surviving urbanisation : Maintaining bird species diversity in urban Melbourne
- Authors: White, John , Fitzsimons, James , Palmer, Grant , Antos, Mark
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Victorian Naturalist Vol. 126, no. 3 (2009), p. 73-78
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- Description: The relationships between vegetation and bird communities within an urban landscape are synthetised, based on a series of studies we conducted. Our studies indicate that streetscape vegetation plays an important role in influencing urban bird communities, with streetscapes dominated by native plants supporting communities with high native species richness and abundance, while exotic and newly-developed streetscapes support more introduced bird species and fewer native bird species. Native streetscapes can also provide important resources for certain groups of birds, such as nectarivores. Our research has also revealed that urban remnants are likely to support more native bird species if they are larger and if they contain components of riparian vegetation. Vegetation structure and quality does not appear to be as important a driver as remnant size in determining the richness of native bird communities. Introduced birds were shown to occur in remnants at low densities, irrespective of remnant size, when compared to densities found in streetscapes dominated by exotic vegetation. We discuss our results in terms of practical planning and management options to increase and maintain urban avian diversity and conclude by offering suggestions for future fields of research in terms of urban bird communities.
Urbanization affects the trophic structure of arboreal arthropod communities
- Authors: Christie, Fiona , Cassis, Gerasimos , Hochuli, Dieter
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Urban Ecosystems Vol. 13, no. 2 (2010), p. 169-180
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- Description: Urbanization is one of the most significant causes of habitat fragmentation on the planet, resulting in substantial losses of biodiversity and disruptions to ecological processes. We examined the effects of urbanization on the diversity and abundance of arboreal invertebrates in a dominant tree species (Angophora costata) in a highly urbanized landscape in Sydney, Australia, identifying the potential ecological consequences of shifts in diversity. We hypothesized that trophic structure would be influenced by landscape context with a greater richness and abundance of invertebrates in small remnants and edges. Canopy arthropods were sampled via beating from trees in 15 sites in three landscape contexts; five large patches of continuous vegetation, five edges of large patches and five small urban remnants. Trees in large patches supported fewer individuals compared to trees in small urban remnants and edge sites. The composition of assemblages and overall trophic structure also differed between edges and large patches, with a greater abundance of grazing insects in edges. No differences were detected between small urban remnants and edges, suggesting that observed differences might be attributed to an edge effect as opposed to an area effect per se. These changes in trophic structure, revealing a greater abundance of grazing herbivores and a reduced abundance of predators and parasitoids in edge sites, are consistent with work describing elevated levels of herbivory in edges of remnant vegetation. Future management of remnant urban vegetation and associated biodiversity requires not only an understanding of how trophic status influences the extent of responses by arboreal invertebrate communities, but also how these will affect ecosystem functioning. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
- Description: 2003007386
Elevated levels of herbivory in urban landscapes: Are declines in tree health more than an edge effect?
- Authors: Christie, Fiona , Hochuli, Dieter
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecology and Society Vol. 10, no. 1 (2005), p.
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- Description: Urbanization is one of the most extreme and rapidly growing anthropogenic pressures on the natural world. Urban development has led to substantial fragmentation of areas of natural habitat, resulting in significant impacts on biodiversity and disruptions to ecological processes. We investigated the levels of leaf damage caused by invertebrates in a dominant canopy species in urban remnants in a highly fragmented urban landscape in Sydney, Australia, by assessing the frequency and extent of chewing and surface damage of leaves in urban remnants compared to the edges and interiors of continuous areas of vegetation. Although no difference was detected in the frequency of leaves showing signs of damage at small, edge, and interior sites, small sites suffered significantly greater levels of leaf damage than did interior sites. Trees at edge sites showed intermediate levels of damage, suggesting that edge effects alone are not the cause of higher levels of herbivory. These findings are the first to demonstrate the effects of urbanization on invertebrate damage in dominant trees at coarse scales. This is consistent with hypotheses predicting that changes in species composition through urban fragmentation affect ecological interactions. Copyright © 2005 by the author(s).
Conserving focal insect groups in woodland remnants : the role of landscape context and habitat structure on cross-taxonomic congruence
- Authors: Yong, Ding , Barton, Philip , Okada, Sachiko , Crane, Mason , Cunningham, Saul , Lindenmayer, David
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ecological Indicators Vol. 115, no. (2020), p.
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- Description: Determining the shared responses of different taxa to landscape modification is a key step for identifying which groups of species are good surrogates for other groups. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the spatial processes that drive cross-taxonomic congruence of diversity and how this knowledge can be used to improve the management of modified landscapes for biodiversity, especially insects. We investigated how assemblages of two ecologically important insect groups, wild bees and beetles, respond to different landscape contexts and habitat structure in an Australian agricultural landscape, and how this, in turn, influenced either group's potential as a surrogate for the other. Bee and ground-active beetle assemblages were sampled in remnant woodland patches in two landscape contexts: woodland patches surrounded by pine plantation and woodland patches surrounded by open grazing land. Bee species richness, and the richness of functionally-defined bee groups did not differ between landscape contexts, in contrast to beetles. We found that landscape context exerted a stronger effect on species composition than species richness of both groups. Although some landscape and habitat variables were useful in predicting the diversity of both insect groups, few were shared. Our findings showed that bee and beetles are poor surrogates for each other in landscapes that are highly modified. Our study highlighted the need to consider: (1) taxon-specific responses to landscape context, (2) the influence of different metrics of cross-taxonomic surrogacy and, (3) dissimilar ecological attributes among insect taxa when selecting insects as biodiversity surrogates. It should not be assumed that agricultural landscapes managed to conserve specific insects (e.g. bees) will necessarily benefit other insects. © 2020