Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T11:58:43.697Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The distribution of leaf litter invertebrates along a Neotropical altitudinal gradient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

David M. Olson
David M. Olson
Affiliation:
Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St., NW, Washington, DC. 20037., USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Leaf litter invertebrates were sampled at eight sites, approximately 250 m apart in elevation, along an altitudinal transect extending from primary lowland rainforest to cloud forest in western Panama. The study focused on several diverse and numerically important litter invertebrate taxa (e.g., ants, spiders, and beetles) that were effectively sampled using a combination of litter sifting and test tube pitfall traps. The mean altitudinal range of species was around 500 m (standard deviation 370 m) and approximately 50% of the species characteristic of a given elevation dropped out after a 500 m change in elevation in either direction. There was no evidence for distinct altitudinal zonation in leaf litter assemblages. Both species richness and number of individuals of most taxa showed a pronounced decline in the vicinity of the upward transition to cloud forests. The data also suggest a broad mid-elevation peak in sample species richness for the litter invertebrate fauna. The implications of the results for biodiversity conservation are discussed.

Keywords

altitudinal gradientsantsbiodiversity conservationleaf litter invertebratesPanamatropical forests
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 129 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Allison, A., Samuelson, G. A. & Miller, S. E. 1993. Patterns of beetle species diversity in New Guinea rain forest as revealed by canopy fogging: preliminary findings. Selbyana 14:15–20.Google Scholar
Atkin, L. & Proctor, J. 1988. Invertebrates in the litter and soil on Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 4:307–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barlow, H. S. 1988. Forest Lepidoptera. Pages 212–224 in Earl of Cranbrook (ed.). Key environments: Malaysia. Pergamon Press, Oxford, England.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besuchet, C., Burckhardt, D. H. & Löbl, I. 1987. The ‘Winkler/Moczarski’ eclector for fungus and litter Coleoptera. The Coleopterists Bulletin 41:392–394.Google Scholar
Brown, W. L. 1973. A comparison of the Hylean and Congo-West African rainforest ant faunas. Pp. 161–185 in Meggers, B. J., Ayensu, E. S. & Duckworth, W. D. (eds). Tropical forest ecosystems in Africa and South America: a comparative review. Smithsonian Tropical Press, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
Cap (Comision del Atlas de Panama). 1975. Atlas Nacional de Panama: Ano de la Productividad.Google Scholar
Carroll, C. R. & Janzen, D. H. 1973. Ecology of foraging ants. Annual Review of Ecology and Systemalics 4:231–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, C. R. & Vandermeer, J. 1972. Altitudinal gradients in ant species diversity. Organization for Tropical Studies. Pp. 74–79 in Carroll, C. R. &Vandermeer, J. (eds). Tropical Biology, July–August 1972, Course Report.Google Scholar
Chang, J. 1968. The agricultural potential of the humid tropics. Geographical Review 58:334–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coen, E. 1983. Climate. Pp. 35–46 in Janzen, D. H. (ed.). Costa Rican natural history. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.Google Scholar
Collins, N. M. 1980. The distribution of soil macrofauna on the West Ridge of Gunung (Mount) Mulu, Sarawak. Oecologia 44:263–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darlington, P. J. 1971. The Carabid Beetle fauna of New Guinea, part IV. General considerations; analysis and history of fauna, taxonomic supplement. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 142:129–337.Google Scholar
De Vries, P. J. 1987. The butterflies of Costa Rica and their natural history. Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. 327 pp.Google Scholar
Dindal, D. L. (ed.). 1990. Soil biology guide. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 1349 pp.Google Scholar
Edwards, C. A. 1974. Macroarthropods. Pp. 523–554 in Dickinson, C. H. & Pugh, G. J. F. (eds). Biology of plant litter decomposition, Vol. 2. Academic Press, London, England.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. & Adis, J. 1982. Amazonian inundation forests: Their role as short-term refuges and generators of species richness and taxon pulses. Pp. 358–371 in Prance, G. (ed.). Biological diversification in the tropics. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fittkau, E. J. & Klinge, H. 1973. On biomass and trophic structure of the central Amazonian rain forest ecosystem. Biotropica 5:2–14.Google Scholar
Gagné, W. C. 1979. Canopy-associated arthropods in Acacia koa and Metrosideros tree communities along an altitudinal transect on Hawaii Island. Pacific Insects 21:56–82.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. H. 1982. Patterns of neotropical plant species diversity. Evolutionary Biology 15:1–84.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. H. 1985. Contrasting phytogeographic patterns of upland and lowland Panamanian plants. Pp. 147–160 in D'Arcy, W. G. & Correa, A. M. D. (eds). The botany and natural history of Panama. Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, Missouri, USA.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. H. 1986. Endemism in tropical versus temperate plant communities. Pp. 153–181 in Soulé, M. E. (ed.). Conservation biology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Gentry, A. H. 1988. Changes in plant community diversity and floristic composition on environmental and geographical gradients. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 75:1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P. J. 1971. Interpretation of the ‘Massenerhebung’ effect on tropical mountains. Nature 229:44–45.Google Scholar
Grubb, P. J. 1977. Control of forest growth and distribution on wet tropical mountains: with special reference to mineral nutrition. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 8:83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubb, P. J. & Whitmore, T. C. 1966. A comparison of montane and lowland rain forest in Ecuador. II. The climate and its effects on distribution and physiognomy of the forests. Journal of Ecology 54:303–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammond, P. M. 1990. Insect abundance and diversity in the Dumoga-Bone National Park, North Sulawesi, with special reference to the beetle fauna of lowland rainforest in the Toraust region. Pp. 197–254 in Knight, W. J. & Holloway, J. D. (eds). Insects and the rainforests of Southeast Asia (Wallacea). A special Project Wallace Symposium. Royal Entomological Society of London, London.Google Scholar
Hanski, I. & Niemelä, J. 1990. Elevational distributions of dung and carrion beetles in northern Sulawesi. Pp. 173–190 in Knight, W. J. & Holloway, J. D. (eds). Insects and the rain forests of Southeast Asia (Wallacea). A special Project Wallace Symposium. Royal Entomological Society of London, London.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G. S. 1983. Plants: introduction. Pp. 118–125 in Janzen, D. H. (ed.). Costa Rican natural history. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.Google Scholar
Hartshorn, G. S. & Peralta, R. 1988. Preliminary description of primary forests along the La Selva-Volcan Barva altitudinal transect, Costa Rica. Pp. 281–295 in Almeda, F. & Pringle, C. M. (eds). Tropical rainforests: diversity and conservation. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA.Google Scholar
Heaney, A. & Proctor, J. 1990. Preliminary studies on forest structure and floristics on Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 6:307–320.Google Scholar
Hebert, P. D. N. 1980. Moth communities in montane Papua New Guinea. Journal of Animal Ecology 49:593–502.Google Scholar
Hebert, P. D. N. & Harmsen, R. 1984. Species diversity patterns in moth communities of Papua New Guinea. Pp. 306–307 in Chadwick, A. C. & Sutton, S. L. (eds). Tropical rain-forest: the Leeds Symposium. Special publication of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Leeds, England.Google Scholar
Holdridge, L. R. 1961. Ecologia de la Cordillera de Talamanca en La República de Panamá, con referencia especial a las áreas de Boquete y Cerro Punta. Traducción del Servicio Forestal (1965), MACI-Panamá.Google Scholar
Holdridge, L. R. 1967. Life zone ecology. Revised edition, Tropical Science Center, San José, Costa Rica.Google Scholar
Hölldobler, B. & Wilson, E. O. 1990. The ants. The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1970. The biogeographical analysis of a transect sample of the moth fauna of MtCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinabalu, Sabah, using numerical methods. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2:259–286.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D. 1987. Macrolepidoptera diversity in the Indo-Australian tropics: geographic, biotopic and taxonomic variations. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 30:325–341.Google Scholar
Holloway, J. D., Robinson, G. S. & Tuck, K. R. 1990. Zonation in the Lepidoptera of northern Sulawesi. Pp. 153–166 in Knight, W. J. & Holloway, J. D. (eds). Insects and tht rainforests of Southeast Asia (Wallacea). A special Project Wallace Symposium. Royal Entomological Society of London, London.Google Scholar
Horn, H. S. 1966. Measurement of ‘overlap’ in comparative ecological studies. American Naturalist 100:419–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huey, R. B. 1978. Latitudinal patterns of between-altitude faunal similarity: mountains might be ‘higher’ in the tropics. American Naturalist 112:225–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1967. Why mountain passes are higher in the tropics. American Naturalist 101:233–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1973. Sweep samples of tropical foliage insects: effects of seasons, vegetation types, elevation, time of day, and insularity. Ecology 54:687–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1983. The insects: introduction. Pp. 619–645 in Janzen, D. H. (ed.). Costa Rican natural history. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1986. The eternal external threat. Pp. 296–303 in Soule, M. E. (ed.). Conservation biology. Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. H., Ataroff, M., Farinas, M., Reyes, S., Rincon, A., Soler, A., Soriano, P. & Vera, M. 1976. Changes in the arthropod community along an elevational transect in the Venezuelan Andes. Biotropica 8:193–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. & Schoener, T. W. 1968. Differences in insect abundance and diversity between wetter and drier sites during a tropical dry season. Ecology 49:96–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, C. F. 1985. Nutrient cycling in tropical forest ecosystems. John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Kikkawa, J. & Williams, W. T. 1971. Altitudinal distribution of land birds in New Guinea. Search 2:64–69.Google Scholar
Krebs, C. J. 1989. Ecological methodology. Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, USA. 654 pp.Google Scholar
Lamas, G., Robbins, R. K. & Harvey, D. J. 1991. A preliminary survey of the butterfly fauna of Pakitza, Parque Nacional del Manu, Peru, with an estimate of its species richness. Publicaciones del Mas to de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos 40:1–19.Google Scholar
Lauer, W. 1989. Climate and weather. Pp. 7–53 in Lieth, H. & Werger, M. J. A. (eds). Tropical rain forest ecosystems. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leakey, J. G. & Proctor, J. 1987. Invertebrates in the litter and soil at a range of altitudes on Gunung Silam, a small ultra basic mountain in Sabah. Journal of Tropical Ecology 3:119–129.Google Scholar
Leigh, E. G. Jr. 1975. Structure and climate in tropical rain forest. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 6:67–86.Google Scholar
Leigh, E. G. Jr. 1981. Why are elfin forests stunted? Pp. 20–31 in Stone, B. C. (ed.). Tht summit flora of Gunung Ulu Kali (Pahang, Malaysia). Federation Museums Journal 26, part 1.Google Scholar
Levey, D. J. & Stiles, F. G. 1992. Evolutionary precursors of long-distance migration: resource availability and movement patterns in neotropical landbirds. American Naturalist 140:447–4–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levings, S. C. & Windsor, D. M. 1982. Seasonal and annual variation in litter arthropod communities. Pp. 335–387 in Leigh, E. G. Jr., Rand, S. & Windsor, D. M. (eds). The ecology of a tropical rainforest: seasonal rhythms and long-term changes. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
Loiselle, B. A. & Blake, J. G. 1991. Temporal variation in birds and fruits along an elevational gradient in Costa Rica. Ecology 72:180–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longino, J. T. & Nadkarni, N. M. 1990. A comparison of ground and canopy leaf litter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in a neotropical montane forest. Psyche 97:81–93.Google Scholar
Mackay, W. P. & Vinson, S. B. 1989. A guide to the New World ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 16:3–47.Google Scholar
Majer, J. D. 1978. An improved pitfall trap for sampling ants and other epigaeic invertebrates. Journal of tht Australian Entomological Society 17:261–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteith, G.B. 1985. Altitudinal transect studies at Cape Tribulation, North Queensland VII. Coleoptera and Hemiptera (Insecta). The Queensland Naturalist 26:70–80.Google Scholar
Monteith, G. B. & Davies, V. T. 1984. Preliminary account of a survey of arthropods (insects and spiders) along an altitudinal rainforest transect in tropical Queensland. In Werren, G. & Kershaw, P. (eds). The rainforest legacy, Australian National Rainforest Study, Volume 2. Special Australian Heritage Publication Series No. 7(1).Google Scholar
Moreau, R. E. 1966. The bird faunas of Africa and its islands. Academic Press, London, England.Google Scholar
Mosteller, F. & Tukey, J. W. 1977. Data analysis and regression. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachussetts, USA.Google Scholar
Myers, C. W. 1969. The ecological geography of cloud forest in Panama. American Museum Novitates 2396:1–52.Google Scholar
Nadkarni, N. M. & Longino, J. T. 1990. Invertebrates in canopy and ground organic matter in a Neotropical montane forest, Costa Rica. Biotropica 22:286–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D. M. 1991. A comparison of the efficacy of litter sifting and pitfall traps for sampling leaf litter ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in a tropical wet forest, Costa Rica. Biotropica 23:166–172.Google Scholar
Olson, D. M. 1993. In prep. The distribution of leaf litter ants along altitudinal gradients in the Neotropics.Google Scholar
Orians, G. H. 1969. The number of bird species in some tropical forests. Ecology 50:783–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pianka, E. R. 1983. Evolutionary ecology. Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, USA. 416 pp.Google Scholar
Powell, G. V. N. & Bjork, R. 1993. In prep. Altitudinal migrations and habitat linkages in montane environments of Costa Rica: a call for the design of altitudinal corridors.Google Scholar
Proctor, J., Lee, Y. F., Langley, A. M., Munro, W. R. C. & Nelson, T. 1988. Ecological studies on Gunung Silam, a small ultrabasic mountain in Sabah, Malaysia. I. Environment, forest structure and floristics. Journal of Ecology 76:320–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, N. J. Jr. 1976. The abundance and diversity of the herpetofauna of tropical forest litter. Biotropica 8:458.Google Scholar
Stevens, G. C. 1989. The latitudinal gradient in geographical range: how so many species coexist in the tropics. American Naturalist 133:240–256.Google Scholar
Stiles, F. G. 1985. On the role of birds in the dynamics of tropical forests. Pp. 49–59 in Diamond, A. W. & Lovejoy, T. (eds). Conservation of tropical forest birds. International Council on Bird Preservation, Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Stiles, F. G. 1988. Altitudinal movements of birds on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica: implications for conservation. Pp. 243–258 in Alameda, F. & Pringle, C. M. (eds). Tropical rainforests: diversity and conservation. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA.Google Scholar
Stork, N. E. 1987. Arthropod faunal similarity of Bornean rain forest trees. Ecological Entomology 12:219–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stork, N. E. & Brendell, M. J. D. 1990. Variation in the insect fauna of trees in Sulawesi (Indonesia) with season, altitude and forest type. Pp. 173–190 in Knight, W. J. & Holloway, J. D. (eds). Insects and the rainforests of Southeast Asia (Wallacea). A special Project Wallace Symposium. Royal Entomological Society of London, London.Google Scholar
Swift, M. J., Heal, O. W. & Andersen, J. M. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Studies in Ecology 5. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA.Google Scholar
Terborgh, J. 1977. Bird species diversity on an Andean elevational gradient. Ecology 58:1007–1009.Google Scholar
Terry, R. A. 1956. A geological reconnaissance of Panama. Occasional Papers No. 23, California Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Van Der Hammen, T. 1984. Las fauna de suelos en el transecto Burritaca-La Cumbre: datos generales. Pp. 441–444 in van der Hammen, T. & Ruiz, P. M. (eds). La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia) Transecto Burritaca-La Cumbre. Studies on Tropical Andean Ecosystems, Vol. 2. J. Cramer, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Ward, P. S. 1987. Distribution of the introduced Argentine Ant (Iridomyrmex humilis) in natural habitats of the Lower Sacramento Valley and its effects on the indigenous ant fauna. Hilgardia 55:1–16.Google Scholar
Wells, D. 1988. Birds. Pp. 167–195 in Earl of Cranbrook (ed.). Key environments: Malaysia. Pergamon Press, Oxford, England.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, D. E. & Levings, S. C. 1988. The impact of the 1983 El Niño drought on the litter arthropods of Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Pp. 309–326 in Trager, J. C. (ed.). Advances in Myrmecology. E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Willis, E. O. 1976. Seasonal changes in the invertebrate litter fauna on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Revista Brasileira de Biologia 36:643–657.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1987. The little things that run the World. (The importance and conservation of invertebrates). Conservation Biology 1:344–346.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1988. The current state of biological diversity. Pp. 3–17 in Wilson, E. O. (ed.). Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
Wolda, H. 1981. Similarity indices, sample size and diversity. Oecologia 50:296–302.Google Scholar
Wolda, H. 1987. Altitude, habitat and tropical insect diversity. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 30:313–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, F. W. & Gallegos, C. M. 1970. Litter accumulation in selected forests of the Republic of Panama. Biotropica 2:46–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar