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Environmental Determinants on the Assemblage Structure of Drosophilidae Flies in a Temperate-Subtropical Region

  • Ecology, Behavior and Bionomics
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Abstract

The species composition and the relative abundance of species in an insect community can vary in time and space for many reasons, including climatic variables and habitat preferences. Drosophilids were collected each quarter from April 2011 to April 2012 (five collections in all) in a natural area of the Pampa biome, considering three environments: open field, forest edge and the interior of forest patches. Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests were used to examine the effects of temporal and spatial components on the drosophilid assemblage. Four diversity measures: S obs , S rar , H’ and E var were used to evaluate the community structure. A total of 7164 drosophilids belonging to 51 species were collected. The interaction of species in each environment varied among sampling periods. The abundance of both Neotropical and exotic species was affected by temporal and spatial components. The species of the D. repleta group were predominantly more abundant in the open field, but they migrated to the forest patches during periods of thermal stress. Generally, diversity was greatest in the interior of forest patches. Nevertheless, temporal components appear to be the predominant environmental determinant of the characteristics of the drosophilid community of the Pampas. Furthermore, the forest patches appear to act as a center of recolonization, reinforcing their importance in the maintenance of biodiversity in the Pampas; this function will be even more important in the future, when the temperatures will, most likely, be higher.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Msc. Nataly N. Slivak for assistance with the figures. We thank the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), PRONEX-FAPERGS (10/0028-7) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) for providing grants and fellowships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lab de Drosophila, Univ Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Building 43323, room 210, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

    J L Poppe & V L S Valente

  2. Univ Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA), Foz do Iguaçu, PR, Brasil

    H J Schmitz

  3. Depto de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Univ Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

    V L S Valente

  4. Depto de Estatística, Univ Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

    S M Callegari-Jacques

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  1. J L Poppe
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Correspondence to J L Poppe.

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Edited by Fernando L Cônsoli – ESALQ/USP

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Poppe, J.L., Schmitz, H.J., Callegari-Jacques, S.M. et al. Environmental Determinants on the Assemblage Structure of Drosophilidae Flies in a Temperate-Subtropical Region. Neotrop Entomol 44, 140–152 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-015-0276-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-015-0276-7

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