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Searching clusters of community composition along multiple spatial scales: a case study on aquatic invertebrate communities in bamboo stumps in West Timor

  • Original Article
  • Special Feature: Multiple spatial scale approaches in population and community ecology
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Population Ecology

Abstract

We examined spatial heterogeneity at multiple scales in composition of the aquatic invertebrate communities in bamboo stumps in a mountainous area of West Timor. We partitioned the study area (ca. 15,000 m2) at five levels of patchiness: two sites, four sub-sites, eight super-clumps, 14 clumps, and 84 stumps. Similarity of community composition between stumps varied more than expected from independent occurrence of each taxon in comparisons within any levels of patches. Negative association was frequently detected among taxa. These results indicate heterogeneity in community composition at a stump level. At higher levels, similarity among stumps within each site was greater than expected from null models which assumed no spatial heterogeneity, and similarities among super-clumps, sub-sites and between sites in a whole area were lower than expected from the null models. The observed patterns in similarities among subsets of the community and distribution of each taxon were mostly consistent with the models which assumed site-level heterogeneity. Therefore, we conclude that the community in this area was spatially heterogeneous at stump and site levels. The relationship between mean intra- and inter-specific crowding suggested that the site level habitat heterogeneity might reduce the chance of encounters between two predators, the larvae of the Toxorhynchites mosquito and the Brachyceran fly.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Edyson and Rony Oematan for allowing our survey in their garden, S. Oematan, M. Kusaba and C. Minami for their assistance in the field, M. Kendil, K. Shibuta, Oyama and staff of the Faculty of Public Health, Hasanuddin University for supporting our survey in West Timor. Valuable comments on this manuscript from N. Minakawa, N. Tuno, N. Suzuki and two anonymous reviewers are appreciated. This study was supported by Grant-in Aid for Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (13576009, 13740444).

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  1. Toshihiko Sunahara

    Present address: Laboratory of Vector Ecology and Environment, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Parasitology, Department of Pathology and Biodefense, Saga Medical School, Saga, Japan

    Toshihiko Sunahara & Motoyoshi Mogi

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  1. Toshihiko Sunahara
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  2. Motoyoshi Mogi
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Correspondence to Toshihiko Sunahara.

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Sunahara, T., Mogi, M. Searching clusters of community composition along multiple spatial scales: a case study on aquatic invertebrate communities in bamboo stumps in West Timor. Popul Ecol 46, 149–158 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-004-0181-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-004-0181-0

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