Abstract
Severe losses in biodiversity hotspots reduce global insect diversity. Renosterveld is a critically endangered and biologically diverse ecosystem occurring only in the fynbos biome of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), a recognized global biodiversity hotspot. Following agricultural intensification, less than 5% natural renosterveld vegetation remains in the Swartland of South Africa’s Western Cape. Remaining renosterveld is highly fragmented and confined to land less suited to agriculture, including steep slopes and rocky outcrops. These fragments vary in their environmental conditions at the local (e.g. microhabitat, floral diversity and density) and the landscape (e.g. patch size, habitat connectivity and surrounding crop cover) level. The influence of these environmental variables on butterfly diversity at a landscape scale in the CFR is not fully understood. We selected 32 sites across the Swartland and surveyed for butterflies to determine the effect of environmental variables on butterfly diversity, specifically butterfly species richness, abundance and composition. Overall, we found 2861 individuals of 27 species. Our findings suggest that crop cover in the surrounding landscape affects butterfly diversity at a small landscape scale (< 500 m radius) in the CFR. Flower species richness and microhabitat type impact species richness and abundance. Patch size is a key predictor of species diversity particularly for endemics and site quality may influence species composition. All renosterveld patches regardless of size and site quality can be considered valuable for butterflies in this highly fragmented landscape.
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Acknowledgements
The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, LO 2323/1–1). We thank Professor Les Underhill of the University of Cape Town and Dr. David A. Edge of the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa for their help. We thank Professor Teja Tscharntke of Georg-August University Göttingen for valuable comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to Fanie Rautenbach and Andrew Morton for species identification and to Elsa Bussière, Stephen Cousins, Laura Sutcliffe, Juan Swanepoel, Arnold van der Westhuizen and Martin Wiemers for field assistance. We also thank the Swartland landowners for granting access to their properties.
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This study was performed in compliance with ethical standards and received ethical clearance from Georg-August University Göttingen. Fieldwork was conducted with permission from Cape Nature (Permit No. 0035-AAA004-00100).
Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 4.
See Table 5.
Appendix 2
See Fig. 6.
Species accumulation curve for four different size classes of renosterveld patch. Shaded areas shows standard deviation of estimate
See Fig. 7.
Histogram of species numbers across all 32 sites. Fourteen species were observed at 1–2 sites, and one species observed at 29 sites (Vanessa cardui)
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Topp, E.N., Loos, J. Local and landscape level variables influence butterfly diversity in critically endangered South African renosterveld. J Insect Conserv 23, 225–237 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-018-0104-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-018-0104-6