Abstract
Human-induced habitat modification is among the main factors that threaten biodiversity on the planet. For highly specialized herbivorous insects, such as galling insects, anthropogenic disturbances that affect plants can have great effects on insects. In this sense, in the present study, we investigated the diversity of host plants and gall-inducing insects in anthropized and preserved remnants of Neotropical savannas in the Brazilian Cerrado. Sampling was performed in 30 plots (10 × 10 m) distributed in six study areas. Of these total, fifteen plots were in areas with anthropized vegetation and fifteen plots in areas with preserved vegetation. Overall, we recorded 67 species of gall-inducing insects and 39 species of host plants. We found that the diversity of both host plant species and gall-inducing insects differed significantly between areas, being higher in preserved plots than in anthropized plots. Our results revelated that changes in the species richness and composition of gall-inducing insects from preserved environments to anthropized environments were mediated by changes in the richness and composition of the plant species, respectively. Our study stands out as the first to demonstrate that plant diversity drives responses of gall-inducing insects to human disturbance in Neotropical savannas. Our findings indicate that the preservation of natural vegetation is important for the conservation of plant assemblages and their gall-inducing insects in urban environments.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank FAPEMIG for the PIBIC scholarship to KCSC, to CAPES for the Master’s scholarships to LTS and EVDF, to Santos D'Angelo (in memoriam) for help with the botanical identification, to colleagues of the LIEB-Unimontes for help with the field collections, and to State University of Montes Claros for logistical support. Our research was funded by FAPEMIG (APQ-00394-18) and CNPq (423915/2018-5).
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WSA, EVDF, and KCSC designed the experiment. BMO, PSG, LTS, EVDF, and KCSC conducted the experiments and feld sampling. WSA performed statistical analyses. BMO, EVDF, and KCSC identifed species, all authors prepared the manuscript.
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de Araújo, W.S., Oliveira, B.M., Gonçalves, P.S. et al. Plant diversity drives responses of gall-inducing insects to anthropization in Neotropical savannas. Trop Ecol 62, 311–317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-021-00148-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-021-00148-3