Browsing by Author "Akite, Perpetra"

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    Recovery of fruit-feeding butterfly communities in Budongo Forest Reserve after anthropogenic disturbance
    (Forest Ecology and Management, 2021) Oloya, Joseph; Malinga, Geoffrey M.; Nyafwono, Margaret; Akite, Perpetra; Nakadai, Ryosuke; Holm, Sille; Valtonen, Anu
    Understanding of how biodiversity can recover after anthropogenic disturbances, such as selective logging, is important for planning conservation strategies for tropical forests and for more sustainable timber harvest regimes. However, the knowledge of insect community compositions in regenerating logged forests is still limited, especially in the Afrotropics. Here, we evaluated the recovery patterns of fruit-feeding butterfly communities in four different-aged secondary forest compartments and one primary forest compartment in the Budongo Central Forest Reserve, Uganda. In each compartment, butterflies were sampled monthly for five consecutive months in 2017 using traps baited with fermented bananas. A total of 3,778 individuals, representing 82 species (78 identified at the species level and four morphogroups) were recorded. The fruit-feeding butterfly community composition differed among forest compartments and study months. Fruit-feeding butterfly communities of the oldest 72-year-old secondary forest compartment were similar to the primary forest compartment. In the younger secondary forest compartments the seasonal variation was large; especially the communities of the “core” rainy season months were distinct from the communities in primary and oldest secondary forest. The majority of individuals captured from both primary and secondary forests represented forest-dependent species. Primary forests are irreplaceable for preserving the diversity of tropical forests in the long-term. Nevertheless, our study demonstrates that selective logging can allow fruit-feeding butterfly community composition to recover if enough time (>70 years) is allowed for recovery.
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    Temporal patterns in Saturnidae (silk moth) and Sphingidae (hawk moth) assemblages in protected forests of central Uganda
    (Ecology and Evolution, 2015) Akite, Perpetra; Telford, Richard J.; Waring, Paul; Akol, Anne M.; Vandvik, Vigdis
    Forest-dependent biodiversity is threatened throughout the tropics by habitat loss and land-use intensification of the matrix habitats. We resampled historic data on two moth families, known to play central roles in many ecosystem processes, to evaluate temporal changes in species richness and community structure in three protected forests in central Uganda in a rapidly changing matrix. Our results show some significant declines in the moth species richness and the relative abundance and richness of forest-dependent species over the last 20– 40 years. The observed changes in species richness and composition among different forests, ecological types, and moth groups highlight the need to repeatedly monitor biodiversity even within protected and relatively intact forests.