Temporal patterns in Saturnidae (silk moth) and Sphingidae (hawk moth) assemblages in protected forests of central Uganda
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Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ecology and Evolution
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Compositional change, Extinction debt, Forest degradation, Lepidoptera, Matrix intensification, Resampling, Species decline
Citation
Akite, P., Telford, R. J., Waring, P., Akol, A. M., & Vandvik, V. (2015). Temporal patterns in Saturnidae (silk moth) and Sphingidae (hawk moth) assemblages in protected forests of central Uganda. Ecology and Evolution, 5(8), 1746-1757. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1477