Temperature and tree number drive of the tree crown-dwelling arthropod diversity in Brazilian semi-arid cities
Description
Description Supplementary Material from the original research article entitled: “Temperature and tree number drive of the tree crown-dwelling arthropod diversity in Brazilian semi-arid cities”. Authors: Arleu Barbosa Viana-Junior, Luiz Filipe Santos Silva, Edíson Cardoso Pinheiro-Júnior, Edna Karolyne do Nascimento Santos, Matheus Carvalho Araújo, Ítalo Emmanuel Costa Alves, Bruno da Silva Martins, Joselice da Silva Pereira, Rafaella Santana Santos, Bráulio Almeida Santos, Maria Avany Bezerra-Gusmão. ARTICLE INFORMATION: This study investigates the variations in community structure and taxonomic composition of the tree-dwelling arthropods in 10 Brazilian cities of semi-arid climate located in the dry forest region (Caatinga), taking into account temperature gradients and number of street trees along of the cities. We collected a total of 22,911 arthropod specimens belonging to two classes (Insecta and Arachnida) and 24 orders. Insecta accounted for 95% of the specimens and was dominated by the orders Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Thysanoptera, and Psocoptera. In the class Arachnida, Araneae was the most abundant order. As expected, temperature (min: 21.7°C, max: 26.8°C) proved to be a significant predictor of arthropod diversity in semi-arid cities. Cities with higher temperatures reduce taxonomic unit richness (0D) by 33% and diversity (1D and 2D) in up to 75% and affect composition of arthropod orders composition. On the other hand, the effect of tree number showed distinct responses among the sampled orders, positively contributing to the abundance of Psocoptera, while exerting a negative effect on the abundance of Thysanoptera.
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Inside urban limits of each city, we arbitrarily selected four collect points distanced at least 130 meters, according to the arboreal configuration of the streetscape and the municipality size. Thus, some cities had points varying between 130 and 900 meters of distance, such as Esperança, while other cities had points with a minimum and maximum distance between 1.7 and 4.6 km, such as Campina Grande, respectively. At each point, 300 m of linear street tree along sidewalks and median strips was used to make the sample. At a few points, it was possible to make a continuous linear transect of 300 m, however, several points were modified so it could fit better into the street design. So, some points were inserted in two or three parallel shorter transects, of 150 or 100 m respectively, approximately 10 m apart from each other. In other streets, the treeline of sampling was modified into an ‘L’, '+', or 'T' shape. All woody individuals, except for palm trees, with a circumference at ground level above 10 cm were labeled with numbered metal tags and their geographical coordinates were obtained for later identification. To collect organisms in the trees, we use the arboreal arthropods collector described by Viana-Junior et al. (2021), which consists of the basic principles of beating trays combined with the use of an aluminum telescopic pole spanning 4–8 m. In each tree, approximately 80–100 shakings of branches in various parts of the crown from each plant. In laboratory, all samples were screened, separating branches and leaves from the collected arthropods, and were stored in 90% alcohol. All the arthropods collected were sorted into higher taxonomic levels (order and classes) and quantifying their abundance (number of specimens).
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Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado da Paraíba
ATBC Seed Research Grant