Butterfly diversity and human land use: Species assemblages along an urban grandient

doi:10.1016/S0006-3207(96)00056-0

Biological Conservation

Volume 80, Issue 1, April 1997, Pages 113-125

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(96)00056-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

We examined the distribution and abundance of butterfly species across an urban gradient and concomitant changes in community structure by censusing the butterfly and skipper populations at 48 points within six sites near Palo Alto, California, USA (all former oak woodlands). These sites represent a gradient of urban land use running from relatively undisturbed to highly developed and include a nature preserve, recreational area, golf course, residential neighborhood, office park and business district.

The species richness and Shannon diversity of butterflies peaked at moderately disturbed sites while the relative abundance decreased from the natural to the urban areas. Butterfly species thought to be most representative of the original, predevelopment butterfly fauna progressively disappear as the sites become more urban. These patterns are significantly related to shifts in habitat structure that occur along the gradient as determined by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) using the environmental variables of percent land covered by pavement, buildings, lawn, grasslands, and trees or shrubs. The mechanisms behind these patterns may be related to life history and resource use by the individual butterfly species.

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Butterfly diversity and human land use: Species assemblages along an urban grandient

Abstract

Adv. Ecol. Res.

Urban and built-up land area changes in the United States: an empirical investigation of determinants

Land Economics

Birds, butterflies, and conservation on an urban gradient in central California

Paleoecology and regional patterns of evolution in neotropical forest butterflies

Restoration ecology: the new frontier

Real places: an unconventional guide to America's generic landscape

Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs

Science, N.Y.

Vegetational development upon alluvial fans in the vicinity of Palo Alto, California

Ecology

Competition as a control mechanism in subalpine meadows

Amer. J. Bot.

Butterflies and plants: a study in coevolution

Evolution

Weather and the regulation of subalpine populations

Ecology

California butterflies

Food web organization and the conservation of neotropical diversity

The biology of butterfly communities

Plant stategies and vegetation processes

A general hypothesis of species diversity

Amer. Nat.

Biological diversity

Assessing the indicator properties of species assemblages for natural areas monitoring

Ecol. Appl.

Plant species diversity in a marine intertidal community: importance of herbivore food preference and algal competitive abilities

Amer. Nat.

Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology

Ecology

The application of the ecological gradient paradigm to the study of urban effects

Ecological diversity and its measurement