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Small-scale topography modulates elevational α-, β- and γ-diversity of Andean leaf beetles

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Abstract

Elevational diversity gradients are typically studied without considering the complex small-scale topography of large mountains, which generates habitats of strongly different environmental conditions within the same elevational zones. Here we analyzed the importance of small-scale topography for elevational diversity patterns of hyperdiverse tropical leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). We compared patterns of elevational diversity and species composition of beetles in two types of forests (on mountain ridges and in valleys) and analyzed whether differences in the rate of species turnover among forest habitats lead to shifts in patterns of elevational diversity when scaling up from the local study site to the elevational belt level. We sampled beetle assemblages at 36 sites in the Podocarpus National Park, Ecuador, which were equally distributed over two forest habitats and three elevational levels. DNA barcoding and Poisson tree processes modelling were used to delimitate putative species. On average, local leaf beetle diversity showed a clear hump-shaped pattern. However, only diversity in forests on mountain ridges peaked at mid-elevation, while beetle diversity in valleys was similarly high at low- and mid-elevation and only declined at highest elevations. A higher turnover of species assemblages at lower than at mid-elevations caused a shift from a hump-shaped diversity pattern found at the local level to a low-elevation plateau pattern (with similar species numbers at low and mid-elevation) at the elevational belt level. Our study reveals an important role of small-scale topography and spatial scale for the inference on gradients of elevational species diversity.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Ministerio del Ambiente, Ecuador, for the good cooperation and for the permission to carry out research and to Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional (NCI) for granting us access to study sites. We thank Carlos Iñiguez Armijos (UTPL) for administrative and logistic support and Clifford Keil for welcoming us at the Museum of Invertebrates at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), Quito. We thank Jürgen Homeier for providing maps and information about the study area. Thanks to our student helpers from Ecuador and Germany who supported field- and laboratory-work. The study was made possible by a research grant (WA 530/46-1) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany

    Birthe Thormann, Dirk Ahrens & Johann W. Wägele

  2. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador

    Carlos Iván Espinosa & Diego Marín Armijos

  3. Department of Biology, Institute for Integrated Natural Sciences, University of Koblenz - Landau, Universitätsstraße 1, 56070, Koblenz, Germany

    Thomas Wagner

  4. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

    Marcell K. Peters

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  1. Birthe Thormann
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  2. Dirk Ahrens
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  3. Carlos Iván Espinosa
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  4. Diego Marín Armijos
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  5. Thomas Wagner
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  6. Johann W. Wägele
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  7. Marcell K. Peters
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Contributions

JWW, BT and MKP conceived and designed the study. CIE and DMA provided logistic infrastructure and organization of field work in Ecuador. BT performed the sampling, laboratory works and data processing. TW conducted taxonomic sorting. BT, AD and MKP analyzed the data. BT wrote the initial version of the manuscript with input from MKP; all authors contributed considerably to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marcell K. Peters.

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Communicated by Nina Farwig.

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Thormann, B., Ahrens, D., Espinosa, C.I. et al. Small-scale topography modulates elevational α-, β- and γ-diversity of Andean leaf beetles. Oecologia 187, 181–189 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4108-4

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