TY - JOUR A1 - Rabl, Dominik A1 - Alonso-Rodríguez, Aura M. A1 - Brehm, Gunnar A1 - Fiedler, Konrad T1 - Trait variation in moths mirrors small-scaled ecological gradients in a tropical forest landscape JF - Insects N2 - Along environmental gradients, communities are expected to be filtered from the regional species pool by physical constraints, resource availability, and biotic interactions. This should be reflected in species trait composition. Using data on species-rich moth assemblages sampled by light traps in a lowland rainforest landscape in Costa Rica, we show that moths in two unrelated clades (Erebidae-Arctiinae; Geometridae) are much smaller-sized in oil palm plantations than in nearby old-growth forest, with intermediate values at disturbed forest sites. In old-growth forest, Arctiinae predominantly show aposematic coloration as a means of anti-predator defense, whereas this trait is much reduced in the prevalence in plantations. Similarly, participation in Müllerian mimicry rings with Hymenoptera and Lycidae beetles, respectively, is rare in plantations. Across three topographic types of old-growth forests, community-weighted means of moth traits showed little variation, but in creek forest, both types of mimicry were surprisingly rare. Our results emphasize that despite their mobility, moth assemblages are strongly shaped by local environmental conditions through the interplay of bottom–up and top–down processes. Assemblages in oil palm plantations are highly degraded not only in their biodiversity, but also in terms of trait expression. KW - Costa Rica KW - body size KW - mimicry rings KW - aposematism KW - oil palm plantations KW - lowland rainforest Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-213016 SN - 2075-4450 VL - 11 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wohlfart, Christian A1 - Wegmann, Martin A1 - Leimgruber, Peter T1 - Mapping threatened dry deciduous dipterocarp forest in South-east Asia for conservation management JF - Tropical Conservation Science N2 - Habitat loss is the primary reason for species extinction, making habitat conservation a critical strategy for maintaining global biodiversity. Major habitat types, such as lowland tropical evergreen forests or mangrove forests, are already well represented in many conservation priorities, while others are underrepresented. This is particularly true for dry deciduous dipterocarp forests (DDF), a key forest type in Asia that extends from the tropical to the subtropical regions in South-east Asia (SE Asia), where high temperatures and pronounced seasonal precipitation patterns are predominant. DDF are a unique forest ecosystem type harboring a wide range of important and endemic species and need to be adequately represented in global biodiversity conservation strategies. One of the greatest challenges in DDF conservation is the lack of detailed and accurate maps of their distribution due to inaccurate open-canopy seasonal forest mapping methods. Conventional land cover maps therefore tend to perform inadequately with DDF. Our study accurately delineates DDF on a continental scale based on remote sensing approaches by integrating the strong, characteristic seasonality of DDF. We also determine the current conservation status of DDF throughout SE Asia. We chose SE Asia for our research because its remaining DDF are extensive in some areas but are currently degrading and under increasing pressure from significant socio-economic changes throughout the region. Phenological indices, derived from MODIS vegetation index time series, served as input variables for a Random Forest classifier and were used to predict the spatial distribution of DDF. The resulting continuous fields maps of DDF had accuracies ranging from R-2 = 0.56 to 0.78. We identified three hotspots in SE Asia with a total area of 156,000 km(2), and found Myanmar to have more remaining DDF than the countries in SE Asia. Our approach proved to be a reliable method for mapping DDF and other seasonally influenced ecosystems on continental and regional scales, and is very valuable for conservation management in this region. KW - remote sensing KW - vegetation phenology KW - modis NDVI KW - time series analysis KW - Costa Rica KW - time series KW - Burma KW - Myanmar KW - continous fields KW - research priorities KW - deer cervus-eldi KW - land-cover KW - tropical forest KW - biodiversity conservation KW - habitat preferences KW - tropical dry forest conservation Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117782 SN - 1940-0829 VL - 7 IS - 4 ER -