Is the "best season" the best choice? Temporal variations of β-diversity patterns in moth communities of Calabrian black pine forests. (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ienco, Annamaria; Greco, Silvia; Scalercio, Stefano
• Is Part Of: Ecological indicators. Volume 112(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: β-Diversity -- Black pine forests -- Community structure -- Indicator species -- Lepidoptera -- Phenology; Environmental monitoring -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; Environmental impact analysis -- Periodicals; Environmental risk assessment -- Periodicals; Sustainable development -- Periodicals; 333.71405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106134
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-160X

Abstract

Highlights: Beta-diversity patterns of moths strongly change across seasons. Beta-diversity patterns of moths don't significantly change across years. To carry out samplings in the "best season" only can lead to partial conclusions. Extensive year-sampling is the best solution in beta diversity assessments of moths. Abstract: In this paper we address the question of changes in community structures along temporal gradients and whether such changes affect β-diversity patterns. We examined how differences among moth communities vary across seasons and between years in a mosaic-like pine forest of Calabria, Italy. Samples were gathered from 15 sites entering presence/absence and abundance data in pairwise and multisite analyses. We found a strong instability of pairwise β-diversity coupled with a high stability of multisite β-diversity across moth flight seasons. Phenology and autoecology of individual species were the main drivers of pairwise β-diversity instability as demonstrated by the change of indicator species. Although we observed substantial changes in abundance of species, the β-diversity patterns sampled in a given period were very similar between years. This is probably due to the synchronized fluctuation of populations that similarly changes the abundance of species over large areas, leaving the dissimilarity between sites unaltered. Applicative implications arose from our study as we demonstrated that it is better to sample the whole flying season of moths during one year extensively rather than over more years during only 'the best season' because β-diversity patterns were much more stable across years than across seasons.