TY - JOUR

T1 - Butterfly communities in miombo woodland

T2 - Biodiversity declines with increasing woodland utilisation

AU - Jew, Eleanor K K

AU - Loos, Jacqueline

AU - Dougill, Andrew J.

AU - Sallu, Susannah M.

AU - Benton, Tim G.

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded through a Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council ( NERC - NE/J50001X/1 ) interdisciplinary PhD studentship, with supplementary funding from Africa College at the University of Leeds . These sponsors had no input into any aspect of the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, the writing of the paper or the decision to submit the paper for publication. Funding Information: The authors would like to thank Colin Congdon (African Butterfly Research Institute) for his help in identifying specimens and Dr. Kim Howell (University of Dar es Salaam) and Alan Sutton for providing in-country help and advice. We are extremely grateful for funding provided through a NERC/ESRC PhD studentship, and for further support from internally funded bursaries through Africa College at the University of Leeds . We would also like to thank Philip France and in-country research assistants for their valuable time and efforts in data collection, and to the residents of the Kipembawe Division for their support and kindness during fieldwork. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This research was carried out in Tanzania under the Tanzania Commission of Science and Technology permit number 2013-22-NA-2012-216. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 The Authors.

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - Deforestation and degradation are threatening forests and woodlands globally. The deciduous miombo woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa are no exception, yet little is known about the flora and fauna they contain and the implications of their loss. Butterflies are recognised as indicators of environmental change; however the responses of butterflies in miombo woodlands have received little attention. This paper describes butterfly assemblages and their response to woodland utilisation in an understudied area of miombo woodland in south-west Tanzania. This is an area representative of miombo woodlands throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where woodland is utilised by local communities for a range of products, and is being rapidly converted to agriculture. Baited canopy traps and sweep nets were used to sample frugivorous and nectarivorous butterfly communities at different vertical stratifications in nine different study sites. 104 species were recorded, of which 16 are miombo specialists that have been recorded in Tanzania to the west of the country only. Indicator species were identified for three different levels of utilisation, with species from the sub-family Satyrinae indicating moderate utilisation. Generalised linear mixed effects models showed that butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance all decreased in response to increasing agriculture and anthropogenic utilisation. The loss of miombo woodlands is likely to result in declines in butterfly diversity. However, there was evidence of an intermediate disturbance effect for butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance with one utilisation variable, suggesting that a miombo woodland management plan that allows moderate sustainable utilisation in a heterogeneous landscape of mature miombo woodland and agriculture will simultaneously maintain butterfly communities and enable agricultural production.

AB - Deforestation and degradation are threatening forests and woodlands globally. The deciduous miombo woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa are no exception, yet little is known about the flora and fauna they contain and the implications of their loss. Butterflies are recognised as indicators of environmental change; however the responses of butterflies in miombo woodlands have received little attention. This paper describes butterfly assemblages and their response to woodland utilisation in an understudied area of miombo woodland in south-west Tanzania. This is an area representative of miombo woodlands throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where woodland is utilised by local communities for a range of products, and is being rapidly converted to agriculture. Baited canopy traps and sweep nets were used to sample frugivorous and nectarivorous butterfly communities at different vertical stratifications in nine different study sites. 104 species were recorded, of which 16 are miombo specialists that have been recorded in Tanzania to the west of the country only. Indicator species were identified for three different levels of utilisation, with species from the sub-family Satyrinae indicating moderate utilisation. Generalised linear mixed effects models showed that butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance all decreased in response to increasing agriculture and anthropogenic utilisation. The loss of miombo woodlands is likely to result in declines in butterfly diversity. However, there was evidence of an intermediate disturbance effect for butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance with one utilisation variable, suggesting that a miombo woodland management plan that allows moderate sustainable utilisation in a heterogeneous landscape of mature miombo woodland and agriculture will simultaneously maintain butterfly communities and enable agricultural production.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - agriculture

KW - biodiversity

KW - deforestation

KW - detrended

KW - Correspondence analysis

KW - Intermediate disturbance effect

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84946615799&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8d688580-f00f-32ff-8d88-19cf8d2fbb3a/

U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.10.022

DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.10.022

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:84946615799

VL - 192

SP - 436

EP - 444

JO - Biological Conservation

JF - Biological Conservation

SN - 0006-3207

ER -