Arthropods (Mar 2014)
Epigeus macroinvertebrates species assemblages along a successional gradient in Hailuotu Island (Bothnia Bay), Finland
Abstract
Epigeus macroinvertebrates were collected during summer time in 2007, by using pitfall traps in different sites representing vegetation patches situated on land uplift area on successional gradients in the dune shore of Bothnian on the island of Hailuoto, Northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland. The sites were divided into six vegetation patches types or open sands, all of them localized on early, deflation zone and late successional stages or ecological subgroups: 1) Empetrum patches or microsites (small-scale element distribution in soil plant-systems in patches of Empetrum nigrum, in early succession; 2) Empetrum nigrum patches in deflation zone; 3) open sand in early succession; 4) open sand in deflation zone; 5) Empetrum nigrum patches in late succession, and 6) open sand in late succession. A total of 19034 specimens belonging to 14 species of Insecta and only one group to Aranea species were caught and identified. Afterwards they were grouped by trophic groups as follows: herbivores, predators and detritivores and calculated their richness, abundance, diversity and evenness for each vegetation type. The data obtained were analyzed by different analytical methods and relevant between them as MRPP for the purpose of identifying the possible differences between groups and habitats, which denoted no statistically significant between the 6 environmental types, but if for the case of composition or populations general diversity as abundance, richness, evenness, diversity. It is enclosed too Correspondence Analysis (CA) and cluster analysis for epigeus invertebrates species assemblages. As a support to analysis of results we added on ended the species-accumulation curve and estimation curves Chao1 and Jacknife2 for all ecological types.
