coralita
Coralita invasion
Studying the impact of urban development and coralita invasion
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Global Change Biology
There are only a few studies that manage to assess both factors separately’
. ‘That was possible in this case because this invasive plant is very abundant and occurs everywhere, both in urban areas of Oranjestad as well as in and around the long abandoned agricultural plots around the
dormant Quill-volcano. As much as 33% of the island is entirely or partially overgrown with coralita
Results
Our results show that urban development increases species richness as well as the diversity of individuals divided over species, the so called abundance-weighted or Shannon diversity. Invasion by coralita mostly caused increased occurrence of certain feeding guilds, with extraordinary quantities of nectarivores, herbivores and detrivores. This causes biotic homogenization of insect and spider communities which simply means that you get more of the same’
Safeguarding biodiversity
Report your sightings
https://dutchcaribbean.observation.org
Observation.org
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For more information see:
Jesse, W.A.M., Molleman, J., Franken, O., Lammers, M., Berg, M.P., Behm, J.E., Helmus, M.R., Ellers, J. (2020). Disentangling the effects of plant species invasion and urban development on arthropod community composition. Global Change Biology 26:3294–3306. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15091
https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com-k2&view=item&id=31984:drastic-effects-of-coralita-on-the-biodiversity-of-insects-and-spiders&Itemid=450
