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Effects of rainforest fragmentation and shade-coffee plantations on spider communities in the Western Ghats, India

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Abstract

Studies on the effects of tropical rainforest fragmentation and disturbance have often focussed on plants and vertebrates such as birds and mammals and seldom on invertebrates, despite the latter being among the most biologically diverse groups in these ecosystems. Spiders are one such group of invertebrate predators that are known to be sensitive indicators of environmental change in tropical ecosystems. The present study assesses the spider community structure and responses to rainforest fragmentation and degradation and conversion to shade-coffee plantations in the Anamalai hills, southern Western Ghats, India. Ten rainforest fragments ranging in size from 11 ha to 2,600 ha under varying levels of degradation within the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and private lands of the Valparai plateau, and two shade-coffee plantation sites were sampled for spiders using visual searches along time-constrained belt transects between January and May 2005. Within a total sampled area of 5.76 ha, 4,565 individual spiders (4,300 detections) belonging to 156 morphospecies within 21 families and 8 functional groups were recorded. The estimated total number of understorey spider species in the study area was 192 (±5.15 SD) species, representing around 13% of the total number of spider species so far described from India. Overall spider density, species richness, and species density showed no trend in relation to fragment area across all sites. Specific comparisons among undisturbed sites indicated however that high altitude sites had fewer species than mid-altitude sites and fragments had fewer species than relatively larger continuous forest sites. In contrast to the lack of trend in overall species richness and abundance, species composition changed substantially in relation to habitat alteration and altitude. Cluster analysis of Bray-Curtis similarities among sites in spider species composition revealed four distinct clusters: high altitude undisturbed sites, mid-altitude disturbed sites with an undisturbed mid altitude site, mid-altitude highly disturbed sites with a disturbed site, and shade-coffee plantation sites. Spider species, such as Psechrus torvus and Tylorida culta, that contributed significantly to the dissimilarity between undisturbed and disturbed rainforest sites, and rainforest and shade-coffee sites were identified that serve as useful indicators of habitat alteration.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the Tamil Nadu Forest Department for permission to work in the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and the different plantation companies (HLL, Parry Agro, BBTC, Tata Tea, Wood Briar) for allowing this work on their land. This work was carried out as part of the Rainforest Restoration Project financially supported by Barakat Inc., USA, the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme, India, Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation, USA, the Ford Foundation, India, and individual supporters (Cornelia Bertsch, Hemant Katoch). I thank K. Vijayalakshmi, A.V. Balasubramanian of CIKS, T.R. Shankar Raman, Divya Mudappa, Hari Sridhar, and M. Ananda Kumar of NCF and Robin Rozario (BBTC) for their help, enthusiasm, and belief in the project. T.R. Shankar Raman and Hari Sridhar provided valuable inputs and help during data analysis and while writing this manuscript. Krishna, Sathish, Dinesh, and Murthy provided invaluable assistance in the field. I am grateful to Manju Siliwal and Janet Beccaloni (Natural History Museum, London) for help with identification of spider specimens.

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Correspondence to Vena Kapoor.

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Appendix

Occurrence of spider morphospecies in rainforest fragments and plantations in the Anamalai hills

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Kapoor, V. Effects of rainforest fragmentation and shade-coffee plantations on spider communities in the Western Ghats, India. J Insect Conserv 12, 53–68 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-006-9062-5

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