Title: The effect of habitat disturbance on the abundance and diversity of leaf litter
invertebrates
Introduction
Abundance is defined as the number of individuals per species1 whilst diversity has two
components: the number of different species present (species richness) and the identity of
the species present (species composition)2.
Invertebrates form a critical part of food webs and fulfil ecosystem services such as
pollination, decomposition, nutrient release of which human rely on3. Both their abundance
and diversity of invertebrates maintain the stability of environmental systems in a variety of
ways such. This includes buffering the system against the loss of another species4.
To better understand ways to conserve invertebrate populations, it is important to
understand if and how habitat disturbance impacts invertebrate abundance and diversity5
Previous studies tend to examine the impact of habit disturbance on leaf litter invertebrates
within tropical systems6 which differs from the system of the present study. Conclusions
vary as disturbances range from clear cutting, burning, and chemical control of invasive
species and effects are taxa dependent7 . Hence, there exists no overarching conclusion on
whether habitat disturbance increases or decreases species diversity across ecosystems8
However, more conclusive, and hence more applicable findings can still be obtained through
studies which look at how specific disturbances affect specific taxa within a specified
ecosystem. Such findings are important to monitor forest health and management9.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of disturbance on leaf litter
invertebrate species abundance and diversity. This will be conducted through a comparison
of species abundance values, species richness values as well as a more specific comparison
of the abundance of the … taxon, for a specific disturbed and undisturbed site.
1
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00011/full#:~:text=Abundance%20is%20defined%20
as%20%E2%80%9Cthe,et%20al.%2C%202003).
2
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/biodiversity-and-ecosystem-stability-17059965/
3
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/brv.12002
4
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/biodiversity-and-ecosystem-stability-17059965/
5
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10531-004-1870-x.pdf
6
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01533.x
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00051965
7
A Review of Forest Management Effects on Terrestrial Leaf Litter Inhabiting Arthropods
Jess Hartshorn
8
9
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01533.x
A Review of Forest Management Effects on Terrestrial Leaf Litter Inhabiting Arthropods Jess Hartshorn pg 5
In this case, two sclerophyll forest sites will be observed. The disturbed site has been subject
to land clearing and subsequent revegetation with canopy trees.
It was hypothesized that species abundance will be similar between the disturbed and
undisturbed area die to a similar biomass.
In terms of species diversity, it was anticipated that the undisturbed area will have greater
diversity than the disturbed area with a greater species richness and simpsons index oif
diversity value and high Shannon index (the result of a smaller relative abundance of the ….
Methods
Results
300 wrds
Discussion
450
Studies which similarly look at the impact of habitat disturbance of invertebrate species
diversity also note that choice of sampling protocol may largely influence the studies
outcome. empirical studies of habitat disturbance have reported qualitatively different
impacts on diversity at small and large spatial scales. Previous work has shown that the
spatial scale of sampling affects the reported changes in diversity following habitat
disturbance10
References
10
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01533.x