Spider Diversity (Arachnida: Araneae) at Sree Krishna College Campus, Thrissur (Dist), Kerala, India | Chapter 9 | Innovations in Biological Science Vol. 9

 

Spiders are the most diverse groups of censoriously analysed biological species in diversity on the planet. The present study surveyed and listed out the spider fauna inside the campus of Sree Krishna College, Kerala, India to reveal the distribution and diversity of spider fauna. There were 51 species of spiders belonging to 37 genera of 14 families collected from different locales of Sree Krishna college campus. For the study the entire campus has been surveyed, by dividing the area into four sites, Site A (main block of the campus), Site B (south region of the campus), Site C (botanical garden) and Site D (the women’s hostel and its premises). Site C showed the highest species richness and the lowest species richness was recorded from Site B. Salticidae was the dominant family with twelve species followed by Araneidae (10 sps.), Oxyopidae (5 sps.), Theridiidae (4 sps.), Lycosidae, (3 sps.), Tetragnathidae (3 sps.) and Sparassidae (3 sps.), Thomisidae (2 sps.), Pholcidae (2 sps.). But, a single species of spider has been identified within the families Hersilidae, Linyphiidae, Uloboridae, Cheiracanthiidae, and Sicariidae. Diversity indices, including evenness, richness, and diversity, were calculated. The evaluated values for the Shannon, Simpson, Margalef Richness, Berger-Parker, and Menhinick's indices were 3.423, 0.9580, 9.540, 0.9101, and 3.709, respectively. It is concluded that the study site had a good abundance and evenness index (e = 0.871). There was variation in the distribution of the various spider species, as indicated by their abundance and % occurrence. Seven functional groups were identified by analysing the guild structure of the spiders that were collected: stalkers (32.28%), orb-web builders (31.75%), space-web builders (15.87%), foliage runners (13.76), ground runners (3.70%), ambushers (1.59%), and wandering sheet-web builders (1.06%). This work establishes a biodiversity database to support future investigations into the spider fauna and provides useful data on the predominance of the spider population in the study area.

 

Author(s) Details

Raji R.
Department of Zoology, Sree Krishna College, Ariyannur, 680102, Thrissur, Kerala, India.

 

Aja M.
Department of Zoology, Sree Krishna College, Ariyannur, 680102, Thrissur, Kerala, India.

 

Jaya M.
Department of Zoology, Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, Kerala, India.

 

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/ibs/v9/1447

Determining the Impact of Enclosure on some Indicators of Ecosystem in El-Bayadh Region, North-West Algerian Steppe, Algeria | Chapter 2 | Emerging Issues in Environment, Geography and Earth Science Vol. 8

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of enclosure as a technique for the restoration of degraded rangelands on plant community structure in El-Bayadh (North West Algerian steppe). Protection of degraded rangelands is widely considered to be the most effective and practical way to conserve plant diversity and maintain ecosystem composition and structure. The ecology of restoration and rehabilitation is part of the possible actions more to limit the extansion of the degradation of this ecosystem and erase or mitigate the consequences but, it is necessary to know the performance of the steppe ecosystem. The quadrat point method was used. A total of 10 surveys were carried out in each stations, several indicators of ecosystem attributes such as diversity, richness, total plant cover, perennial plant cover, annual plant cover, soil surface elements cover and pastoral value were compared between enclosure and grazed areas. The findings revealed considerable positive effects of protection on the scored parameters (Increase in floristic richness and diversity, increased in plant cover and litter, decrease in stones elements and wind veil, increase in pastoral value). However, the result semphasized a negative effect of enclosure on vegetation dynamics. For the soil surface elements, the enclosure (protection) decreases the cover stones and wind veil due to the cessation of the degradation of the bedrock by wind erosion and a good fixation of the sand by the vegetation, also the fencing has allowed the increase of the litter cover which is vital for the environment, because when it is not consumed, litter favors infiltration and germination of seeds and its presence can provide "islands" of fertility where sediment and nutrients are trapped contributing to increased floristic richness and diversity in these environments. This was observed by the occurrence of the bare silty crust on the soil surface which may constitute an obstacle to water infiltration and seeds germination, for this we suggest that this parameter be retained for the opening of these aminaged rangelands (enclosure) for grazing.

Author(s) Details:

Salemkour Nora,
Centre of Scientific and Technical Research in the Arid Areas (CRSTRA), Biskra, Algeria.

Chaib Warda,
Centre of Scientific and Technical Research in the Arid Areas (CRSTRA), Biskra, Algeria.

Bettiche Farida,
Centre of Scientific and Technical Research in the Arid Areas (CRSTRA), Biskra, Algeria.

Fadlaoui Haroun,
Centre of Scientific and Technical Research in the Arid Areas (CRSTRA), Biskra, Algeria.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/EIEGES-V8/article/view/13614

The Latitudinal Gradient in Dalodesmidae Cook, 1896a Species Richness | Chapter 12 | New Visions in Biological Science Vol.9

 The Tropical Conservativism Hypothesis proposes that processes of speciation, extinction, and dispersal resulted in higher species richness in the tropics and decreased away from the equator, implying that species richness increased in the tropics and fell away from the equator. The Biogeographical Conservativism Hypothesis proposes that the processes in question are not unique to the tropics, but rather rely on historical biogeography to determine species richness distribution. With the goal of testing the two theories, 117 genuine species belonging to the Dalodesmidae family were found. The number of species and latitudinal degrees distant from the equator had a significant relationship (R=-0.79, R2=0.62, n=116, p0.01). It was suggested that an evolutionary predilection for temperate habitats led to climatic dispersal restrictions based on precipitation/temperature seasonality gradients and predation.

Author(s) Details:

Mark Cooper,
School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/NVBS-V9/article/view/5881

The Inverse Latitudinal Gradient in Species Richness of Forest Millipedes: Centrobolus Cook, 1897| Chapter 11 | New Visions in Biological Science Vol.9

 The goal of this study was to see if forest millipedes could test the Tropical Conservativism Hypothesis and the Biogeographical Conservativism Hypothesis. To discriminate between the two ideas, the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) was evaluated in the Centrobolus genus. The number of species and latitudinal degrees distant from the equator had a significant relationship (r=-0.91, r2=0.83, n=35, p0.01). It was suggested that an evolutionary predilection for temperate habitats led to climatic dispersal restrictions based on precipitation seasonality gradients and predation.

Author(s) Details:

Mark Cooper,
School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/NVBS-V9/article/view/5880

Assessment of Latitudinal Gradient in Species Richness of Sphaerotherium| Chapter 3 | New Visions in Biological Science Vol.9

 Forest millipedes were used to test the Tropical Conservativism Hypothesis and the Biogeographical Conservativism Hypothesis. The Biogeographical Conservativism Hypothesis proposes that the processes involved are not unique to the tropics, but rather rely on historical biogeography to determine species richness distribution. To discriminate between the two ideas, the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) was assessed in the genus Sphaerotherium. The number of species and latitudinal degrees away from the equator had a significant connection (r=0.8701, r2=0.7571, =46, 0.00001). It was suggested that an evolutionary predilection for temperate habitats resulted in climatic restrictions on dispersal based mostly on precipitation seasonality gradients.

Author(s) Details:

Mark Cooper,
School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/NVBS-V9/article/view/5864

Assessment of Latitudinal Gradient in Gnomeskelus Species Richness | Chapter 13 | New Visions in Biological Science Vol. 8

 The Tropical Conservativism Hypothesis proposes that processes of speciation, extinction, and dispersal resulted in higher species richness in the tropics and decreased away from the equator, implying that species richness increased in the tropics and fell away from the equator. The Biogeographical Conservativism Hypothesis proposes that the processes in question are not unique to the tropics, but rather rely on historical biogeography to determine species richness distribution. To test the two theories, 77 genuine species belonging to the genus Gnomeskelus were discovered. The number of species and latitudinal degrees distant from the equator had a significant connection (r=-0.7145, r2=0.5105, n=77, p0.00001). Alternatively, an evolutionary predisposition for temperate habitats could have resulted in climatic dispersal restrictions based solely on temperature seasonality gradients.

Author(S) Details

Mark Cooper
School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa

View Book:- https://stm.bookpi.org/NVBS-V8/article/view/5388