Girgente Joseph S, McIntyre Nancy E
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA.
Insects. 2023 Sep 9;14(9):754. doi: 10.3390/insects14090754.
Anthropogenic land-cover change is modifying ecosystems at an accelerating rate. Changes to ecomorphologically variable taxa within those ecosystems serve as early-warning signs that resources on which humans and other animals depend are being altered. One known ecomorphologically variable taxon is , a species of dragonfly in the southeastern United States that shows pronounced variation in total body length across its limited geographic range. We measured total length of live as well as preserved museum specimens of and the sympatric species (as a means for comparison). Both species showed significant size differences linked to HUC-8 watersheds in which they occur. showed additional significant differences on either side of the Apalachicola River, Florida, for all comparisons by sex. In overlapping watersheds, the species tended to show the same trends in length relative to their respective averages. Smaller body length was associated with more urban and agricultural land cover. These findings indicate that ecomorphological variation is tied to the watershed scale and point to significant variations on either side of the Apalachicola River. More thorough future analyses would be needed to verify trends in body length and identify the drivers behind them.
人为土地覆盖变化正在加速改变生态系统。这些生态系统中生态形态可变类群的变化是一种早期预警信号，表明人类和其他动物所依赖的资源正在被改变。一种已知的生态形态可变类群是，美国东南部的一种蜻蜓，在其有限的地理范围内，其体长存在显著差异。我们测量了活的以及保存在博物馆中的该物种和同域分布物种（作为比较手段）的体长。这两个物种都显示出与它们所在的水文单元代码8级流域相关的显著大小差异。在佛罗里达州阿巴拉契科拉河两岸，该物种在所有性别比较中都显示出额外的显著差异。在重叠流域，这两个物种相对于各自平均值的体长往往呈现相同趋势。较小的体长与更多的城市和农业土地覆盖相关。这些发现表明，生态形态变异与流域尺度相关，并指出阿巴拉契科拉河两岸存在显著差异。未来需要更全面的分析来验证体长趋势并确定其背后的驱动因素。
