Science Department, Biometrio.Earth, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.
Ecology Department, Alicante University, 03690 Alicante, Spain.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Jun 24;379(1904):20230112. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0112. Epub 2024 May 6.
Insects are the most diverse animal taxon on Earth and play a key role in ecosystem functioning. However, they are often neglected by ecological surveys owing to the difficulties involved in monitoring this small and hyper-diverse taxon. With technological advances in biomonitoring and analytical methods, these shortcomings may finally be addressed. Here, we performed passive acoustic monitoring at 141 sites (eight habitats) to investigate insect acoustic activity in the Viruá National Park, Brazil. We first describe the frequency range occupied by three soniferous insect groups (cicadas, crickets and katydids) to calculate the acoustic evenness index (AEI). Then, we assess how AEI varies spatially and temporally among habitat types, and finally we investigate the relationship between vegetation structure variables and AEI for each insect category. Overall, crickets occupied lower and narrower frequency bands than cicadas and katydids. AEI values varied among insect categories and across space and time. The highest acoustic activity occurred before sunrise and the lowest acoustic activity was recorded in pastures. Canopy cover was positively associated with cricket acoustic activity but not with katydids. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of time, habitat and vegetation structure in shaping insect activity within diverse Amazonian ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards a toolkit for global insect biodiversity monitoring'.
昆虫是地球上最多样化的动物类群，在生态系统功能中发挥着关键作用。然而，由于监测这个小而高度多样化的类群存在困难，它们往往被生态调查所忽视。随着生物监测和分析方法的技术进步，这些缺点最终可能得到解决。在这里，我们在巴西的 Viruá 国家公园的 141 个地点（8 种生境）进行了被动声学监测，以调查昆虫的声学活动。我们首先描述了三个发声昆虫类群（蝉、蟋蟀和螽斯）所占据的频率范围，以计算声学均匀度指数（AEI）。然后，我们评估了 AEI 在不同生境类型之间的空间和时间变化，最后我们调查了每个昆虫类别的植被结构变量与 AEI 之间的关系。总的来说，蟋蟀占据的频率范围比蝉和螽斯更低更窄。AEI 值因昆虫类群和空间及时间而异。最高的声学活动发生在日出前，而最低的声学活动则发生在牧场上。冠层覆盖与蟋蟀的声学活动呈正相关，但与螽斯无关。我们的研究结果有助于更好地理解时间、生境和植被结构在塑造不同亚马逊生态系统中昆虫活动方面的作用。本文是主题为“迈向全球昆虫生物多样性监测工具包”的一部分。
