Wenda Cheng, Luk Chung-Lim, Benedick Suzan, Nakamura Akihiro, Basset Yves, Bonebrake Timothy C, Scheffers Brett R, Ashton Louise A, Xing Shuang
School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen, China.
School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
J Anim Ecol. 2025 Jul;94(7):1361-1371. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.70053. Epub 2025 May 9.
Habitat disturbance can alter the dynamics of the forest microclimate by disrupting the canopy structure, particularly in structurally complex tropical forests. These changes may impact ectotherms, of which performance and fitness are highly sensitive to climatic conditions. Behavioural responses, such as changes in activities, may help buffer forest ectotherms like butterflies from microclimate changes in disturbed tropical forests. Using field surveys from four tropical forest sites in Asia, we compared flight activity peaks, durations and intensity for populations of 21 forest-associated butterfly species between open-canopy and closed-canopy forests. We then compared the temperature and illumination that each species experienced during its activity period between the two forest types. Although butterfly populations began their activity earlier and reached peak levels sooner in open-canopy forests compared to closed-canopy forests, the duration and intensity of activity remained similar across populations. Despite these shifts in activity timing between forest types, butterflies experienced comparable temperature conditions in both forest types, but were exposed to higher illumination levels in open-canopy forests. Overall, we demonstrate that tropical butterflies can compensate for microclimate changes in tropical forests by shifting their activity patterns. This may help butterflies buffer against temperature increases but not against higher illumination levels following forest canopy opening due to habitat disturbance. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding how animal activity responds to habitat disturbance.
栖息地干扰会破坏树冠结构，从而改变森林小气候的动态变化，在结构复杂的热带森林中尤其如此。这些变化可能会影响变温动物，因为它们的表现和健康状况对气候条件高度敏感。行为反应，如活动变化，可能有助于像蝴蝶这样的森林变温动物抵御受干扰热带森林中的小气候变化。通过对亚洲四个热带森林地点的实地调查，我们比较了21种与森林相关的蝴蝶种群在开阔树冠森林和封闭树冠森林之间的飞行活动高峰、持续时间和强度。然后，我们比较了两种森林类型中每个物种在活动期间所经历的温度和光照。尽管与封闭树冠森林相比，开阔树冠森林中的蝴蝶种群活动开始得更早，达到峰值水平也更快，但各蝴蝶种群的活动持续时间和强度仍然相似。尽管不同森林类型之间存在活动时间的这些变化，但蝴蝶在两种森林类型中经历的温度条件相当，但在开阔树冠森林中暴露于更高的光照水平下。总体而言，我们证明热带蝴蝶可以通过改变其活动模式来补偿热带森林中的小气候变化。这可能有助于蝴蝶抵御温度升高，但无法抵御由于栖息地干扰导致森林树冠打开后更高的光照水平。我们的结果强调了理解动物活动如何响应栖息地干扰的重要性。
