Vegetation determines butterfly diversity and composition across the Arabuko-Sokoke coastal forest in Kenya, a tropical biodiversity hotspot

作者：Maria Fungomeli, Martin Wiemers, Lucia Calderini, Alessandro Chiarucci · 发表于：Contributions to Entomology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3897/contrib.entomol.75.e155016 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Fern and Epiphyte Biology

Community structures, including butterfly diversity, are shaped by both biotic and abiotic factors, with forest type exerting a significant influence. The Arabuko Sokoke Forest (ASF), the largest remaining coastal forest fragment in Kenya and East Africa, is rich in biodiversity and endemic species. Given its varied forest types, ASF provides a unique opportunity to examine how these differences affect butterfly community structure. This study aims to investigate how vegetation diversity and structure influence butterfly community structures and species richness within ASF. We conducted butterfly and woody plant surveys during the dry season across four distinct forest types in ASF: Cynometra forest, Brachystegia woodland, mixed forest and the forest edge. Butterfly populations were sampled using transects measuring 10 m × 100 m and woody plant species were surveyed along overlapping transects. A total of 6,050 butterfly individuals were recorded, representing 86 species across 38 genera and five families. The woody vegetation comprised 178 species, belonging to 78 genera and 34 families. Significant differences in butterfly species abundance were observed across the forest types, though no significant differences were found in species richness. Beta diversity analyses revealed consistently high community dissimilarity across all forest types, driven predominantly by balanced variation in species abundances rather than nestedness. Brachystegia forest exhibited the highest tot...