Araneae Diversity Along an Intensification Gradient of Coffee Agroecosystems

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Araneae Diversity Along an Intensification
Gradient of Coffee Agroecosystems
Ecology (BIOL 370) Presented by Ryan Inton,
Lisa Yee, and Yinka Owolabi Fall 2003
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ROAD MAP!
Background Coffee Agroecosystems
Questions for the study Whats the best coffee
system?
Hypotheses Which has the same diversity as the
cloud forest itself?
Study Methods Collecting, counting, and IDing
spiders.
Results Where and what kind of spiders were
found?
Discussion Patterns explored
Discussion What this means about coffee
agroecosystems
What more do we need to find out?
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Coffee
Introduction
Coffee Plant

Coffea arabica
Coffea canephora (C. canephora var. robusta)
http//www.originscoffee.com/sbs_redcherries.jpg
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Coffee in Mexico
Introduction
http//www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/rdudley/xmas
/rdxmcoffee2.jpg
High coffee cultivation area A source of income
www.globetrekkertv.co.uk/.../ veracruz_river_rafti
ng.php
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Coffee Intensification Gradient
Introduction
Rustic
Traditional Polyculture
Commercial Polyculture
Shaded Monoculture
Sun Coffee
http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
ogram-description9.html
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Shade Coffee
Introduction

• http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
  ogram-description9.html

Coffee trees planted under existing forests
Less expensive
www.ronroczphoto.com/peru/ p_shadegrowncoffee.html

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Traditional Polyculture
Introduction

• Coffee Garden

Slightly more managed than rustic coffee
Deliberate integration of beneficial plants
http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
ogram-description9.html
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Commercial Polyculture
Introduction
Removal of some shade plants
Tree diversity
Canopy cover
Coffee yield
http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
ogram-description9.html
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Shaded /Commercial Monoculture
Introduction
Highly controlled canopy species are planted

http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
ogram-description9.html
Coffee trees are densely planted
Coffee yield Wildlife and Birds
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Sun Coffee
Introduction
No shade trees present
High density of coffee trees annual yield
http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/pr
ogram-description9.html
Implications
http//www.maricopaaudubon.org/wren_050698_files/i
mage003.jpg
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and the million dollar questions are
Just how good are coffee agroecosystems for cloud
forest biodiversity?
and
How does biodiversity vary across this gradient
of coffee intensification?
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Hypotheses
Cloud Forest will produce the highest amount of
species and individuals.
The coffee agroecosystems that are most like the
cloud forest will contain the closest amount of
biodiversity.
Diversity and abundance will increase along the
gradient Sun coffee lt Specialized Shade lt
Commercial Polyculture lt Bajo Monte
The habitat types found in each agroecosystem as
well as the collection method will favor certain
types of spiders.
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Addressing the Central Questions
Methods
Samples and where they came from
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What is the Flight Intercept/ Pan Trap Method?
Methods
Mosquito Netting
Broomstick
6 inches
Plastic pan filled with weak detergent
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All Insects Were Sorted to the Level of Order
Methods
And this is where we came in
We collected data on diversity and abundance
patterns for our taxon Araneae (Spider) across
the coffee intensification gradient
http//insected.arl.arizona.edu/lesson_11/spider.g
if
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Examining Specimens
Methods
Eyes
Pedipalps
Cephalothorax
Legs
Abdomen
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Increasing Species Composition with Trees? A
look at species diversity
Results

• Species abundance does not increase with
  increasing number of tree individuals

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Effects of Increasing Tree Individuals on Spider
Abundance
Results

• of Spider Individuals do NOT increase with
  increased tree individuals.

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Do Tree Species Matter?
Results

• Results show no correlation to increasing Tree
  species

• 33 likely an outlying sample, inconsistent with
  other data

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If not Tree Abundance or Composition, how about
Habitat Type?
Results
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Bajo Monte, Specialized Shade and Sun Coffee
Results

• Extremes in coffee agriculture

• Contrasting to results of Tree Species Abundance
  and Composition

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A Look at All Habitat Types in the Coffee
Agroecosystem
Results
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Commercialized Polyculture just as good!
Results

• Organic the winner because of 33 value

• Epiphytes do not seem to make a difference

• Cloud Forest as control produced unexpected
  results

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Which Spider Types were Observed?
Results
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Hunting and Ground Spiders LOVE Coffee or do
they?
Results

• Methods setup may have influenced spider
  composition

• Hunting and Ground Spider Tendencies

• Where are the others?

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Break it down to Family!
Results
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Family Ties
Results
Species appearing in each plantation type by
FAMILY
Salticidae Distribution  
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Mimetidae Distribution
Results
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Araneidae Distribution
Results
 
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Lycosidae Distribution
Results
 
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Other Overlapping Species by Family
Results
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OTHER overlapping Families
Results
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Special Families
Results
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What was that?!
 
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What does it all mean?
Discussion
Spider Species in the Cloud Forest are rare to
begin with
Spider abundances do not rely on number of trees.
Number of spider species varies greatly from
microhabitat to microhabitat.
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There are no clear species richness patterns in
the data
Discussion
As the control, Cloud Forest should have given
the most species, all the species possible.
The Cloud Forest had no unique species of its
own, produced very low abundances.
However, when broken down into families, several
families showed wider distrubutions than the
others Salticidae, Araneidae, Mimetidae, and
Lycosidae. While certain other families were
only seen in certain Coffee plantation types.
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Bajo Monte seems to win
Discussion
14 species and 9 families in Bajo Monte
Combined Commercial Polyculture gives
19 species, but includes different variations on
plantation type.
Sun coffee produced the fewest individuals,
families, and species.
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Why is Salticidae so successful?
Discussion
Found from sun coffee to cloud forest!
Partly, Salticids are one of the easiest family
of spiders to identify boxlike eye arrangement
square
cephalothorax large front
legs
Salticids can also live in a variety of habitats
trees, shrubs, Bushes, rocks, stones, on the
ground. Jumping ability allows this.
Very effective at catching prey by actively
stalking and hunting dont need webs
or things to make webs on for hunting!
beta.parma.uidaho.edu/ hops/spider_page.htm
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Why is Araneidae so successful?
Discussion
Found from shade coffee to bajo monte!
Orb-weaving spiders.
Coffee bushes provide adequate microhabitat to
build webs.
Araneidae most common spider family worldwide
galeon.hispavista.com/ craira/albin2.htm
http//www.geocities.com/brisbane_weavers/Garden_s
p.htm
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Why is Mimetidae so successful?
Discussion
Found from shade coffee to cloud forest!
These pirate spiders feed on other
spiders Where there are other spiders, there are
Mimetids
Feed mainly on web-weaving spiders by mimicking
vibrations of prey to lure the other spider.
Many different genera (12) spread out across the
tropics.
research.amnh.org/.../mimetidae/
mimetus_puritanus.htm
http//www.museums.org.za/bio/spiderweb/mimetidae.
htm
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Why is Lycosidae so successful?
Discussion
Found from shade coffee to bajo monte!
Ground hunting spiders hide under leaves and
stones
Worldwide distribution fairly common family
Adaptable to different types of habitats
beaches, mountains, forests, deserts, and
grasslands.
Considered agricultural pest controllers
www.floridanature.org/ unidentified.asp?familyLyc
osidae
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Only Salticids in the Sun Coffee?
Discussion
Family observed to have the widest distribution
among all coffee plantations
Adaptable family, can live on trees, shrubs,
rocks, the ground
Availability of insect prey
No web means no reliance on many structures
(other plants) for building
Species in the other families require more
specialized microhabitats
Clubionidae spiders need lots of vegetation to
hunt their prey on, Pisauridae and Selenopidae
spiders are arboreal, Linyphiidae spiders hang
sheet webs from high trees, and so on.
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Other factors might affect species
Discussion
How often do they harvest?
Amount of sunlight at site?
Amount of moisture?
Pollution?
http//www.macdevcenter.com/mac/2002/10/22/graphic
s/fig-7a-water.jpg
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So which is the best coffee?
Discussion
Control Cloud Forest does not give much to
compare to
Economic viability must also be considered
So lets rephrase
Which is the best coffee for spider diversity?
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blue-ribbon.png
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Clearly Sun Coffee Sucks
Discussion
1 family, Salticidae
2 individuals
Besides the other problems
http//hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/sftheory/images/suns
ad.gif
Erosion, loss of bird species, need for more
fertilizers and pesticides
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How does Bajo Monte measure up?
Discussion
Showed 11 unique species
4 unique families
Most abundant
http//centralamerica.com/cr/areas/graphics/mon2.j
pg
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How about Commercial Polyculture?
Discussion
Gave 3 unique families
Broadest overlap of species.
Overall gave 8 unique species.
http//www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/cap/im
ages/commercial-polyculture.gif
BUT, includes all different ways of CP (more
microhabitats)
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Possible experimental artifacts
Discussion
Capturing method might favor ground and bush
hunting spiders
Time of year could affect insect (prey)
populations, and therefore spider abundances.
The number of samples analyzed was very low.
Identification was not expert. Some samples
easier to key out than others. 13 out of 59
morphospecies were not IDed to family.
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Future studies should be done
Discussion
Take more samples
Take samples at different times of the year
Use a variety of capture methods.
Study the coffee plantations effects on other
taxa (employ techniques such as Rapid Biological
Inventories)
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THANKS

• Caleb Gordon
• Ecology Class
• EVERYONE

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