Community Ecology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 18: Issue 3
Spider assemblages in floodplain forests along an urbanization gradient
Authors:
B. Tajthi MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary

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R. Horváth University of Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary

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Sz. Mizser MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary

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D. D. Nagy MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary

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B. Tóthmérész MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary
University of Debrecen, Egyetem square 1, H-4032, Hungary

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Pages:
311–318
Online Publication Date:
Dec 2017
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2017
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/168.2017.18.3.10
Keywords:
Diversity, Floodplain forest; GlobeNet; Human disturbance; Litter sifting
Open access

Urban areas have been growing radically worldwide, causing considerable changes in biodiversity of natural habitats. In floodplain forests, we studied the effects of urbanization on ground-dwelling spider assemblages along a rural–suburban–urban gradient in Hungary. We tested three traditional hypotheses (intermediate disturbance hypothesis, habitat specialist hypothesis and hygrophilous species hypothesis) and two novel expectations (shade-preferring species hypothesis, and disturbance sensitive species hypothesis) on spiders. We found that the total number of species was higher in the suburban habitat than in rural and urban ones, supporting the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. We found a decrease in the species richness of forest specialist and shade-preferring species along the urbanization gradient. We found that the number of hygrophilous and disturbance sensitive species was the lowest in the urban habitat. The spider assemblages of the rural and suburban habitats were clearly separated from the assemblages of urban habitats. Based on our findings we emphasize that low and moderate intensity of forest management contributes to the preservation of the local species richness in floodplain forests.

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Cover Community Ecology
Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies
Print ISSN:
1585-8553
Online ISSN:
1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language English
Size A4
Year of
Foundation		 2000
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 3
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2756 (Online)

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