Biology subjects

McNamara Manning, K.

Publications and source records attributed to McNamara Manning, K..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Adapting to changing methodology in a long-term experiment

Long-term experiments are critical for understanding ecological processes, but their management comes with unique challenges. As time passes, projects may encounter unavoidable changes due to external factors, like availability of materials, affecting aspects of their research methodology. At the Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research Site, one of many National Science Foundation-funded long-term research stations, a three-decade project recently experienced a supply-chain-induced change in insect sampling methodology in their lady beetle observation study. Since 1989, lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) have been sampled weekly over the growing season using yellow sticky cards. In 2021, the original sticky traps were discontinued by the manufacturer and replaced with a similar, but not identical trap. We conducted a 3-year study while the new traps were phased in to examine how the trap change would impact the observed biodiversity patterns at the site. We examined community metrics and individual taxa captures to examine within year and between year differences in performance between the card types. Overall, we noted several small but statistically detectable differences in capture patterns between the two trap types. After accounting for other sources of variation, we observed a difference in Shannon diversity of insects captured on the two card types, but not richness or abundance, in the overall insect community. Yet, these differences were dwarfed by the magnitude of difference observed between years within card types. For individual taxa, similar patterns held: between trap differences could be detected statistically, but the number of differences between capture rates of traps was less than the number of differences observed for the same trap, between years. Thus, we conclude that while subtle changes in methodology could impact data produced in long-term experiments, in this case the magnitude of this change is smaller than other factors such as time and plant treatment. However, if sustained changes in the capture rates of focal taxa are observed, future data users may use our observations to specifically quantify and correct for these shifting patterns related to the protocol change.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Characterizing insect communities within thin-soil environments

Natural thin-soil environments are those which have little to no soil accumulation atop hard substrates. Many of these natural thin-soil environments, such as alvars, rocky lakeshores or glades, cliffs and cliff bluffs, and barrens, are found in the Great Lakes Region of North America. Due to their ubiquity and ecosystem services they provide, characterizing insects in sensitive environments such as these is important. This study monitored insects in nine thin-soil sites, within three regions, on a 630 km latitudinal gradient in the Southeastern Great Lakes Region of North America from June - August 2019. Over 22,000 insect specimens collected were identified to order or family, and bee specimens were identified to genus or species. We found that overall insect community composition and biodiversity characteristics were similar between the three regions examined. However, the central region had higher taxonomic richness than the southern region. Although unique bee taxa were observed in each region, diversity metrics and community composition of bees were similar among sites. This study provides taxonomic information about the insect, particularly bees, and plant communities in thin-soil environments in this region, which could support conservation and management efforts.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Experimental calibration of trapping methods for addressing bias in arthropod biodiversity monitoring

Sampling approaches are commonly adapted to reflect the study objectives in biodiversity monitoring projects. This approach optimizes findings to be locally relevant but comes at the cost of generalizability of findings. Here, we detail a comparison study directly examining how researcher choice of arthropod trap and level of specimen identification affects observations made in small-scale arthropod biodiversity studies. Sampling efficiency of four traps: pitfall traps, yellow ramp traps, yellow sticky cards, and a novel jar ramp trap were compared with respect to an array of biodiversity metrics associated with the arthropods they captured at three levels of identification. We also outline how to construct, deploy, and collect jar ramp traps. Trapping efficiency and functional groups of arthropods (flying, crawling, and intermediate mobility) varied by trap type. Pitfalls and jar ramp traps performed similarly for most biodiversity metrics measured, suggesting that jar ramp traps provide a more comparable measurement of ground-dwelling arthropod communities to pitfall sampling than the yellow ramp traps. The jar ramp trap is a simple, inexpensive alternative when the physical aspects of an environment do not allow the use of pitfalls. This study illustrates the implications for biodiversity sampling of arthropods in environments with physical constraints on trapping, and the importance of directly comparing adapted methods to established sampling protocol. Future biodiversity monitoring schemes should conduct comparison experiments to provide important information on performance and potential limitations of sampling methodology.

ecology↗