Diversity and assemblage filtering in ground-dwelling spiders (Araneae) along an urbanisation gradient in Denmark

• Published in: Urban ecosystems Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 345 - 353
• Main Authors: Lövei, Gábor L., Horváth, Roland, Elek, Zoltán, Magura, Tibor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Araneae; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Ecology; Environmental Management; Filtration; Forests; Habitats; Life Sciences; Nature Conservation; Pitfall traps; Rural areas; Species richness; Spiders; Urban Ecology; Urbanization; Increasing disturbance hypothesis; Forest fragmentation; GlobeNet; IndVal
• ISSN: 1083-8155; 1573-1642
• DOI: 10.1007/s11252-018-0819-x

We studied the effects on spiders of a three-step rural-urban urbanisation gradient near a Danish town embedded in a historically forested landscape. Using pitfall traps set in forested habitat patches, we collected a total of 3075 adult spiders of 80 species; the habitats under different degrees of urbanisation had 45–47 species. We found support for Gray’s Increasing Disturbance Hypothesis: the species richness trap −1 was significantly higher in the rural habitat than in any other one, and decreased from the rural forest to forest fragments dominated by non-native trees in the urban park. The number of forest specialist species also decreased along the urbanisation gradient. Neither the presence of generalists nor light-preferring species increased under more urbanised conditions, but web builders and hygrophilous species were more species-rich in the rural habitat than elsewhere. Using indicator values, we identified Coelotes atropos , Walckenaeria corniculans , Walckenaeria cucullata , and Pachygnatha listeri as species linked to the rural and suburban habitats; Trochosa terricola , Saaristoa abnormis , Robertus lividus as characteristic of the rural habitat; and Gongylidium rufipes and Diplocephalus latifrons as urban habitat specialists.