Moth Diversity Increases along a Continent-Wide Gradient of Environmental Productivity in South African Savannahs.

ABSTRACT: Environmental productivity, i.e., the amount of biomass produced by primary producers, belongs among the key factors for the biodiversity patterns. Although the relationship of diversity to environmental productivity differs among studied taxa, detailed data are largely missing for most groups, including insects. Here, we present a study of moth diversity patterns at local and regional scales along a continent-wide gradient of environmental productivity in southern African savannah ecosystems. We sampled diversity of moths (Lepidoptera: Heterocera) at 120 local plots along a gradient of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the Namib Desert to woodland savannahs along the Zambezi River. By standardized light trapping, we collected 12,372 specimens belonging to 487 moth species

SUBMITTER: Delabye S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9500993 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature