EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TAXONOMIC LEVELS AS SURROGATES OF ANT DIVERSITY IN GREEN AREAS IN AN URBANIZED ENVIRONMENT E. B. A. KOCH1, T. S. MELO2,3,4, A. R. S. ANDRADE2,3, M. LEPONCE5 & J. H. C. DELABIE2,4 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), CEP: 44.036-900 - Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, e-mail: elmoborges@gmail.com; 2Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 3Centro de Ecologia e Conservação Animal, Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSal), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; 4Laboratório de Mirmecologia, Convênio Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)/Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC), Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil; 5Biodiversity Monitoring & Assessment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Bruxelas, Belgium. In cities located in environments of high biological importance, urbanization leads to changes in biotic diversity, while monitoring these changes can be difficult. Studies have pointed to the use of metrics that replace species as an alternative. Surrogate models are easily determined measures of biodiversity that correlate strongly with species richness and with what you want to investigate, being useful for detecting or monitoring environmental changes. The use of higher taxonomic levels has been applied to groups of megadiverse organisms, such as arthropods, since difficulties in identifying species are predictable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the practicality of using taxonomic diversity of ants as a surrogate of green area coverage in an urban environment. Four levels of "surrogate resolutions" (subfamily, genus, indicator taxa, and intermediate resolution) were assessed to the taxonomic diversity of ants across three levels of urban green areas (Small = 0 to 35%
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Danian (lower Paleocene) sequences in north-central Tunisia are dominantly composed of marls and shales but a conspicuous, indurated glauconite-bearing marker bed is associated with the P3a–P3b transition. This glauconite bed is considered to correlate with the Latest Danian Event (LDE) described from the Nile Basin in Egypt, with the ‘top Chron C27n event’ (Atlantic and Pacific Oceans) and with the ‘CIE-DS1’ (Zumaia, Spain). The LDE is thought to reflect a short period of global warming, similar to the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, but of lesser magnitude. The presence of a glauconitic bed at the P3a/P3b transition in Tunisia suggests that the sequence is condensed, which is confirmed by planktic foraminifer and nannofossil biostratigraphy, and by the absence of the typical LDE beds found in most Egyptian sections. Benthic foraminiferal assemblages were quantitatively analyzed in three sections in north-central Tunisia (Sidi Nasseur, Garn Halfaya, Elles) in order to characterize the paleoenvironmental evolution during the late Danian and compare this with sections in Egypt. The benthic foraminiferal assemblages indicate that the Tunisian sections were located along a depth- and a paleoenvironmental gradient on the shelf north of Kasserine Island. The reconstructed depth range is comparable with sections in Egypt, and encompasses middle neritic (Sidi Nasseur section) to shallow upper bathyal depths (Elles section,with up to 16% Gavelinella beccariiformis below the P3a/P3b). Like in Egypt, assemblage shifts across the P3a/P3b subzonal transition indicate shallowing and a transition to amore eutrophic paleoenvironment, characterized by relatively high abundances of buliminids and Stainforthia sp. The δ13C and δ18O records generated on well-preserved specimens of the ostracode species Bairdia failed to demonstrate the presence of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) associated with the LDE at the base of Subzone P3b. A condensed section or a hiatus associated with the glauconite bed would explain why the CIE is not recorded in the Tunisian sections.
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