Amazonian earthworm biodiversity is heavily impacted by ancient and recent human disturbance.

Despite the importance of earthworms for soil formation, more is needed to know about how Pre-Columbian modifications to soils and the landscape. Gaining a deeper understanding is essential for comprehending the historical drivers of earthworm communities and the development of effective conservation strategies in the Amazon rainforest. Human disturbance can significantly impact earthworm diversity, especially in rainforest soils, and in the particular case of the Amazonian rainforest, both recent and ancient anthropic practices may be important. Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are fertile soils found throughout the Amazon Basin, created by sedentary habits and intensification patterns of pre-Colombian societies primarily developed in the second part of the Holocene period. We have sampled earthworm communities in three Brazilian Amazonian (ADEs) and adjacent reference soils (REF) under old and young forests and monocultures. To better assess taxonomic richness, we used morphology and the barcode region of the COI gene to identify juveniles and cocoons and delimit Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs). Here we suggest using Integrated Operational Taxonomical units (IOTUs) which combine both morphological and molecular data and provide a more comprehensive assessment of diversity, while MOTUs only rely on molecular data. A total of 970 individuals were collected, resulting in 51 taxonomic units (IOTUs, MOTUs, and morphospecies combined). From this total, 24 taxonomic units were unique to REF soils, 17 to ADEs, and ten were shared between both soils. The highest richness was found in old forest sites for ADEs (12 taxonomic units) and REFs (21 taxonomic units). The beta-diversity calculations reveal a high species turnover between ADEs and REF soils, providing evidence that ADEs and REFs possess distinct soil biota. Furthermore, results suggest that ADE sites, formed by Pre-Columbian human activities, conserve a high number of native species in the landscape and maintain a high abundance, despite their long-term nature.

Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects.

Caterpillars of the Neotropical genus Lonomia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) are responsible for some fatal envenomation of humans in South America inducing hemostatic disturbances in patients upon skin contact with the caterpillars' spines. Currently, only two species have been reported to cause hemorrhagic syndromes in humans: Lonomia achelous and Lonomia obliqua. However, species identifications have remained largely unchallenged despite improved knowledge of venom diversity and growing evidence that the taxonomy used over past decades misrepresents and underestimates species diversity. Here, we revisit the taxonomic diversity and distribution of Lonomia species using the most extensive dataset assembled to date, combining DNA barcodes, morphological comparisons, and geographical information. Considering new evidence for seven undescribed species as well as three newly proposed nomenclatural changes, our integrative approach leads to the recognition of 60 species, of which seven are known or strongly suspected to cause severe envenomation in humans. From a newly compiled synthesis of epidemiological data, we also examine the consequences of our results for understanding Lonomia envenomation risks and call for further investigations of other species' venom activities. This is required and necessary to improve alertness in areas at risk, and to define adequate treatment strategies for envenomed patients, including performing species identification and assessing the efficacy of anti-Lonomia serums against a broader diversity of species.

Comparison of traditional and DNA metabarcoding samples for monitoring tropical soil arthropods (Formicidae, Collembola and Isoptera).

The soil fauna of the tropics remains one of the least known components of the biosphere. Long-term monitoring of this fauna is hampered by the lack of taxonomic expertise and funding. These obstacles may potentially be lifted with DNA metabarcoding. To validate this approach, we studied the ants, springtails and termites of 100 paired soil samples from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The fauna was extracted with Berlese-Tullgren funnels and then either sorted with traditional taxonomy and known, individual DNA barcodes ("traditional samples") or processed with metabarcoding ("metabarcoding samples"). We detected 49 ant, 37 springtail and 34 termite species with 3.46 million reads of the COI gene, at a mean sequence length of 233 bp. Traditional identification yielded 80, 111 and 15 species of ants, springtails and termites, respectively; 98%, 37% and 100% of these species had a Barcode Index Number (BIN) allowing for direct comparison with metabarcoding. Ants were best surveyed through traditional methods, termites were better detected by metabarcoding, and springtails were equally well detected by both techniques. Species richness was underestimated, and faunal composition was different in metabarcoding samples, mostly because 37% of ant species were not detected. The prevalence of species in metabarcoding samples increased with their abundance in traditional samples, and seasonal shifts in species prevalence and faunal composition were similar between traditional and metabarcoding samples. Probable false positive and negative species records were reasonably low (13-18% of common species). We conclude that metabarcoding of samples extracted with Berlese-Tullgren funnels appear suitable for the long-term monitoring of termites and springtails in tropical rainforests. For ants, metabarcoding schemes should be complemented by additional samples of alates from Malaise or light traps.

A "Dirty" Footprint: Macroinvertebrate diversity in Amazonian Anthropic Soils.

Amazonian rainforests, once thought to be pristine wilderness, are increasingly known to have been widely inhabited, modified, and managed prior to European arrival, by human populations with diverse cultural backgrounds. Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are fertile soils found throughout the Amazon Basin, created by pre-Columbian societies with sedentary habits. Much is known about the chemistry of these soils, yet their zoology has been neglected. Hence, we characterized soil fertility, macroinvertebrate communities, and their activity at nine archeological sites in three Amazonian regions in ADEs and adjacent reference soils under native forest (young and old) and agricultural systems. We found 673 morphospecies and, despite similar richness in ADEs (385 spp.) and reference soils (399 spp.), we identified a tenacious pre-Columbian footprint, with 49% of morphospecies found exclusively in ADEs. Termite and total macroinvertebrate abundance were higher in reference soils, while soil fertility and macroinvertebrate activity were higher in the ADEs, and associated with larger earthworm quantities and biomass. We show that ADE habitats have a unique pool of species, but that modern land use of ADEs decreases their populations, diversity, and contributions to soil functioning. These findings support the idea that humans created and sustained high-fertility ecosystems that persist today, altering biodiversity patterns in Amazonia.

Description of three new species of Automeris Hübner, 1819 from Colombia and Brazil (Lepidoptera, Saturniidae, Hemileucinae).

The Saturniidae is one of the most emblematic families of moths, comprising nearly 3000 species distributed globally. In this study, DNA barcode analysis and comparative morphology were combined to describe three new species within the genus Automeris, which is the most diverse genus in the family. Automeris llaneros Decaëns, Rougerie & Bonilla, sp. nov., Automeris mineros Decaëns, Rougerie & Bonilla, sp. nov., and Automeris belemensis Decaëns, Rougerie & Bénéluz, sp. nov. are described from the Colombian Orinoco watershed, the Colombian Eastern Cordillera, and the area of endemism of Belém in the Brazilian Amazonia, respectively. They all belong to the Automeris bilinea (Walker, 1855) species subgroup, which comprises a number of species that are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other using morphology alone. Here, the description of these three new species is based on significant differences from their closest relatives, either in terms of wing patterns, genitalia, DNA barcodes or a combination of these features.

Shifts in soil and plant functional diversity along an altitudinal gradient in the French Alps.

OBJECTIVES: Altitude integrates changes in environmental conditions that determine shifts in vegetation, including temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and edaphogenetic processes. In turn, vegetation alters soil biophysical properties through litter input, root growth, microbial and macrofaunal interactions. The belowground traits of plant communities modify soil processes in different ways, but it is not known how root traits influence soil biota at the community level. We collected data to investigate how elevation affects belowground community traits and soil microbial and faunal communities. This dataset comprises data from a temperate climate in France and a twin study was performed in a tropical zone in Mexico. DATA DESCRIPTION: The paper describes soil physical and chemical properties, climatic variables, plant community composition and species abundance, plant community traits, soil microbial functional diversity and macrofaunal abundance and diversity. Data are provided for six elevations (1400-2400 m) ranging from montane forest to alpine prairie. We focused on soil biophysical properties beneath three dominant plant species that structure local vegetation. These data are useful for understanding how shifts in vegetation communities affect belowground processes, such as water infiltration, soil aggregation and carbon storage. Data will also help researchers understand how plant communities adjust to a changing climate/environment.

Coordinated community structure among trees, fungi and invertebrate groups in Amazonian rainforests.

Little is known regarding how trophic interactions shape community assembly in tropical forests. Here we assess multi-taxonomic community assembly rules using a rare standardized coordinated inventory comprising exhaustive surveys of five highly-diverse taxonomic groups exerting key ecological functions: trees, fungi, earthworms, ants and spiders. We sampled 36 1.9-ha plots from four remote locations in French Guiana including precise soil measurements, and we tested whether species turnover was coordinated among groups across geographic and edaphic gradients. All species group pairs exhibited significant compositional associations that were independent from soil conditions. For some of the pairs, associations were also partly explained by soil properties, especially soil phosphorus availability. Our study provides evidence for coordinated turnover among taxonomic groups beyond simple relationships with environmental factors, thereby refining our understanding regarding the nature of interactions occurring among these ecologically important groups.

Biodiversity loss along a gradient of deforestation in Amazonian agricultural landscapes.

Assessing how much management of agricultural landscapes, in addition to protected areas, can offset biodiversity erosion in the tropics is a central issue for conservation that still requires cross-taxonomic and landscape-scale studies. We measured the effects of Amazonia deforestation and subsequent land-use intensification in 6 agricultural areas (landscape scale), where we sampled plants and 4 animal groups (birds, earthworms, fruit flies, and moths). We assessed land-use intensification with a synthetic index based on landscape metrics (total area and relative percentages of land uses, edge density, mean patch density and diversity, and fractal structures at 5 dates from 1990 to 2007). Species richness decreased consistently as agricultural intensification increased despite slight differences in the responses of sampled groups. Globally, in moderately deforested landscapes species richness was relatively stable, and there was a clear threshold in biodiversity loss midway along the intensification gradient, mainly linked to a drop in forest cover and quality. Our results suggest anthropogenic landscapes with high-quality forest covering >40 % of the surface area may prevent biodiversity loss in Amazonia.

The Saturniidae of Barro Colorado Island, Panama: A model taxon for studying the long-term effects of climate change?

We have little knowledge of the response of invertebrate assemblages to climate change in tropical ecosystems, and few studies have compiled long-term data on invertebrates from tropical rainforests. We provide an updated list of the 72 species of Saturniidae moths collected on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, during the period 1958-2016. This list will serve as baseline data for assessing long-term changes of saturniids on BCI in the future, as 81% of the species can be identified by their unique DNA Barcode Index Number, including four cryptic species not yet formally described. A local species pool of 60 + species breeding on BCI appears plausible, but more cryptic species may be discovered in the future. We use monitoring data obtained by light trapping to analyze recent population trends on BCI for saturniid species that were relatively common during 2009-2016, a period representing >30 saturniid generations. The abundances of 11 species, of 14 tested, could be fitted to significant time-series models. While the direction of change in abundance was uncertain for most species, two species showed a significant increase over time, and forecast models also suggested continuing increases for most species during 2017-2018, as compared to the 2009 base year. Peaks in saturniid abundance were most conspicuous during El Niño and La Niña years. In addition to a species-specific approach, we propose a reproducible functional classification based on five functional traits to analyze the responses of species sharing similar functional attributes in a fluctuating climate. Our results suggest that the abundances of larger body-size species with good dispersal abilities may increase concomitantly with rising air temperature in the future, because short-lived adults may allocate less time to increasing body temperature for flight, leaving more time available for searching for mating partners or suitable oviposition sites.

Dissecting the multi-scale spatial relationship of earthworm assemblages with soil environmental variability.

BACKGROUND: Studying the drivers and determinants of species, population and community spatial patterns is central to ecology. The observed structure of community assemblages is the result of deterministic abiotic (environmental constraints) and biotic factors (positive and negative species interactions), as well as stochastic colonization events (historical contingency). We analyzed the role of multi-scale spatial component of soil environmental variability in structuring earthworm assemblages in a gallery forest from the Colombian "Llanos". We aimed to disentangle the spatial scales at which species assemblages are structured and determine whether these scales matched those expressed by soil environmental variables. We also tested the hypothesis of the "single tree effect" by exploring the spatial relationships between root-related variables and soil nutrient and physical variables in structuring earthworm assemblages. Multivariate ordination techniques and spatially explicit tools were used, namely cross-correlograms, Principal Coordinates of Neighbor Matrices (PCNM) and variation partitioning analyses. RESULTS: The relationship between the spatial organization of earthworm assemblages and soil environmental parameters revealed explicitly multi-scale responses. The soil environmental variables that explained nested population structures across the multi-spatial scale gradient differed for earthworms and assemblages at the very-fine- (<10 m) to medium-scale (10-20 m). The root traits were correlated with areas of high soil nutrient contents at a depth of 0-5 cm. Information on the scales of PCNM variables was obtained using variogram modeling. Based on the size of the plot, the PCNM variables were arbitrarily allocated to medium (>30 m), fine (10-20 m) and very fine scales (<10 m). Variation partitioning analysis revealed that the soil environmental variability explained from less than 1% to as much as 48% of the observed earthworm spatial variation. CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of the spatial variation did not depend on the soil environmental variability for certain species. This finding could indicate the influence of contagious biotic interactions, stochastic factors, or unmeasured relevant soil environmental variables.

Principal components analysis for evaluation of analytical results from Amapá soil fertility / Análise de componentes principais para avaliação de resultados analíticos da fertilidade de solos do Amapá

The soil study in the State of Amapá is an urgent need because it has been observed a decrease in production in that state due mainly to the rural exodus. This work was carried out with the objective of studying the soils of municipal districts of Amapá State, using collected samples in the period from 1993 to 2003. The principal component analysis (PCA) and the hierarchical classification allowed the grouping of the municipal districts of the state in four different groups, according to the similarity presented in the soil chemical properties. The low phosphorus availability, the high acidity, the high levels of exchangeable aluminum, the low sum of bases, and low values for bases saturation were the main restrictions found for the agricultural use of the soils. In the municipal districts of Cutias and Mazagão (group ) the soil fertility was more unfavorable, while in the municipal districts of Laranjal do Jarí, Macapá, Pedra Branca, Santana and Serra do Navio (group ) and Amapá, Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque and Vitória do Jarí (group ) it was more favorable in relation to other groups.

Estudar os solos do Estado do Amapá é uma necessidade urgente dada a redução de produção observada naquele estado devido, principalmente, ao êxodo rural. Este trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de agrupar os solos dos municípios do Estado do Amapá, utilizando-se resultados analíticos de amostras coletadas no período de 1993 a 2003. As análises de componentes principais e a classificação hierárquica possibilitaram o agrupamento dos municípios do estado em quatro grupos diferentes, considerando a similaridade entre as propriedades químicas do solo. A baixa disponibilidade de fósforo, acidez elevada, altos teores de alumínio trocável, baixa soma de bases e baixos valores para a saturação por bases, foram as principais restrições encontradas para o aproveitamento agrícola dos solos do Estado do Amapá. Nos municípios de Cutias e Mazagão (grupo ) a fertilidade do solo foi considerada mais desfavorável ao aproveitamento agrícola, enquanto que nos municípios de Laranjal do Jarí, Macapá, Pedra Branca, Santana e Serra do Navio (grupo ) e Amapá, Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque e Vitória do Jarí (grupo ) a fertilidade do solo foi considerada favorável em relação aos outros grupos.

Principal components analysis for evaluation of analytical results from Amapá soil fertility / Análise de componentes principais para avaliação de resultados analíticos da fertilidade de solos do Amapá

The soil study in the State of Amapá is an urgent need because it has been observed a decrease in production in that state due mainly to the rural exodus. This work was carried out with the objective of studying the soils of municipal districts of Amapá State, using collected samples in the period from 1993 to 2003. The principal component analysis (PCA) and the hierarchical classification allowed the grouping of the municipal districts of the state in four different groups, according to the similarity presented in the soil chemical properties. The low phosphorus availability, the high acidity, the high levels of exchangeable aluminum, the low sum of bases, and low values for bases saturation were the main restrictions found for the agricultural use of the soils. In the municipal districts of Cutias and Mazagão (group ) the soil fertility was more unfavorable, while in the municipal districts of Laranjal do Jarí, Macapá, Pedra Branca, Santana and Serra do Navio (group ) and Amapá, Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque and Vitória do Jarí (group ) it was more favorable in relation to other groups.

Estudar os solos do Estado do Amapá é uma necessidade urgente dada a redução de produção observada naquele estado devido, principalmente, ao êxodo rural. Este trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de agrupar os solos dos municípios do Estado do Amapá, utilizando-se resultados analíticos de amostras coletadas no período de 1993 a 2003. As análises de componentes principais e a classificação hierárquica possibilitaram o agrupamento dos municípios do estado em quatro grupos diferentes, considerando a similaridade entre as propriedades químicas do solo. A baixa disponibilidade de fósforo, acidez elevada, altos teores de alumínio trocável, baixa soma de bases e baixos valores para a saturação por bases, foram as principais restrições encontradas para o aproveitamento agrícola dos solos do Estado do Amapá. Nos municípios de Cutias e Mazagão (grupo ) a fertilidade do solo foi considerada mais desfavorável ao aproveitamento agrícola, enquanto que nos municípios de Laranjal do Jarí, Macapá, Pedra Branca, Santana e Serra do Navio (grupo ) e Amapá, Ferreira Gomes, Oiapoque e Vitória do Jarí (grupo ) a fertilidade do solo foi considerada favorável em relação aos outros grupos.