Community Parameters of Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera: Insect) Along Altitudinal Gradients in Subtropical and Tropical Rainforests in Australia

Abstract

Gradients in altitude are used frequently to understand how species respond to changes in local climatic conditions and are therefore a robust tool for predicting how species and communities in montane environments may respond to changes in climate. It is important that we understand how species richness patterns and interactions are affected by current changes in climate if we are to make sensible predictions about how biodiversity and ecosystem function will be affected by climate change. Further, while studies have shown a strong gradients in species richness and species turnover that accompany altitude, little is known about how species at different heights in forests and how plant-insect herbivore interactions respond to altitude. This challenge has been addressed here by examining the changing distribution patterns of the taxonomic group, Auchenorrhyncha, which are an important group of plant sucking herbivores, with altitude, in vertical forest columns and of their associated host plants. Herbivorous insects, including leafhoppers and planthoppers interact with their host plants in complex networks, but relatively little is known about how these relationships will be and are being affected by changes in climate. In order to determine how altitudinal changes in climatic conditions affect distribution patterns of Auchenorrhyncha, I quantified these communities along two altitudinal gradients, one in eastern Australian subtropical rainforest and the other in northern Australian tropical rainforest.