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The sensitivity of dragonflies to landscape structure differs between life-history groups

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Abstract

Contrasting life-history strategies of long versus short pre-reproductive phases are known in adult dragonflies (Odonata) of temperate regions. Because the long-phase species spend a longer time in terrestrial habitats such as grasslands or woodlands during their pre-reproductive phase, we hypothesized that long-phase species would be more sensitive to landscape structure than short-phase species. To test this hypothesis, we conducted periodic censuses of adult dragonflies at small man-made ponds. We compared the two above functional groups in terms of the degree to which species occurrence depended on landscape structure. The difference among the two groups was not significant, but occurrence of long-phase species tended to depend on landscape structure. Long-phase species responded to landscape structure at larger spatial scales and showed stronger spatial autocorrelation in their occurrence among sampling ponds than short-phase species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank P.D. Taylor for critically reading the original manuscript and providing helpful comments and suggestions and Y. Yamaura for advice regarding statistics. We also thank G. Fujita, J. Nishihiro and three anonymous referees for helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript, A. Goto for assistance in the field and H. Iijima (NPO Asaza Fund) for encouragement during the course of this study. We especially thank the primary-school teachers and students in Ibaraki Prefecture for allowing us to study dragonflies in their ponds. This study was partly supported by a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS 17-11543).

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Correspondence to Taku Kadoya.

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Kadoya, T., Suda, Si., Tsubaki, Y. et al. The sensitivity of dragonflies to landscape structure differs between life-history groups. Landscape Ecol 23, 149–158 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-007-9151-1

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