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A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 1994.

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Other Authors: Scholtz, Clarke H.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Scholtz, Clarke H.
author_browse Scholtz, Clarke H.
author_facet Scholtz, Clarke H.
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2020 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 1994.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:34.803Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/85447 A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations Scholtz, Clarke H. Dippenaar-Schoeman, Anna S. (Anna Sophia), 1948- van der Merwe, Marius UCTD Cursorial spider communities indigenous afromontane forests pine plantations Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 1994. A survey of ground-living spiders was conducted at Ngome State Forest, northern Natal. The area is situated on the southern African escarpment. The survey started in January 1992 and ended in January 1993. Five different habitat types were sampled with 180 pitfall traps. Pitfall traps were open continuously and were cleared once a month. Contents were sorted under a dissection microscope and all spiders were sorted into morphospecies, most of which were later identified. The habitat types that were compared were grass, open forest, dense forest, ecotone and pine. Grass, open forest and dense forest represented indigenous vegetation while pine represented exotic vegetation. Ecotone consisted of a mixture of indigenous forest plants and pine trees. Multivariate analysis of the data showed the different habitat types to support different ground-living spider communities. The composition of spider communities in pine differed most from all other habitat types. This result supports the hypothesis that the planting of pine trees largely affects the composition of ground-living spider communities. Spider diversity and richness indices indicated grass to be the most diverse habitat type, while pine was the least diverse habitat type (for ground-living spiders) . However, due to the large variation in spider diversity within habitat types, the differences in spider diversity between habitat types were not clearly defined and the results do not unambiguously support the hypothesis that exotic vegetation has lower ground-living spider diversity than indigenous vegetation. The habitat preferences and phenology of the 10 most abundantly trapped spider species were graphically represented and discussed as to make a contribution to these species's autecological relationships. The need for more surveys of this kind in order to identify larger scale ecological patterns is stressed. Zoology and Entomology MSc Unrestricted 2022-05-17T11:21:23Z 2022-05-17T11:21:23Z 2021/11/09 1994 Dissertation * https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/85447 en © 2020 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Cursorial spider communities
indigenous afromontane forests
pine plantations
A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title_full A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title_fullStr A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title_full_unstemmed A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title_short A comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
title_sort comparative survey of cursorial spider communities in indigenous afromontane forests and in pine plantations
topic UCTD
Cursorial spider communities
indigenous afromontane forests
pine plantations
url https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/85447