In particular, the unique and inherent bias of every such sampling method either excludes or underestimates abundances of some groups and renders interpretations difficult. Sampling of arthropods from high-altitude, wet terrestrial habitats is always hindered by practical difficulties, especially when random and quantitative samples are necessary. Given this context, robust quantitative and qualitative assessments of the ecology and distribution of ground-dwelling arthropods in TMCFs are necessary to assess the effectiveness of conservation efforts practiced in tropical montane ecosystems. 1999 Shanker and Sukumar 1999) and plants ( Foster 2001 Bussmann 2001 Thomas and Palmer 2007 Giriraj et al. Little is known about the grounddwelling arthropod diversity in Asian TMCFs since a majority of the studies refer to vertebrates ( Dowsett 1985 Rice 1988 Brooks et al. Because ground-dwelling arthropods are better habitat predictors than arboreal arthropods, any conservation strategy should emphasize the distributional patterns of invertebrates as a basis for designing effective conservation strategies for TMCFs ( Koen and Crowe 1987 Desender et al. 20).Ĭonfinement of ground-dwelling arthropods of TMCFs to narrow altitudinal belts and their adaptations to exist in specific habitat conditions make these arthropods sensitive to habitat loss and fragmentation ( Olson 1994 Brühl et al. Although the TMCFs are less diverse than the lowland forests, when their exceptionally high levels of regional endemism are considered, their collective species diversity probably exceeds that of any other forest type ( White 1983 Hamilton et al. TMCFs are among the most endangered of all tropical forest types and usually harbour very high proportions of many endemic plant and animal taxa specifically adapted to cool temperatures and humid-moist conditions. TMCFs are often situated on mountain tops or ridge lines at various elevations, especially between 10 m, but under exceptional conditions they have been known to occur at low elevations as well (300–500 m asi) ( Hamilton et al. One of the most direct impacts of frequent cloud cover is cloud stripping, which is the deposition of cloud droplets through contact with vegetation and fog drip to the forest floor (fog precipitation) and the presence of moss cover (bryophytic cover) on the stem of trees ( Stadtmüller 1987 Frahm and Gradstein 1991 Bruijnzeel and Proctor 1995 Holder 2006). Many features of these forests from vegetation morphology to nutrient budgets to solar insolation are directly or indirectly related to cloud formation. Patches of tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) occur in Central and South America, tropical Africa, and tropical Asia where humid mountains are frequently enveloped by tradewind-derived orographic clouds and fog in combination with convective rainfall ( Still et al. For larval forms of different insect orders and the Acari, all the three methods were equally effective. The Winkler extractor was the best quantitative method for Psocoptera, Araneae, Isopoda, and Formicidae and the Berlese funnel was best for Collembola and Chilopoda. Pitfall trapping is essential for both quantitative and qualitative sampling of Diplopoda, Opiliones, Orthoptera, and Diptera. ![]() Inclusion of floatation method as a complementary method along with the Winkler extractor would enable a comprehensive quantitative survey of ground-dwelling arthropods. ![]() Among the three methods, the Winkler extractor was the most efficient method for quantitative data and pitfall trapping for qualitative data for most groups. Due to unique habitat conditions in TMCFs with continuously wet substrates and a waterlogged forest floor along with the innate biases of the pitfall trap, Berlese funnel and Winkler extractor are certain to make it difficult to choose the most appropriate method to sample the ground-dwelling arthropods in TMCFs. Little is known about the ground-dwelling arthropod diversity in tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF).
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