Floral visitor species present in semiarid Ziziphus lotus scrublands (Habitat 5220*, EU) in the southeast of Iberian Peninsula

We sampled the insect assemblage visiting flowers in the arborescent scrublands with Ziziphus lotus (Habitat 5520*, Habitat Directive EU) in the semiarid southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly in Almería province (Andalucia, Spain). We selected 6 localities with the presence of this Ziziphus lotus habitat: i) 2 localities in habitat dominated by Ziziphus lotus individuals (ZIZ); ii) 2 localities in habitat dominated by Maytenus senegalensis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZMAY); iii) 2 localities in habitat dominated by Chamaerops humilis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZCHA). To study the community of insect floral visitors in these habitats, 6-7 transects of [50 m x 2 m] were defined in each locality, which were sampled by 50 min-censuses from February-July at 3 different times (pre-spring + spring + summer; total transects sampled = 38 transects x 3 censuses = 114 transects). The sampled transects were randomly distributed, trying to cover the largest possible area within each locality to avoid sampling bias. We recorded the insect community visiting flowers in terms of richness and abundance per transect and locality. The censuses were carried out on sunny days with low winds (<12Km/h), between 9:00-17:00, during the period of maximum insect activity. The diversity and abundance of insect floral visitor by transect were pooled by population/locality ('SUMMARY_Floral_visitors_pop.csv' file). Rarefaction curves were used to calculate the diversity estimates per locality showed in 'Population_and_sampling_info.csv' file (n for rarefaction curves per population = minimum number of sampled transects per population across season x 2 = 18 x 2 = 36 sample units). iNEXT package (Hsieh, Ma and Chao, 2020) of R sofware (R Core, 2021) was used to calculated the summaries and diversity stimates showed in .csv files

Proyecto SUMHAL, LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-13, POPE 2014-2020.

Our aim was to characterize the insect assemblage visiting flowers (floral visitors) in the arborescent scrublands with Ziziphus lotus (Habitat 5520*, Habitat Directive EU) in the semiarid southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly in Almería province (Andalucia, Spain). We differentiated three habitat subtypes with Ziziphus lotus: i) habitat dominated by Ziziphus lotus individuals (ZIZ) ; ii) habitat dominated by Maytenus senegalensis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZMAY); iii) habitat dominated by Chamaerops humilis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZCHA).

This work was funded by Proyecto FEDER SUMHAL-Sustainability for Mediterraean Hotspots in Andalusia integrating LifeWatch ERIC [Work Package 9. Task 9.3.2. Model impact of land use change] (LifeWatch ERIC – FEDER, POPE 2014-2020; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain), Junta de Andalucía Excelencia RNM- 766 project, and by funds from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER- UJA 1261180 project, FEDER Andalucía operative programme). CSIC is acknowledged for supporting Open Access publication

SUMMARY_Floral_visitors_pop.csv [shows the list, abundance, and incidence of floral visitor species per population or locality] Population_and_sampling_info.csv [has information of samplings and rarefaction diversity estimates per locality according to the data of 'SUMMARY_Floral_visitors_pop.csv' file] Metada.csv [records information about the meaning of columns in SUMMARY_Floral_visitors_pop.csv' and ' Population_and_sampling_info.csv' files]

Peer reviewed