Myxomycetes associated with three different types of Neotropical urban landscapes

Figures (2) Tables (4)

Figure 1.
Geographical location of the three urban landscapes studied in the present study (left) with images showing the characteristic vegetation and urbanization patterns in them. (a) Dry seasonal tropical forest (during rainy season) of the Yucatan Peninsula surrounding the city of Mérida, Mexico (MID). (b) Premontane moist forest of the Central Valley of Costa Rica surrounding the city of San José (SJO). (c) Desert with scattered vegetation of the Peruvian pacific coast surrounding the city of Chiclayo (CIX). (d), (e), (f) Examples of disturbance caused by urbanization and human activities in actual sampling locations in MDI (top), SJO (middle) and CIX (bottom) – the last three images are from Google Maps.
Figure 2.
General aspect of the three urban landscapes studied herein in relation with the sampling strategy of one central location, three sampling locations in an inner (A) ring and three more locations in an outer (B) ring. From left to right, Mérida, Mexico (MDI), San José, Costa Rica (SJO) and Chiclayo, Peru (CIX).

Species	Urban landscapes
Species	MID	SJO	CIX
Arcyria afroalpina		6
Arcyria cinerea	11	27	23
Arcyria denudata		1
Badhamia affinis			6
Badhamia melanospora	1		1
Comatricha elegans	3
Comatricha nigra	3	1
Comatricha pulchella		3
Didymium anellus	3		9
Didymium bahiense	18	22	16
Didymium clavus	1	6	1
Didymium difforme		42	5
Didymium dubium		2
Didymium iridis	3	8
Didymium minus	20	18	7
Didymium nigripes	2
Didymium squamulosum	10	36
Diachea leucopodia		3
Diderma hemisphaericum	4	43
Fuligo intermedia			3
Hemitrichia minor		3
Lamproderma scintillans		13
Perichaena chrysosperma	3	5	1
Perichaena depressa	13	4	12
Perichaena pedata		4
Perichaena vermicularis		2	2
Physarum atacamense			60
Physarum auriscalpium		1
Physarum bivalve		1
Physarum cinereum	9	3	5
Physarum citrinum		2
Physarum compressum	7	24	3
Physarum decipiens	1
Physarum didermoides	1	2
Physarum melleum		1
Physarum pusillum	7	5	5
Physarum stellatum	1
Stemonitis fusca		1	1
For abbreviations see Material and Methods.

Table 1.

Number of records of myxomycetes per species associated with the three urban landscapes studied herein.

Urban landscape	Sampling location	Biodiversity parameter
Urban landscape	Sampling location	Number of records	Species richness	Simpson's DI	Shannon's DI
Mérida (MDI)
	Urban center	19	8	0.79	1.81
	1A	10	6	0.78	1.64
	1B	32	14	0.88	2.39
	2A	8	5	0.75	1.49
	2B	18	7	0.83	1.87
	3A	16	7	0.84	1.89
	3B	18	8	0.78	1.79
San José (SJO)
	Urban center	26	12	0.87	2.27
	1A	33	17	0.91	2.65
	1B	51	14	0.86	2.27
	2A	44	17	0.89	2.49
	2B	71	19	0.89	2.52
	3A	30	12	0.87	2.25
	3B	34	12	0.85	2.15
Chiclayo (CIX)
	Urban center	32	11	0.85	2.13
	1A	14	6	0.68	1.43
	1B	16	7	0.74	1.59
	2A	18	5	0.58	1.16
	2B	29	11	0.78	1.9
	3A	22	7	0.72	1.55
	3B	29	7	0.76	1.62
The highest values for the different levels are highlighted in bold.

Table 2.

Biodiversity parameters determined in the present study arranged by urban landscape and sampling location.

Urban landscape	Route	Biodiversity parameter
Urban landscape	Route	Number of records*	Species richness	Simpson's DI	Shannon's DI
Mérida (MDI)
	Urban center	19	8	0.84	1.99
	Route 1	14	16	0.93	2.77
	Route 2	8.6	9	0.89	2.21
	Route 3	11.3	12	0.9	2.44
San José (SJO)
	Urban center	26	12	0.91	2.49
	Route 1	28	20	0.91	2.68
	Route 2	38.3	23	0.92	2.78
	Route 3	21.3	16	0.9	2.5
Chiclayo (CIX)
	Urban center	32	11	0.88	2.29
	Route 1	10	9	0.77	1.87
	Route 2	15.6	12	0.76	1.92
	Route 3	17	10	0.77	1.84
* For normalization, this value was calculated as the number of records per set of 20 samples. The highest values for the different levels are highlighted in bold.

Table 3.

Biodiversity parameters determined in the present study arranged by urban landscape and established sampling route.

Urban landscape	Urban impact zone	Biodiversity parameter
Urban landscape	Urban impact zone	Number of records*	Species richness	Simpson's DI	Shannon's DI
Mérida (MDI)
	Urban center	19	8	0.79	1.8
	Zone A (inner radius)	11.3	13	0.86	2.28
	Zone B (outer radius)	22.6	16	0.9	2.52
San José (SJO)
	Urban center	26	12	0.87	2.27
	Zone A (inner radius)	35.6	23	0.91	2.7
	Zone B (outer radius)	52	23	0.88	2.53
Chiclayo (CIX)
	Urban center	32	11	0.85	3.13
	Zone A (inner radius)	18	10	0.69	1.61
	Zone B (outer radius)	24.6	13	0.81	2.07
* For normalization, this value was calculated as the number of records per set of 20 samples. The highest values for the different levels are highlighted in bold.

Table 4.

Biodiversity parameters determined in the present study arranged by urban landscape and urban impact zone.