Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology

Habitat fragmentation has resulted in increasing environmental pressure on biodiversity. Solitary wasps, such as Ammophila pubescens and Ammophila sabulosa, are often overlooked despite being threatened by loss of habitat from increasing fragmentation of sandy heathlands. In this study, I used wing...

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Main Author: Teo, Zann Jiexin
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Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165748
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1657482023-04-10T15:32:11Z Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology Teo, Zann Jiexin - Asian School of the Environment University College London Cintia Akemi Oi c.oi@ucl.ac.uk Science::Biological sciences::Ecology Habitat fragmentation has resulted in increasing environmental pressure on biodiversity. Solitary wasps, such as Ammophila pubescens and Ammophila sabulosa, are often overlooked despite being threatened by loss of habitat from increasing fragmentation of sandy heathlands. In this study, I used wing morphological traits of size and venation pattern as biomarkers to study sexual size dimorphism and the impact of the environment on each species. Ammophila specimens measured in the study were either self-collected in the field or are specimens from the London Natural History Museum collection (ntotal = 320). I find significant female-biased sexual size dimorphism in both species, which may be attributed to large investment of parental care from female wasps. There is no statistically significant difference in wing size between populations from different geographic regions in both species, suggesting that there is no significant difference in resource availability between regions. For wing venation patterns, there is significant difference between regions for both species, except for between South and Southeast for A. sabulosa. This may be due to difference in dispersal ability, such that breeding adults of A. sabulosa may be better able to disperse between the South and Southeast region, or due to the presence of small breeding sites between habitat patches, thus still allowing for continuity of gene flow between regions. Future work may include looking at wing shape difference between species or sex, as this impacts dispersal ability, or a study into wing pattern asymmetry as an indicator of long-term environmental disturbances on wasps. Keywords: sexual size dimorphism, anthropogenic disturbance, habitat loss, population structure, geometric morphometrics. Bachelor of Science in Environmental Earth Systems Science 2023-04-10T01:40:59Z 2023-04-10T01:40:59Z 2023 Final Year Project (FYP) Teo, Z. J. (2023). Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165748 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165748 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Science::Biological sciences::Ecology
spellingShingle Science::Biological sciences::Ecology
Teo, Zann Jiexin
Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
description Habitat fragmentation has resulted in increasing environmental pressure on biodiversity. Solitary wasps, such as Ammophila pubescens and Ammophila sabulosa, are often overlooked despite being threatened by loss of habitat from increasing fragmentation of sandy heathlands. In this study, I used wing morphological traits of size and venation pattern as biomarkers to study sexual size dimorphism and the impact of the environment on each species. Ammophila specimens measured in the study were either self-collected in the field or are specimens from the London Natural History Museum collection (ntotal = 320). I find significant female-biased sexual size dimorphism in both species, which may be attributed to large investment of parental care from female wasps. There is no statistically significant difference in wing size between populations from different geographic regions in both species, suggesting that there is no significant difference in resource availability between regions. For wing venation patterns, there is significant difference between regions for both species, except for between South and Southeast for A. sabulosa. This may be due to difference in dispersal ability, such that breeding adults of A. sabulosa may be better able to disperse between the South and Southeast region, or due to the presence of small breeding sites between habitat patches, thus still allowing for continuity of gene flow between regions. Future work may include looking at wing shape difference between species or sex, as this impacts dispersal ability, or a study into wing pattern asymmetry as an indicator of long-term environmental disturbances on wasps. Keywords: sexual size dimorphism, anthropogenic disturbance, habitat loss, population structure, geometric morphometrics.
author2 -
author_facet -
Teo, Zann Jiexin
format Final Year Project
author Teo, Zann Jiexin
author_sort Teo, Zann Jiexin
title Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
title_short Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
title_full Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
title_fullStr Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
title_full_unstemmed Population differentiation of Ammophila wasps using wing morphology
title_sort population differentiation of ammophila wasps using wing morphology
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165748
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