Correlation between parasitoid wasp diversity and vegetation diversity and structure in a degraded dry forest in Puerto Rico

Monitoring of changes in biotic diversity and the environment is an important aspect of evaluating the impact of ecological restoration. Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Puerto Rico historically contained native dry forest and scrub communities. More recently it has passed through a process of land degradation through agriculture and, in the past 20 years, secondary succession and restoration plantings with native trees. Since arthropod richness is a potential metric of restoration success, the objective of this study is to evaluate if the diversity of families of parasitic Hymenoptera is different between three types of canopy cover (native trees, non native trees and grasslands), and if this diversity can be correlated with the vegetation structure and diversity. Wasps have been collected with malaise traps during two dry seasons and two wet seasons, and the vegetation is being characterized in terms of diversity, percent cover, tree diameter and vertical layers. Due to the differences in the diversity and structure of vegetation (grasslands have a simpler structure than non-native trees) we are finding differences in the diversity of families present in each one of the cover types. Up to the present, several families have been found (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Encyrtidae, Trichogrammatidae, Mymaridae, among others) and they are apparently more diverse on native and non-native covers than in grasslands.