Survey of Spiders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Coyle F. 2016. Survey of Spiders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. National Park Service
"PI collected about 50,000 adult spiders during the course of this study from about 2,500 samples. Over 500 species of spider have been identified, along with many species of opiliones (daddy-long-legs) and a scorpion. A study of species richness in cove hardwood forests using spiders was published by a graduate student. The PI has hoped to produce an identification key to the spiders of the park, but as of September 2009, that had not been accomplished. Specimens were still with PI. PI looked at species richness estimatators for a grassy bald (Gregory Bald) and a heath bald (near Allum Cave). They found 91 species on the grassy bald and 60 species on the heath bald, but the estimators indicated they were well below the total diversity. They speculate that differences in plant species richness and structure drive the differences in spider diversity between the two balds."
- Type
- Generic Dataset
- Authors
- Coyle, Frederick
- Date of Issue
- 2016-10-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GRSM
- Keywords
- Allum Cave, APHN, Appalachian Highlands Network, daddy long legs, daddy-long-legs, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, GRSM, opiliones, Origin:External, scorpion, SER, Southeast Region, spiders, StudyID:GRSM-00540
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Terrestrial Invertebrates