1. As anthropogenic disturbance continues to encroach on natural areas, it is imperative to establish how this disturbance affects species assemblages. Yellowjackets are important predators of a wide range of arthropods, acting as natural population control in many ecosystems. This study seeks to explore how Vespinae community structure shifts with increasing land development in a temperate North American environment.
2. Yellowjackets were sampled from May to September 2019 using heptyl butyrate and acetic acid plus isobutanol traps. Sampling sites represented a gradient of developed landscapes, from fully forested to entirely developed. Seven species from the genera Dolichovespula and Vespula were trapped during the study.
3. Yellowjacket community structure was found to be significantly affected by the amount of land development. These results were driven by the replacement of Vespula consobrina with Vespula germanica in urban landscapes. A high level of development, greater than 75%, reduced species abundance relative to the fully forested landscapes, primarily due to the loss of Vespula pensylvanica and V. consobrina.
4. Our results highlight that the replacement of forested areas with urban development causes a shift in yellowjacket community composition, favouring generalist scavengers (e.g. V. germanica) and threatening the abundance of forest specialists such as V. consobrina.

中文翻译：

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温带黄夹克群落结构受土地开发和森林覆盖丧失的影响

1. 由于人为干扰继续侵占自然区域，因此必须确定这种干扰如何影响物种组合。Yellowjackets 是各种节肢动物的重要捕食者，在许多生态系统中充当自然种群控制者。本研究旨在探索 Vespinae 群落结构如何随着北美温带环境中土地开发的增加而发生变化。
2. 2019 年 5 月至 9 月期间，使用丁酸庚酯和乙酸加异丁醇捕集器对黄夹克进行了采样。采样点代表了从完全森林到完全开发的已开发景观的梯度。在研究期间，来自Dolichovespula和Vespula属的七个物种被捕获。
3. 发现 Yellowjacket 社区结构受土地开发量的显着影响。这些结果是由在城市景观中用Vespula Germanica取代Vespula consobrina推动的。与完全森林覆盖的景观相比，超过 75% 的高水平开发减少了物种丰度，这主要是由于Vespula pensylvanica和V. consobrina的消失。
4. 我们的研究结果强调，城市发展取代森林地区导致黄夹克社区组成发生变化，有利于通才清道夫（例如V. Germanica ），并威胁到V. consobrina等森林专家的数量。