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Ewers RM, Orme CDL, Pearse WD, Zulkifli N, Yvon-Durocher G, Yusah KM, Yoh N, Yeo DCJ, Wong A, Williamson J, Wilkinson CL, Wiederkehr F, Webber BL, Wearn OR, Wai L, Vollans M, Twining JP, Turner EC, Tobias JA, Thorley J, Telford EM, Teh YA, Tan HH, Swinfield T, Svátek M, Struebig M, Stork N, Sleutel J, Slade EM, Sharp A, Shabrani A, Sethi SS, Seaman DJI, Sawang A, Roxby GB, Rowcliffe JM, Rossiter SJ, Riutta T, Rahman H, Qie L, Psomas E, Prairie A, Poznansky F, Pillay R, Picinali L, Pianzin A, Pfeifer M, Parrett JM, Noble CD, Nilus R, Mustaffa N, Mullin KE, Mitchell S, Mckinlay AR, Maunsell S, Matula R, Massam M, Martin S, Malhi Y, Majalap N, Maclean CS, Mackintosh E, Luke SH, Lewis OT, Layfield HJ, Lane-Shaw I, Kueh BH, Kratina P, Konopik O, Kitching R, Kinneen L, Kemp VA, Jotan P, Jones N, Jebrail EW, Hroneš M, Heon SP, Hemprich-Bennett DR, Haysom JK, Harianja MF, Hardwick J, Gregory N, Gray R, Gray REJ, Granville N, Gill R, Fraser A, Foster WA, Folkard-Tapp H, Fletcher RJ, Fikri AH, Fayle TM, Faruk A, Eggleton P, Edwards DP, Drinkwater R, Dow RA, Döbert TF, Didham RK, Dickinson KJM, Deere NJ, de Lorm T, Dawood MM, Davison CW, Davies ZG, Davies RG, Dančák M, Cusack J, Clare EL, Chung A, Chey VK, Chapman PM, Cator L, Carpenter D, Carbone C, Calloway K, Bush ER, Burslem DFRP, Brown KD, Brooks SJ, Brasington E, Brant H, Boyle MJW, Both S, Blackman J, Bishop TR, Bicknell JE, Bernard H, Basrur S, Barclay MVL, Barclay H, Atton G, Ancrenaz M, Aldridge DC, Daniel OZ, Reynolds G, Banks-Leite C. Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate. Nature 2024; 631:808-813. [PMID: 39020163 PMCID: PMC11269177 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07657-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/19/2024]
Abstract
Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (<29% biomass removal) retain high conservation value and a largely intact functional composition, and are therefore likely to recover their pre-logging values if allowed to undergo natural regeneration. Second, the most extreme impacts occur in heavily degraded forests with more than two-thirds (>68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert M Ewers
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK.
| | - C David L Orme
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - William D Pearse
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Nursyamin Zulkifli
- Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia
| | | | - Kalsum M Yusah
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London, UK
| | - Natalie Yoh
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Darren C J Yeo
- Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Anna Wong
- Malaysian Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Joseph Williamson
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
- Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
| | - Clare L Wilkinson
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Fabienne Wiederkehr
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Bruce L Webber
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
- CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Floreat, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Oliver R Wearn
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Fauna & Flora International, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Leona Wai
- Danau Girang Field Centre, Kinabatangan, Malaysia
| | - Maisie Vollans
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Joshua P Twining
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Edgar C Turner
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Joseph A Tobias
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Jack Thorley
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Yit Arn Teh
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Heok Hui Tan
- Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Tom Swinfield
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Martin Svátek
- Department of Forest Botany, Dendrology and Geobiocoenology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Matthew Struebig
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Nigel Stork
- Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jani Sleutel
- Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Eleanor M Slade
- Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Adam Sharp
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Conservation & Fisheries Directorate, Ascension Island Government, Georgetown, St Helena Island
| | - Adi Shabrani
- Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
- WWF-Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Sarab S Sethi
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Dave J I Seaman
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Anati Sawang
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Malaysia
- Sabah State Museum, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Gabrielle Briana Roxby
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | | | - Stephen J Rossiter
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Terhi Riutta
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Homathevi Rahman
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Lan Qie
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Life Sciences, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
| | - Elizabeth Psomas
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Oxitec, Abingdon, UK
| | - Aaron Prairie
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Frederica Poznansky
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - Rajeev Pillay
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
- Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Lorenzo Picinali
- Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Annabel Pianzin
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Marion Pfeifer
- School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | | | - Ciar D Noble
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Reuben Nilus
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Nazirah Mustaffa
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Katherine E Mullin
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Simon Mitchell
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Amelia R Mckinlay
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Sarah Maunsell
- School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Radim Matula
- Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Michael Massam
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- School of Biosciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Stephanie Martin
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Field Programmes Department, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, La Profonde Rue, Jersey
| | - Yadvinder Malhi
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Noreen Majalap
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Catherine S Maclean
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Emma Mackintosh
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Forest Research Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia
| | - Sarah H Luke
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Owen T Lewis
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Harry J Layfield
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Isolde Lane-Shaw
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Wood and Forest Science, Laval University, Quebec, Quebec, Canada
| | - Boon Hee Kueh
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Pavel Kratina
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Oliver Konopik
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Wuerzburg, Am Hubland, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Roger Kitching
- School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Lois Kinneen
- School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Department of Sustainable Land Management, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Victoria A Kemp
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Palasiah Jotan
- Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Nick Jones
- Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Evyen W Jebrail
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Michal Hroneš
- Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Sui Peng Heon
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Malaysia
| | - David R Hemprich-Bennett
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Jessica K Haysom
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Martina F Harianja
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jane Hardwick
- School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Marine Resources Unit, Department of Environment, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
| | - Nichar Gregory
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- EcoHealth Alliance, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ryan Gray
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Malaysia
| | - Ross E J Gray
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Natasha Granville
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Richard Gill
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Adam Fraser
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - William A Foster
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Hollie Folkard-Tapp
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Robert J Fletcher
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Arman Hadi Fikri
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Tom M Fayle
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Aisyah Faruk
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Wakehurst, Haywards Heath, UK
| | - Paul Eggleton
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum London, London, UK
| | - David P Edwards
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Rosie Drinkwater
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Rory A Dow
- Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia
- Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Timm F Döbert
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
- CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Floreat, Western Australia, Australia
- Faculty of Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Raphael K Didham
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
- CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Floreat, Western Australia, Australia
| | | | - Nicolas J Deere
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Tijmen de Lorm
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Mahadimenakbar M Dawood
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Charles W Davison
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Zoe G Davies
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Richard G Davies
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
| | - Martin Dančák
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Jeremy Cusack
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Okala, London, UK
| | - Elizabeth L Clare
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
- Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Arthur Chung
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Vun Khen Chey
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Philip M Chapman
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- BSG Ecology, Witney, UK
| | - Lauren Cator
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Daniel Carpenter
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum London, London, UK
| | - Chris Carbone
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK
| | - Kerry Calloway
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum London, London, UK
| | - Emma R Bush
- Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | - Keiron D Brown
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum London, London, UK
| | - Stephen J Brooks
- Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum London, London, UK
| | - Ella Brasington
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Hayley Brant
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Michael J W Boyle
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Sabine Both
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Joshua Blackman
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Tom R Bishop
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Jake E Bicknell
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Saloni Basrur
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | | | - Holly Barclay
- School of Science, Monash University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia
| | - Georgina Atton
- Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Marc Ancrenaz
- Borneo Futures, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
- Kinabatangan Orang-Utan Conservation Programme, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - David C Aldridge
- Department of Zoology, The David Attenborough Building, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Olivia Z Daniel
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Glen Reynolds
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Danum Valley Field Centre, Lahad Datu, Malaysia
| | - Cristina Banks-Leite
- Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
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Walker AEL, Robertson MP, Eggleton P, Fisher AM, Parr CL. Functional compensation in a savanna scavenger community. J Anim Ecol 2024; 93:812-822. [PMID: 38596843 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
Functional redundancy, the potential for the functional role of one species to be fulfilled by another, is a key determinant of ecosystem viability. Scavenging transfers huge amount of energy through ecosystems and is, therefore, crucial for ecosystem viability and healthy ecosystem functioning. Despite this, relatively few studies have examined functional redundancy in scavenger communities. Moreover, the results of these studies are mixed and confined to a very limited range of habitat types and taxonomic groups. This study attempts to address this knowledge gap by conducting a field experiment in an undisturbed natural environment assessing functional roles and redundancy in vertebrate and invertebrate scavenging communities in a South African savanna. We used a large-scale field experiment to suppress ants in four 1 ha plots in a South African savanna and paired each with a control plot. We distributed three types of small food bait: carbohydrate, protein and seed, across the plots and excluded vertebrates from half the baits using cages. Using this combination of ant suppression and vertebrate exclusion, allowed us explore the contribution of non-ant invertebrates, ants and vertebrates in scavenging and also to determine whether either ants or vertebrates were able to compensate for the loss of one another. In this study, we found the invertebrate community carried out a larger proportion of overall scavenging services than vertebrates. Moreover, although scavenging was reduced when either invertebrates or vertebrates were absent, the presence of invertebrates better mitigated the functional loss of vertebrates than did the presence of vertebrates against the functional loss of invertebrates. There is a commonly held assumption that the functional role of vertebrate scavengers exceeds that of invertebrate scavengers; our results suggest that this is not true for small scavenging resources. Our study highlights the importance of invertebrates for securing healthy ecosystem functioning both now and into the future. We also build upon many previous studies which show that ants can have particularly large effects on ecosystem functioning. Importantly, our study suggests that scavenging in some ecosystems may be partly resilient to changes in the scavenging community, due to the potential for functional compensation by vertebrates and ants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice E L Walker
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Mark P Robertson
- Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Paul Eggleton
- Soil Biodiversity Group, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Adam M Fisher
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Catherine L Parr
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South Africa
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Oliveira HKLG, Miranda PN, Ortega JCG, Morato EF. Vertical Stratification of Solitary Bees and Wasps in an Urban Forest from the Brazilian Amazon. NEOTROPICAL ENTOMOLOGY 2024; 53:552-567. [PMID: 38684598 DOI: 10.1007/s13744-024-01142-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024]
Abstract
Solitary bees and wasps that nest in cavities in tree trunks are important components of terrestrial ecosystems, providing pollination services, and in the case of wasps, the regulation of their prey populations. However, little is known about the vertical strata where bees and wasps build their nests. This is especially the case of urban forest remnants in the Amazon, which is relevant in the context of the global crisis in insect losses. We investigated the existence of vertical stratification in the nesting of solitary bees and wasps in an urban forest in Rio Branco, state of Acre, in the western Brazilian Amazon. We focused on whether wood temperature, ants, and termites are predictors of bee and wasp nesting. We sampled bee and wasp nests in the forest using trap-nests made with wooden blocks containing cavities with three different diameters for twelve months. Trap-nests were installed randomly at three heights in the forest. We collected 145 nests of 25 species, belonging to 11 genera and 6 families. A higher number of nests and species were collected in the upper stratum of the forest, strengthening the hypothesis that there is vertical stratification in the assemblage of solitary bees and wasps. Wood surface temperature and termite attacks on trap-nests were significantly different between strata, which may explain the vertical stratification of bee and wasp assemblages. Considering the importance of these insects for tropical forest ecosystems, the conservation of structurally complex and stratified forests is of paramount importance to maintain the diversity of this insect group.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Elder Ferreira Morato
- Laboratório de Ecologia de Insetos, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre - UFAC, Rio Branco, AC, Brazil
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Hoenle PO, Plowman NS, Matos-Maraví P, de Bello F, Bishop TR, Libra M, Idigel C, Rimandai M, Klimes P. Forest disturbance increases functional diversity but decreases phylogenetic diversity of an arboreal tropical ant community. J Anim Ecol 2024; 93:501-516. [PMID: 38409804 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Tropical rainforest trees host a diverse arthropod fauna that can be characterised by their functional diversity (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD). Human disturbance degrades tropical forests, often coinciding with species invasion and altered assembly that leads to a decrease in FD and PD. Tree canopies are thought to be particularly vulnerable, but rarely investigated. Here, we studied the effects of forest disturbance on an ecologically important invertebrate group, the ants, in a lowland rainforest in New Guinea. We compared an early successional disturbed plot (secondary forest) to an old-growth plot (primary forest) by exhaustively sampling their ant communities in a total of 852 trees. We expected that for each tree community (1) disturbance would decrease FD and PD in tree-dwelling ants, mediated through species invasion. (2) Disturbance would decrease ant trait variation due to a more homogeneous environment. (3) The main drivers behind these changes would be different contributions of true tree-nesting species and visiting species. We calculated FD and PD based on a species-level phylogeny and 10 ecomorphological traits. Furthermore, we assessed by data exclusion the influence of species, which were not nesting in individual trees (visitors) or only nesting species (nesters), and of non-native species on FD and PD. Primary forests had higher ant species richness and PD than secondary forest. However, we consistently found increased FD in secondary forest. This pattern was robust even if we decoupled functional and phylogenetic signals, or if non-native ant species were excluded from the data. Visitors did not contribute strongly to FD, but they increased PD and their community weighted trait means often varied from nesters. Moreover, all community-weighted trait means changed after forest disturbance. Our finding of contradictory FD and PD patterns highlights the importance of integrative measures of diversity. Our results indicate that the tree community trait diversity is not negatively affected, but possibly even enhanced by disturbance. Therefore, the functional diversity of arboreal ants is relatively robust when compared between old-growth and young trees. However, further study with higher plot-replication is necessary to solidify and generalise our findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp O Hoenle
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Nichola S Plowman
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Pável Matos-Maraví
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Francesco de Bello
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CSIC-UV-GV), Valencia, Spain
| | - Tom R Bishop
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Martin Libra
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
| | - Cliffson Idigel
- New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, Papua New Guinea
| | - Maling Rimandai
- New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, Papua New Guinea
| | - Petr Klimes
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
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5
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Bartholomew DC, Hayward R, Burslem DFRP, Bittencourt PRL, Chapman D, Bin Suis MAF, Nilus R, O'Brien MJ, Reynolds G, Rowland L, Banin LF, Dent D. Bornean tropical forests recovering from logging at risk of regeneration failure. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e17209. [PMID: 38469989 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/17/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
Active restoration through silvicultural treatments (enrichment planting, cutting climbers and liberation thinning) is considered an important intervention in logged forests. However, its ability to enhance regeneration is key for long-term recovery of logged forests, which remains poorly understood, particularly for the production and survival of seedlings in subsequent generations. To understand the long-term impacts of logging and restoration we tracked the diversity, survival and traits of seedlings that germinated immediately after a mast fruiting in North Borneo in unlogged and logged forests 30-35 years after logging. We monitored 5119 seedlings from germination for ~1.5 years across a mixed landscape of unlogged forests (ULs), naturally regenerating logged forests (NR) and actively restored logged forests via rehabilitative silvicultural treatments (AR), 15-27 years after restoration. We measured 14 leaf, root and biomass allocation traits on 399 seedlings from 15 species. Soon after fruiting, UL and AR forests had higher seedling densities than NR forest, but survival was the lowest in AR forests in the first 6 months. Community composition differed among forest types; AR and NR forests had lower species richness and lower evenness than UL forests by 5-6 months post-mast but did not differ between them. Differences in community composition altered community-weighted mean trait values across forest types, with higher root biomass allocation in NR relative to UL forest. Traits influenced mortality ~3 months post-mast, with more acquisitive traits and relative aboveground investment favoured in AR forests relative to UL forests. Our findings of reduced seedling survival and diversity suggest long time lags in post-logging recruitment, particularly for some taxa. Active restoration of logged forests recovers initial seedling production, but elevated mortality in AR forests lowers the efficacy of active restoration to enhance recruitment or diversity of seedling communities. This suggests current active restoration practices may fail to overcome barriers to regeneration in logged forests, which may drive long-term changes in future forest plant communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Bartholomew
- School of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond, UK
| | - Robin Hayward
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
- School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
| | | | | | - Daniel Chapman
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | | | - Reuben Nilus
- Forest Research Centre Sepilok, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Michael J O'Brien
- Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Almería, Spain
| | - Glen Reynolds
- SE Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Lucy Rowland
- School of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | | | - Daisy Dent
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
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6
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Sze JS, Childs DZ, Carrasco LR, Fernández-Llamazares Á, Garnett ST, Edwards DP. Indigenous Peoples' Lands are critical for safeguarding vertebrate diversity across the tropics. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2024; 30:e16981. [PMID: 37888836 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
Indigenous Peoples are long-term custodians of their lands, but only recently are their contributions to conservation starting to be recognized in biodiversity policy and practice. Tropical forest loss and degradation are lower in Indigenous lands than unprotected areas, yet the role of Indigenous Peoples' Lands (IPL) in biodiversity conservation has not been properly assessed from regional to global scales. Using species distribution ranges of 11,872 tropical forest-dependent vertebrates to create area of habitat maps, we identified the overlap of these species ranges with IPL and then compared values inside and outside of IPL for species richness, extinction vulnerability, and range-size rarity. Of assessed vertebrates, at least 76.8% had range overlaps with IPL, on average overlapping ~25% of their ranges; at least 120 species were found only within IPL. Species richness within IPL was highest in South America, while IPL in Southeast Asia had highest extinction vulnerability, and IPL in Dominica and New Caledonia were important for range-size rarity. Most countries in the Americas had higher species richness within IPL than outside, whereas most countries in Asia had lower extinction vulnerability scores inside IPL and more countries in Africa and Asia had slightly higher range-size rarity in IPL. Our findings suggest that IPL provide critical support for tropical forest-dependent vertebrates, highlighting the need for greater inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in conservation target-setting and program implementation, and stronger upholding of Indigenous Peoples' rights in conservation policy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jocelyne S Sze
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Dylan Z Childs
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - L Roman Carrasco
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
- Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology (BABVE-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Stephen T Garnett
- Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - David P Edwards
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
- Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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7
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Akande OJ, Ma Z, Huang C, He F, Chang SX. Meta-analysis shows forest soil CO 2 effluxes are dependent on the disturbance regime and biome type. Ecol Lett 2023; 26:765-777. [PMID: 36958933 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2022] [Revised: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/25/2023]
Abstract
Forest soil CO2 efflux (FCO2 ) is a crucial process in global carbon cycling; however, how FCO2 responds to disturbance regimes in different forest biomes is poorly understood. We quantified the effects of disturbance regimes on FCO2 across boreal, temperate, tropical and Mediterranean forests based on 1240 observations from 380 studies. Globally, climatic perturbations such as elevated CO2 concentration, warming and increased precipitation increase FCO2 by 13% to 25%. FCO2 is increased by forest conversion to grassland and elevated carbon input by forest management practices but reduced by decreased carbon input, fire and acid rain. Disturbance also changes soil temperature and water content, which in turn affect the direction and magnitude of disturbance influences on FCO2 . FCO2 is disturbance- and biome-type dependent and such effects should be incorporated into earth system models to improve the projection of the feedback between the terrestrial C cycle and climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oluwabunmi J Akande
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Zilong Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Chenyan Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Fangliang He
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Scott X Chang
- Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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8
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Butterworth NJ, Wallman JF, Johnston NP, Dawson BM, Sharp-Heward J, McGaughran A. The blowfly Chrysomya latifrons inhabits fragmented rainforests, but shows no population structure. Oecologia 2023; 201:703-719. [PMID: 36773072 PMCID: PMC10038970 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-023-05333-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Climate change and deforestation are causing rainforests to become increasingly fragmented, placing them at heightened risk of biodiversity loss. Invertebrates constitute the greatest proportion of this biodiversity, yet we lack basic knowledge of their population structure and ecology. There is a compelling need to develop our understanding of the population dynamics of a wide range of rainforest invertebrates so that we can begin to understand how rainforest fragments are connected, and how they will cope with future habitat fragmentation and climate change. Blowflies are an ideal candidate for such research because they are widespread, abundant, and can be easily collected within rainforests. We genotyped 188 blowflies (Chrysomya latifrons) from 15 isolated rainforests and found high levels of gene flow, a lack of genetic structure between rainforests, and low genetic diversity - suggesting the presence of a single large genetically depauperate population. This highlights that: (1) the blowfly Ch. latifrons inhabits a ~ 1000 km stretch of Australian rainforests, where it plays an important role as a nutrient recycler; (2) strongly dispersing flies can migrate between and connect isolated rainforests, likely carrying pollen, parasites, phoronts, and pathogens along with them; and (3) widely dispersing and abundant insects can nevertheless be genetically depauperate. There is an urgent need to better understand the relationships between habitat fragmentation, genetic diversity, and adaptive potential-especially for poorly dispersing rainforest-restricted insects, as many of these may be particularly fragmented and at highest risk of local extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan J Butterworth
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.
- Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia.
| | - James F Wallman
- Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia
- Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia
| | - Nikolas P Johnston
- Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia
- Department of Ecology and Biogeography, Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 87-100, Toruń, Poland
- Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia
| | - Blake M Dawson
- Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia
| | - Joshua Sharp-Heward
- Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia
| | - Angela McGaughran
- Te Aka Mātuatua - School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand
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9
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Malhi Y, Riutta T, Wearn OR, Deere NJ, Mitchell SL, Bernard H, Majalap N, Nilus R, Davies ZG, Ewers RM, Struebig MJ. Logged tropical forests have amplified and diverse ecosystem energetics. Nature 2022; 612:707-713. [PMID: 36517596 PMCID: PMC9771799 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05523-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Old-growth tropical forests are widely recognized as being immensely important for their biodiversity and high biomass1. Conversely, logged tropical forests are usually characterized as degraded ecosystems2. However, whether logging results in a degradation in ecosystem functions is less clear: shifts in the strength and resilience of key ecosystem processes in large suites of species have rarely been assessed in an ecologically integrated and quantitative framework. Here we adopt an ecosystem energetics lens to gain new insight into the impacts of tropical forest disturbance on a key integrative aspect of ecological function: food pathways and community structure of birds and mammals. We focus on a gradient spanning old-growth and logged forests and oil palm plantations in Borneo. In logged forest there is a 2.5-fold increase in total resource consumption by both birds and mammals compared to that in old-growth forests, probably driven by greater resource accessibility and vegetation palatability. Most principal energetic pathways maintain high species diversity and redundancy, implying maintained resilience. Conversion of logged forest into oil palm plantation results in the collapse of most energetic pathways. Far from being degraded ecosystems, even heavily logged forests can be vibrant and diverse ecosystems with enhanced levels of ecological function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yadvinder Malhi
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Terhi Riutta
- Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Oliver R Wearn
- Fauna & Flora International, Vietnam Programme, Hanoi, Vietnam
| | - Nicolas J Deere
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Simon L Mitchell
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Noreen Majalap
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Reuben Nilus
- Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - Zoe G Davies
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Robert M Ewers
- Georgina Mace Centre, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK
| | - Matthew J Struebig
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
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11
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Pashkevich MD, Spear DM, Advento AD, Caliman JP, Foster WA, Luke SH, Naim M, Ps S, Snaddon JL, Turner EC. Spiders in canopy and ground microhabitats are robust to changes in understory vegetation management practices in mature oil palm plantations (Riau, Indonesia). Basic Appl Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2022.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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12
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Hemprich-Bennett DR, Kemp VA, Blackman J, Lewis OT, Struebig MJ, Bernard H, Kratina P, Rossiter SJ, Clare EL. Selective Logging Shows No Impact on the Dietary Breadth of a Generalist Bat Species: The Fawn Leaf-Nosed Bat (Hipposideros cervinus). Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.750269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Logging activities degrade forest habitats across large areas of the tropics, but the impacts on trophic interactions that underpin forest ecosystems are poorly understood. DNA metabarcoding provides an invaluable tool to investigate such interactions, allowing analysis at a far greater scale and resolution than has previously been possible. We analysed the diet of the insectivorous fawn leaf-nosed bat Hipposideros cervinus across a forest disturbance gradient in Borneo, using a dataset of ecological interactions from an unprecedented number of bat-derived faecal samples. Bats predominantly consumed insects from the orders Lepidoptera, Diptera, Blattodea, and Coleoptera, and the taxonomic composition of their diet remained relatively consistent across sites regardless of logging disturbance. There was little difference in the richness of prey consumed per-bat in each logging treatment, indicating potential resilience of this species to habitat degradation. In fact, bats consumed a high richness of prey items, and intensive sampling is needed to reliably compare feeding ecology over multiple sites. Multiple bioinformatic parameters were used, to assess how they altered our perception of sampling completeness. While parameter choice altered estimates of completeness, a very high sampling effort was always required to detect the entire prey community.
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13
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Yeo D, Srivathsan A, Puniamoorthy J, Maosheng F, Grootaert P, Chan L, Guénard B, Damken C, Wahab RA, Yuchen A, Meier R. Mangroves are an overlooked hotspot of insect diversity despite low plant diversity. BMC Biol 2021; 19:202. [PMID: 34521395 PMCID: PMC8442405 DOI: 10.1186/s12915-021-01088-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The world's fast disappearing mangrove forests have low plant diversity and are often assumed to also have a species-poor insect fauna. We here compare the tropical arthropod fauna across a freshwater swamp and six different forest types (rain-, swamp, dry-coastal, urban, freshwater swamp, mangroves) based on 140,000 barcoded specimens belonging to ca. 8500 species. RESULTS We find that the globally imperiled habitat "mangroves" is an overlooked hotspot for insect diversity. Our study reveals a species-rich mangrove insect fauna (>3000 species in Singapore alone) that is distinct (>50% of species are mangrove-specific) and has high species turnover across Southeast and East Asia. For most habitats, plant diversity is a good predictor of insect diversity, but mangroves are an exception and compensate for a comparatively low number of phytophagous and fungivorous insect species by supporting an unusually rich community of predators whose larvae feed in the productive mudflats. For the remaining tropical habitats, the insect communities have diversity patterns that are largely congruent across guilds. CONCLUSIONS The discovery of such a sizeable and distinct insect fauna in a globally threatened habitat underlines how little is known about global insect biodiversity. We here show how such knowledge gaps can be closed quickly with new cost-effective NGS barcoding techniques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darren Yeo
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science 8 Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore.
| | - Amrita Srivathsan
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science 8 Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore
| | - Jayanthi Puniamoorthy
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science 8 Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore
| | - Foo Maosheng
- Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore, 117377, Singapore
| | - Patrick Grootaert
- National Biodiversity Centre, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Lena Chan
- International Biodiversity Conservation Division, National Parks Board, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore, 259569, Singapore
| | - Benoit Guénard
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China
| | - Claas Damken
- Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Research, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Universiti, BE1410, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam
| | - Rodzay A Wahab
- Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Research, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Universiti, BE1410, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam
| | - Ang Yuchen
- Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore, 117377, Singapore
| | - Rudolf Meier
- Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstr. 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany.
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science 8 Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore.
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14
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Alvarado‐Montero S, Boesing AL, Metzger JP, Jaffé R. Higher forest cover and less contrasting matrices improve carrion removal service by scavenger insects in tropical landscapes. J Appl Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sebastián Alvarado‐Montero
- Department of Ecology University of São Paulo São Paulo Brazil
- Costa Rica Wildlife Foundation San José Costa Rica
| | | | | | - Rodolfo Jaffé
- Department of Ecology University of São Paulo São Paulo Brazil
- Vale Institute of Technology – Sustainable Development Rua Boaventura da Silva Belém Brazil
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Messina S, Edwards DP, Van Houtte N, Tomassi S, Benedick S, Eens M, Costantini D. Impacts of selective logging on haemosporidian infection and physiological correlates in tropical birds. Int J Parasitol 2021; 52:87-96. [PMID: 34450133 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Tropical forest degradation affects host-parasite interactions, determining the probability of animals acquiring an infection. The activation of an immune response to fight off infections requires energy and other resources such as antioxidants which may be redirected from growth and reproduction. A key question is how selective logging-the most common form of tropical forest degradation-impacts the prevalence of avian haemosporidian infection and its correlated physiological responses (nutritional and oxidative status markers). We investigated the prevalence of Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon parasites in 14 understorey bird species in lowland, logged and unlogged, old-growth forests of Borneo. Prevalences of infections were similar between selectively logged and unlogged forests. To explore nutritional and oxidative status effects of haemosporidian infections, we examined associations between infections and plasma proteins, plasma triglycerides, and multiple blood-based markers of oxidative status, testing for an impact of selective logging on those markers. Birds infected with Plasmodium showed higher levels of plasma proteins and non-enzymatic antioxidant capacity, and lower levels of plasma triglycerides and glutathione, compared with haemosporidian-free individuals. Conversely, birds infected with Haemoproteus showed no changes in nutritional or physiological markers compared with uninfected individuals. These results indicate higher metabolic and physiological costs of controlling Plasmodium infection, compared with Haemoproteus, possibly due to higher pathogenicity of Plasmodium. Selectively logged forests had no effect on the responses of birds to infection, suggesting that the environmental conditions of degraded forests do not appear to induce any appreciable physiological demands in parasitised birds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Messina
- Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium.
| | - David Paul Edwards
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Natalie Van Houtte
- Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Suzanne Tomassi
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Suzan Benedick
- School of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Marcel Eens
- Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - David Costantini
- UMR 7221 CNRS/MNHN, Muséum National d'Histoirie Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 7 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
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16
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Atikah SN, Yahya MS, Norhisham AR, Kamarudin N, Sanusi R, Azhar B. Effects of vegetation structure on avian biodiversity in a selectively logged hill dipterocarp forest. Glob Ecol Conserv 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
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17
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De Frenne P, Lenoir J, Luoto M, Scheffers BR, Zellweger F, Aalto J, Ashcroft MB, Christiansen DM, Decocq G, De Pauw K, Govaert S, Greiser C, Gril E, Hampe A, Jucker T, Klinges DH, Koelemeijer IA, Lembrechts JJ, Marrec R, Meeussen C, Ogée J, Tyystjärvi V, Vangansbeke P, Hylander K. Forest microclimates and climate change: Importance, drivers and future research agenda. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:2279-2297. [PMID: 33725415 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 45.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 02/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Forest microclimates contrast strongly with the climate outside forests. To fully understand and better predict how forests' biodiversity and functions relate to climate and climate change, microclimates need to be integrated into ecological research. Despite the potentially broad impact of microclimates on the response of forest ecosystems to global change, our understanding of how microclimates within and below tree canopies modulate biotic responses to global change at the species, community and ecosystem level is still limited. Here, we review how spatial and temporal variation in forest microclimates result from an interplay of forest features, local water balance, topography and landscape composition. We first stress and exemplify the importance of considering forest microclimates to understand variation in biodiversity and ecosystem functions across forest landscapes. Next, we explain how macroclimate warming (of the free atmosphere) can affect microclimates, and vice versa, via interactions with land-use changes across different biomes. Finally, we perform a priority ranking of future research avenues at the interface of microclimate ecology and global change biology, with a specific focus on three key themes: (1) disentangling the abiotic and biotic drivers and feedbacks of forest microclimates; (2) global and regional mapping and predictions of forest microclimates; and (3) the impacts of microclimate on forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the face of climate change. The availability of microclimatic data will significantly increase in the coming decades, characterizing climate variability at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales relevant to biological processes in forests. This will revolutionize our understanding of the dynamics, drivers and implications of forest microclimates on biodiversity and ecological functions, and the impacts of global changes. In order to support the sustainable use of forests and to secure their biodiversity and ecosystem services for future generations, microclimates cannot be ignored.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jonathan Lenoir
- UMR 7058 CNRS "Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
| | - Miska Luoto
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Brett R Scheffers
- Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | | | - Juha Aalto
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Weather and Climate Change Impact Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Michael B Ashcroft
- Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Ditte M Christiansen
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Guillaume Decocq
- UMR 7058 CNRS "Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
| | - Karen De Pauw
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode, Belgium
| | - Sanne Govaert
- Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode, Belgium
| | - Caroline Greiser
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Eva Gril
- UMR 7058 CNRS "Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
| | - Arndt Hampe
- INRAE, Univ. Bordeaux, BIOGECO, Cestas, France
| | - Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - David H Klinges
- School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Irena A Koelemeijer
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Ronan Marrec
- UMR 7058 CNRS "Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés" (EDYSAN), Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
| | | | - Jérôme Ogée
- INRAE, Bordeaux Science Agro, ISPA, Villenave d'Ornon, France
| | - Vilna Tyystjärvi
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Weather and Climate Change Impact Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Kristoffer Hylander
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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18
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Griffiths HM, Eggleton P, Hemming-Schroeder N, Swinfield T, Woon JS, Allison SD, Coomes DA, Ashton LA, Parr CL. Carbon flux and forest dynamics: Increased deadwood decomposition in tropical rainforest tree-fall canopy gaps. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2021; 27:1601-1613. [PMID: 33506557 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Tree mortality rates are increasing within tropical rainforests as a result of global environmental change. When trees die, gaps are created in forest canopies and carbon is transferred from the living to deadwood pools. However, little is known about the effect of tree-fall canopy gaps on the activity of decomposer communities and the rate of deadwood decay in forests. This means that the accuracy of regional and global carbon budgets is uncertain, especially given ongoing changes to the structure of rainforest ecosystems. Therefore, to determine the effect of canopy openings on wood decay rates and regional carbon flux, we carried out the first assessment of deadwood mass loss within canopy gaps in old-growth rainforest. We used replicated canopy gaps paired with closed canopy sites in combination with macroinvertebrate accessible and inaccessible woodblocks to experimentally partition the relative contribution of microbes vs. termites to decomposition within contrasting understorey conditions. We show that over a 12 month period, wood mass loss increased by 63% in canopy gaps compared with closed canopy sites and that this increase was driven by termites. Using LiDAR data to quantify the proportion of canopy openings in the study region, we modelled the effect of observed changes in decomposition within gaps on regional carbon flux. Overall, we estimate that this accelerated decomposition increases regional wood decay rate by up to 18.2%, corresponding to a flux increase of 0.27 Mg C ha-1 year-1 that is not currently accounted for in regional carbon budgets. These results provide the first insights into how small-scale disturbances in rainforests can generate hotspots for decomposer activity and carbon fluxes. In doing so, we show that including canopy gap dynamics and their impacts on wood decomposition in forest ecosystems can help improve the predictive accuracy of the carbon cycle in land surface models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah M Griffiths
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Paul Eggleton
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | | | - Tom Swinfield
- Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Centre for Conservation Science, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Cambridge, UK
| | - Joel S Woon
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Steven D Allison
- Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - David A Coomes
- Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Louise A Ashton
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Catherine L Parr
- School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South Africa
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19
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Fungi and insects compensate for lost vertebrate seed predation in an experimentally defaunated tropical forest. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1650. [PMID: 33712621 PMCID: PMC7955059 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21978-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Overhunting reduces important plant-animal interactions such as vertebrate seed dispersal and seed predation, thereby altering plant regeneration and even above-ground biomass. It remains unclear, however, if non-hunted species can compensate for lost vertebrates in defaunated ecosystems. We use a nested exclusion experiment to isolate the effects of different seed enemies in a Bornean rainforest. In four of five tree species, vertebrates kill many seeds (13-66%). Nonetheless, when large mammals are excluded, seed mortality from insects and fungi fully compensates for the lost vertebrate predation, such that defaunation has no effect on seedling establishment. The switch from seed predation by generalist vertebrates to specialist insects and fungi in defaunated systems may alter Janzen-Connell effects and density-dependence in plants. Previous work using simulation models to explore how lost seed dispersal will affect tree species composition and carbon storage may require reevaluation in the context of functional redundancy within complex species interactions networks.
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20
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Abstract
Plant phenology is strongly interlinked with ecosystem processes and biodiversity. Like many other aspects of ecosystem functioning, it is affected by habitat and climate change, with both global change drivers altering the timings and frequency of phenological events. As such, there has been an increased focus in recent years to monitor phenology in different biomes. A range of approaches for monitoring phenology have been developed to increase our understanding on its role in ecosystems, ranging from the use of satellites and drones to collection traps, each with their own merits and limitations. Here, we outline the trade-offs between methods (spatial resolution, temporal resolution, cost, data processing), and discuss how their use can be optimised in different environments and for different goals. We also emphasise emerging technologies that will be the focus of monitoring in the years to follow and the challenges of monitoring phenology that still need to be addressed. We conclude that there is a need to integrate studies that incorporate multiple monitoring methods, allowing the strengths of one to compensate for the weaknesses of another, with a view to developing robust methods for upscaling phenological observations from point locations to biome and global scales and reconciling data from varied sources and environments. Such developments are needed if we are to accurately quantify the impacts of a changing world on plant phenology.
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21
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Boyle MJW, Bishop TR, Luke SH, Breugel M, Evans TA, Pfeifer M, Fayle TM, Hardwick SR, Lane‐Shaw RI, Yusah KM, Ashford ICR, Ashford OS, Garnett E, Turner EC, Wilkinson CL, Chung AYC, Ewers RM. Localised climate change defines ant communities in human‐modified tropical landscapes. Funct Ecol 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael J. W. Boyle
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
- Department of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore Singapore City Singapore
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong City Hong Kong
| | - Tom R. Bishop
- Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool UK
| | - Sarah H. Luke
- School of Biological Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich UK
- Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
| | - Michiel Breugel
- Forest GEOSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute Panama
- Yale‐NUS College Singapore City Singapore
| | - Theodore A. Evans
- Department of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore Singapore City Singapore
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Western Australia Crawley Australia
| | - Marion Pfeifer
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
- School of Biology Newcastle University Newcastle Upon Tyne UK
| | - Tom M. Fayle
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Entomology Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sabah Sabah Malaysia
| | | | | | - Kalsum M. Yusah
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sabah Sabah Malaysia
| | | | - Oliver S. Ashford
- Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
- Integrative Oceanography Division Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California San Diego San Diego CA USA
| | - Emma Garnett
- Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
| | - Edgar C. Turner
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
- Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
| | - Clare L. Wilkinson
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
- Department of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore Singapore City Singapore
| | | | - Robert M. Ewers
- Department of Life Sciences Imperial College London Silwood Park UK
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22
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Drinkwater R, Jucker T, Potter JHT, Swinfield T, Coomes DA, Slade EM, Gilbert MTP, Lewis OT, Bernard H, Struebig MJ, Clare EL, Rossiter SJ. Leech blood-meal invertebrate-derived DNA reveals differences in Bornean mammal diversity across habitats. Mol Ecol 2020; 30:3299-3312. [PMID: 33171014 PMCID: PMC8359290 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15724] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The application of metabarcoding to environmental and invertebrate‐derived DNA (eDNA and iDNA) is a new and increasingly applied method for monitoring biodiversity across a diverse range of habitats. This approach is particularly promising for sampling in the biodiverse humid tropics, where rapid land‐use change for agriculture means there is a growing need to understand the conservation value of the remaining mosaic and degraded landscapes. Here we use iDNA from blood‐feeding leeches (Haemadipsa picta) to assess differences in mammalian diversity across a gradient of forest degradation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. We screened 557 individual leeches for mammal DNA by targeting fragments of the 16S rRNA gene and detected 14 mammalian genera. We recorded lower mammal diversity in the most heavily degraded forest compared to higher quality twice logged forest. Although the accumulation curves of diversity estimates were comparable across these habitat types, diversity was higher in twice logged forest, with more taxa of conservation concern. In addition, our analysis revealed differences between the community recorded in the heavily logged forest and that of the twice logged forest. By revealing differences in mammal diversity across a human‐modified tropical landscape, our study demonstrates the value of iDNA as a noninvasive biomonitoring approach in conservation assessments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosie Drinkwater
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Tommaso Jucker
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Joshua H T Potter
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Tom Swinfield
- Department of Plant Sciences, Forest and Ecology Conservation Group, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - David A Coomes
- Department of Plant Sciences, Forest and Ecology Conservation Group, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Eleanor M Slade
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore City, Singapore
| | - M Thomas P Gilbert
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.,University Museum, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Owen T Lewis
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Matthew J Struebig
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Elizabeth L Clare
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Stephen J Rossiter
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
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23
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Chan AA, Banks-Leite C. Habitat modification mediates the strength of trophic cascades on oak trees. Perspect Ecol Conserv 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
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24
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Maximizing the value of forest restoration for tropical mammals by detecting three-dimensional habitat associations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:26254-26262. [PMID: 32989143 PMCID: PMC7584909 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001823117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Tropical forest ecosystems are facing unprecedented levels of degradation, severely compromising habitat suitability for wildlife. Despite the fundamental role biodiversity plays in forest regeneration, identifying and prioritizing degraded forests for restoration or conservation, based on their wildlife value, remains a significant challenge. Efforts to characterize habitat selection are also weakened by simple classifications of human-modified tropical forests as intact vs. degraded, which ignore the influence that three-dimensional (3D) forest structure may have on species distributions. Here, we develop a framework to identify conservation and restoration opportunities across logged forests in Borneo. We couple high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and camera trap data to characterize the response of a tropical mammal community to changes in 3D forest structure across a degradation gradient. Mammals were most responsive to covariates that accounted explicitly for the vertical and horizontal characteristics of the forest and actively selected structurally complex environments comprising tall canopies, increased plant area index throughout the vertical column, and the availability of a greater diversity of niches. We show that mammals are sensitive to structural simplification through disturbance, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and enhancing structurally intact forests. By calculating occurrence thresholds of species in response to forest structural change, we identify areas of degraded forest that would provide maximum benefit for multiple high-conservation value species if restored. The study demonstrates the advantages of using LiDAR to map forest structure, rather than relying on overly simplistic classifications of human-modified tropical forests, for prioritizing regions for restoration.
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25
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Fairweather AD, Lewis JH, Hunt L, McAlpine DF, Smith MA. Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Rockwood Park, New Brunswick: An Assessment of Species Richness and Habitat. Northeast Nat (Steuben) 2020. [DOI: 10.1656/045.027.0316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Aaron D. Fairweather
- Department of Natural History, New Brunswick Museum, 277 Douglas Avenue, Saint John, NB E2K 1E5, Canada
| | - Jake H. Lewis
- Department of Natural History, New Brunswick Museum, 277 Douglas Avenue, Saint John, NB E2K 1E5, Canada
| | - Laura Hunt
- Department of Natural History, New Brunswick Museum, 277 Douglas Avenue, Saint John, NB E2K 1E5, Canada
| | - Donald F. McAlpine
- Department of Natural History, New Brunswick Museum, 277 Douglas Avenue, Saint John, NB E2K 1E5, Canada
| | - M. Alex Smith
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road E, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
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26
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Harrison MLK, Banks-Leite C. Edge effects on trophic cascades in tropical rainforests. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2020; 34:977-987. [PMID: 31762059 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2019] [Revised: 10/20/2019] [Accepted: 11/08/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The cascading effects of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning of forests have become more apparent. However, how edge effects shape these processes has yet to be established. We assessed how edge effects alter arthropod populations and the strength of any resultant trophic cascades on herbivory rate in tropical forests of Brazil. We established 7 paired forest edge and interior sites. Each site had a vertebrate-exclosure, procedural (exclosure framework with open walls), and control plot (total 42 plots). Forest patches were surrounded by pasture. Understory arthropods and leaf damage were sampled every 4 weeks for 11 months. We used path analysis to determine the strength of trophic cascades in the interior and edge sites. In forest interior exclosures, abundance of predaceous and herbivorous arthropods increased by 326% and 180%, respectively, compared with control plots, and there were significant cascading effects on herbivory. Edge-dwelling invertebrates responded weakly to exclusion and there was no evidence of trophic cascade. Our results suggest that the vertebrate community at forest edges controls invertebrate densities to a lesser extent than it does in the interior. Edge areas can support vertebrate communities with a smaller contingent of insectivores. This allows arthropods to flourish and indirectly accounts for higher levels of plant damage at these sites. Increased herbivory rates may have important consequences for floristic community composition and primary productivity, as well as cascading effects on nutrient cycling. By interspersing natural forest patches with agroforests, instead of pasture, abiotic edge effects can be softened and prevented from penetrating deep into the forest. This would ensure a greater proportion of forest remains habitable for sensitive species and could help retain ecosystem functions in edge zones.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cristina Banks-Leite
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, U.K
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27
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Messina S, Edwards DP, AbdElgawad H, Beemster GTS, Tomassi S, Benedick S, Eens M, Costantini D. Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds. J Anim Ecol 2020; 89:2222-2234. [PMID: 32535926 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2019] [Accepted: 05/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Selective logging is the dominant form of human disturbance in tropical forests, driving changes in the abundance of vertebrate and invertebrate populations relative to undisturbed old-growth forests. A key unresolved question is understanding which physiological mechanisms underlie different responses of species and functional groups to selective logging. Regulation of oxidative status is thought to be one major physiological mechanism underlying the capability of species to cope with environmental changes. Using a correlational cross-sectional approach, we compared a number of oxidative status markers among 15 understorey bird species in unlogged and selectively logged forest in Borneo in relation to their feeding guild. We then tested how variation of markers between forest types was associated with that in population abundance. Birds living in logged forests had a higher activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase and a different regulation of the glutathione cycle compared to conspecific birds in unlogged forest. However, neither oxidative damage nor oxidized glutathione differed between forest types. We also found that omnivores and insectivores differed significantly in all markers related to the key cellular antioxidant glutathione irrespective of the forest type. Species with higher levels of certain antioxidant markers in a given type of forest were less abundant in that forest type compared to the other. Our results suggest that there was little long-term effect of logging (last logging rotation occurred ~15 years prior to the study) on the oxidative status of understorey bird species. However, it is unclear if this was owing to plasticity or evolutionary change. Our correlative results also point to a potential negative association between some antioxidants and population abundance irrespective of the forest type.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Messina
- Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - David P Edwards
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Hamada AbdElgawad
- Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Botany and Microbiology Department, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt
| | - Gerrit T S Beemster
- Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research (IMPRES), Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Suzanne Tomassi
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Suzan Benedick
- School of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Marcel Eens
- Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - David Costantini
- Unité Physiologie Moléculaire et Adaptation (PhyMA), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Paris, France
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28
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Lee RH, Wang CL, Guénard B. The ecological implications of rubber‐based agroforestry: Insect conservation and invasion control. J Appl Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Roger Ho Lee
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong City Hong Kong
| | - Chase Liu‐Wei Wang
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong City Hong Kong
| | - Benoit Guénard
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong City Hong Kong
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29
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Cosset CCP, Gilroy JJ, Srinivasan U, Hethcoat MG, Edwards DP. Mass-abundance scaling in avian communities is maintained after tropical selective logging. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:2803-2812. [PMID: 32211157 PMCID: PMC7083669 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Selective logging dominates forested landscapes across the tropics. Despite the structural damage incurred, selectively logged forests typically retain more biodiversity than other forest disturbances. Most logging impact studies consider conventional metrics, like species richness, but these can conceal subtle biodiversity impacts. The mass-abundance relationship is an integral feature of ecological communities, describing the negative relationship between body mass and population abundance, where, in a system without anthropogenic influence, larger species are less abundant due to higher energy requirements. Changes in this relationship can indicate community structure and function changes.We investigated the impacts of selective logging on the mass-abundance scaling of avian communities by conducting a meta-analysis to examine its pantropical trend. We divide our analysis between studies using mist netting, sampling the understory avian community, and point counts, sampling the entire community.Across 19 mist-netting studies, we found no consistent effects of selective logging on mass-abundance scaling relative to primary forests, except for the omnivore guild where there were fewer larger-bodied species after logging. In eleven point-count studies, we found a more negative relationship in the whole community after logging, likely driven by the frugivore guild, showing a similar pattern.Limited effects of logging on mass-abundance scaling may suggest high species turnover in logged communities, with like-for-like replacement of lost species with similar-sized species. The increased negative mass-abundance relationship found in some logged communities could result from resource depletion, density compensation, or increased hunting; potentially indicating downstream impacts on ecosystem functions. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that size distributions of avian communities in logged forests are relatively robust to disturbance, potentially maintaining ecosystem processes in these forests, thus underscoring the high conservation value of logged tropical forests, indicating an urgent need to focus on their protection from further degradation and deforestation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cindy C P Cosset
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - James J Gilroy
- School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich UK
| | - Umesh Srinivasan
- Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs Princeton University Princeton NJ USA
| | - Matthew G Hethcoat
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
- School of Mathematics and Statistics University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
- Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
| | - David P Edwards
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield Sheffield UK
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30
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Stone MJ, Shoo L, Stork NE, Sheldon F, Catterall CP. Recovery of decomposition rates and decomposer invertebrates during rain forest restoration on disused pasture. Biotropica 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marisa J. Stone
- Environmental Futures Research Institute School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia
| | - Luke Shoo
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Queensland St Lucia Queensland Australia
| | - Nigel E. Stork
- Environmental Futures Research Institute School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia
| | - Fran Sheldon
- Australian Rivers Institute School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia
| | - Carla P. Catterall
- Environmental Futures Research Institute School of Environment and Science Griffith University Nathan Queensland Australia
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31
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Goldman AE, Bonebrake TC, Tsang TPN, Evans TA, Gibson L, Eggleton P, Griffiths HM, Parr CL, Ashton LA. Drought and presence of ants can influence hemiptera in tropical leaf litter. Biotropica 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Anna E. Goldman
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China
| | | | - Toby P. N. Tsang
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China
| | - Theodore A. Evans
- School of Biological Sciences University of Western Australia Perth WA Australia
| | - Luke Gibson
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen China
| | - Paul Eggleton
- Department of Life Sciences Natural History Museum London UK
| | | | - Catherine L. Parr
- School of Environmental Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool UK
| | - Louise A. Ashton
- School of Biological Sciences The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong China
- Department of Life Sciences Natural History Museum London UK
- Environmental Futures Research Institute Griffith University Brisbane QLD Australia
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Scriven SA, Williams SH, Ghani MA, Agama AL, Benedick S, Brodie JF, Hamer KC, McClean CJ, Reynolds G, Hill JK. Assessing the effectiveness of protected areas for conserving range‐restricted rain forest butterflies in Sabah, Borneo. Biotropica 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12708] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Sara H. Williams
- Division of Biological Sciences and Wildlife Biology Program University of Montana Missoula MT USA
| | - Mazidi A. Ghani
- Department of Biology University of York York UK
- WWF‐Malaysia Sabah Office Kota Kinabalu Malaysia
| | - Agnes L. Agama
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) Lahad Datu Malaysia
| | - Suzan Benedick
- Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture Universiti Malaysia Sabah Sandakan Malaysia
| | - Jedediah F. Brodie
- Division of Biological Sciences and Wildlife Biology Program University of Montana Missoula MT USA
| | - Keith C. Hamer
- School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences University of Leeds Leeds UK
| | - Colin J. McClean
- Department of Environment and Geography University of York York UK
| | - Glen Reynolds
- South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) Lahad Datu Malaysia
| | - Jane K. Hill
- Department of Biology University of York York UK
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França FM, Ferreira J, Vaz‐de‐Mello FZ, Maia LF, Berenguer E, Ferraz Palmeira A, Fadini R, Louzada J, Braga R, Hugo Oliveira V, Barlow J. El Niño impacts on human‐modified tropical forests: Consequences for dung beetle diversity and associated ecological processes. Biotropica 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12756] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Filipe M. França
- Embrapa Amazônia Oriental Belém Brazil
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal do Pará Belém Brazil
- Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK
| | - Joice Ferreira
- Embrapa Amazônia Oriental Belém Brazil
- Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal do Pará Belém Brazil
| | | | - Laís F. Maia
- Bio‐Protection Research Centre School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand
| | - Erika Berenguer
- Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK
- Environmental Change Institute University of Oxford Oxford UK
| | | | - Rodrigo Fadini
- Instituto de Biodiversidade e Florestas Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará Santarém Brazil
| | - Júlio Louzada
- Departamento de Biologia Universidade Federal de Lavras Lavras Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Braga
- Departamento de Biologia Universidade Federal de Lavras Lavras Brazil
- Unidade Divinópolis Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais Divinópolis Brazil
| | | | - Jos Barlow
- Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster UK
- Departamento de Biologia Universidade Federal de Lavras Lavras Brazil
- MCT/Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Belém Brazil
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Bat Ensembles Differ in Response to Use Zones in a Tropical Biosphere Reserve. DIVERSITY 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/d12020060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Biosphere reserves, designated under The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Man and Biosphere Programme, aim to sustainably integrate protected areas into the biological and economic landscape around them by buffering strictly protected habitats with zones of limited use. However, the effectiveness of biosphere reserves and the contribution of the different zones of use to protection is poorly known. We assessed the diversity and activity of bats in the Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve (CRBR) in Sabah, Malaysia, using harp traps, mist nets and acoustic surveys in each zone—core, buffer, transition and in agricultural plots outside of the reserve. We captured 30 species, bringing the known bat fauna of CRBR to 50 species, half of Borneo’s bat species. Species composition and acoustic activity varied among zones and by foraging ensemble, with the core and buffer showing particular importance for conserving forest-dependent insectivorous bats. Frugivorous bats were found in all zones but were the most abundant and most species-rich ensemble within agricultural sites. Although sampling was limited, bat diversity and activity was low in the transition zone compared to other zones, indicating potential for management practices that increase food availability and enhance biodiversity value. We conclude that, collectively, the zones of the CRBR effectively protect diversity, but the value of the transition zone can be improved.
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35
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Protecting environmental and socio-economic values of selectively logged tropical forests in the Anthropocene. ADV ECOL RES 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.aecr.2020.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
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36
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Gely C, Laurance SGW, Stork NE. How do herbivorous insects respond to drought stress in trees? Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2019; 95:434-448. [PMID: 31750622 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Revised: 10/23/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Increased frequency and severity of drought, as a result of climate change, is expected to drive critical changes in plant-insect interactions that may elevate rates of tree mortality. The mechanisms that link water stress in plants to insect performance are not well understood. Here, we build on previous reviews and develop a framework that incorporates the severity and longevity of drought and captures the plant physiological adjustments that follow moderate and severe drought. Using this framework, we investigate in greater depth how insect performance responds to increasing drought severity for: (i) different feeding guilds; (ii) flush feeders and senescence feeders; (iii) specialist and generalist insect herbivores; and (iv) temperate versus tropical forest communities. We outline how intermittent and moderate drought can result in increases of carbon-based and nitrogen-based chemical defences, whereas long and severe drought events can result in decreases in plant secondary defence compounds. We predict that different herbivore feeding guilds will show different but predictable responses to drought events, with most feeding guilds being negatively affected by water stress, with the exception of wood borers and bark beetles during severe drought and sap-sucking insects and leaf miners during moderate and intermittent drought. Time of feeding and host specificity are important considerations. Some insects, regardless of feeding guild, prefer to feed on younger tissues from leaf flush, whereas others are adapted to feed on senescing tissues of severely stressed trees. We argue that moderate water stress could benefit specialist insect herbivores, while generalists might prefer severe drought conditions. Current evidence suggests that insect outbreaks are shorter and more spatially restricted in tropical than in temperate forests. We suggest that future research on the impact of drought on insect communities should include (i) assessing how drought-induced changes in various plant traits, such as secondary compound concentrations and leaf water potential, affect herbivores; (ii) food web implications for other insects and those that feed on them; and (iii) interactions between the effects on insects of increasing drought and other forms of environmental change including rising temperatures and CO2 levels. There is a need for larger, temperate and tropical forest-scale drought experiments to look at herbivorous insect responses and their role in tree death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire Gely
- Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, 4111, Australia
| | - Susan G W Laurance
- Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) and College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, 4878, Australia
| | - Nigel E Stork
- Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan, 4111, Australia
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37
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Pillay R, Fletcher RJ, Sieving KE, Udell BJ, Bernard H. Bioacoustic monitoring reveals shifts in breeding songbird populations and singing behaviour with selective logging in tropical forests. J Appl Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13492] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Rajeev Pillay
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Robert J. Fletcher
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Kathryn E. Sieving
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Bradley J. Udell
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sabah Kota KinabaluSabah Malaysia
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Effects of habitat, leaf damage and leaf rolling on the predation risk of caterpillars in the tropical rain forest of Borneo. JOURNAL OF TROPICAL ECOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1017/s0266467419000191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
AbstractAddressing what affects predation among caterpillars, we conducted an experiment in a Bornean rain forest on 212 clay models of Tortricidae caterpillars (the herbivore) and 53 trees of Kopsia pauciflora (the host), located either in the open or under closed canopies. We predicted that the frequency of predatory attacks towards caterpillars increases (1) in canopy gaps and (2) on leaves damaged by herbivory, but (3) decreases among caterpillars that wrap their body in leaves. Each plant with caterpillar models was consecutively allocated to one of four treatments: caterpillars artificially rolled in leaves vs caterpillars on unrolled leaves, and caterpillars on artificially damaged vs undamaged leaves. Each time, caterpillar models were placed on the plants for 48 h, and then replaced with new models that were subjected to a new treatment. On average, our caterpillar models had a 21% chance of being attacked per 24 h. More attacks were performed by insects (81.6%) than birds. The attack frequency did not depend on the canopy cover or on leaf damage, but decreased among models rolled in leaves. This pattern was mainly attributable to insect attacks, which were also more frequent than bird attacks. Overall, the Tortricidae caterpillars seem to suffer comparable predation rates in the open and under closed canopies irrespective of the herbivory damage of leaves, but their leaf-rolling behaviour might reduce predation.
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Bishop TR, Parr CL, Gibb H, van Rensburg BJ, Braschler B, Chown SL, Foord SH, Lamy K, Munyai TC, Okey I, Tshivhandekano PG, Werenkraut V, Robertson MP. Thermoregulatory traits combine with range shifts to alter the future of montane ant assemblages. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2019; 25:2162-2173. [PMID: 30887614 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2018] [Accepted: 03/05/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Predicting and understanding the biological response to future climate change is a pressing challenge for humanity. In the 21st century, many species will move into higher latitudes and higher elevations as the climate warms. In addition, the relative abundances of species within local assemblages are likely to change. Both effects have implications for how ecosystems function. Few biodiversity forecasts, however, take account of both shifting ranges and changing abundances. We provide a novel analysis predicting the potential changes to assemblage-level relative abundances in the 21st century. We use an established relationship linking ant abundance and their colour and size traits to temperature and UV-B to predict future abundance changes. We also predict future temperature driven range shifts and use these to alter the available species pool for our trait-mediated abundance predictions. We do this across three continents under a low greenhouse gas emissions scenario (RCP2.6) and a business-as-usual scenario (RCP8.5). Under RCP2.6, predicted changes to ant assemblages by 2100 are moderate. On average, species richness will increase by 26%, while species composition and relative abundance structure will be 26% and 30% different, respectively, compared with modern assemblages. Under RCP8.5, however, highland assemblages face almost a tripling of species richness and compositional and relative abundance changes of 66% and 77%. Critically, we predict that future assemblages could be reorganized in terms of which species are common and which are rare: future highland assemblages will not simply comprise upslope shifts of modern lowland assemblages. These forecasts reveal the potential for radical change to montane ant assemblages by the end of the 21st century if temperature increases continue. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating trait-environment relationships into future biodiversity predictions. Looking forward, the major challenge is to understand how ecosystem processes will respond to compositional and relative abundance changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom R Bishop
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Catherine L Parr
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, South Africa
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Heloise Gibb
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- The Research Centre for Future Landscapes, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Berndt J van Rensburg
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Brigitte Braschler
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa
- Section of Conservation Biology, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Steven L Chown
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Stefan H Foord
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa
| | - Kévin Lamy
- LACy, Laboratoire de l'Atmosphère et des Cyclones (UMR 8105 CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France), Saint-Denis de La Réunion, France
| | - Thinandavha C Munyai
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa
- School of Life Sciences, College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
| | - Iona Okey
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Pfarelo G Tshivhandekano
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Victoria Werenkraut
- Laboratorio Ecotono, Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, INIBIOMA-CONICET, Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina
| | - Mark P Robertson
- Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
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40
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Srinivasan U. Morphological and Behavioral Correlates of Long-Term Bird Survival in Selectively Logged Forest. Front Ecol Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Pfeifer M, Boyle MJW, Dunning S, Olivier PI. Forest floor temperature and greenness link significantly to canopy attributes in South Africa's fragmented coastal forests. PeerJ 2019; 7:e6190. [PMID: 30648017 PMCID: PMC6330204 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.6190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2018] [Accepted: 11/30/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Tropical landscapes are changing rapidly due to changes in land use and land management. Being able to predict and monitor land use change impacts on species for conservation or food security concerns requires the use of habitat quality metrics, that are consistent, can be mapped using above-ground sensor data and are relevant for species performance. Here, we focus on ground surface temperature (Thermalground) and ground vegetation greenness (NDVIdown) as potentially suitable metrics of habitat quality. Both have been linked to species demography and community structure in the literature. We test whether they can be measured consistently from the ground and whether they can be up-scaled indirectly using canopy structure maps (Leaf Area Index, LAI, and Fractional vegetation cover, FCover) developed from Landsat remote sensing data. We measured Thermalground and NDVIdown across habitats differing in tree cover (natural grassland to forest edges to forests and tree plantations) in the human-modified coastal forested landscapes of Kwa-Zulua Natal, South Africa. We show that both metrics decline significantly with increasing canopy closure and leaf area, implying a potential pathway for upscaling both metrics using canopy structure maps derived using earth observation. Specifically, our findings suggest that opening forest canopies by 20% or decreasing forest canopy LAI by one unit would result in increases of Thermalground by 1.2 °C across the range of observations studied. NDVIdown appears to decline by 0.1 in response to an increase in canopy LAI by 1 unit and declines nonlinearly with canopy closure. Accounting for micro-scale variation in temperature and resources is seen as essential to improve biodiversity impact predictions. Our study suggests that mapping ground surface temperature and ground vegetation greenness utilising remotely sensed canopy cover maps could provide a useful tool for mapping habitat quality metrics that matter to species. However, this approach will be constrained by the predictive capacity of models used to map field-derived forest canopy attributes. Furthermore, sampling efforts are needed to capture spatial and temporal variation in Thermalground within and across days and seasons to validate the transferability of our findings. Finally, whilst our approach shows that surface temperature and ground vegetation greenness might be suitable habitat quality metric used in biodiversity monitoring, the next step requires that we map demographic traits of species of different threat status onto maps of these metrics in landscapes differing in disturbance and management histories. The derived understanding could then be exploited for targeted landscape restoration that benefits biodiversity conservation at the landscape scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marion Pfeifer
- Modelling, Evidence & Policy Group, SNES, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Michael J W Boyle
- Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom
| | - Stuart Dunning
- School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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Drinkwater R, Schnell IB, Bohmann K, Bernard H, Veron G, Clare E, Gilbert MTP, Rossiter SJ. Using metabarcoding to compare the suitability of two blood-feeding leech species for sampling mammalian diversity in North Borneo. Mol Ecol Resour 2019; 19:105-117. [PMID: 30225935 PMCID: PMC7379310 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.12943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Revised: 09/04/2018] [Accepted: 09/07/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
The application of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) for metabarcoding of mixed samples offers new opportunities in conservation biology. Recently, the successful detection of prey DNA from the guts of leeches has raised the possibility that these, and other blood-feeding invertebrates, might serve as useful samplers of mammals. Yet little is known about whether sympatric leech species differ in their feeding preferences, and whether this has a bearing on their relative suitability for monitoring local mammalian diversity. To address these questions, we collected spatially matched samples of two congeneric leech species Haemadipsa picta and Haemadipsa sumatrana from lowland rainforest in Borneo. For each species, we pooled ~500 leeches into batches of 10 individuals, performed PCR to target a section of the mammalian 16S rRNA locus and undertook sequencing of amplicon libraries using an Illumina MiSeq. In total, we identified sequences from 14 mammalian genera, spanning nine families and five orders. We found greater numbers of detections, and higher diversity of OTUs, in H. picta compared with H. sumatrana, with rodents only present in the former leech species. However, comparison of samples from across the landscape revealed no significant difference in mammal community composition between the leech species. We therefore suggest that H. picta is the more suitable iDNA sampler in this degraded Bornean forest. We conclude that the choice of invertebrate sampler can influence the detectability of different mammal groups and that this should be accounted for when designing iDNA studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosie Drinkwater
- School of Biological and Chemical SciencesQueen Mary University of LondonLondonUK
| | | | - Kristine Bohmann
- Natural History Museum of DenmarkUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
- School of Biological SciencesUniversity of East Anglia, Norwich Research ParkNorwich, NorfolkUK
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and ConservationUniversiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMSKota KinabaluSabahMalaysia
| | - Géraldine Veron
- Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB)Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHEParis CedexFrance
| | - Elizabeth Clare
- School of Biological and Chemical SciencesQueen Mary University of LondonLondonUK
| | - M. Thomas P. Gilbert
- Natural History Museum of DenmarkUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
- NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyTrondheimNorway
| | - Stephen J. Rossiter
- School of Biological and Chemical SciencesQueen Mary University of LondonLondonUK
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Brozovic R, Abrams JF, Mohamed A, Wong ST, Niedballa J, Bhagwat T, Sollmann R, Mannan S, Kissing J, Wilting A. Effects of forest degradation on the moonrat Echinosorex gymnura in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Mamm Biol 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2018.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Jucker T, Hardwick SR, Both S, Elias DMO, Ewers RM, Milodowski DT, Swinfield T, Coomes DA. Canopy structure and topography jointly constrain the microclimate of human-modified tropical landscapes. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:5243-5258. [PMID: 30246358 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 07/02/2018] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Local-scale microclimatic conditions in forest understoreys play a key role in shaping the composition, diversity and function of these ecosystems. Consequently, understanding what drives variation in forest microclimate is critical to forecasting ecosystem responses to global change, particularly in the tropics where many species already operate close to their thermal limits and rapid land-use transformation is profoundly altering local environments. Yet our ability to characterize forest microclimate at ecologically meaningful scales remains limited, as understorey conditions cannot be directly measured from outside the canopy. To address this challenge, we established a network of microclimate sensors across a land-use intensity gradient spanning from old-growth forests to oil-palm plantations in Borneo. We then combined these observations with high-resolution airborne laser scanning data to characterize how topography and canopy structure shape variation in microclimate both locally and across the landscape. In the processes, we generated high-resolution microclimate surfaces spanning over 350 km2 , which we used to explore the potential impacts of habitat degradation on forest regeneration under both current and future climate scenarios. We found that topography and vegetation structure were strong predictors of local microclimate, with elevation and terrain curvature primarily constraining daily mean temperatures and vapour pressure deficit (VPD), whereas canopy height had a clear dampening effect on microclimate extremes. This buffering effect was particularly pronounced on wind-exposed slopes but tended to saturate once canopy height exceeded 20 m-suggesting that despite intensive logging, secondary forests remain largely thermally buffered. Nonetheless, at a landscape-scale microclimate was highly heterogeneous, with maximum daily temperatures ranging between 24.2 and 37.2°C and VPD spanning two orders of magnitude. Based on this, we estimate that by the end of the century forest regeneration could be hampered in degraded secondary forests that characterize much of Borneo's lowlands if temperatures continue to rise following projected trends.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tommaso Jucker
- Forest Ecology and Conservation group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- CSIRO Land and Water, Floreat, WA, Australia
| | - Stephen R Hardwick
- Blackett Laboratory, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Sabine Both
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
- Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | - Dafydd M O Elias
- Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
- Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster, UK
| | | | | | - Tom Swinfield
- Forest Ecology and Conservation group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - David A Coomes
- Forest Ecology and Conservation group, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Pillay R, Hua F, Loiselle BA, Bernard H, Fletcher RJ. Multiple stages of tree seedling recruitment are altered in tropical forests degraded by selective logging. Ecol Evol 2018; 8:8231-8242. [PMID: 30250698 PMCID: PMC6145000 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2018] [Revised: 03/12/2018] [Accepted: 05/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Tropical forest degradation is a global environmental issue. In degraded forests, seedling recruitment of canopy trees is vital for forest regeneration and recovery. We investigated how selective logging, a pervasive driver of tropical forest degradation, impacts canopy tree seedling recruitment, focusing on an endemic dipterocarp Dryobalanops lanceolata in Sabah, Borneo. During a mast-fruiting event in intensively logged and nearby unlogged forest, we examined four stages of the seedling recruitment process: seed production, seed predation, and negative density-dependent germination and seedling survival. Our results suggest that each stage of the seedling recruitment process is altered in logged forest. The seed crop of D. lanceolata trees in logged forest was one-third smaller than that produced by trees in unlogged forest. The functional role of vertebrates in seed predation increased in logged forest while that of non-vertebrates declined. Seeds in logged forest were less likely to germinate than those in unlogged forest. Germination increased with local-scale conspecific seed density in unlogged forest, but seedling survival tended to decline. However, both germination and seedling survival increased with local-scale conspecific seed density in logged forest. Notably, seed crop size, germination, and seedling survival tended to increase for larger trees in both unlogged and logged forests, suggesting that sustainable timber extraction and silvicultural practices designed to minimize damage to the residual stand are important to prevent seedling recruitment failure. Overall, these impacts sustained by several aspects of seedling recruitment in a mast-fruiting year suggest that intensive selective logging may affect long-term population dynamics of D. lanceolata. It is necessary to establish if other dipterocarp species, many of which are threatened by the timber trade, are similarly affected in tropical forests degraded by intensive selective logging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajeev Pillay
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and ConservationUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
| | - Fangyuan Hua
- Department of ZoologyUniversity of CambridgeCambridgeUK
| | - Bette A. Loiselle
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and ConservationUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
- Center for Latin American StudiesUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and ConservationUniversiti Malaysia SabahKota KinabaluSabahMalaysia
| | - Robert J. Fletcher
- Department of Wildlife Ecology and ConservationUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFloridaUSA
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Grevé ME, Hager J, Weisser WW, Schall P, Gossner MM, Feldhaar H. Effect of forest management on temperate ant communities. Ecosphere 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Michael E. Grevé
- Animal Population Ecology; Animal Ecology I; Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER); University of Bayreuth; Universitätsstrasse 30 95440 Bayreuth Germany
| | - Jörg Hager
- Animal Population Ecology; Animal Ecology I; Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER); University of Bayreuth; Universitätsstrasse 30 95440 Bayreuth Germany
| | - Wolfgang W. Weisser
- Terrestrial Ecology Research Group; Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management; Center for Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan; Technische Universität München; Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2 85354 Freising-Weihenstephan Germany
| | - Peter Schall
- Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the Temperate Zones; Faculty of Forest Sciences; University of Göttingen; D-37077 Göttingen Germany
| | - Martin M. Gossner
- Forest Entomology; Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL; Birmensdorf CH-8903 Switzerland
| | - Heike Feldhaar
- Animal Population Ecology; Animal Ecology I; Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER); University of Bayreuth; Universitätsstrasse 30 95440 Bayreuth Germany
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Ross SRPJ, Garcia FH, Fischer G, Peters MK. Selective logging intensity in an East African rain forest predicts reductions in ant diversity. Biotropica 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/btp.12569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel R. P.-J. Ross
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology; Onna-son Kunigami, Okinawa 904-0495 Japan
- School of Biology; Faculty of Biological Sciences; University of Leeds; Leeds LS2 9JT UK
- Department of Zoology; School of Natural Sciences; Trinity College Dublin; Dublin 2 Ireland
| | - Francisco Hita Garcia
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology; Onna-son Kunigami, Okinawa 904-0495 Japan
- Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig; Adenauerallee 160 Bonn 53113 Germany
| | - Georg Fischer
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology; Onna-son Kunigami, Okinawa 904-0495 Japan
- Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig; Adenauerallee 160 Bonn 53113 Germany
| | - Marcell K. Peters
- Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig; Adenauerallee 160 Bonn 53113 Germany
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter; University of Würzburg; Am Hubland Würzburg 97074 Germany
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Gray REJ, Ewers RM, Boyle MJW, Chung AYC, Gill RJ. Effect of tropical forest disturbance on the competitive interactions within a diverse ant community. Sci Rep 2018; 8:5131. [PMID: 29572517 PMCID: PMC5865194 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23272-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2017] [Accepted: 02/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding how anthropogenic disturbance influences patterns of community composition and the reinforcing interactive processes that structure communities is important to mitigate threats to biodiversity. Competition is considered a primary reinforcing process, yet little is known concerning disturbance effects on competitive interaction networks. We examined how differences in ant community composition between undisturbed and disturbed Bornean rainforest, is potentially reflected by changes in competitive interactions over a food resource. Comparing 10 primary forest sites to 10 in selectively-logged forest, we found higher genus richness and diversity in the primary forest, with 18.5% and 13.0% of genera endemic to primary and logged respectively. From 180 hours of filming bait cards, we assessed ant-ant interactions, finding that despite considered aggression over food sources, the majority of ant interactions were neutral. Proportion of competitive interactions at bait cards did not differ between forest type, however, the rate and per capita number of competitive interactions was significantly lower in logged forest. Furthermore, the majority of genera showed large changes in aggression-score with often inverse relationships to their occupancy rank. This provides evidence of a shuffled competitive network, and these unexpected changes in aggressive relationships could be considered a type of competitive network re-wiring after disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ross E J Gray
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK.
| | - Robert M Ewers
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK
| | - Michael J W Boyle
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK
| | - Arthur Y C Chung
- Forest Research Centre, Forestry Department, P.O. Box 1407, 90715, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Richard J Gill
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK
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Senior RA, Hill JK, Benedick S, Edwards DP. Tropical forests are thermally buffered despite intensive selective logging. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:1267-1278. [PMID: 29052295 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2017] [Revised: 08/04/2017] [Accepted: 09/06/2017] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Tropical rainforests are subject to extensive degradation by commercial selective logging. Despite pervasive changes to forest structure, selectively logged forests represent vital refugia for global biodiversity. The ability of these forests to buffer temperature-sensitive species from climate warming will be an important determinant of their future conservation value, although this topic remains largely unexplored. Thermal buffering potential is broadly determined by: (i) the difference between the "macroclimate" (climate at a local scale, m to ha) and the "microclimate" (climate at a fine-scale, mm to m, that is distinct from the macroclimate); (ii) thermal stability of microclimates (e.g. variation in daily temperatures); and (iii) the availability of microclimates to organisms. We compared these metrics in undisturbed primary forest and intensively logged forest on Borneo, using thermal images to capture cool microclimates on the surface of the forest floor, and information from dataloggers placed inside deadwood, tree holes and leaf litter. Although major differences in forest structure remained 9-12 years after repeated selective logging, we found that logging activity had very little effect on thermal buffering, in terms of macroclimate and microclimate temperatures, and the overall availability of microclimates. For 1°C warming in the macroclimate, temperature inside deadwood, tree holes and leaf litter warmed slightly more in primary forest than in logged forest, but the effect amounted to <0.1°C difference between forest types. We therefore conclude that selectively logged forests are similar to primary forests in their potential for thermal buffering, and subsequent ability to retain temperature-sensitive species under climate change. Selectively logged forests can play a crucial role in the long-term maintenance of global biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca A Senior
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Jane K Hill
- Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK
| | - Suzan Benedick
- Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sandakan, Malaysia
| | - David P Edwards
- Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
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50
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Faust CL, Dobson AP, Gottdenker N, Bloomfield LSP, McCallum HI, Gillespie TR, Diuk-Wasser M, Plowright RK. Null expectations for disease dynamics in shrinking habitat: dilution or amplification? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 372:rstb.2016.0173. [PMID: 28438921 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
As biodiversity declines with anthropogenic land-use change, it is increasingly important to understand how changing biodiversity affects infectious disease risk. The dilution effect hypothesis, which points to decreases in biodiversity as critical to an increase in infection risk, has received considerable attention due to the allure of a win-win scenario for conservation and human well-being. Yet some empirical data suggest that the dilution effect is not a generalizable phenomenon. We explore the response of pathogen transmission dynamics to changes in biodiversity that are driven by habitat loss using an allometrically scaled multi-host model. With this model, we show that declining habitat, and thus declining biodiversity, can lead to either increasing or decreasing infectious-disease risk, measured as endemic prevalence. Whether larger habitats, and thus greater biodiversity, lead to a decrease (dilution effect) or increase (amplification effect) in infection prevalence depends upon the pathogen transmission mode and how host competence scales with body size. Dilution effects were detected for most frequency-transmitted pathogens and amplification effects were detected for density-dependent pathogens. Amplification effects were also observed over a particular range of habitat loss in frequency-dependent pathogens when we assumed that host competence was greatest in large-bodied species. By contrast, only amplification effects were observed for density-dependent pathogens; host competency only affected the magnitude of the effect. These models can be used to guide future empirical studies of biodiversity-disease relationships across gradients of habitat loss. The type of transmission, the relationship between host competence and community assembly, the identity of hosts contributing to transmission, and how transmission scales with area are essential factors to consider when elucidating the mechanisms driving disease risk in shrinking habitat.This article is part of the themed issue 'Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina L Faust
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA .,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
| | - Andrew P Dobson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Nicole Gottdenker
- Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
| | - Laura S P Bloomfield
- Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Hamish I McCallum
- Environmental Futures Research Institute and Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4222, Australia
| | - Thomas R Gillespie
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health; Program In Population, Biology, Ecology and Evolution; Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.,Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health; Program In Population, Biology, Ecology and Evolution; Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Maria Diuk-Wasser
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Raina K Plowright
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
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