Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biological Conservation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biological Conservation, 197, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.005
Accepted author manuscript, 19.1 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodiversity consequences of land-use change and forest disturbance in the Amazon
T2 - a multi-scale assessment using ant communities
AU - Solar, Ricardo R. C.
AU - Barlow, Bernard Josiah
AU - Andersen, Alan N.
AU - Schoereder, José H.
AU - De Berenguer Cesar, Erika
AU - Ferreira, Joice
AU - Gardner, Toby Alan
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Biological Conservation. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Biological Conservation, 197, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.005
PY - 2016/5
Y1 - 2016/5
N2 - Quantifying and understanding the main drivers of biodiversity responses to human disturbances at multiple scales is key to foster effective conservation plans and management systems. Here we report on a detailed regional assessment of the response of ant communities to land-use change and forest disturbance in the Brazilian Amazon. We aimed to explore the effects of land-use intensification at both site and landscape scales, examining variation in ant species richness and composition, and asking which set of environmental variables best predict observed patterns of diversity. We sampled 192 sites distributed across 18 landscapes (each 50 km2) in Paragominas, eastern Brazilian Amazon, covering ca. 20,000 km2. We sampled from undisturbed primary forest through varyingly disturbed primary forests, secondary forests, pastures and mechanised agriculture, following a gradient of decreasing total aboveground biomass. Irrespective of forest disturbance class, ant species richness was almost twice as high in forests when compared to production areas. In contrast, ant species composition showed continuous variation from primary forest to intensive agriculture, following a gradient of aboveground biomass. Ant species richness at all spatial scales increased with primary forest cover in the surrounding landscapes. We highlight the limited value of species richness as an indicator of changes in habitat quality, reinforcing calls to consider species composition in assessments of forest disturbance. Taken together, our results reveal the unique biodiversity value of undisturbed primary forests, but also show that disturbed primary forests and secondary forests have high conservation value, and thus play an important role in regional conservation planning.
AB - Quantifying and understanding the main drivers of biodiversity responses to human disturbances at multiple scales is key to foster effective conservation plans and management systems. Here we report on a detailed regional assessment of the response of ant communities to land-use change and forest disturbance in the Brazilian Amazon. We aimed to explore the effects of land-use intensification at both site and landscape scales, examining variation in ant species richness and composition, and asking which set of environmental variables best predict observed patterns of diversity. We sampled 192 sites distributed across 18 landscapes (each 50 km2) in Paragominas, eastern Brazilian Amazon, covering ca. 20,000 km2. We sampled from undisturbed primary forest through varyingly disturbed primary forests, secondary forests, pastures and mechanised agriculture, following a gradient of decreasing total aboveground biomass. Irrespective of forest disturbance class, ant species richness was almost twice as high in forests when compared to production areas. In contrast, ant species composition showed continuous variation from primary forest to intensive agriculture, following a gradient of aboveground biomass. Ant species richness at all spatial scales increased with primary forest cover in the surrounding landscapes. We highlight the limited value of species richness as an indicator of changes in habitat quality, reinforcing calls to consider species composition in assessments of forest disturbance. Taken together, our results reveal the unique biodiversity value of undisturbed primary forests, but also show that disturbed primary forests and secondary forests have high conservation value, and thus play an important role in regional conservation planning.
KW - Biodiversity conservation
KW - Forest degradation
KW - Formicidae
KW - Human-modified
KW - Invertebrates
KW - Rainforest
U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.005
DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.03.005
M3 - Journal article
VL - 197
SP - 98
EP - 107
JO - Biological Conservation
JF - Biological Conservation
SN - 0006-3207
ER -