TY - JOUR

T1 - How pervasive is biotic homogenization in human‐modified tropical forest landscapes?

AU - Solar, Ricardo R. C.

AU - Barlow, Bernard Josiah

AU - Ferreira, Joice

AU - De Berenguer Cesar, Erika

AU - Lees, Alexander C.

AU - Louzada, Julio Neil

AU - Maues, Marcia Motta

AU - Moura, Nargila

AU - Fonseca Oliveira, Victor Hugo

AU - Mario Chaul, Julio Cezar

AU - Vieira, Ima Célia

AU - Mac Nally, Ralph

AU - Gardner, Toby

N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Solar, R. R. d. C., Barlow, J., Ferreira, J., Berenguer, E., Lees, A. C., Thomson, J. R., Louzada, J., Maués, M., Moura, N. G., Oliveira, V. H. F., Chaul, J. C. M., Schoereder, J. H., Vieira, I. C. G., Mac Nally, R., Gardner, T. A. (2015), How pervasive is biotic homogenization in human-modified tropical forest landscapes?. Ecology Letters, 18: 1108–1118. doi: 10.1111/ele.12494 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12494/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

PY - 2015/10

Y1 - 2015/10

N2 - Land-cover change and ecosystem degradation may lead to biotic homogenization, yet our understanding of this phenomenon over large spatial scales and different biotic groups remains weak. We used a multi-taxa dataset from 335 sites and 36 heterogeneous landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon to examine the potential for landscape-scale processes to modulate the cumulative effects of local disturbances. Biotic homogenization was high in production areas but much less in disturbed and regenerating forests, where high levels of among-site and among-landscape β-diversity appeared to attenuate species loss at larger scales. We found consistently high levels of β-diversity among landscapes for all land cover classes, providing support for landscape-scale divergence in species composition. Our findings support concerns that β-diversity has been underestimated as a driver of biodiversity change and underscore the importance of maintaining a distributed network of reserves, including remaining areas of undisturbed primary forest, but also disturbed and regenerating forests, to conserve regional biota.

AB - Land-cover change and ecosystem degradation may lead to biotic homogenization, yet our understanding of this phenomenon over large spatial scales and different biotic groups remains weak. We used a multi-taxa dataset from 335 sites and 36 heterogeneous landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon to examine the potential for landscape-scale processes to modulate the cumulative effects of local disturbances. Biotic homogenization was high in production areas but much less in disturbed and regenerating forests, where high levels of among-site and among-landscape β-diversity appeared to attenuate species loss at larger scales. We found consistently high levels of β-diversity among landscapes for all land cover classes, providing support for landscape-scale divergence in species composition. Our findings support concerns that β-diversity has been underestimated as a driver of biodiversity change and underscore the importance of maintaining a distributed network of reserves, including remaining areas of undisturbed primary forest, but also disturbed and regenerating forests, to conserve regional biota.

U2 - 10.1111/ele.12494

DO - 10.1111/ele.12494

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 1108

EP - 1118

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

SN - 1461-023X

IS - 10

ER -