TY - JOUR

T1 - Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity

AU - Gibson, Luke

AU - Lee, Tien Ming

AU - Koh, Lian Pin

AU - Brook, Barry W.

AU - Gardner, Toby A.

AU - Barlow, Jos

AU - Peres, Carlos A.

AU - Bradshaw, Corey J. A.

AU - Laurance, William F.

AU - Lovejoy, Thomas E.

AU - Sodhi, Navjot S.

PY - 2011/10/20

Y1 - 2011/10/20

N2 - Human-driven land-use changes increasingly threaten biodiversity, particularly in tropical forests where both species diversity and human pressures on natural environments are high(1). The rapid conversion of tropical forests for agriculture, timber production and other uses has generated vast, human-dominated landscapes with potentially dire consequences for tropical biodiversity(2-5). Today, few truly undisturbed tropical forests exist, whereas those degraded by repeated logging and fires, as well as secondary and plantation forests, are rapidly expanding(6,7). Here we provide a global assessment of the impact of disturbance and land conversion on biodiversity in tropical forests using a meta-analysis of 138 studies. We analysed 2,220 pairwise comparisons of biodiversity values in primary forests (with little or no human disturbance) and disturbed forests. We found that biodiversity values were substantially lower in degraded forests, but that this varied considerably by geographic region, taxonomic group, ecological metric and disturbance type. Even after partly accounting for confounding colonization and succession effects due to the composition of surrounding habitats, isolation and time since disturbance, we find that most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on tropical biodiversity. Our results clearly indicate that when it comes to maintaining tropical biodiversity, there is no substitute for primary forests.

AB - Human-driven land-use changes increasingly threaten biodiversity, particularly in tropical forests where both species diversity and human pressures on natural environments are high(1). The rapid conversion of tropical forests for agriculture, timber production and other uses has generated vast, human-dominated landscapes with potentially dire consequences for tropical biodiversity(2-5). Today, few truly undisturbed tropical forests exist, whereas those degraded by repeated logging and fires, as well as secondary and plantation forests, are rapidly expanding(6,7). Here we provide a global assessment of the impact of disturbance and land conversion on biodiversity in tropical forests using a meta-analysis of 138 studies. We analysed 2,220 pairwise comparisons of biodiversity values in primary forests (with little or no human disturbance) and disturbed forests. We found that biodiversity values were substantially lower in degraded forests, but that this varied considerably by geographic region, taxonomic group, ecological metric and disturbance type. Even after partly accounting for confounding colonization and succession effects due to the composition of surrounding habitats, isolation and time since disturbance, we find that most forms of forest degradation have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on tropical biodiversity. Our results clearly indicate that when it comes to maintaining tropical biodiversity, there is no substitute for primary forests.

KW - HUMAN-MODIFIED WORLD

KW - COUNTRYSIDE BIOGEOGRAPHY

KW - GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY

KW - DEGRADED LANDS

KW - CONSERVATION

KW - OPPORTUNITIES

KW - DISTURBANCE

KW - SCENARIOS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80055015145&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nature10425

DO - 10.1038/nature10425

M3 - Journal article

VL - 478

SP - 378

EP - 381

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

SN - 0028-0836

IS - 7369

ER -