Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Derhé, M. A., Murphy, H. T., Preece, N. D., Lawes, M. J. and Menéndez, R. (2018), Recovery of mammal diversity in tropical forests: a functional approach to measuring restoration. Restor Ecol, 26: 778-786. doi:10.1111/rec.12582 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12582/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
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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 - Recovery of mammal diversity in tropical forests
T2 - a functional approach to measuring restoration
AU - Derhé, Mia
AU - Murphy, Helen
AU - Preece, Noel
AU - Lawes, Michael
AU - Menendez Martinez, Maria Rosa
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Derhé, M. A., Murphy, H. T., Preece, N. D., Lawes, M. J. and Menéndez, R. (2018), Recovery of mammal diversity in tropical forests: a functional approach to measuring restoration. Restor Ecol, 26: 778-786. doi:10.1111/rec.12582 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec.12582/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Ecological restoration is increasingly applied in tropical forests to mitigate biodiversity loss and recover ecosystem functions. In restoration ecology, functional richness, rather than species richness, often determines community assembly, and measures of functional diversity provide a mechanistic link between diversity and ecological functioning of restored habitat. Vertebrate animals are important for ecosystem functioning. Here we examine the functional diversity of small-to-medium sized mammals to evaluate the diversity and functional recovery of tropical rainforest. We assess how mammal species diversity and composition, and functional diversity and composition vary along a restoration chronosequence from degraded pasture to ‘old-growth’ tropical rainforest in the Wet Tropics of Australia. Species richness, diversity, evenness and abundance did not vary, but total mammal biomass and mean species body mass increased with restoration age. Species composition in restoration forests converged on the composition of old-growth rainforest and diverged from pasture with increasing restoration age. Functional metrics provided a clearer pattern of recovery than traditional species metrics, with most functional metrics significantly increasing with restoration age when taxonomic-based metrics did not. Functional evenness and dispersion increased significantly with restoration age, suggesting that niche complementarity enhances species’ abundances in restored sites. The change in community composition represented a functional shift from invasive, herbivorous, terrestrial habitat generalists and open environment specialists in pasture and young restoration sites, to predominantly endemic, folivorous, arboreal and fossorial forest species in older restoration sites. This shift has positive implications for conservation and demonstrates the potential of tropical forest restoration to recover rainforest-like, diverse faunal communities.
AB - Ecological restoration is increasingly applied in tropical forests to mitigate biodiversity loss and recover ecosystem functions. In restoration ecology, functional richness, rather than species richness, often determines community assembly, and measures of functional diversity provide a mechanistic link between diversity and ecological functioning of restored habitat. Vertebrate animals are important for ecosystem functioning. Here we examine the functional diversity of small-to-medium sized mammals to evaluate the diversity and functional recovery of tropical rainforest. We assess how mammal species diversity and composition, and functional diversity and composition vary along a restoration chronosequence from degraded pasture to ‘old-growth’ tropical rainforest in the Wet Tropics of Australia. Species richness, diversity, evenness and abundance did not vary, but total mammal biomass and mean species body mass increased with restoration age. Species composition in restoration forests converged on the composition of old-growth rainforest and diverged from pasture with increasing restoration age. Functional metrics provided a clearer pattern of recovery than traditional species metrics, with most functional metrics significantly increasing with restoration age when taxonomic-based metrics did not. Functional evenness and dispersion increased significantly with restoration age, suggesting that niche complementarity enhances species’ abundances in restored sites. The change in community composition represented a functional shift from invasive, herbivorous, terrestrial habitat generalists and open environment specialists in pasture and young restoration sites, to predominantly endemic, folivorous, arboreal and fossorial forest species in older restoration sites. This shift has positive implications for conservation and demonstrates the potential of tropical forest restoration to recover rainforest-like, diverse faunal communities.
KW - Australia
KW - ecological restoration
KW - ecosystem functioning
KW - functional guilds
KW - rainforest
KW - wet tropics
U2 - 10.1111/rec.12582
DO - 10.1111/rec.12582
M3 - Journal article
VL - 26
SP - 778
EP - 786
JO - Restoration Ecology
JF - Restoration Ecology
SN - 1526-100X
IS - 4
ER -