Abundance signals of amphibians and reptiles indicate strong edge effects in Neotropical fragmented forest landscapes

Schneider‐Maunoury, Laure; Lefebvre, Véronique; Ewers, Robert M.; Medina-Rangel, Guido Fabián; Peres, Carlos A.; Somarriba, Eduardo; Urbina‐Cardona, J. Nicolás; Pfeifer, Marion

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.06.011

Cited by 49 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…Taxonomic and phylogenetic β-diversity provided complementary perspectives on the effects of habitat conversion at regional and global scales. Within study regions, species turnover drove changes in taxonomic composition across habitats to a greater extent than nestedness, suggesting that species in natural habitats were often replaced by disturbance-tolerant or agriculture-affiliated species (20,52). Changes in phylogenetic composition were driven similarly by turnover and nestedness (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Phylogenetic homogenization of amphibian assemblages in human-altered habitats across the globe

Nowakowski

Frishkoff

Thompson

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Habitat conversion is driving biodiversity loss and restructuring species assemblages across the globe. Responses to habitat conversion vary widely, however, and little is known about the degree to which shared evolutionary history underlies changes in species richness and composition. We analyzed data from 48 studies, comprising 438 species on five continents, to understand how taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of amphibian assemblages shifts in response to habitat conversion. We found that evolutionary history explains the majority of variation in species' responses to habitat conversion, with specific clades scattered across the amphibian tree of life being favored by human land uses. Habitat conversion led to an average loss of 139 million years of amphibian evolutionary history within assemblages, high species and lineage turnover at landscape scales, and phylogenetic homogenization at the global scale (despite minimal taxonomic homogenization). Lineage turnover across habitats was greatest in lowland tropical regions where large species pools and stable climates have perhaps given rise to many microclimatically specialized species. Together, our results indicate that strong phylogenetic clustering of species' responses to habitat conversion mediates nonrandom structuring of local assemblages and loss of global phylogenetic diversity. In an age of rapid global change, identifying clades that are most sensitive to habitat conversion will help prioritize use of limited conservation resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Phylogenetic homogenization of amphibian assemblages in human-altered habitats across the globe

Nowakowski

Frishkoff

Thompson

et al. 2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…To test these hypotheses, we used a dataset obtained during the largest empirical study (in terms of number of fragments and range of fragment sizes) ever conducted in tropical forests with amphibians (Almeida‐Gomes, Vieira et al., ). Amphibians are considered key indicators of landscape changes (Cushman, ; Schneider‐Maunoury et al., ), and there is evidence that some species and some ecological traits (especially reproductive modes) are more prone to disappear in the environments outside large remnants in fragmented forest landscapes (Almeida‐Gomes & Rocha, ; Almeida‐Gomes, Vieira et al., ; Fonseca et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat amount drives the functional diversity and nestedness of anuran communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape

et al. 2019

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Natural environments disturbed by human activities can suffer from species extinctions, but some can still harbor high taxonomic diversity. However, disturbances may have impacts beyond the species level, if the species lost represent unique functions in the ecosystem. In this study, we evaluated to what extent the amount of habitat can determine the functional diversity and nestedness of amphibian communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape in Brazil, and if there is a threshold of habitat amount beyond which there is severe loss of functional diversity. As species responses may depend on their habitat type, we performed the analyses for three different sets of species: all species, forest‐dependent species, and generalist species. We also evaluated the relative importance of turnover and nestedness components to total functional dissimilarity among sites. Habitat amount affected functional diversity of frogs, especially for forest‐dependent species where a linear reduction was detected. The functional dissimilarity among sites was mostly explained by the nestedness component. The reduction of functional diversity was mediated by an ordered loss of traits, leading to a functionally nested metacommunity. These sensitive traits were closely related to habits and reproductive modes that depend on rivers and streams. The maintenance of functional diversity of frogs in fragmented landscapes must rely on the conservation of both terrestrial and aquatic environments, as some species and their traits can disappear from remnants of native vegetation lacking some specific habitats (e.g. streams). Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

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“…Previous studies addressing the effects of changes in environmental, compositional and structural parameters at forest edges (the "edge effect"; Murcia, 1995) have usually evaluated the abundance and/or taxonomic diversity (species richness and/or species diversity; for mammals Schlinkert et al, 2016; for birds Terraube et al, 2016; for amphibians and reptiles Schneider-Maunoury et al, 2016; for invertebrates Lövei et al, 2006;Tóthmérész et al, 2014;Bogyó et al, 2015;Yekwayo et al, 2016). Abundance and taxonomic diversity, however, contain little information on the mechanisms influencing patterns of community assembly, although such information is essential in biodiversity research (Swenson, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental filtering is the main assembly rule of ground beetles in the forest and its edge but not in the adjacent grassland

Magura

Löveï

2017

Insect Science

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In a fragmented landscape, transitional zones between neighboring habitats are common, and our understanding of community organizational forces across such habitats is important. Edge studies are numerous, but the majority of them utilize information on species richness and abundance. Abundance and taxonomic diversity, however, provide little information on the functioning and phylogeny of the co-existing species. Combining the evaluation of their functional and phylogenetic relationships, we aimed to assess whether ground beetle assemblages are deterministically or stochastically structured along grassland-forest gradients. Our results showed different community assembly rules on opposite sides of the forest edge. In the grassland, co-occurring species were functionally and phylogenetically not different from the random null model, indicating a random assembly process. Contrary to this, at the forest edge and the interior, co-occurring species showed functional and phylogenetic clustering, thus environmental filtering was the likely process structuring carabid assemblages. Community assembly in the grassland was considerably affected by asymmetrical species flows (spillover) across the forest edge: more forest species penetrated into the grassland than open-habitat and generalist species entered into the forest. This asymmetrical species flow underlines the importance of the filter function of forest edges. As unfavorable, human-induced changes to the structure, composition and characteristics of forest edges may alter their filter function, edges have to be specifically considered during conservation management.

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Abundance signals of amphibians and reptiles indicate strong edge effects in Neotropical fragmented forest landscapes

Cited by 49 publications

References 77 publications

Phylogenetic homogenization of amphibian assemblages in human-altered habitats across the globe

Phylogenetic homogenization of amphibian assemblages in human-altered habitats across the globe

Habitat amount drives the functional diversity and nestedness of anuran communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape

Environmental filtering is the main assembly rule of ground beetles in the forest and its edge but not in the adjacent grassland

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