Contrasting impacts of land‐use change on phylogenetic and functional diversity of tropical forest birds

Chapman, Philip M.; Tobias, Joe; Edwards, David P.; Davies, Richard G.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.13073

Cited by 60 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…To our knowledge, this is the first study on the impact of agricultural intensification on PD of tropical understorey plants. Significant losses in PD with increasing land use intensity were also observed for tropical birds (Chapman, Tobias, Edwards, & Davies, ; Frishkoff et al., ), temperate forest plants (Van Meerbeek et al., ), grasslands (Egorov et al., ), and longleaf pine ecosystems (Turley & Brudvig, ). We can therefore assume that species loss caused by agricultural intensification is generally associated with losses in PD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity

Kusuma

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Tjitrosoedirdjo³

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Conversion of rainforest into agricultural land affects multiple facets of tropical plant diversity. While the effects of tropical land use change and intensification on species diversity are comparatively well studied, the effects on phylogenetic diversity (PD) and structure of plant communities are largely unknown. Furthermore, it is not clear how the loss of native species and addition of alien species collectively affect PD and structure. We investigated the PD and structure of understorey plants; a diverse and ecologically important, yet poorly studied group. We studied four prominent land use systems (tropical lowland rainforest, jungle rubber agroforest, rubber plantations, and oil palm plantations) in the lowlands of Sumatra (Indonesia), a region experiencing dramatic land use changes. Across the four systems, we investigated differences in four metrics of phylogenetic community structure (PD, mean pairwise distance, mean nearest taxon distance, and their abundance‐weighted variants). Our analyses were based on a comprehensive vegetation survey consisting of 32 plots, 1,197 species of vascular plants, and 146,599 plant individuals. Our results showed that forest conversion into agricultural systems leads to a pronounced loss of PD. Furthermore, the standardized effect size of mean pairwise distance indicated a gradual change from clustered to overdispersed phylogenetic community structure with increasing land use intensity from forest over jungle rubber to the monoculture plantations. In most land use systems, the presence or absence of alien plant species did not affect phylogenetic structure. Only in oil palm plantations, removing alien species from the data led to a more overdispersed structure. In conclusion, conserving the PD and structure requires efficient protection of the last remaining rainforests. Synthesis and applications. Forest conversion into agricultural areas negatively affects phylogenetic understorey plant diversity and leads to a shift from clustered to overdispersed phylogenetic community structure. These trends are partly driven by alien species particularly in oil palm plantations. Protecting the remaining rainforests and considering multispecies agroforestry systems in favour of intensive monoculture plantations are thus imperative to conserve phylogenetic plant diversity and community structure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity

Kusuma

Rembold

Tjitrosoedirdjo³

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Second, behavioural traits split into foraging strata (canopy, mid‐strata, understorey and terrestrial) and foraging mode (trunk/branch, aerial and foliage). Third, following previous studies (Bregman et al, ; Chapman et al, ), we compiled a suite of twelve morphological traits: body mass and length, tarsus length, tail length, wing length, Kipp's distance, hand‐wing index, and bill width, depth, shape and length (both nares to tip and exposed culmen). Measurements of wing length and Kipp's distance—the distance from wing tip to the first (outermost) secondary feather—were not included directly in the matrix but used to calculate hand‐wing index (Kipp's × 100/wing length), a measure of wing aspect ratio correlated with flight efficiency (Pigot, Tobias, & Jetz, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, functional diversity (FD) quantifies the range of functionally important traits and ecological roles present within a community that are at least partially responsible for sustaining various ecological processes (Leitão et al, ; Petchey & Gaston, ; Tilman, ; Villéger, Mason, & Mouillot, ). Alongside phylogenetic diversity, FD has been proposed to be a key metric of human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Chapman, Tobias, Edwards, & Davies, ; Flynn, Mirotchnick, Jain, Palmer, & Naeem, ), with demonstrated links to the productivity of multiple wild ecosystems (Duffy, Godwin, & Cardinale, ). Evidence also suggests land‐use change can have greater effects on FD than taxonomic diversity (Tinoco, Santillán, & Graham, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land‐sparing agriculture sustains higher levels of avian functional diversity than land sharing

Cannon

Gilroy

Tobias

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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The ecological impacts of meeting rising demands for food production can potentially be mitigated by two competing land‐use strategies: off‐setting natural habitats through intensification of existing farmland (land sparing), or elevating biodiversity within the agricultural matrix via the integration of “wildlife‐friendly” habitat features (land sharing). However, a key unanswered question is whether sparing or sharing farming would best conserve functional diversity, which can promote ecosystem stability and resilience to future land‐use change. Focusing on bird communities in tropical cloud forests of the Colombian Andes, we test the performance of each strategy in conserving functional diversity. We show that multiple components of avian functional diversity in farmland are positively related to the proximity and extent of natural forest. Using landscape and community simulations, we also show that land‐sparing agriculture conserves greater functional diversity and predicts higher abundance of species supplying key ecological functions than land sharing, with sharing becoming progressively inferior with increasing isolation from remnant forest. These results suggest low‐intensity agriculture is likely to conserve little functional diversity unless large blocks of adjacent natural habitat are protected, consistent with land sparing. To ensure the retention of functionally diverse ecosystems, we urgently need to implement mechanisms for increasing farmland productivity whilst protecting spared land.

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“…Several studies have reported the contrasting responses of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity across environmental conditions such as precipitation and land use gradients (Chapman, Tobias, Edwards, & Davies, ; Meynard et al, ; Monnet et al, ; Seymour, Simmons, Joseph, & Slingsby, ). However, the aforementioned studies have looked at the effect of environmental conditions on biodiversity independently, whereas the interactive effects between two or more environmental conditions on biodiversity remain understudied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, a study o f Mediterranean birds showed that taxonomic diversity and funct ional diversity were higher in farmlands than in forests, but forest communities had higher phylogenetic diversity (Morelli, Benedetti , Perna, & Santolini, 2018). Whereas in Borneo, forest sites had hi gher taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of birds co mpared to oil palm plantations (Chapman et al, 2018). Contrast ing patterns of functional diversity are probably a result of trait selection, as well as usage of different functional diversity metrics (Petchey, Evans, Fishburn, & Gaston, 2007;Villéger, Mason, & Mouillot, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precipitation and tree cover gradients structure avian alpha diversity in North‐western Costa Rica

Echeverri¹,

Frishkoff

Gómez

et al. 2019

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Changes in climate and land use are modifying biodiversity worldwide. Yet it remains unclear how both drivers interact to structure communities and determine patterns in taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity at local scales. We focused on bird diversity and asked: how do precipitation and forest cover gradients interactively structure these elements of avian diversity? Location Guanacaste, North‐western Costa Rica. Methods We quantified changes in the abundance and composition of bird communities along independent gradients of regional precipitation, local forest cover and landscape forest cover that serve as proxies for climate drying and habitat conversion. We conducted point counts at 150 sites and statistically accounted for imperfect detection to test how environmental variation shaped community‐wide diversity metrics. Results We found that the three dimensions of diversity diverged in their responses to environmental gradients. Specifically, species richness increased linearly with precipitation, reached maximum values with intermediate tree cover at local scales and peaked at high levels of landscape tree cover. While phylogenetic diversity did not vary strongly across any gradient, functional diversity increased monotonically with both local and landscape‐level tree cover. Maximum values of functional diversity only occurred in large patches of forest where the tree cover was >75% at both local and landscape scales. Contrary to our expectations, we did not detect significant interactions between precipitation and tree cover gradients on any metric of local bird diversity. Main conclusions Our findings suggest that taxonomic diversity was more sensitive to environmental gradients than functional and phylogenetic diversity. The lack of synergies between precipitation and forest cover gradients on alpha diversity, at least in this system, simplifies the prospects of predicting future biodiversity change at local scales as our results suggest that climate change and land use act independently of one another.

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Contrasting impacts of land‐use change on phylogenetic and functional diversity of tropical forest birds

Cited by 60 publications

References 51 publications

Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity

Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity

Land‐sparing agriculture sustains higher levels of avian functional diversity than land sharing

Precipitation and tree cover gradients structure avian alpha diversity in North‐western Costa Rica

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