Does a Species’ Mobility Determine the Scale at Which It Is Influenced by the Surrounding Landscape Pattern?

Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Víctor; Martínez-Ruiz, Marisela; Bezerra, Jakelyne S.; Galán‐Acedo, Carmen; San‐José, Miriam; Fahrig, Lenore

doi:10.1007/s40823-022-00082-7

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…This is reasonable considering that up to 90% of tropical trees depend on vertebrate animals (e.g. bats, birds and terrestrial mammals) to disperse their seeds [58] and that most bats, birds and terrestrial mammals' responses to landscape structure are stronger when assessed in 1–4 km radius landscapes [37,59]. Thus, movements of seed dispersers and hence seed dispersal may depend on forest cover at this scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics

et al. 2023

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Abandonment of agricultural lands promotes the global expansion of secondary forests, which are critical for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services. Such roles largely depend, however, on two essential successional attributes, trajectory and recovery rate, which are expected to depend on landscape-scale forest cover in nonlinear ways. Using a multi-scale approach and a large vegetation dataset (843 plots, 3511 tree species) from 22 secondary forest chronosequences distributed across the Neotropics, we show that successional trajectories of woody plant species richness, stem density and basal area are less predictable in landscapes (4 km radius) with intermediate (40–60%) forest cover than in landscapes with high (greater than 60%) forest cover. This supports theory suggesting that high spatial and environmental heterogeneity in intermediately deforested landscapes can increase the variation of key ecological factors for forest recovery (e.g. seed dispersal and seedling recruitment), increasing the uncertainty of successional trajectories. Regarding the recovery rate, only species richness is positively related to forest cover in relatively small (1 km radius) landscapes. These findings highlight the importance of using a spatially explicit landscape approach in restoration initiatives and suggest that these initiatives can be more effective in more forested landscapes, especially if implemented across spatial extents of 1–4 km radius.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics

et al. 2023

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“…We calculated the NDVI and LST for each pixel and period of mammal sampling. To identify the scale of effect (SOE), which corresponds to the extension that each biological variable (response variable) is better predicted concerning landscape structure (Arroyo-Rodríguez et al, 2023;Jackson & Fahrig, 2015), we calculated the average value of each variable within buffers with different radius sizes: 250, 500, and 1000 m (Figure 2c). We tested all possible spatial scales following the recommendation of Arroyo-Rodríguez et al (2023).…”

Section: Multiscale Explanatory Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mammal diversity responses to anthropic, environmental, and seasonal changes within Caatinga seasonal dry forest landscapes

Polli,

dos Santos,

Palmeira

et al. 2024

Biotropica

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Caatinga's conservation and biodiversity are threatened due to the intensification of anthropic activities and climate change. The mammals have different responses to seasonal and anthropic changes, however particularly in Caatinga, these effects are still poorly understood. We assessed the influence of anthropic (distance from urban areas and wind farms), environmental (distance from water), and seasonal (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST)) variables on the number of records and richness of medium and large‐sized mammals in Brazilian Caatinga. We used camera traps in 2016–2017 and 2018–2019, estimated the variation (cv) of NDVI and LST, and generated Euclidean distance maps to anthropic and environmental variables at 250, 500, and 1000 m spatial scales. We performed Generalized Linear Models, used the Akaike information criterion, and calculated model averaging to assess the strength and direction of effect and the uncertainties of the winner models, respectively. The distance from wind farms and maximum LST had a noticeable effect on the number of records and total richness. The distance from wind farms had a negative effect on the records of Dicotyles tajacu and a positive effect on the records of Leopardus pardalis and richness. The maximum LST had a negative effect on the records of L. pardalis and a positive effect on the records of Puma concolor and Cerdocyon thous. Our results emphasize that an unsustainable expansion of wind farms is likely to compromise mammal diversity. We found an opposite pattern for some species regarding LST. However, it is important to highlight that the conservation of vegetation areas on the top of mountains and springs, and the installation of artificial water sources are important strategies to mitigate the impacts of high temperatures on mammals' biodiversity in Caatinga.Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

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“…Thus, as argued by Fahrig (2013), to accurately assess the effect of forest loss on biodiversity, this landscape variable should be measured at the optimal spatial scale. Unfortunately, attempts to predict the scale that makes landscape effects the strongest (i.e., scale of effect) have been largely unsuccessful (Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Martínez‐Ruiz, et al, 2023; Miguet et al, 2016). Therefore, in practice, it is recommended that the effects of forest loss be assessed across different spatial scales (i.e., multiscale approach) to ensure we are not missing strong forest loss effects as a result of studying them at suboptimal scales (Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Martínez‐Ruiz, et al, 2023; Jackson & Fahrig, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, attempts to predict the scale that makes landscape effects the strongest (i.e., scale of effect) have been largely unsuccessful (Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Martínez‐Ruiz, et al, 2023; Miguet et al, 2016). Therefore, in practice, it is recommended that the effects of forest loss be assessed across different spatial scales (i.e., multiscale approach) to ensure we are not missing strong forest loss effects as a result of studying them at suboptimal scales (Arroyo‐Rodríguez, Martínez‐Ruiz, et al, 2023; Jackson & Fahrig, 2015). Finally, another caveat is that species extirpation may take decades to manifest, especially when assessing long‐lived organisms, such as adult trees, which usually respond slowly to environmental fluctuations, potentially causing delayed extinctions (i.e., extinction debts: Metzger et al, 2009; Tilman et al, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintenance of different life stages of old‐growth forest trees in deforested tropical landscapes

Martínez‐Ruiz,

Arroyo‐Rodríguez,

Arasa‐Gisbert

et al. 2024

Ecology

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Tropical tree species are increasingly being pushed to inhabit deforested landscapes. The habitat amount hypothesis posits that, in remaining forest patches, species diversity in equal‐sized samples decreases with decreasing forest cover in the surrounding landscape. We tested this prediction by taking into account three important factors that can affect species responses to forest loss. First, forest loss effects can be linear (proportional) or nonlinear, as there can be threshold values of forest loss beyond which species extirpation may be accelerated. Second, such effects are usually scale dependent and may go unnoticed if assessed at suboptimal scales. Finally, species extirpation may take decades to become evident, so the effects of forest loss can be undetected when assessing long‐lived organisms, like adult old‐growth forest trees. Here, we evaluated the linear and nonlinear effects of landscape forest loss across different spatial scales on site‐scale abundance and diversity of old‐growth forest trees, separately for four plant‐life stages (seeds, saplings, juveniles, and adults) in two rainforest regions with different levels of deforestation. We expected stronger (and negative) forest loss effects on early plant‐life stages, especially in the region with the highest deforestation. Surprisingly, in 13 of 16 study cases (2 responses × 4 life stages × 2 regions), null models showed higher empirical support than linear and nonlinear models at any scale. Therefore, the species richness and abundance of local tree assemblages seem to be weakly affected by landscape‐scale forest loss independently of the spatial scale, life stage, and region. Yet, as expected, the predictive power of forest cover was relatively lower in the least deforested region. Our findings suggest that landscape‐scale forest loss is poorly related to site‐scale processes, such as seed dispersal and seedling recruitment, or, at least, such effects are too small to shape the abundance and diversity of tree assemblages within forest patches. Therefore, our findings do not support the most important prediction of the habitat amount hypothesis but imply that, on a per‐area basis, a unit of habitat (forest) in a highly deforested landscape has a conservation value similar to that of a more forested one, particularly in moderately deforested rainforests.

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Does a Species’ Mobility Determine the Scale at Which It Is Influenced by the Surrounding Landscape Pattern?

Cited by 7 publications

References 42 publications

Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics

Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics

Mammal diversity responses to anthropic, environmental, and seasonal changes within Caatinga seasonal dry forest landscapes

Maintenance of different life stages of old‐growth forest trees in deforested tropical landscapes

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