Effects of land-use change on vascular epiphyte diversity in Sumatra (Indonesia)

Böhnert, Tim; Wenzel, Arne; Altenhövel, Christian; Beeretz, Lukas; Tjitrosoedirdjo, S.; Meijide, Ana; Rembold, Katja; Kreft, Holger

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.008

Cited by 40 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Second, ferns that are associated with suspended soils in tropical rainforests support large invertebrate biomasses, including several specialized species (Ellwood and Foster ); moreover, although epiphyte diversity is lower in oil palm plantations than in rainforests, epiphytes are more abundant in oil palm plantations (Turner and Foster ; Böhnert et al . ), suggesting that suspended soils contribute greatly to invertebrate density and diversity at the plantation and landscape scales. For example, ferns in oil palm plantations support a remarkable diversity of ant species (Fayle et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground soil supports high levels of biological activity in oil palm plantations

Potapov

Bonnier

Sandmann

et al. 2020

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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Oil palm plantations are expanding rapidly throughout Southeast Asia due to increasing global food demand, thereby putting greater pressure on local ecosystems. These plantations usually replace rainforests, resulting in major losses of soil structure and fertility, and belowground biodiversity. However, despite causing soil degradation, oil palms may provide a novel microhabitat for soil biota in suspended soil that accumulates in the axils of cut palm fronds attached to the trunks of these trees. We examined soil communities belowground and in frond axils in a 16-year-old oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Community metabolism of small arthropods, nematodes, and testate amoebae (protists) per gram of soil was much higher in axils (suspended soil) than in belowground soil, and accounted for approximately 28% of total soil fauna metabolism at the plantation scale (considering the top 5 cm of soil). Preserving these aboveground microhabitats of suspended soil as hotspots of biological activity during plantation management may therefore partly offset the detrimental impacts of oil palm plantations on soil-borne processes and biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aboveground soil supports high levels of biological activity in oil palm plantations

Potapov

Bonnier

Sandmann

et al. 2020

Frontiers in Ecol & Environ

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“…Furthermore, this indicates that extensively managed land use systems like agroforests can not only accommodate high levels of taxonomic diversity (e.g. Böhnert et al, 2016;Rembold et al, 2017) but also maintain higher PD compared to intensively managed systems (also see Frishkoff et al, 2014).…”

Section: Forest Conversion Leads To a Loss Of Pdmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The conversion of forests for agricultural purposes leads to strong declines of biodiversity of forest communities (Betts et al., ; Böhnert et al., ; Rembold, Mangopo, Tjitrosoedirdjo, & Kreft, ) and substantial losses of ecological functions (Sodhi, Koh, et al., ). This is alarming because biodiversity regulates important processes of ecosystem functioning (Hooper et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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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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“…In addition, microorganisms play a key role in decomposing soil organic matter and mineralizing nutrients in soil [7]. It has been shown that rainforest conversion to plantations has negative effects on the biodiversity of fungi [8,9], protists [10], vertebrates [11], insects and plants [12][13][14], archaea [15], but not on bacterial diversity which increased [15,16]. Additionally, the microbial community composition was severely affected by these conversion processes with a high impact on Proteobacteria which showed an abundance decrease and Actinobacteria, which showed an abundance increase with increasing land use intensity [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the effects of tropical land use conversion on the soil microbiome

Hölscher

Schneider

Meryandini

et al. 2020

Environmental Microbiome

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Background: The consequences of deforestation and agricultural treatments are complex and affect all trophic levels. Changes of microbial community structure and composition associated with rainforest conversion to managed systems such as rubber and oil palm plantations have been shown by 16S rRNA gene analysis previously, but functional profile shifts have been rarely addressed. In this study, we analysed the effects of rainforest conversion to different converted land use systems, including agroforestry ("jungle rubber") and monoculture plantations comprising rubber and oil palm, on soilborne microbial communities by metagenomic shotgun sequencing in Sumatra, Indonesia.Results: The diversity of bacteria and archaea decreased whereas diversity of fungi increased in the converted land use systems. The soil microbiome was dominated by bacteria followed by fungi. We detected negative effects of land use conversion on the abundance of Proteobacteria (especially on Rhizobiales and Burkholderiales) and positive effects on the abundance of Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria. These abundance changes were mainly driven by pH, C:N ratio, and Fe, C and N content. With increasing land use intensity, the functional diversity decreased for bacteria, archaea and fungi. Gene abundances of specific metabolisms such as nitrogen metabolism and carbon fixation were affected by land use management practices. The abundance of genes related to denitrification and nitrogen fixation increased in plantations while abundance of genes involved in nitrification and methane oxidation showed no significant difference. Linking taxonomic and functional assignment per read indicated that nitrogen metabolism-related genes were mostly assigned to members of the Rhizobiales and Burkholderiales. Abundances of carbon fixation genes increased also with increasing land use intensity. Motility-and interaction-related genes, especially genes involved in flagellar assembly and chemotaxis genes, decreased towards managed land use systems. This indicated a shift in mobility and interspecific interactions in bacterial communities within these soils. Conclusions: Rainforest conversion to managed land use systems drastically affects structure and functional potential of soil microbial communities. The decrease in motility-and interaction-related functions from rainforest to converted land use systems indicated not only a shift in nutrient cycling but also in community dynamics. Fertilizer application and correspondingly higher availability of nutrients in intensively managed plantations lead to an environment in which interspecific interactions are not favoured compared to rainforest soils. We could directly link effects of land management, microbial community structure and functional potential for several metabolic processes. As our study is the first study of this size and detail on soil microbial communities in tropical systems, we provide a basis for further analyses.

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Effects of land-use change on vascular epiphyte diversity in Sumatra (Indonesia)

Cited by 40 publications

References 55 publications

Aboveground soil supports high levels of biological activity in oil palm plantations

Aboveground soil supports high levels of biological activity in oil palm plantations

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

Unravelling the effects of tropical land use conversion on the soil microbiome

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