Homogenization and impoverishment of taxonomic and functional diversity of ants in Eucalyptus plantations

Abstract

Despite its negative impacts on the environment and biodiversity, tree plantations can contribute to biodiversity conservation in fragmented landscapes, as they harbor many native species. In this study, we investigated the impact of Eucalyptus plantations on the taxonomic and functional diversity of ant communities, comparing ant communities sampled in managed and unmanaged (abandoned for 28 years) Eucalyptus plantations, and native Atlantic rain forests. Eucalyptus plantations, both managed and unmanaged, reduced the functional diversity and increased the similarity between ant communities leading to functional homogenization. While communities in managed plantations had the lowest values of both taxonomic and functional ant diversities, ant communities from unmanaged plantations had similar values of species richness, functional redundancy and Rao’s Q compared to ant communities from forest patches (although functional richness was lower). In addition, communities in unmanaged Eucalyptus plantations were taxonomically and functionally more similar to communities located in managed plantations, indicating that Eucalyptus plantations have a severe long-term impact on ant communities. These results indicate that natural regeneration may mitigate the impact of Eucalyptus management, particularly regarding the functional structure of the community (α diversity), although it does not attenuate the effects of long term homogenization in community composition (β diversity).

Trait probability density (TPD): measuring functional diversity across scales based on TPD with R

“…(d) Changes in functional redundancy (expressed in relative terms) for single and multiple traits along the soil water content gradient. Indeed, although the TPD framework, as presented here, is primarily explained in terms of functional niche, similar concepts could be applied to other types of data, such as isotope ratios (Swanson et al 2015), climatic data (Blonder et al 2014), or habitat preferences (Traba et al 2015(Traba et al , 2017, as well as to traits of other taxonomic groups (Martello et al 2018); these are only some examples, but the number of potential applications of the framework is considerable. Ecology,Vol.…”

“…Combining information on redundancy and overlap-based dissimilarity between species and communities appears to be a promising approach in aiding the design of ecological restoration projects, including those intended to exclude invasive species (Laughlin 2014), or for the protection of species supporting specific ecosystem functions . Indeed, although the TPD framework, as presented here, is primarily explained in terms of functional niche, similar concepts could be applied to other types of data, such as isotope ratios (Swanson et al 2015), climatic data (Blonder et al 2014), or habitat preferences (Traba et al 2015(Traba et al , 2017, as well as to traits of other taxonomic groups (Martello et al 2018); these are only some examples, but the number of potential applications of the framework is considerable. With this in mind, we want to emphasize that we do not consider the TPD framework to be a definitive and closed collection of methods, but rather the first step towards a unified framework that accommodates the probabilistic and multidimensional nature of the functional facet of diversity.…”

Intensive management and declines in soil nutrients lead to serious exotic plant invasion inEucalyptusplantations under successive short‐rotation regimes

“…Brazil has the largest area of Eucalyptus plantations with around 7.74 million ha (Martello et al, 2018) . Brazil has the largest area of Eucalyptus plantations with around 7.74 million ha (Martello et al, 2018) .…”

“…Today there are more than 25 million ha are comprised of Eucalyptus plantations across the globe with the total area increasing annually . Brazil has the largest area of Eucalyptus plantations with around 7.74 million ha (Martello et al, 2018) . Therefore, Eucalyptus plantations have the potential to become an important component of planted forests globally.…”

Dimensions of ant diversity on a small tropical island

“…Local-scale studies examining differences across ant diversity dimensions are rare and mostly limited to comparisons of intact and human-modified habitats (e.g. Arnan et al, 2018;Bihn et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2016;Martello et al, 2018;but see Blaimer et al (2015) for differences in phylogenetic structure of ant communities between dry and humid forests of Madagascar). These local-scale studies have revealed a strong decrease in ant functional diversity with reduced species richness in human-modified habitats, with low functional redundancy of ant communities.…”