Landscape-scale forest loss as a catalyst of population and biodiversity change

Abstract

Global biodiversity assessments have highlighted land-use change as a key driver of biodiversity change. However, there is little empirical evidence of how habitat transformations such as forest loss and gain are reshaping biodiversity over time. We quantified how change in forest cover has influenced temporal shifts in populations and ecological assemblages from 6090 globally distributed time series across six taxonomic groups. We found that local-scale increases and decreases in abundance, species richness, and temporal species replacement (turnover) were intensified by as much as 48% after forest loss. Temporal lags in population- and assemblage-level shifts after forest loss extended up to 50 years and increased with species’ generation time. Our findings that forest loss catalyzes population and biodiversity change emphasize the complex biotic consequences of land-use change.

Maximizing regional biodiversity requires a mosaic of protection levels

“…Species diversity is changing at all spatial scales under ever-increasing habitat degradation, spread of non-native species, overexploitation of resources, and climate warming [1][2][3][4]. Ambitious conservation targets have been recently proposed to halt and even reverse the ongoing biodiversity erosion with the commitment to protect at least 30% of the global ocean and land by 2030 [5,6].…”

Temporal Dynamics of Fish Assemblages as a Reflection of Policy Shift from Fishing Concession to Co-Management in One of the World’s Largest Tropical Flood Pulse Fisheries

“…This conclusion supports recent research, indicating that governance issues, leading to intensive fishing pressure and substantial changes in floodplain habitats, are a major threat to the TSL fish stocks. Other factors such as the conversion of flooded forest into agricultural land, agricultural intensification, and flow alterations caused by human actions such as dams and climate change are among the key contributing factors, negatively impacting fish stocks, and are indeed exacerbating the problems of overfishing [89][90][91][92]. Therefore, to realize the fisheries reform objectives, it is imperative to have a clear, coherent, and implementable legal framework for effectively enforcing fisheries law in both space and time, improving fisheries planning, cooperation, and coordination as well as defining clear roles and responsibility among stakeholders at all levels across multiple agencies and sectors [31,92].…”

The urgency of food system transformation is now irrefutable

“…Agriculture and its associated land-use changes are the biggest contributors to climate change, accounting for roughly 21% of anthropomorphic greenhouse gas emissions between 2007 and 2016 7 . Pressures placed on natural resources by food production have left 25% of the globe's cultivated land area degraded, while deforestation for agriculture and the intensification of agricultural landscapes are major contributors to biodiversity loss 8 . Threats posed by climate change -shifts in temperature and rainfall, and more frequent and damaging weather anomalies -directly and indirectly (for example, through pest and disease outbreaks) disrupt the production, processing, transport and marketing of food.…”