Parks, People and Pixels: Evaluating Landscape Effects of an East African National Park on its Surroundings

Southworth, Jane; Hartter, Joel; Binford, Michael W.; Goldman, Abe; Chapman, Colin A.; Chapman, Lauren J.; Omeja, Patrick A.; Binford, Elizabeth

doi:10.1177/194008291000300202

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…Fortunately, although agricultural encroachment in Kibale was common in the past (Chapman and Lambert ), forest cover within the park boundaries has been quite stable in recent years (Southworth et al. ), suggesting that this protected area should be effective at preserving forest‐specific taxa in this region. Such protection is unfortunately not standard across the afrotropics, as the majority of threatened freshwater species in sub‐Saharan Africa occur in watersheds with insufficient protected land cover to avoid potential declines in water quality (Darwall et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Land use changes in an afrotropical biodiversity hotspot affect stream alpha and beta diversity

2016

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Citation: Fugère, V., A. Kasangaki, and L. J. Chapman. 2016. Land use changes in an afrotropical biodiversity hotspot affect stream alpha and beta diversity. Ecosphere 7(6):e01355. 10. 1002/ecs2.1355 Abstract. Land use changes such as deforestation and agricultural expansion strongly affect stream biodiversity, with several studies demonstrating negative impacts on stream alpha diversity. Effects of forest conversion on stream beta diversity are much harder to predict, both because empirical studies are few and because competing theories suggest opposite responses. Moreover, almost no data exist for tropical Africa, a region that is paradoxically a hotspot of both current deforestation and freshwater biodiversity. Here, we compared environmental variables, invertebrate community composition, and alpha and beta diversity of forested and deforested (agricultural) streams in and around Kibale National Park, Uganda. We found that forest conversion strongly influenced stream environmental variables and invertebrate community composition, and that agricultural land use reduced stream alpha diversity. However, amongstream beta diversity was greater across the agricultural landscape than inside the forest. Decomposing beta diversity into taxa replacement and richness differences demonstrated that replacement contributed a similar proportion to total beta diversity in both land use classes. Because of this greater beta diversity, the agricultural landscape had similar gamma diversity as the forested landscape despite its lower alpha diversity. We discuss conservation implications of these land use-associated biodiversity changes in a highly diverse yet little-studied deforestation hotspot.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since 1920, a sevenfold increase in population density around the park and the associated surge in demand for farmland have resulted in no large tract of forest outside of the park, and the few remaining (small) forest fragments are being rapidly converted to agricultural land (Southworth et al. ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land use changes in an afrotropical biodiversity hotspot affect stream alpha and beta diversity

2016

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“…Kibale was gazetted as a forest reserve with controlled logging in 1932 and then as a fully protected national park in 1993 (Struhsaker, ). Since 1920, population density in the area surrounding the park has increased sevenfold (reaching 270 people km −2 along the western edge of the park), which has led to rapid conversion of forest to agricultural land (Southworth et al., ). Although some forest patches still remain outside of the park, land use in the vicinity of Kibale is dominated by intensive smallholder agriculture (farms <5 ha with a mixture of food crops, pastures and occasionally cash crops such as coffee or tea), a few larger tea estates and some monocultures of exotic pines and eucalypts planted for timber (Southworth et al., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem structure and function of afrotropical streams with contrasting land use

et al. 2018

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Land use changes can strongly influence stream ecosystems, yet these effects remain poorly documented in many hotspots of deforestation such as tropical Africa. The few studies conducted in this region have mostly focused on structural aspects of stream integrity; sparse data are available for key ecosystem processes such as ecosystem metabolism and litter decomposition. To address this knowledge gap, we measured multiple ecosystem functions in rainforest and nearby agricultural (farm) streams located in an afrotropical deforestation hotspot. In two farm and forest stream pairs, we quantified the standing stock biomass of basal resources and invertebrate functional feeding groups, measured rates of litter decomposition (microbial and shredder‐mediated) and modelled invertebrate secondary production. We also calculated whole‐stream metabolic parameters over multiple weeks. To test the regional generality of our results, we then reanalysed a published dataset and assessed the functional composition of invertebrate communities from many local streams. We found that farm streams had greater algal standing stocks, gross primary production (GPP) and production‐to‐respiration ratios than forest streams, although they remained strongly heterotrophic with relatively low GPP values. Agricultural land use also led to the almost complete extirpation of invertebrate shredders, resulting in much slower litter decomposition rates at farm than forest sites despite comparable rates of microbial decomposition. Finally, farm streams had lower invertebrate biomass despite abundant basal resources, leading to a 41%–66% reduction in estimated invertebrate production. We speculate that the functional response of our streams to agricultural land use (i.e., a modest increase in GPP but large declines in invertebrate production and shredder‐mediated litter decomposition rates) could be common across the afrotropics due to low fertiliser usage in this region and/or features of the local fauna. Although our study focuses a small number of streams, the large effect sizes that we report suggest that afrotropical streams could be strongly affected by rapid land use changes in the region, highlighting the need for additional research, monitoring, and conservation efforts in this poorly studied area of the world that is under increasing human pressures.

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“…), KNP has remained relatively stable since early monitoring began in the 1970s (Struhsaker ; Southworth et al. ; Naughton‐Treves et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate DNA suggests long‐term stability of an African rainforest

Allen

Miyamoto

Carter

et al. 2012

Ecology and Evolution

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Red colobus monkeys, due to their sensitivity to environmental change, are indicator species of the overall health of their tropical rainforest habitats. As a result of habitat loss and overhunting, they are among the most endangered primates in the world, with very few viable populations remaining. Traditionally, extant indicator species have been used to signify the conditions of their current habitats, but they have also been employed to track past environmental conditions by detecting previous population fluctuations. Kibale National Park (KNP) in Uganda harbors the only remaining unthreatened large population of red colobus. We used microsatellite DNA to evaluate the historical demography of these red colobus and, therefore, the long-term stability of their habitat. We find that the red colobus population throughout KNP has been stable for at least ∼40,000 years. We interpret this result as evidence of long-term forest stability because a change in the available habitat or population movement would have elicited a corresponding change in population size. We conclude that the forest of what is now Kibale National Park may have served as a Late Pleistocene refuge for many East African species.

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Parks, People and Pixels: Evaluating Landscape Effects of an East African National Park on its Surroundings

Cited by 23 publications

References 48 publications

Land use changes in an afrotropical biodiversity hotspot affect stream alpha and beta diversity

Land use changes in an afrotropical biodiversity hotspot affect stream alpha and beta diversity

Ecosystem structure and function of afrotropical streams with contrasting land use

Primate DNA suggests long‐term stability of an African rainforest

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