Sparing land for secondary forest regeneration protects more tropical biodiversity than land sharing in cattle farming landscapes

Edwards, Felicity A.; Massam, Mike R.; Cosset, Cindy C.P.; Cannon, Patrick G.; Haugaasen, Torbjørn; Gilroy, James J.; Edwards, David P.

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.030

Cited by 28 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…For instance, ant species functional dispersion of plots with low tree species diversity was similar to plots with high tree species diversity in China (Skarbek et al, 2020). Further, dung beetles and birds have also been shown to retain high levels of functional diversity even in young secondary forests in the Colombian Chocó (Edwards et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because species richness and trait structure are aggregate properties emerging from species composition but can obtain similar values with entirely different sets of species, we expected that species richness and traits could only be equal or faster than species composition in their recovery. Previous studies indicate that species composition takes often several decades longer than species diversity to recover (Curran et al, 2014; Dunn, 2004; Moreno‐Mateos et al, 2017), while the recovery of other community properties, such as trait structure, are less explored (Aubin et al, 2013; Barber et al, 2017; Edwards et al, 2021). In line with other studies, we expected that trait structure in agricultural environments is profoundly different from those in old‐growth forest, thus resulting in a slower recovery than species richness (Bihn et al, 2010; Rocha‐Ortega et al, 2018) (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid ant community reassembly in a Neotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Hoenle

Argoti

Staab

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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Regrowing secondary forests dominate tropical regions today, and a mechanistic understanding of their recovery dynamics provides important insights for conservation. In particular, land‐use legacy effects on the fauna have rarely been investigated. One of the most ecologically dominant and functionally important animal groups in tropical forests are the ants. Here, we investigated the recovery of ant communities in a forest–agricultural habitat mosaic in the Ecuadorian Chocó region. We used a replicated chronosequence of previously used cacao plantations and pastures with 1–34 years of regeneration time to study the recovery dynamics of species communities and functional diversity across the two land‐use legacies. We compared two independent components of responses on these community properties: resistance, which is measured as the proportion of an initial property that remains following the disturbance; and resilience, which is the rate of recovery relative to its loss. We found that compositional and trait structure similarity to old‐growth forest communities increased with regeneration age, whereas ant species richness remained always at a high level along the chronosequence. Land‐use legacies influenced species composition, with former cacao plantations showing higher resemblance to old‐growth forests than former pastures along the chronosequence. While resistance was low for species composition and high for species richness and traits, all community properties had similarly high resilience. In essence, our results show that ant communities of the Chocó recovery rapidly, with former cacao reaching predicted old‐growth forest community levels after 21 years and pastures after 29 years. Recovery in this community was faster than reported from other ecosystems and was likely facilitated by the low‐intensity farming in agricultural sites and their proximity to old‐growth forest remnants. Our study indicates the great recovery potential for this otherwise highly threatened biodiversity hotspot.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid ant community reassembly in a Neotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Hoenle

Argoti

Staab

et al. 2022

Ecological Applications

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“…Whilst secondary forests are no substitute for oldgrowth forests, they typically support around 57% of the diversity of primary forests [31], even after only 14-19 years of regeneration [34]. For indicator species, such as dung beetles and birds, there is evidence to suggest secondary forests can support the equivalent diversity of primary forests within 15 to 30 years, respectively [35]. As secondary regrowth continues to mature, it has been shown to support more forest specialist species, including bats [32,[35][36][37][38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edge effects and vertical stratification of aerial insectivorous bats across the interface of primary-secondary Amazonian rainforest

et al. 2022

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Edge effects, abiotic and biotic changes associated with habitat boundaries, are key drivers of community change in fragmented landscapes. Their influence is heavily modulated by matrix composition. With over half of the world’s tropical forests predicted to become forest edge by the end of the century, it is paramount that conservationists gain a better understanding of how tropical biota is impacted by edge gradients. Bats comprise a large fraction of tropical mammalian fauna and are demonstrably sensitive to habitat modification. Yet, knowledge about how bat assemblages are affected by edge effects remains scarce. Capitalizing on a whole-ecosystem manipulation in the Central Amazon, the aims of this study were to i) assess the consequences of edge effects for twelve aerial insectivorous bat species across the interface of primary and secondary forest, and ii) investigate if the activity levels of these species differed between the understory and canopy and if they were modulated by distance from the edge. Acoustic surveys were conducted along four 2-km transects, each traversing equal parts of primary and ca. 30-year-old secondary forest. Five models were used to assess the changes in the relative activity of forest specialists (three species), flexible forest foragers (three species), and edge foragers (six species). Modelling results revealed limited evidence of edge effects, except for forest specialists in the understory. No significant differences in activity were found between the secondary or primary forest but almost all species exhibited pronounced vertical stratification. Previously defined bat guilds appear to hold here as our study highlights that forest bats are more edge-sensitive than edge foraging bats. The absence of pronounced edge effects and the comparable activity levels between primary and old secondary forests indicates that old secondary forest can help ameliorate the consequences of fragmentation on tropical aerial insectivorous bats.

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“…3b; Gilroy et al ., 2014 a ). These findings are reiterated if biodiversity is assessed instead using metrics reflecting phylogenetic or functional diversity (Edwards et al ., 2015; Cannon et al ., 2019; see also Alvarado et al ., 2018 b ), and even when sparing is constrained to allow the retention only of secondary habitats (Edwards et al ., 2021). Other abundance‐based studies have explored the effects of different assumptions about the pre‐agricultural mix of baseline habitats (Macchi et al ., 2016) and have adjusted estimates of population sizes to account for the possibility of spared habitats potentially being highly fragmented, subject to marked edge effects, or substantially lower quality than the natural habitats surveyed in fieldwork (Lamb et al ., 2016; Balmford et al ., 2019).…”

Section: Sharing and Sparing In Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrating vs. spreading our footprint: how to meet humanity's needs at least cost to nature

Balmford

2021

Journal of Zoology

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Sparing land for secondary forest regeneration protects more tropical biodiversity than land sharing in cattle farming landscapes

Cited by 28 publications

References 93 publications

Rapid ant community reassembly in a Neotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Rapid ant community reassembly in a Neotropical forest: Recovery dynamics and land‐use legacy

Edge effects and vertical stratification of aerial insectivorous bats across the interface of primary-secondary Amazonian rainforest

Concentrating vs. spreading our footprint: how to meet humanity's needs at least cost to nature

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