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Using avian functional traits to assess the impact of land-cover change on ecosystem processes linked to resilience in tropical forests
Citation
Bregman, TP and Lees, AC and MacGregor, HEA and Darski, B and de Moura, NG and Aleixo, A and Barlow, J and Tobias, JA, Using avian functional traits to assess the impact of land-cover change on ecosystem processes linked to resilience in tropical forests, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283, (1844) Article 20161289. ISSN 0962-8452 (2016) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2016, © 2016 The Author(s). http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
DOI: doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.1289
Abstract
Vertebrates perform key roles in ecosystem processes via trophic interactions with plants and insects, but the response of these interactions to environmental change is difficult to quantify in complex systems, such as tropical forests. Here, we use the functional trait structure of Amazonian forest bird assemblages to explore the impacts of land-cover change on two ecosystem processes: seed dispersal and insect predation. We show that trait structure in assemblages of frugivorous and insectivorous birds remained stable after primary forests were subjected to logging and fire events, but that further intensification of human land use substantially reduced the functional diversity and dispersion of traits, and resulted in communities that occupied a different region of trait space. These effects were only partially reversed in regenerating secondary forests. Our findings suggest that local extinctions caused by the loss and degradation of tropical forest are non-random with respect to functional traits, thus disrupting the network of trophic interactions regulating seed dispersal by forest birds and herbivory by insects, with important implications for the structure and resilience of human-modified tropical forests. Furthermore, our results illustrate how quantitative functional traits for specific guilds can provide a range of metrics for estimating the contribution of biodiversity to ecosystem processes, and the response of such processes to land-cover change.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | biodiversity, biotic interactions, defaunation, ecosystem processes, land-use change, seed dispersal |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecology |
| Research Field: | Terrestrial ecology |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Terrestrial systems and management |
| Objective Field: | Terrestrial biodiversity |
| UTAS Author: | MacGregor, HEA (Ms Hannah MacGregor) |
| ID Code: | 117773 |
| Year Published: | 2016 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 97 |
| Deposited By: | Zoology |
| Deposited On: | 2017-06-27 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-09-22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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