Land-use change interacts with island biogeography to alter bird community assembly

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 291(2018)

Published: March 13, 2024

Anthropogenic activities have reshaped biodiversity on islands worldwide. However, it remains unclear how island attributes and land-use change interactively shape multiple facets of through community assembly processes. To answer this, we conducted bird surveys in various types (mainly forest farmland) using transects 34 oceanic land-bridge the largest archipelago China. We found that species richness increased with area decreased isolation, regardless intensity change. forest-dominated habitats exhibited lower than farmland-dominated habitats. Island assemblages generally comprised share more similar traits or evolutionary histories (i.e. functional and/or phylogenetic clustering) expected if were randomly assembled. Contrary to our expectations, observed clustered large close islands, whereas small islands. These contrasting results indicate interacts biogeography alter birds inhabited Our findings emphasize importance incorporating human-modified when examining biota, further suggest agricultural landscapes may play essential roles protecting countryside biodiversity.

Language: Английский

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Higher trophic levels and species with poorer dispersal traits are more susceptible to habitat loss on island fragments

Ecology, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 105(6)

Published: April 22, 2024

Ongoing habitat loss and fragmentation caused by human activities represent one of the greatest causes biodiversity loss. However, effects are not felt equally among species. Here, we examined how influenced diversity abundance species from different trophic levels, with traits, taking advantage an inadvertent experiment that created islands a once continuous forest via creation Thousand Island Lake, large reservoir in China. On 28 these more than 9000-fold difference their area (0.12-1154 ha), sampled plants, herbivorous insects, predatory insects using effort-controlled sampling analyses. This allowed us to discern whether any observed differences were due passive alone or demographic disproportionately some relative others. We found while most metrics increased island area, strength effect was exacerbated for higher levels. When explicitly composition islands, pairwise dominated turnover but nestedness indicating likely be absent smaller islands. Furthermore, examining trends several dispersal-related traits species, lower dispersal propensity tended those lost which insects. Our results emphasize importance incorporating within-patch effects, as well taxa when understanding influence on biodiversity.

Language: Английский

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Early to mid-Holocene human activity exerted gradual influences on Amazonian forest vegetation

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 377(1849)

Published: March 7, 2022

Humans have been present in Amazonia throughout the Holocene, with earliest archaeological sites dating to 12 000 years ago. The inhabitants began managing landscapes through fire and plant domestication, but total extent of vegetation modification remains relatively unknown. Here, we compile palaeoecological records from lake sediments containing charcoal pollen analyses understand how human land-use affected during early mid-Holocene, place our results context previous work. We identified gradual, rather than abrupt changes forest openness, disturbance enrichment, useful species at almost all sites. Early occupations occurred peripheral Amazonia, where natural fires are part dynamics, so human-made did not exert a novel form disturbance. Synchronicity between evidence onset occupation was found for eastern Amazonia. For southwestern western Guiana Shield, timing differed by thousands Plant cultivation showed different spatio-temporal pattern, appearing ca 2000 earlier other regions. Our findings highlight spatial-temporal heterogeneity indicate that region cannot be treated as one entity when assessing ecological or cultural history. This article is theme issue 'Tropical forests deep past'.

Language: Английский

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Pollen-based land cover changes reveal temporal and spatial differences of human activity in north-central China during the Holocene

CATENA, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 219, P. 106620 - 106620

Published: Sept. 9, 2022

Language: Английский

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Original plant diversity and ecosystems of a small, remote oceanic island (Corvo, Azores): Implications for biodiversity conservation

Biological Conservation, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 291, P. 110512 - 110512

Published: Feb. 22, 2024

Remote islands harbour many endemic species and unique ecosystems. They are also some of the world's most human-impacted systems. It is essential to understand how island ecosystems behaved prior major anthropogenic disruption as a basis for their conservation. This research aims reconstruct original, pre-colonial biodiversity remote oceanic scale past extinctions, vegetation changes knowledge gaps. We studied fossil remains from North Atlantic Corvo (Azores), including pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossils, diatoms geochemistry wetland sediments central crater island, Caldeirão. A comprehensive list current vascular was compiled, along with translation table comparing fossilized pollen framework identifying extinctions misclassifications. Pollen macrofossils provide evidence eight local island's flora show that four listed 'introduced' native. Up 23 % taxa represent extinct/misclassified species. Corvo's environment dynamic, shifting glacial-era open various Holocene forest communities, then almost completely deforested by fires, erosion grazing following Portuguese colonisation. Historical human impacts explain high ecological turnover, several unrecorded present-day abundance types like Sphagnum blanket mire. use case study on inventories can address Wallacean Hookerian gaps islands. Accurate baselines allow stakeholders make informed conservation decisions using limited financial resources, particularly where profound occurred before research.

Language: Английский

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