Evaluating extinction debt in fragmented forests: the rapid recovery of a critically endangered primate

Abstract

Fragmented tropical forests can be highly dynamic, with the spatial configuration of forest patches changing through time. Yet, the lack of longitudinal studies limits our understanding of how patch dynamics affect biodiversity, especially when there is a time lag in species extinctions (extinction debt). We assessed how temporal changes in patch size, shape complexity and isolation affect populations of the Mexican howler monkey (Alouatta palliata mexicana), hypothesizing that we would find an extinction debt in this relatively long‐lived species. We assessed patch occupancy, subpopulation size and immature‐to‐female ratio in 39 forest patches from Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, in both 2001 and 2013. To identify time‐lag responses to habitat disturbance, we related demographic attributes in 2013 to patch metrics in 2001 and 2013 and tested whether primate subpopulations were better predicted by current or historical patch characteristics. We also assessed how changes in patch metrics affected each demographic attribute between 2001 and 2013. Patch size and shape complexity increased over time, whereas isolation decreased. These positive spatial changes were accompanied by a 1.6‐fold increase in mean subpopulation size over the same period. In addition, occupancy and immature‐to‐female ratio were similarly related to patch attributes in both years, suggesting that there is no extinction debt. Our findings are ‘good news’, suggesting that forest recovery over a relatively short period can promote the recovery of this Critically Endangered taxon. They also highlight the importance of preventing forest loss and promoting forest regeneration in human‐modified tropical landscapes.

Predicting Behavioral Intention of Rural Inhabitants toward Economic Incentive for Deforestation in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

“…Forest not only conserves biodiversity but also provides necessary ecosystem services to society. Nevertheless, recently several studies have demonstrated that restrictions on the use of natural resources have negative behavior among the rural residents who rely on the forest for their livelihood, which creates a lot of hurdles for the management of forests [1][2][3][4][5]. The mountainous rural area resident's major source of income is from the forest resources; therefore, the economic incentive from forests directs rural residents toward deforestation [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Forest maturity has a stronger influence on the prevalence of spider monkeys than howler monkeys in an anthropogenically impacted rainforest landscape

“…Forest cover, distribution and structure (and thus, food availability) are considered to be among the primary drivers of primate presence (Alcocer-Rodríguez et al 2020;Arce-Peña et al 2019;Galán-Acedo et al 2019a;Gouveia et al 2014), while bioclimatic variables such as rainfall and temperature can potentially impact primate distribution and group size (Korstjens et al 2006;Vidal-García and Serio-Silva 2011;Williams et al 2021). Although howler (Alouatta spp.)…”

Problems seeded in the past: lagged effects of historical land-use changes can cause an extinction debt in long-lived species due to movement limitation

“…Whereas the dynamics of some species might rapidly respond to landscape changes (e.g. Alcocer-Rodrı ´guez et al 2020), this response may often show time-lags, especially in long-lived species (Morris et al 2008;Metzger et al 2009). Time-lag response can generate two types of land-use legacies (Lira et al 2012): species credit and extinction debt, which refer to species that may become more or less abundant following the improvement or worsening of habitat quality, respectively (Hanski 2000;Daskalova et al 2020).…”

“…Time-lag response can generate two types of land-use legacies (Lira et al 2012): species credit and extinction debt, which refer to species that may become more or less abundant following the improvement or worsening of habitat quality, respectively (Hanski 2000;Daskalova et al 2020). Land-use legacies have mainly been analysed in the context of extinction debt responses in communities (Figueiredo et al 2019), and very few studies have analysed the extinction debt of single species (see Pandit et al 2017;Sergio et al 2019;Alcocer-Rodrı ´guez et al 2020) and mostly in a metapopulation context (Schtickzelle et al 2005).…”