Forest loss increases insect herbivory levels in human-altered landscapes

Dodonov, Pavel; Morante‐Filho, José Carlos; Mariano‐Neto, Eduardo; Cazetta, Eliana; Andrade, Edyla Ribeiro de; Rocha‐Santos, Larissa; Inforzato, Igor; Gomes, Francisco Sanches; Faria, Deborah

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2016.10.003

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Previous studies in tropical rain forests have already shown higher herbivory in non-seedling plants due to human disturbances such as deforestation (Dodonov et al, 2016), and logging and fire (Barreto et al, 2021). In the former study, authors have also investigated the potential role of top-down control as a mechanism for changes in herbivory levels, but focused only on birds;…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced predation by arthropods and higher herbivory in burned Amazonian forests

et al. 2022

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Biodiversity losses have increased in tropical forests due to fire-related disturbances.As landscape fragmentation and climate change increase, fires will become more frequent and widespread across tropical rain forests worldwide, with important implications for forest dynamics by altering plant-animal interactions. Here we tested the hypothesis that recurrent fires in tropical rain forests change bottom-up and topdown forces controlling the abundance of insect herbivores, which in turn increases herbivory. To quantify herbivory, we collected 50 leaves per tree of five species in burned and unburned experimental plots (N = 75) in southeastern Amazonian forests.We measured leaf nitrogen content and leaf thickness of tree leaves as bottom-up factors that could explain differences in herbivory; we measured predation pressure on model caterpillars and estimated the abundance of predatory ants as top-down factors. We found higher herbivory in burned than in unburned forests, as well as lower predator attacks in caterpillar models and lower abundance of predatory ants.Leaf nitrogen content did not vary across treatments. Birds attacked model caterpillars more frequently in burned than in unburned forests, and leaf thickness was higher in burned forests, but these factors together were not enough to offset the higher herbivory in burned plots. Fire degrades tropical forests not only by killing trees and altering their structure and community dynamics, but also by reducing predatory arthropods and disrupting predator-prey interactions, which triggers increased herbivory. These indirect impacts of recurrent fires probably contribute to further alter forest structure, functioning, and to decrease regeneration in Amazonian forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced predation by arthropods and higher herbivory in burned Amazonian forests

et al. 2022

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“…For example, we found in previous studies carried out in the study region that forest patches in more deforested landscapes show significant changes in ecological processes performed by forest birds, such as a decrease in the consumption of artificial fruits (i.e. a proxy for seed dispersal limitation; see Menezes, Cazetta, Morante-Filho, & Faria, 2016), and an increase in leaf herbivory rates (Dodonov et al, 2016;Morante-Filho, Arroyo-Rodríguez, Lohbeck et al, 2016). Thus, the future of these birds and the ecological processes in which they are involved will largely depend on the maintenance of forest cover across the Brazilian Atlantic forest.…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Compensatory dynamics maintain bird phylogenetic diversity in fragmented tropical landscapes

Morante‐Filho

Arroyo‐Rodríguez

Andrade

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Abstract1. Tropical forest loss can drive the extinction of forest-dependent species. Yet, nonforest species can proliferate in deforested landscapes, thus enabling communitylevel attributes (e.g. total abundance and richness) to be maintained in the remaining forest patches. Such compensatory dynamics have been, however, poorly investigated regarding the phylogenetic dimension of species diversity. Here, we assessed whether compensatory dynamics can stabilize the phylogenetic richness, divergence and structure of bird communities in response to forest loss in two regions in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, each under with different levels of land use intensification.2. We surveyed birds in 40 forest sites, and assessed the response of five phylogenetic metrics to forest cover measured in local (600-m radius) landscapes. We separately assessed the entire community, forest-dependent and non-forest-dependent species and used information-theoretic criteria to assess the effect of forest cover on each response variable. In particular, we evaluated the plausibility of four models: a null model (no effect of forest cover), a linear model, a power law model (nonlinear effect) and an analysis of covariance model (to assess whether the effect of forest cover differed between regions).3. Forest cover varied from 7% to 98%, and was positively related to the phylogenetic richness of forest-dependent species, but negatively related to the phylogenetic richness and divergence of non-forest birds, particularly in the more disturbed region. As consequence, the phylogenetic richness and divergence of the entire community were weakly related to forest cover.4. Forest birds were less phylogenetically clustered in sites surrounded by lower forest cover, but the phylogenetic structure of non-forest birds was independent of forest cover. Synthesis and applications.The phylogenetic impoverishment of forest-dependent birds is offset by the phylogenetic enrichment and divergence of non-forestdependent birds in severely tropical deforested landscapes. These compensatory dynamics suggest that both bird groups are important for safeguarding bird evolutionary diversity in human-modified landscapes. Although deforested landscapes are reservoirs of bird phylogenetic diversity, suggesting that ecosystem functioning may be maintained in these sites, preventing further deforestation is urgently needed to preserve forest birds and their key ecological roles in the ecosystem. | 257Journal of Applied Ecology MORANTE-FILHO ET AL. Although the changes in bird phylogenetic diversity in humanmodified tropical landscapes are poorly understood, there is evidence that wildlife-friendly farms (i.e. those that involve integrating biodiversity conservation and food production in the same land, Melo et al., 2013) show lower bird phylogenetic diversity than old-growth forests, and that forest patch isolation leads to the loss of more evolutionarily distinct bird species (Edwards et al., 2015). Bird phylogenetic diversity is, however, higher in diversified agricu...

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“…First, no studies have examined how herbivory rates respond to human disturbance, even though these could be crucial for refining important estimates of both carbon and nutrient cycling across much of the remaining tropical forest biome (Metcalfe et al, 2014). There are strong a priori reasons to think that herbivory may change due to human influence, given disturbance can alter insect densities (Knight & Holt, 2005), resource quantity (McNaughton et al, 1989), resource quality (Coley et al, 1985), plant defenses (Coley, 1987;McIntyre et al, 1999), and top-down control of herbivores (Dodonov et al, 2016). Second, many studies focus on leaf loss from chewing invertebrates (e.g., Fagan et al, 2005;Silva et al, 2012;Wolf et al, 2008), but do not consider other forms of invertebrate-mediated herbivory that are widespread in tropical forests, such as miners and gall makers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%