Rapid land-use change and its impacts on tropical biodiversity

Laurance, William F.

doi:10.1029/153gm15

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 109 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…LUCC is acknowledged as an important driver of changes in hydrology as well as the metabolism and productivity of hydrologic ecosystems (Hopkinson and Vallino, 1995;Moglen et al, 2004); regional hydroclimate (Avissar et al, 2004); carbon balance (Houghton, 2003); nutrient biogeochemistry (Grimm et al, 2004), and biological diversity (Laurance, 2004;Vitousek et al, 1997). Recent studies have also associated land change with the dynamics of infectious diseases (Thomson et al, 2004;Vanwambeke et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing about sixty years of land-cover change and associated landscape fragmentation in Shiretoko Peninsula, Northern Japan

Shoyama

Braimoh

2011

Landscape and Urban Planning

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing about sixty years of land-cover change and associated landscape fragmentation in Shiretoko Peninsula, Northern Japan

Shoyama

Braimoh

2011

Landscape and Urban Planning

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“…Land use changes are often an expression of changes in social and human-environment interactions [1][2][3]. These changes have a direct impact on ecosystems, ecosystem services, natural resources, and regional climate [4,5]. Holistic approaches including research on different scales and transdisciplinary methods can broaden our understanding of land use changes and their dynamics [2,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use Changes and Their Perception in the Hinterland of Barranquilla, Colombian Caribbean

et al. 2019

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The coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla in the Atlántico Department (Colombia) is experiencing changes in human-environment interactions through infrastructure, residential, and tourism projects in a vulnerable landscape. In the hilly area, fragments of biodiverse tropical dry forest still exist in various states of conservation and degradation. To understand the interrelated social, economic, and ecological transformations in the area, we analyzed land use change on the local scale including the local community’s perception, because the local community is a key actor for sustainable land use. For the analysis of the interrelated social, economic, and ecological processes, we combined visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, on-site field land use mapping, and a spatial statistical analysis of the distribution of land use classes with in-depth interviews and a participatory GIS workshop, thus benefitting from the complementary methodological strengths of these approaches. The case study is the rural community of El Morro, which exhibits the typical social, economic, and ecological changes of the coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla. The local community perceives a continuous loss of forest area, but observations from on-site field mapping cannot confirm this linear trend. We observed a gradual replacement of traditional land uses such as smallholder agriculture, charcoal production, and cattle breeding by services for tourism, gated community projects for urban dwellers, and infrastructure projects; these spatial developments have several characteristics of rural gentrification. We conclude that the drivers of environmental degradation have changed and the degradation increased. The development projects of external companies have been rejected by the local community and have induced environmental consciousness among community members. Thus, the local community has become an advocate for sustainable land use in the study area.

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“…Tropical forest ecosystems are hyperdiverse (Olson & Dinerstein, 1998;Myers et al, 2000) and high rates of deforestation, forest fragmentation and degradation in tropical regions (Laurance, 2004), coupled with climate change, severely threaten biodiversity (Vieira et al, 2008;Hof et al, 2011b;Eglington & Pearce-Higgins, 2012). This is particularly so in Africa where deforestation rates are among the highest in the tropics (Lambin et al, 2001;Boko et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in abundances of forest understorey birds on Africa's highest mountain suggest subtle effects of climate change

Dulle

Ferger

Cordeiro

et al. 2015

Diversity and Distributions

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Aim Understanding how species respond to climate and land use change is of prime importance for biodiversity conservation. However, studies using historical, empirical data to understand species responses to climate change and anthropogenic habitat disturbance remain scarce, especially for tropical mountain ecosystems. Here, we compare historical to recent mist net data to study changes in abundance of forest understorey birds along two elevational gradients. Location Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Methods We investigate patterns of understorey bird abundance along elevational and disturbance gradients on two slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro between 1991 and 2011. To understand species responses to climate change and disturbance, we use a trait‐based approach. Specifically, we test whether and how species' traits (temperature, habitat and dietary preferences) affect species responses to environmental change. Results We found that over the 20‐year time interval, mean minimum temperature increased across all sites along the elevational gradient, while levels of habitat disturbance remained similar. Mean abundance of understorey bird species increased significantly, especially at higher elevations and on the southern slope. Temporal increases were not related to species' temperature preferences and were detected for habitat generalists as well as herbivorous and omnivorous species, but not for forest specialists and insectivores. Main conclusions Our results suggest subtle effects of climate change on bird abundances which would not have been detectable if we had examined elevational range shifts or changes in species richness. Both warm‐ and cold‐adapted species appear to have benefited from increases in minimum temperatures at high elevations. This was not the case for forest specialists and insectivores which remained stable between sampling periods. This demonstrates that different groups of birds vary in their response to ongoing climatic changes. Our results underline the importance of tropical mountain ecosystems not only as global biodiversity hotspots, but also as safe havens for biodiversity in the face of global climate change.

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Rapid land-use change and its impacts on tropical biodiversity

Cited by 7 publications

References 109 publications

Analyzing about sixty years of land-cover change and associated landscape fragmentation in Shiretoko Peninsula, Northern Japan

Analyzing about sixty years of land-cover change and associated landscape fragmentation in Shiretoko Peninsula, Northern Japan

Land Use Changes and Their Perception in the Hinterland of Barranquilla, Colombian Caribbean

Changes in abundances of forest understorey birds on Africa's highest mountain suggest subtle effects of climate change

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