Recovery of mammal diversity in tropical forests: a functional approach to measuring restoration

Abstract

Ecological restoration is increasingly applied in tropical forests to mitigate biodiversity loss and recover ecosystem functions. In restoration ecology, functional richness, rather than species richness, often determines community assembly, and measures of functional diversity provide a mechanistic link between diversity and ecological functioning of restored habitat. Vertebrate animals are important for ecosystem functioning. Here, we examine the functional diversity of small‐to‐medium sized mammals to evaluate the diversity and functional recovery of tropical rainforest. We assess how mammal species diversity and composition and functional diversity and composition, vary along a restoration chronosequence from degraded pasture to “old‐growth” tropical rainforest in the Wet Tropics of Australia. Species richness, diversity, evenness, and abundance did not vary, but total mammal biomass and mean species body mass increased with restoration age. Species composition in restoration forests converged on the composition of old‐growth rainforest and diverged from pasture with increasing restoration age. Functional metrics provided a clearer pattern of recovery than traditional species metrics, with most functional metrics significantly increasing with restoration age when taxonomic‐based metrics did not. Functional evenness and dispersion increased significantly with restoration age, suggesting that niche complementarity enhances species' abundances in restored sites. The change in community composition represented a functional shift from invasive, herbivorous, terrestrial habitat generalists and open environment specialists in pasture and young restoration sites, to predominantly endemic, folivorous, arboreal, and fossorial forest species in older restoration sites. This shift has positive implications for conservation and demonstrates the potential of tropical forest restoration to recover rainforest‐like, diverse faunal communities.

Fauna as passengers and drivers in vegetation restoration: A synthesis of processes and evidence

“…; Derhe et al . ). First, multivariate metrics of community resemblance across all species can measure both the overall development of species composition in revegetated sites and their similarity to reference sites (i.e.…”

“…The most common resulting error is that of concluding that the fauna community has recovered when in fact it has not . Either of the following two approaches to the use of multispecies fauna (or flora) data in assessing recovery provide much better discrimination (see examples in Grimbacher & Catterall 2007;Munro et al 2011;Catterall et al 2012;Reid et al 2012;Curran et al 2014;Hernandez-Ordonez et al 2015;Derhe et al 2017). First, multivariate metrics of community resemblance across all species can measure both the overall development of species composition in revegetated sites and their similarity to reference sites (i.e.…”

Ecosystem functions of birds as a tool to track restoration efficiency in Brazil

“…However, restoration activities rarely consider the recruitment capacity of faunal assemblages (Hale et al 2019) during the restoration trajectory. Because chronosequence of plant colonization influences the availability of resources and conditions for faunal species, habitat change during the restoration process will affect the faunal recolonization process (Johnston and Odum 1956;Rolo et al 2017) and ecosystem functions (Derhé et al 2018). For example, while successful restoration programs have managed to recover the composition and abundance of mammals species to previously disturbed levels (Craig et al 2018), the recovery of reptile fauna is much more difficult because they require microhabitats (e.g., woody debris) that are less available during the recovery process (Triska et al 2016;Craig et al 2018).…”

“…For example, while successful restoration programs have managed to recover the composition and abundance of mammals species to previously disturbed levels (Craig et al 2018), the recovery of reptile fauna is much more difficult because they require microhabitats (e.g., woody debris) that are less available during the recovery process (Triska et al 2016;Craig et al 2018). Therefore, because of the link between variation in plant community and the faunal recolonization process (Lindenmayer et al 2010;Munro et al 2010), restoration efficiency could be evaluated using the dissimilarity of faunal assemblages with the age of restoration areas (Selwood et al 2009;Derhé et al 2018).…”

Checklist of medium-sized to large mammals of Campos Gerais National Park, Paraná, Brazil

“…Mammals have an important role in the maintenance and equilibrium of forest ecosystems (Miller et al 2001, Magioli et al 2015, with several ecological services. These comprise prey population control, plant pollination and seed dispersal, contributing towards the regeneration of forests (Terborgh et al 1999, Galetti et al 2015, Derhé et al 2017. However, owing to anthropogenic forest fragmentation, modification of habitats, introduction of exotic species and other factors, several species of this group are endangered in many Brazilian states (MMA 2014, IUCN 2018.…”