Testing the habitat amount hypothesis for South American small mammals

Melo, Geruza Leal; Sponchiado, Jonas; Cáceres, Nilton C.; Fahrig, Lenore

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2017.02.031

Cited by 96 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…A study on woodland small mammals in the Brazilian cerrado (i.e. savanna) showed that habitat amount is the most important single predictor of species richness, while patch size and isolation generally had no effect on species richness after controlling for the effect of habitat amount (Melo, Sponchiado, Cáceres, & Fahrig, ). Predictions of the habitat amount hypothesis were upheld for rare reptiles and one frog species in an agricultural landscape in New South Wales, Australia (Pulsford, Lindenmayer, & Driscoll, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat amount, not patch size and isolation, drives species richness of macro‐moth communities in countryside landscapes

Merckx

Miranda

Pereira

2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Our aim was to test whether species richness patterns are best explained by the effect of the total amount of habitat within the landscape, or instead by a combination of patch size and patch isolation effects. To this end, we jointly contrast the habitat amount hypothesis and countryside biogeography with patch size and isolation concepts from island biogeography. Location Three multi‐habitat landscapes in Peneda‐Gerês National Park, NW Portugal. Taxon Macro‐moths (Lepidoptera). Methods Light‐trapping using a semi‐nested design at 84 fixed sites which were each repeatedly sampled six times. Results Autocovariate models show that sampling sites with a higher number of forest and meadow macro‐moth species (alpha diversity) were surrounded by a higher amount of forest and meadow habitat, respectively within a 160 and 320 m radius (scale of effect). These top‐ranked models, containing only habitat amount as a significant variable, had lower Akaike's information criteria (AIC) than models (only) containing patch size and/or isolation. Complementary to this, the countryside species–area relationship (SAR) model outperforms the classic SAR model, so that the effective area of habitat explains landscape species richness (gamma diversity) across spatial scales (beta diversity) better than the classic SAR. Specifically, we show that forest macro‐moths have a higher spatial turnover than meadow macro‐moths and that, on average, there are more species in forest than in meadow habitat. Main conclusions The habitat amount hypothesis predicts alpha species richness in multi‐habitat landscapes better than do patch size and isolation while the countryside SAR predicts beta and gamma diversity better than the classic SAR. We suggest that evidence is mounting to revise the application of the classical approaches of island biogeography and metapopulation theory to conservation biogeography.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat amount, not patch size and isolation, drives species richness of macro‐moth communities in countryside landscapes

Merckx

Miranda

Pereira

2019

Journal of Biogeography

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“…As stated by Fahrig (2013), the correct definition of habitat for the species group under evaluation is an essential step to understand how the reduction in the amount of habitat affects the number of species in local landscapes. This approach has been used in other studies, considering only a subgroup of species to conduct analyses for communities (Melo et al, 2017;Pardini et al, 2010;Vieira et al, 2018). (De Coster et al, 2015), and the replacement of large-fruited trees by early-successional, small-seeded species at fragment edges (Magnago et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Vieira, Almeida‐Gomes, Delciellos, Cerqueira and Crouzeilles () used forest cover as a proxy of habitat amount and then selected only forest species of non‐volant small mammals to test the habitat amount hypothesis. Indeed, there is evidence of a positive relationship between species diversity and total amount of habitat in fragmented landscapes (Andrén, ; Melo, Sponchiado, Cáceres & Fahrig, ; Pardini, Bueno, Gardner, Prado & Metzger, ; Püttker, Bueno, Barros, Sommer & Pardini, ; Smith, Fahrig & Francis, ), but also of the existence of fragmentation thresholds or regime shifts in the relationship between the amount of habitat and the number and composition of species (Andrén, ; Banks‐Leite et al., ; Pardini et al., ). However, comparatively, fewer studies have aimed to test how the reduction in amount of habitat in fragmented landscapes affects functional diversity and, most importantly, whether the relationship is linear or includes thresholds of habitat loss where function diversity reduces more sharply.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat amount drives the functional diversity and nestedness of anuran communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape

et al. 2019

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Natural environments disturbed by human activities can suffer from species extinctions, but some can still harbor high taxonomic diversity. However, disturbances may have impacts beyond the species level, if the species lost represent unique functions in the ecosystem. In this study, we evaluated to what extent the amount of habitat can determine the functional diversity and nestedness of amphibian communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape in Brazil, and if there is a threshold of habitat amount beyond which there is severe loss of functional diversity. As species responses may depend on their habitat type, we performed the analyses for three different sets of species: all species, forest‐dependent species, and generalist species. We also evaluated the relative importance of turnover and nestedness components to total functional dissimilarity among sites. Habitat amount affected functional diversity of frogs, especially for forest‐dependent species where a linear reduction was detected. The functional dissimilarity among sites was mostly explained by the nestedness component. The reduction of functional diversity was mediated by an ordered loss of traits, leading to a functionally nested metacommunity. These sensitive traits were closely related to habits and reproductive modes that depend on rivers and streams. The maintenance of functional diversity of frogs in fragmented landscapes must rely on the conservation of both terrestrial and aquatic environments, as some species and their traits can disappear from remnants of native vegetation lacking some specific habitats (e.g. streams). Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

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“…While Melo et al . () found that the habitat amount hypothesis holds for South American small mammals, Haddad et al . () found that the hypothesis does not hold for plant and micro‐arthropod communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Habitat fragmentation and species diversity in competitive communities

2019

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Habitat loss is one of the key drivers of the ongoing decline of biodiversity. However, ecologists still argue about how fragmentation of habitat (independent of habitat loss) affects species richness. The recently proposed habitat amount hypothesis posits that species richness only depends on the total amount of habitat in a local landscape. In contrast, empirical studies report contrasting patterns: some find positive and others negative effects of fragmentation per se on species richness. To explain this apparent disparity, we devise a stochastic, spatially explicit model of competitive species communities in heterogeneous habitats. The model shows that habitat loss and fragmentation have complex effects on species diversity in competitive communities. When the total amount of habitat is large, fragmentation per se tends to increase species diversity, but if the total amount of habitat is small, the situation is reversed: fragmentation per se decreases species diversity.

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Testing the habitat amount hypothesis for South American small mammals

Cited by 96 publications

References 38 publications

Habitat amount, not patch size and isolation, drives species richness of macro‐moth communities in countryside landscapes

Habitat amount, not patch size and isolation, drives species richness of macro‐moth communities in countryside landscapes

Habitat amount drives the functional diversity and nestedness of anuran communities in an Atlantic Forest fragmented landscape

Habitat fragmentation and species diversity in competitive communities

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