The Multiple Impacts of Tropical Forest Fragmentation on Arthropod Biodiversity and on their Patterns of Interactions with Host Plants

Abstract

Tropical rain forest fragmentation affects biotic interactions in distinct ways. Little is known, however, about how fragmentation affects animal trophic guilds and their patterns of interactions with host plants. In this study, we analyzed changes in biotic interactions in forest fragments by using a multitrophic approach. For this, we classified arthropods associated with Heliconia aurantiaca herbs into broad trophic guilds (omnivores, herbivores and predators) and assessed the topological structure of intrapopulation plant-arthropod networks in fragments and continuous forests. Habitat type influenced arthropod species abundance, diversity and composition with greater abundance in fragments but greater diversity in continuous forest. According to trophic guilds, coleopteran herbivores were more abundant in continuous forest and overall omnivores in fragments. Continuous forest showed a greater diversity of interactions than fragments. Only in fragments, however, did the arthropod community associated with H aurantiaca show a nested structure, suggesting novel and/or opportunistic host-arthropod associations. Plants, omnivores and predators contributed more to nestedness than herbivores. Therefore, Heliconia-arthropod network properties do not appear to be maintained in fragments mainly caused by the decrease of herbivores. Our study contributes to the understanding of the impact of fragmentation on the structure and dynamics of multitrophic arthropod communities associated with a particular plant species of the highly biodiverse tropical forests. Nevertheless, further replication of study sites is needed to strengthen the conclusion that forest fragmentation negatively affects arthropod assemblages.

Interaction and Distribution of Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) Associated withHeliconia bihai(Heliconiaceae) Inflorescences

“…As the number of bracts increased in the inflorescences, abundance and richness also tended to increase. This change in the colonizing fauna has been reported previously (Seifert 1982;Richardson & Hull 2000;Garcia-Robledo et al 2005;Yee & Willig 2007) and recently, Benítez-Malvido et al (2016) have shown the influence of the fragmentation of the tropical forest on the phytotelmata arthropod biodiversity in Heliconia bracts. The habitat affects species abundance, and the diversity and composition were higher in continuous forest (Benítez-Malvido et al 2016).…”

Echolocation and Stratum Preference: Key Trait Correlates of Vulnerability of Insectivorous Bats to Tropical Forest Fragmentation

“…Farneda et al (2015) showed that diet type is an important predictor of vulnerability to fragmentation in phyllostomids, and this may also be true for AIB. In fact, insectivorous bats have distinct diets that include a broad diversity of insect groups or adjust their activity patterns to new environmental conditions (Kalka and Kalko, 2006;Lawer and Darkoh, 2016;Kemp et al, 2019;Rocha et al, 2019) and there is evidence that some of these are substantially impacted by forest fragmentation (Didham et al, 1996;Golden and Crist, 1999;Rösch et al, 2013;Benítez-Malvido et al, 2016). Diet type may thus influence the vulnerability of AIB to fragmentation, but we could not include this trait in our study due to the scarcity of knowledge about the diet of the species involved.…”

Effect of distance to edge and edge interaction on seedling regeneration and biotic damage in tropical rainforest fragments: A long‐term experiment

“…Forest edges are the point of entry for external influences, including the invasion of native and exotic species, and so, facilitate novel and/or opportunistic host–herbivore and host–pathogen associations (Benítez‐Malvido, ; Benítez‐Malvido et al., ; Benítez‐Malvido & Lemus‐Albor, ; Gilbert & Hubbell, ). This is because, soon after edge creation, forest structure, plant species abundance, and composition, as well as the physical and biological environments in the forest canopy and understory, are strongly modified (Gilbert & Hubbell, ; Laurance et al., , , ).…”