Thermal biology mediates responses of amphibians and reptiles to habitat modification

Nowakowski, A. Justin; Watling, James I.; Thompson, Michelle E.; Brusch, George A.; Catenazzi, Alessandro; Whitfield, Steven M.; Kurz, David J.; Suárez-Mayorga, Ángela M.; Aponte‐Gutiérrez, Andrés; Donnelly, Maureen A.; Todd, Brian D.

doi:10.1111/ele.12901

Cited by 119 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(98 reference statements)

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“…This provides further evidence that the degree to which a species is thermally constrained correlates positively with forest dependence. Another possibility is that an alternative metric of thermal sensitivity, perhaps based on species' physiological responses to temperature extremes (Khaliq et al 2014, Frishkoff et al 2015, Nowakowski et al 2018, would provide a more robust test of the link with sensitivity to forest loss. 6).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, on average, tropical agricultural lands are 7.6°C warmer than tropical primary forest (Senior et al 2017). those with narrower thermal tolerances, hereafter 'thermal specialists') might be more sensitive to forest loss and degradation (Nowakowski et al 2018), especially to the replacement of forest with agriculture. Therefore, species adapted to highly seasonal environments (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual temperature variation influences the vulnerability of montane bird communities to land‐use change

2019

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Understanding how and why species respond to land-use change is one of the central challenges in conservation biology, yet the causes of variation in the responses of species to land-use change remain unclear. We tested whether adaptation to different abiotic environments influenced the vulnerability of bird communities to agricultural expansion in the Himalayan mountain range, which exhibits a strong east-west gradient in annual temperature variation. We did so by surveying bird communities in forest and agriculture at opposite ends of that gradient. We contrasted metrics of species richness, diversity, community composition and forest dependency across land-use types and regions, and tested whether species' thermal sensitivity influenced their response to the replacement of forest with agriculture. Agricultural land in the relatively aseasonal east harboured significantly fewer bird species than did forests, a pattern that is starkly reversed in the highly seasonal west. For species common to both regions, eastern populations used forest ~35% more than did western populations. While western species were less constrained by temperature than eastern species, western species with narrow thermal tolerances were also more forest dependent. Selection across a stark environmental gradient on a common species pool appears to have altered the vulnerability of Himalayan birds to forest loss, with communities in the relatively aseasonal east much more sensitive to forest conversion than those in the west. Adaptation to local environmental conditions appears to mediate species' responses to land use change, with thermal specialists more vulnerable to forest loss than species with greater thermal tolerances. Species' responses to global change may differ predictably along abiotic gradients even within a single region or biodiversity hotspot, and such variation must be addressed in conservation planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual temperature variation influences the vulnerability of montane bird communities to land‐use change

2019

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“…Preferred temperature is significantly related to heat tolerance (Llewelyn, Macdonald, Hatcher, Moritz, & Phillips, ), so it is likely that species that perform well at high temperatures can also survive higher temperatures for longer periods of time. This is a beneficial trait for survival in human‐converted habitats, considering nonforested plots were on average 5.22 and 6.71°C hotter than forested plots on St. Eustatius and St. Martin, respectively, and recent studies have demonstrated that thermal tolerance largely explains reptile responses to human land use (Brusch, Taylor, & Whitfield, ; Frishkoff, Hadly, & Daily, ; Nowakowski et al., ). High sexual size dimorphism has previously been associated with low levels of intraspecific competition for food and resources (Latella, Poe, & Giermakowski, ), and larger headed reptiles are able to consume a wider range of prey sizes (Schoener & Gorman, ), suggesting that nonforested sites have a more variable prey community.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human land use promotes the abundance and diversity of exotic species on Caribbean islands

Jesse

Behm

Helmus

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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Human land use causes major changes in species abundance and composition, yet native and exotic species can exhibit different responses to land use change. Native populations generally decline in human-impacted habitats while exotic species often benefit. In this study, we assessed the effects of human land use on exotic and native reptile diversity, including functional diversity, which relates to the range of habitat use strategies in biotic communities. We surveyed 114 reptile communities from localities that varied in habitat structure and human impact level on two Caribbean islands, and calculated species richness, overall abundance, and evenness for every plot. Functional diversity indices were calculated using published trait data, which enabled us to detect signs of trait filtering associated with impacted habitats. Our results show that environmental variation among sampling plots was explained by two Principal Component Analysis (PCA) ordination axes related to habitat structure (i.e., forest or nonforest) and human impact level (i.e., addition of man-made constructions such as roads and buildings). Several diversity indices were significantly correlated with the two PCA axes, but exotic and native species showed opposing responses. Native species reached the highest abundance in forests, while exotic species were absent in this habitat. Human impact was associated with an increase in exotic abundance and species richness, while native species showed no significant associations. Functional diversity was highest in nonforested environments on both islands, and further increased on St. Martin with the establishment of functionally unique exotic species in nonforested habitat. Habitat structure, rather than human impact, proved to be an important agent for environmental filtering of traits, causing divergent functional trait values across forested and nonforested environments. Our results illustrate the importance of considering various elements of land use when studying its impact on species diversity and the establishment and spread of exotic species.

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“…; Nowakowski et al . ). Evolutionary patterns in species’ ability to persist in the face of human‐induced environmental change have also emerged for certain taxa: across several systems birds that are evolutionarily distinct tend to be disproportionately lost from human‐modified agricultural (Frishkoff et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, a reliance on forests may predispose rapidly diversifying species to local extinction from land conversion, consistent with evidence that amphibian species within converted habitats are more distantly related than communities in natural habitats (Nowakowski et al . ). At the broader‐scale of global threat status, previous work indicates that rapidly diversifying amphibian genera have a high proportion of range‐restricted, threatened species (Greenberg & Mooers ), though at the species‐level evolutionary distinctiveness is not a strong predictor of threat status (Jetz & Pyron ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Evolutionarily distinct amphibians are disproportionately lost from human‐modified ecosystems

et al. 2018

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Humans continue to alter terrestrial ecosystems, but our understanding of how biodiversity responds is still limited. Anthropogenic habitat conversion has been associated with the loss of evolutionarily distinct bird species at local scales, but whether this evolutionary pattern holds across other clades is unknown. We collate a global dataset on amphibian assemblages in intact forests and nearby human-modified sites to assess whether evolutionary history influences susceptibility to land conversion. We found that evolutionarily distinct amphibian species are disproportionately lost when forested habitats are converted to alternative land-uses. We tested the hypothesis that grassland-associated amphibian lineages have both higher diversification and are pre-adapted to human landscapes, but found only weak evidence supporting this. The loss of evolutionarily distinct amphibians with land conversion suggests that preserving remnant forests will be vital if we aim to preserve the amphibian tree of life in the face of mounting anthropogenic pressures.

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Thermal biology mediates responses of amphibians and reptiles to habitat modification

Cited by 119 publications

References 69 publications

Annual temperature variation influences the vulnerability of montane bird communities to land‐use change

Annual temperature variation influences the vulnerability of montane bird communities to land‐use change

Human land use promotes the abundance and diversity of exotic species on Caribbean islands

Evolutionarily distinct amphibians are disproportionately lost from human‐modified ecosystems

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