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Zambrano J, Garzon-Lopez CX, Yeager L, Fortunel C, Cordeiro NJ, Beckman NG. The effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on plant functional traits and functional diversity: what do we know so far? Oecologia 2019; 191:505-518. [PMID: 31515618 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-019-04505-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2018] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Habitat loss and fragmentation result in significant landscape changes that ultimately affect plant diversity and add uncertainty to how natural areas will respond to future global change. This uncertainty is important given that the loss of biodiversity often includes losing key ecosystem functions. Few studies have explored the effects of landscape changes on plant functional diversity and evidence so far has shown far more pervasive effects than previously reported by species richness and composition studies. Here we present a review on the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on (1) individual functional traits-related to persistence, dispersal and establishment-and (2) functional diversity. We also discuss current knowledge gaps and propose ways forward. From the literature review we found that studies have largely focused on dispersal traits, strongly impacted by habitat loss and fragmentation, while traits related to persistence were the least studied. Furthermore, most studies did not distinguish habitat loss from spatial fragmentation and were conducted at the plot or fragment-level, which taken together limits the ability to generalize the scale-dependency of landscape changes on plant functional diversity. For future work, we recommend (1) clearly distinguishing the effects of habitat loss from those of fragmentation, and (2) recognizing the scale-dependency of predicted responses when functional diversity varies in time and space. We conclude that a clear understanding of the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on functional diversity will improve predictions of the resiliency and resistance of plant communities to varying scales of disturbance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Zambrano
- The School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA.
| | - Carol X Garzon-Lopez
- Grupo de Ecología y Fisiología Vegetal, Departamento de Ciencias biológicas, Universidad de los Andes, Carrera 1 #18A-12, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Lauren Yeager
- Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, TX, 78373, USA
| | - Claire Fortunel
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.,AMAP (botAnique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des végétations), IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRA, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Norbert J Cordeiro
- Department of Biology (mc WB 816), Roosevelt University, 425 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA.,Science and Education, The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lakeshore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA
| | - Noelle G Beckman
- Department of Biology and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84322, USA
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Sfair JC, Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Santos BA, Tabarelli M. Taxonomic and functional divergence of tree assemblages in a fragmented tropical forest. Ecol Appl 2016; 26:1816-1826. [PMID: 27755700 DOI: 10.1890/15-1673.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2015] [Revised: 11/20/2015] [Accepted: 12/18/2015] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Tropical forests are being exposed to increasing levels of habitat loss and fragmentation, threatening the maintenance of global biodiversity. However, the effect that land-use change may have on the spatial dissimilarities in taxonomic and functional composition of remaining assemblages (i.e., taxonomic/functional β-diversity) remains poorly understood. We examined a large vegetation database from an old and severely fragmented Atlantic forest landscape to test two alternative hypotheses: (1) tree assemblages experience a taxonomic and functional homogenization (reduced β-diversity) between forest fragments and along forest edges, or alternatively, (2) these edge-affected forests show increased taxonomic and functional differentiation (increased β-diversity) when compared to forest interior (reference) stands. Taxonomic and functional β-diversity were examined via novel abundance-based metrics and considering functional traits related to plant dispersion, recruitment, and growth. Overall, taxonomic β-diversity among fragments was significantly higher than among edge and reference plots. Edge plots also showed higher β-diversity than reference plots, but only when considering dominant species. In functional terms, β-diversity among reference plots was also lower than among forest fragments and among edge plots. These patterns support the landscape-divergence hypothesis, which postulates that variable human disturbances among forest fragments and along forest edges can lead to contrasting trajectories of vegetation changes, thus increasing the compositional and functional differentiation of tree communities in these emerging environments. Our results also show that such differentiation can preserve landscape-wide biodiversity, thus overriding negative effects of habitat fragmentation on local (α) diversity. Therefore, our findings demonstrate that forest fragments and forest edges can be more valuable for maintaining species diversity and ecosystem function in fragmented tropical landscapes than previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia C Sfair
- Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil.
| | - Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
| | - Bráulio A Santos
- Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, 58051-900, Brazil
| | - Marcelo Tabarelli
- Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, 50670-901, Brazil
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