Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity

Kusuma, Yayan Wahyu C.; Rembold, Katja; Tjitrosoedirdjo, Sri S.; Kreft, Holger; Li, Jin-Tian (2018). Tropical rainforest conversion and land use intensification reduce understorey plant phylogenetic diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(5), pp. 2216-2226. Blackwell Scientific Publications 10.1111/1365-2664.13201

[img] Text
1365-2664.13201.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (1MB)

Conversion of rainforest into agricultural land affects multiple facets of tropical plant diversity. While the effects of tropical land use change and intensification on species diversity are comparatively well studied, the effects on phylogenetic diversity (PD) and structure of plant communities are largely unknown. Furthermore, it is not clear how the loss of native species and addition of alien species collectively affect PD and structure.
We investigated the PD and structure of understorey plants; a diverse and ecologically important, yet poorly studied group. We studied four prominent land use systems (tropical lowland rainforest, jungle rubber agroforest, rubber plantations, and oil palm plantations) in the lowlands of Sumatra (Indonesia), a region experiencing dramatic land use changes.
Across the four systems, we investigated differences in four metrics of phylogenetic community structure (PD, mean pairwise distance, mean nearest taxon distance, and their abundance‐weighted variants). Our analyses were based on a comprehensive vegetation survey consisting of 32 plots, 1,197 species of vascular plants, and 146,599 plant individuals.
Our results showed that forest conversion into agricultural systems leads to a pronounced loss of PD. Furthermore, the standardized effect size of mean pairwise distance indicated a gradual change from clustered to overdispersed phylogenetic community structure with increasing land use intensity from forest over jungle rubber to the monoculture plantations. In most land use systems, the presence or absence of alien plant species did not affect phylogenetic structure. Only in oil palm plantations, removing alien species from the data led to a more overdispersed structure. In conclusion, conserving the PD and structure requires efficient protection of the last remaining rainforests.
Synthesis and applications. Forest conversion into agricultural areas negatively affects phylogenetic understorey plant diversity and leads to a shift from clustered to overdispersed phylogenetic community structure. These trends are partly driven by alien species particularly in oil palm plantations. Protecting the remaining rainforests and considering multispecies agroforestry systems in favour of intensive monoculture plantations are thus imperative to conserve phylogenetic plant diversity and community structure.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

13 Central Units > Administrative Director's Office > Botanical Garden
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)

UniBE Contributor:

Rembold, Katja

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0021-8901

Publisher:

Blackwell Scientific Publications

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

12 Jul 2018 08:03

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:16

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/1365-2664.13201

Uncontrolled Keywords:

community structure, forest conversion, jungle rubber agroforest, land use, oil palm plantations, phylogenetic diversity, rainforest, rubber plantations

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.118530

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/118530

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback