Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf-litter
Oil palm expansion into rain forest greatly reduces ant biodiversity in canopy, epiphytes and leaf-litter
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DOI：
10.1016/j.baae.2009.12.009
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发表时间：
2010-01-01
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Foster, William A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fayle, Tom M.;Turner, Edgar C.;Foster, William A.
油棕榈种植正在迅速扩展到世界上许多生物多样性最丰富的热带地区。在这些环境中，功能最重要、生态最占主导地位的动物群体之一是蚂蚁。在这里，我们量化的整体影响，明确砍伐低地低地龙脑香雨林和转换成油棕榈种植园蚂蚁多样性。在马来西亚沙巴的研究地点，我们从三个微生境中收集蚂蚁：1树冠，2鸟巢蕨类植物（Asplenium nidus复合体，森林和油棕中常见的附生植物），和3落叶。我们还测量了收集地点的温度，湿度和光照，以评估它们对蚂蚁群落组成的影响。总蚂蚁物种丰富度从309下降到110（-64%）之间的森林和油棕种植园。然而，这种影响在所有微生境中并不相同，与森林相比，鸟巢蕨类植物在油棕榈中保持几乎相同数量的蚂蚁物种（森林-油棕榈，蕨类植物：36-35（3%损失），树冠：120-58（52%损失），落叶：216-56（74%损失））。相对丰度分布保持不变的蕨类植物居住的蚂蚁，但变得更少，甚至油棕榈蚂蚁在树冠和落叶。这些差异可能部分是由于燕窝蕨类植物在炎热干燥的种植园中提供稳定的小气候的能力。我们还发现，非本地蚂蚁物种更丰富的油棕比在森林中，很少有森林蚂蚁物种生存在种植园的任何微生境。在309种森林物种中，只有59种在油棕种植园中持续存在，相当于栖息地转换造成的森林物种损失的81%。尽管油棕榈树支持的蚂蚁种类比以前报道的要多得多，但将森林转变为种植园仍然导致物种丰富度的急剧减少。因此，维护森林地区对于保护蚂蚁生物多样性至关重要。
Oil palm cultivation is expanding rapidly into many of the world's most biodiverse tropical regions. One of the most functionally important and ecologically dominant animal groups in these environments is the ants. Here, we quantify the overall impacts of clear-felling lowland dipterocarp rainforest and conversion into oil palm plantation on ant diversity. At study sites in Sabah, Malaysia we collected ants from three microhabitats: 1 the canopy, 2 bird's nest ferns (Asplenium nidus complex, a common epiphyte in forest and oil palm), and 3 leaf litter. We also measured temperature, humidity and light at collection sites to assess their impacts on ant community composition. Total ant species richness decreased from 309 to 110 (-64%) between forest and oil palm plantation. However, this impact was not the same across all microhabitats, with bird's nest ferns maintaining almost the same number of ant species in oil palm compared to forest (forest-oil palm, ferns: 36-35 (3% loss), canopy: 120-58 (52% loss), leaf litter: 216-56 (74% loss)). Relative abundance distributions remained the same for fern-dwelling ants, but became less even for oil palm ants in both the canopy and the leaf litter. These differences may be due in part to the ability of bird's nest ferns to provide a stable microclimate in hot, dry plantations. We also found that non-native ant species were more abundant in oil palm than in forest, and few forest ant species survived in plantations in any of the microhabitats. Only 59 of the 309 forest species persisted in oil palm plantations, corresponding to an 81% loss of forest species resulting from habitat conversion. Although oil palm supports many more ant species than has been previously reported, converting forest into plantation still leads to a dramatic reduction in species richness. The maintenance of forested areas is therefore vital for the conservation of ant biodiversity.