Road-associated edge effects in Amazonia change termite community composition by modifying environmental conditions
Road-associated edge effects in Amazonia change termite community composition by modifying environmental conditions
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jnc.2013.02.003
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发表时间：
2013-10-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
de Morais, Jose Wellington
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dambros, Cristian de Sales;Vasconcelos da Silva, Valeria Natalia;de Morais, Jose Wellington
道路和修路是对城市地区附近森林最重要的环境影响，但它们对生态系统过程和物种分布的影响仍然知之甚少。白蚁是热带森林中的主要分解生物，其空间分布受植被和土壤结构的强烈影响。我们研究了道路建设对巴西马瑙斯附近亚马逊森林片断白蚁群落结构的影响。一个主要的问题是，正在研究的碎片是否足够大，足以维持附近连续森林中存在的白蚁物种池。我们还询问了土壤湿度和树冠开度如何随道路附近的变化而变化，以及这些变化是否与碎片中白蚁物种丰富度和组成的变化有关。虽然森林碎片的白蚁成分与连续森林非常相似，但道路导致土壤水分和树冠开阔程度发生了重要变化，特别是在靠近森林边缘的时候。在距道路81m的距离内，土壤水分的变化与白蚁种类组成的变化显著相关，但树冠开度与物种丰富度或组成之间没有相关性。这些结果表明，与其他类型的退化造成的碎片相比，道路造成的碎片对白蚁的影响不同，破坏性更小，即使是被道路一分为二的碎片也可以支持非常不同的群落，甚至是未描述的白蚁分类群。我们的结论是，应在公路环绕的保护区内为保护目的设立缓冲区。(C)2013年爱思唯尔股份有限公司。版权所有。
Roads and road-building are among the most important environmental impacts on forests near urban areas, but their effects on ecosystem processes and species distributions remain poorly known. Termites are the primary decomposer organisms in tropical forests and their spatial distribution is strongly affected by vegetation and soil structure. We studied the impacts of road construction on termite community structure in an Amazonian forest fragment near Manaus, Brazil. One leading question was whether the fragment under study was large enough to maintain the termite species pool present in nearby continuous forests. We also asked how soil moisture and canopy openness varied with proximity to roads, and whether these changes were associated with changes in termite species richness and composition in the fragment. While the forest fragment had a termite composition very similar to that of continuous forests, roads caused important changes in soil moisture and canopy openness, especially when close to forest edges. At distances of up to 81 m from roads, changes in soil moisture were significantly related to changes in termite species composition, but there was no correlation between canopy openness and species richness or composition. These results suggest that fragmentation caused by roads impacts termites in a different and less damaging manner than fragmentation caused by other kinds of degradation, and that even fragments bisected by roads can support very diverse communities and even undescribed taxa of termites. We conclude that a buffer zone should be established for conservation purposes in the reserves surrounded by roads. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.