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Neotropical moth assemblages degrade due to oil palm expansion

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Abstract

Oil palm is one of the most rapidly expanding crops throughout the tropics, yet little is known about its impacts on Neotropical invertebrate biodiversity. Responses of insect assemblages to land conversion may substantially vary among taxa. We assessed geometrid and arctiine moth assemblages in a Costa Rican human dominated landscape, where oil palm plantations are now the second most common land cover. Moths were sampled during 6 months with automatic traps in the interior and margin of old-growth forests, young secondary forests and oil palm plantations in a 30 km2 area. Our results show that richness and diversity of both taxa were severely reduced in oil palm compared to all other habitats. Geometrid abundance was highest in forest interiors and lowest in oil palm, while arctiine numbers did not differ between habitats. Dominance was highest in oil palm plantations, where one arctiine species and one geometrid species accounted for over 40% of total abundance in each of their respective taxa. Species composition was distinct in oil palm and forest interior sites, and depicted a gradient of habitat disturbance in ordination space that was strongly related to vegetation diversity and structure. This study demonstrates that oil palm plantations are not a suitable habitat for these moth taxa. Whilst some arctiine species seem adapted to disturbed habitats, geometrids were more dependent on old-growth forests, showing higher bioindicator potential. In the face of accelerated oil palm expansion, conservation strategies should focus on protecting old-growth forest remnants, as well as increasing species diversity and structural complexity of degraded habitats.

Resumen

La palma aceitera es uno de los cultivos de mayor crecimiento en la región tropical. Sin embargo, poco se conoce sobre sus impactos en la biodiversidad de invertebrados neotropicales. En este estudio se evaluaron los ensamblajes de mariposas nocturnas Geometridae y Erebidae-Arctiinae en un paisaje rural de Costa Rica, donde las plantaciones de palma aceitera son el segundo uso de suelo más común. Las mariposas fueron recolectadas con trampas automáticas durante seis meses en el interior y margen de bosque maduro, en bosque secundario joven y en plantaciones de palma aceitera. Nuestros resultados muestran que la riqueza y diversidad de geométridos y árctidos fue severamente reducida en plantaciones de palma en comparación con los otros hábitats. La abundancia de geométridos fue mayor en el interior del bosque y menor en plantaciones, mientras que la abundancia de árctidos no mostró diferencias entre hábitats. La dominancia fue mayor en plantaciones, en donde una especie de Arctiinae y una especie de Geometridae representó más del 40% de la abundancia total de cada uno de sus respectivos grupos. La composición de especies fue significativamente distinta en plantaciones de palma y en el interior de bosques, y fue altamente influenciada por la diversidad y estructura de la vegetación. Este estudio demuestra que las plantaciones de palma aceitera tienen un fuerte impacto en estos grupos de Lepidoptera. Ante la expansión acelerada de plantaciones de palma, las estrategias de conservación deben enfocarse en proteger los remanentes de bosques maduros y en aumentar la diversidad y complejidad estructural de hábitats degradados.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff and community at La Gamba Tropical Station and CATIE for their support in project logistics and field work. Christian Schulze provided guidance during selection of the study sites as well as collection and processing of moth specimens. Thank you to Diego Delgado and Sven Günter for their aid in the design of the study and project logistics, and Eddy Camacho for providing essential materials. INBio granted access to their Lepidoptera reference collection. Gunnar Brehm, Dominik Rabl, Vincent Benoit, Michel Laguerre, Isidro Chacón, Bernal Espinoza, José Montero and Nelson Zamora aided in the identification of moth and plant specimens. We thank Sergio Vilchez and Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca for their aid in statistical analyses, as well as Nina Gallmetzer and Waldemar Alcobas in the preparation of the map. This research was funded by grants from the Rufford Foundation (Ref: 12885-1) and from the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Vienna.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Turrialba, 30501, Costa Rica

    Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez

  2. Production and Conservation in Forests Program, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Turrialba, 30501, Costa Rica

    Bryan Finegan

  3. Division of Tropical Ecology and Animal Biodiversity, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Konrad Fiedler

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  1. Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez
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  2. Bryan Finegan
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Correspondence to Aura M. Alonso-Rodríguez.

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Communicated by Akihiro Nakamura.

This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Forest and plantation biodiversity.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figure 5 and Tables 5, 6, 7.

Table 5 Characteristics of the 20 sampling sites within old-growth forest interior (FI), old-growth forest margin (FM), young secondary forest (YSF) and oil palm plantation (OPP) habitats
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Table 6 Vegetation descriptors for the 20 sampling sites within old-growth forest interior (FI), old-growth forest margin (FM), young secondary forest (YSF) and oil palm plantation (OPP) habitats
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Table 7 Full list of taxa and abundances of geometrid and arctiine moths from 6 months of automatic light-trapping at five old-growth forest interior (FI), five old-growth forest margin (FM), five young secondary forest (YSF) and five oil palm plantation (OPP) sites within the tropical lowlands of southwestern Costa Rica
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Fig. 5
figure 5

Ordination of the sampling sites within old-growth forest interior (FI), old-growth forest margin (FM), young secondary forest (YSF) and oil palm plantation (OPP) habitats, using principal component analysis of nine vegetation variables based on Euclidean distances

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Alonso-Rodríguez, A.M., Finegan, B. & Fiedler, K. Neotropical moth assemblages degrade due to oil palm expansion. Biodivers Conserv 26, 2295–2326 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-017-1357-1

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