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Trait-dependent declines of species following conversion of rain forest to oil palm plantations

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Abstract

Conversion of natural habitats to agriculture reduces species richness, particularly in highly diverse tropical regions, but its effects on species composition are less well-studied. The conversion of rain forest to oil palm is of particular conservation concern globally, and we examined how it affects the abundance of birds, beetles, and ants according to their local population size, body size, geographical range size, and feeding guild or trophic position. We re-analysed data from six published studies representing 487 species/genera to assess the relative importance of these traits in explaining changes in abundance following forest conversion. We found consistent patterns across all three taxa, with large-bodied, abundant forest species from higher trophic levels, declining most in abundance following conversion of forest to oil palm. Best-fitting models explained 39–66 % of the variation in abundance changes for the three taxa, and included all ecological traits that we considered. Across the three taxa, those few species found in oil palm tended to be small-bodied species, from lower trophic levels, that had low local abundances in forest. These species were often hyper-abundant in oil palm plantations. These results provide empirical evidence of consistent responses to land-use change among taxonomic groups in relation to ecological traits.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to Arthur Chung for providing his data for analyses, to Calvin Dytham and Olivier Missa for statistical advice, NERC and Proforest for funding, Noel Tawatao for providing accumulated body mass data from antweb.org, Martin Speight for providing Arthur Chung’s PhD thesis, Callum Lawson for discussing the manuscript, and Jake Snaddon and Toby Gardner for comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. TMF was funded by the project Biodiversity of forest ecosystems CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0064 co-financed by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic, and by Yayasan Sime Darby.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Michael J. M. Senior, Jennifer M. Lucey, Peter J. Mayhew, Michael D. F. Thom & Jane K. Hill

  2. Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Keith C. Hamer, David P. Edwards, Robert Newton & Paul Woodcock

  3. School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Simon Bottrell

  4. School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia

    David P. Edwards

  5. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branisovska 31, CZ-370 05, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

    Tom M. Fayle

  6. Forest Ecology and Conservation Group, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK

    Tom M. Fayle

  7. Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

    Kelvin S.-H. Peh

  8. Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Frederick H. Sheldon

  9. Proforest, South Suite, Frewin Chambers, Frewin Court, Oxford, OX1 3HZ, UK

    Christopher Stewart

  10. The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, 98505, USA

    Alison R. Styring

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  1. Michael J. M. Senior
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  2. Keith C. Hamer
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  3. Simon Bottrell
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  4. David P. Edwards
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  13. Michael D. F. Thom
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Correspondence to Michael J. M. Senior.

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Senior, M.J.M., Hamer, K.C., Bottrell, S. et al. Trait-dependent declines of species following conversion of rain forest to oil palm plantations. Biodivers Conserv 22, 253–268 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0419-7

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