578 Naturgeschichte von Organismen
Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (10)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (10)
Document Type
- Journal article (10)
Language
- English (10)
Keywords
- biodiversity (5)
- diversity (2)
- species richness (2)
- Amazonia (1)
- Amazonian forest (1)
- Ant-following birds (1)
- Functional diversity (1)
- Habitat fragmentation (1)
- Lamto Reserve (1)
- Land-use change (1)
- Logged forests (1)
- Plantation forests (1)
- Prunus-africana (1)
- Rain-forest (1)
- Savanna (1)
- Seed dispersal (1)
- South Korea (1)
- West Africa (1)
- abundance (1)
- agricultural intensification (1)
- agricultural landscapes (1)
- agroecosystems (1)
- ant communities (1)
- assemblages (1)
- bark beetles (1)
- beta-diveristy (1)
- biodiversity conservation (1)
- biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (1)
- biological control (1)
- bird diversity (1)
- body-size (1)
- burned savanna (1)
- butterflies (1)
- cabbage Brassica oleracea var. capitata (1)
- climate change (1)
- communities (1)
- community ecology (1)
- community functional-responses (1)
- crop diversity (1)
- decay (1)
- decline (1)
- ecology (1)
- ecosystem function (1)
- ecosystem service (1)
- ecosystem services (1)
- european beech forests (1)
- european countries (1)
- forest (1)
- forest disturbance (1)
- fruit set (1)
- gradient (1)
- herbivores (1)
- herbivorous insects (1)
- heterogenity (1)
- insect populations (1)
- land use (1)
- land use intensification (1)
- land-use intensity (1)
- landscape heterogeneity (1)
- macroecology (1)
- managed grasslands (1)
- management (1)
- metaanalysis (1)
- native bees (1)
- norway spruce (1)
- pest (1)
- plant diversity (1)
- pollen (1)
- productivity (1)
- proportion of seminatural habitat (1)
- rare (1)
- relative abundance (1)
- rural domain (1)
- savanna woodland (1)
- similarity (1)
- soil macrofauna (1)
- specialization (1)
- species composition (1)
- strategy (1)
- substrate quality (1)
- sustainable intensification (1)
- trees (1)
- trinervitermes (1)
- trophic interactions (1)
- tropical ecology (1)
- tropical forest (1)
- turnover (1)
Institute
To highlight human impact on biodiversity in the Lamto region, termites were studied with regard to their use as bio-indicators of habitat change in the tropics. Using a standardized method, termites were sampled in the three most common habitat types, i.e., in semi-deciduous forest, savanna woodland, and annually burned savanna, all inside Lamto Reserve and its surrounding rural domain. Termite species richness fell from 25 species in the Lamto forest to 13 species in the rural area, involving strong modification in the species composition (species turnover = 59 %). In contrast, no significant change in diversity was found between the Lamto savannas and the rural ones. In addition, the relative abundance of termites showed a significantly greater decline in the rural domain, even in the species Ancistrotermes cavithorax (Sjostedt) (Isoptera: Termitidae), which is known to be ecologically especially versatile. Overall, the findings of this study suggest further investigation around Lamto Reserve on the impact of human activities on biodiversity, focusing on forest conversion to land uses (e.g. agricultural and silvicultural systems).
Forest fragmentation and selective logging are two main drivers of global environmental change and modify biodiversity and environmental conditions in many tropical forests. The consequences of these changes for the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems have rarely been explored in a comprehensive approach. In a Kenyan rainforest, we studied six animal-mediated ecosystem processes and recorded species richness and community composition of all animal taxa involved in these processes. We used linear models and a formal meta-analysis to test whether forest fragmentation and selective logging affected ecosystem processes and biodiversity and used structural equation models to disentangle direct from biodiversity-related indirect effects of human disturbance on multiple ecosystem processes. Fragmentation increased decomposition and reduced antbird predation, while selective logging consistently increased pollination, seed dispersal and army-ant raiding. Fragmentation modified species richness or community composition of five taxa, whereas selective logging did not affect any component of biodiversity. Changes in the abundance of functionally important species were related to lower predation by antbirds and higher decomposition rates in small forest fragments. The positive effects of selective logging on bee pollination, bird seed dispersal and army-ant raiding were direct, i.e. not related to changes in biodiversity, and were probably due to behavioural changes of these highly mobile animal taxa. We conclude that animal-mediated ecosystem processes respond in distinct ways to different types of human disturbance in Kakamega Forest. Our findings suggest that forest fragmentation affects ecosystem processes indirectly by changes in biodiversity, whereas selective logging influences processes directly by modifying local environmental conditions and resource distributions. The positive to neutral effects of selective logging on ecosystem processes show that the functionality of tropical forests can be maintained in moderately disturbed forest fragments. Conservation concepts for tropical forests should thus include not only remaining pristine forests but also functionally viable forest remnants.