Consequences of Replacing Native Savannahs With Acacia Plantations for the Taxonomic, Functional, and Phylogenetic α- and β-Diversity of Bats in the Northern Brazilian Amazon

Ubirajara D. Capaverde,José Júlio de Toledo,Dinah B. Pathek,Isaí Jorge de Castro,Saulo M. Silvestre,Christoph F. J. Meyer,Renato Hilário,William Douglas Carvalho,Karen Mustin,Bruna da Silva Xavier

doi:10.3389/fevo.2020.609214

Abstract

Across the globe, millions of hectares of native vegetation have been replaced by commercial plantations, with negative consequences for biodiversity. The effects of the replacement of native vegetation with commercial plantations on the functional and phylogenetic diversity of bat assemblages remain understudied, and most studies have focused exclusively on the taxonomic component of diversity. Here, we investigate how the replacement of natural savannahs by acacia plantations affects the α- and β-diversity of bat assemblages. We sampled bats, using mist-nets at ground level, in natural forest, savannah areas and acacia plantations, in the Lavrados de Roraima in the northern Brazilian Amazon. Our results show that, in general, acacia is less diverse than native forests in terms of taxonomic and functional diversity, and is also less taxonomically diverse than the savannah matrix which it substitutes. The observed patterns of α- and β-diversity found in the present study are in large part driven by the superabundance of one generalist and opportunistic species,Carollia perspicillata, in the acacia plantations. Taken together, our results show that the replacement of areas of natural savannah by acacia plantations causes a regional loss in diversity across all diversity dimensions: taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic. However, further studies are required to fully understand the ecological and conservation implications of this landscape change.

Highlights

Across the globe, millions of hectares of native vegetation have been replaced by commercial plantations, such as rice, soybean, corn, wheat, oil palm, eucalyptus, and acacia (Lepers et al, 2005; Phalan et al, 2013; Fernandes et al, 2016; Carvalho et al, 2019)
Seven species were exclusively captured in the acacia plantations (Chrotopterus auritus, Carollia brevicauda, Lophostoma brasiliense, Pteronotus spp., Sturnira lilium, Tonatia maresi, and Trinycteris nicefori)
The observed patterns of α- and βdiversity found in the present study are in large part driven by the superabundance of one generalist and opportunistic species, Carollia perspicillata, in the acacia plantations, and overall the species composition in the acacia plantations differs significantly from that in both the forest and savannah habitats

Summary

Introduction

Millions of hectares of native vegetation have been replaced by commercial plantations, such as rice, soybean, corn, wheat, oil palm, eucalyptus, and acacia (Lepers et al, 2005; Phalan et al, 2013; Fernandes et al, 2016; Carvalho et al, 2019). Among Brazilian biomes, the Atlantic Forest retains just 28% of its original forest cover, of which most is secondary forest and highly fragmented (Rezende et al, 2018), the Cerrado retains less than 54% of its original cover (Strassburg et al, 2017), and the Brazilian Amazon has lost 20% of its original forest cover (Cruz et al, 2020) Beyond these 20%, in recent years increasing areas of savannah within the Brazilian Amazon have been transformed into soybean, corn, eucalyptus, and acacia plantations (Mustin et al, 2017; Carvalho et al, 2019). The conversion of natural to human-modified landscapes, together with the associated fragmentation of habitats, can have irreversible negative consequences for biodiversity

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