Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests
Current biodiversity loss is mostly caused by anthropogenic habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, and resource exploitation. Measuring the balance of species loss and gain in remaining fragmented landscapes throughout time entails a central research challenge. We resurveyed in 2013 plant s...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | publishedVersion |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Anne Mireille Regine Duplouy, Lund University.
2019
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11086/11340 |
| _version_ | 1806012072916418560 |
|---|---|
| author | Aguilar, Ramiro Calviño, Ana Ashworth, Lorena Aguirre Acosta, Natalia Carbone, Lucas Manuel Albrieu Llinás, Guillermo Nolasco, Miguel Ghilardi, Adrian Cagnolo, Luciano |
| author_facet | Aguilar, Ramiro Calviño, Ana Ashworth, Lorena Aguirre Acosta, Natalia Carbone, Lucas Manuel Albrieu Llinás, Guillermo Nolasco, Miguel Ghilardi, Adrian Cagnolo, Luciano |
| author_sort | Aguilar, Ramiro |
| collection | Repositorio Digital Universitario |
| description | Current biodiversity loss is mostly caused by anthropogenic habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, and resource exploitation. Measuring the balance of species loss and gain in remaining fragmented landscapes throughout time entails a central research challenge. We resurveyed in 2013 plant species richness in the same plots of a previous sampling conducted in 2003 across 18 forest fragments of different sizes of the Chaco Serrano forest in Argentina. While the area of these forest remnants was kept constant, their surrounding forest cover changed over this time period. We compared plant species richness of both sampling years and calculated the proportion of species loss and gain at forest edges and interiors. As in 2003, we found a positive relationship between fragment area and plant richness in 2013 and both years showed a similar slope. However, we detected a net decrease of 24% of species’ richness across all forest fragments, implying an unprecedentedly high rate and magnitude of species loss driven mainly by non-woody, short-lived species. There was a higher proportion of lost and gained species at forest edges than in forest interiors. Importantly, fragment area interacted with percent change in surrounding forest cover to explain the proportion of species lost. Small forest fragments showed a relatively constant proportion of species loss regardless of any changes in surrounding forest cover, whereas in larger fragments the proportion of species lost increased when surrounding forest cover decreased. We show that despite preserving fragment area, habitat quality and availability in the surroundings is of fundamental importance in shaping extinction and immigration dynamics of plant species at any given forest remnant. Because the Chaco Serrano forest has already lost 94% of its original cover, we argue that plant extinctions will continue through the coming decades unless active management actions are taken to increase native forest areas. |
| format | publishedVersion |
| id | rdu-unc.11340 |
| institution | Universidad Nacional de Cordoba |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Anne Mireille Regine Duplouy, Lund University. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | rdu-unc.113402024-07-04T13:22:32Z Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests Aguilar, Ramiro Calviño, Ana Ashworth, Lorena Aguirre Acosta, Natalia Carbone, Lucas Manuel Albrieu Llinás, Guillermo Nolasco, Miguel Ghilardi, Adrian Cagnolo, Luciano publishedVersion Current biodiversity loss is mostly caused by anthropogenic habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, and resource exploitation. Measuring the balance of species loss and gain in remaining fragmented landscapes throughout time entails a central research challenge. We resurveyed in 2013 plant species richness in the same plots of a previous sampling conducted in 2003 across 18 forest fragments of different sizes of the Chaco Serrano forest in Argentina. While the area of these forest remnants was kept constant, their surrounding forest cover changed over this time period. We compared plant species richness of both sampling years and calculated the proportion of species loss and gain at forest edges and interiors. As in 2003, we found a positive relationship between fragment area and plant richness in 2013 and both years showed a similar slope. However, we detected a net decrease of 24% of species’ richness across all forest fragments, implying an unprecedentedly high rate and magnitude of species loss driven mainly by non-woody, short-lived species. There was a higher proportion of lost and gained species at forest edges than in forest interiors. Importantly, fragment area interacted with percent change in surrounding forest cover to explain the proportion of species lost. Small forest fragments showed a relatively constant proportion of species loss regardless of any changes in surrounding forest cover, whereas in larger fragments the proportion of species lost increased when surrounding forest cover decreased. We show that despite preserving fragment area, habitat quality and availability in the surroundings is of fundamental importance in shaping extinction and immigration dynamics of plant species at any given forest remnant. Because the Chaco Serrano forest has already lost 94% of its original cover, we argue that plant extinctions will continue through the coming decades unless active management actions are taken to increase native forest areas. publishedVersion 2019-03-28T21:02:14Z 2019-03-28T21:02:14Z 2018-11-28 article 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/11086/11340 eng Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Anne Mireille Regine Duplouy, Lund University. |
| spellingShingle | Aguilar, Ramiro Calviño, Ana Ashworth, Lorena Aguirre Acosta, Natalia Carbone, Lucas Manuel Albrieu Llinás, Guillermo Nolasco, Miguel Ghilardi, Adrian Cagnolo, Luciano Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title | Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title_full | Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title_fullStr | Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title_short | Unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical Chaco Serrano forests |
| title_sort | unprecedented plant species loss after a decade in fragmented subtropical chaco serrano forests |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11086/11340 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aguilarramiro unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT calvinoana unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT ashworthlorena unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT aguirreacostanatalia unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT carbonelucasmanuel unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT albrieullinasguillermo unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT nolascomiguel unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT ghilardiadrian unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests AT cagnololuciano unprecedentedplantspecieslossafteradecadeinfragmentedsubtropicalchacoserranoforests |