Beyond species loss: How anthropogenic disturbances drive functional and phylogenetic homogenization of Neotropical dung beetles

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT(2023)

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摘要
Anthropogenic activities drive tropical forest loss and biodiversity decay. However, few studies have addressed how the biodiversity response varies between disturbance-adapted species (i.e., winners) and those highly susceptible to disturbance (i.e., losers), or whether such responses differ between the taxonomic, functional, or phylogenetic dimen-sions of diversity. Understanding these dynamics can help prevent or buffer biotic homogenization processes. Using a meta-analytical approach with dung beetles as model organisms, we evaluated how anthropogenic habitat distur-bances influence the multiple diversity dimensions of winner and loser species relative to conserved forest sites in the Neotropics. Habitats were organized according to a disturbance gradient ranging from second-growth forests, shaded agroforestry, lowly-shaded agroforestry, living fences, and pastures. Our database included 30 studies, from which we calculated nine metrics divided into three alfa diversity aspects: richness, evenness, and divergence. We also evaluated the beta-diversity response to disturbance and forest protection. All dimensions of dung beetle diversity decreased significantly with increasing disturbance levels, with phylogenetic diversity showing the highest losses, whereas evenness metrics increased in second-growth forests and agroforestry systems. Loser dung beetles showed high diversity loss as well as functional and phylogenetic clustering, reflecting a pervasive biotic homogenization in the most severely disturbed habitats, whereas winner species were insensitive to anthropogenic disturbances. Beta di-versity increased significantly with disturbance and forest protection. Our study showed that heavy disturbances erode and homogenized all diversity dimensions of loser dung beetles. However, second-growth forests and agroforestry sys-tems mitigated diversity loss and homogenization processes by favoring the coexistence between functional and phy-logenetically distant species and maintaining assemblages compositionally similar to those in conserved forests, highlighting their importance for conservation. We encourage natural resource managers to consider protection of dis-turbed off-reserve forests in management schemes as these are essential for maintaining biodiversity in an increasingly anthropized world.
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关键词
Biotic homogenization,Conservation,Forest disturbance,Scarabaeinae,Winner-loser replacement,Tropical forests
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