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Yann Clough. Photo.

Yann Clough

Professor

Yann Clough. Photo.

Direct and cascading impacts of tropical land-use change on multi-trophic biodiversity

Author

  • Andrew D. Barnes
  • Kara Allen
  • Holger Kreft
  • Marife D. Corre
  • Malte Jochum
  • Edzo Veldkamp
  • Yann Clough
  • Rolf Daniel
  • Kevin Darras
  • Lisa H. Denmead
  • Noor Farikhah Haneda
  • Dietrich Hertel
  • Alexander Knohl
  • Martyna M. Kotowska
  • Syahrul Kurniawan
  • Ana Meijide
  • Katja Rembold
  • Walesa Edho Prabowo
  • Dominik Schneider
  • Teja Tscharntke
  • Ulrich Brose
Show all

Summary, in English

The conversion of tropical rainforest to agricultural systems such as oil palm alters biodiversity across a large range of interacting taxa and trophic levels. Yet, it remains unclear how direct and cascading effects of land-use change simultaneously drive ecological shifts. Combining data from a multi-taxon research initiative in Sumatra, Indonesia, we show that direct and cascading land-use effects alter biomass and species richness of taxa across trophic levels ranging from microorganisms to birds. Tropical land use resulted in increases in biomass and species richness via bottom-up cascading effects, but reductions via direct effects. When considering direct and cascading effects together, land use was found to reduce biomass and species richness, with increasing magnitude at higher trophic levels. Our analyses disentangle the multifaceted effects of land-use change on tropical ecosystems, revealing that biotic interactions on broad taxonomic scales influence the ecological outcome of anthropogenic perturbations to natural ecosystems.

Department/s

  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2017-10-01

Language

English

Pages

1511-1519

Publication/Series

Nature Ecology and Evolution

Volume

1

Issue

10

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
  • Ecology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2397-334X