Vulnerability and resilience of tropical forest species to land-use change

Stork, Nigel E., Coddington, Jonathan A., Colwell, Robert K., Chazdon, Robin L., Dick, Christopher W., Peres, Carlos A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-8765, Sloan, Sean and Willis, Kathy (2009) Vulnerability and resilience of tropical forest species to land-use change. Conservation Biology, 23 (6). pp. 1438-1447. ISSN 1523-1739

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

We provide a cross-taxon and historical analysis of what makes tropical forest species vulnerable to extinction. Several traits have been important for species survival in the recent and distant geological past, including seed dormancy and vegetative growth in plants, small body size in mammals, and vagility in insects. For major past catastrophes, such as the five mass extinction events, large range size and vagility or dispersal were key to species survival. Traits that make some species more vulnerable to extinction are consistent across time scales. Terrestrial organisms, particularly animals, are more extinction prone than marine organisms. Plants that persist through dramatic changes often reproduce vegetatively and possess mechanisms of die back. Synergistic interactions between current anthropogenic threats, such as logging, fire, hunting, pests and diseases, and climate change are frequent. Rising temperatures threaten all organisms, perhaps particularly tropical organisms adapted to small temperature ranges and isolated by distance from suitable future climates. Mutualist species and trophic specialists may also be more threatened because of such range-shift gaps. Phylogenetically specialized groups may be collectively more prone to extinction than generalists. Characterization of tropical forest species' vulnerability to anthropogenic change is constrained by complex interactions among threats and by both taxonomic and ecological impediments, including gross undersampling of biotas and poor understanding of the spatial patterns of taxa at all scales.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 13 - climate action,sdg 14 - life below water,sdg 15 - life on land ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Resources, Sustainability and Governance (former - to 2018)
Depositing User: Rosie Cullington
Date Deposited: 23 Feb 2011 11:41
Last Modified: 20 Mar 2023 14:33
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/24287
DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01335.x

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item