Reducing the impacts of Neotropical oil palm development on functional diversity

Prescott, Graham W., Gilroy, James J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7597-5780, Haugaasen, Torbjørn, Medina Uribe, Claudia A., Foster, William A. and Edwards, David P. (2016) Reducing the impacts of Neotropical oil palm development on functional diversity. Biological Conservation, 197. pp. 139-145. ISSN 0006-3207

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Abstract

Large-scale conversion of natural habitats to agriculture reduces species richness and functional diversity, with important implications for the provision of many ecosystem services. We investigated possible solutions to minimise loss of functional diversity: retaining forest fragments to enhance functional diversity within agricultural lands, and restricting future expansion of tropical crops to degraded lands or low-productivity farmlands to conserve functional diversity at a landscape level. We focused on birds, which play key functional roles and have well-known functional ecology, and oil palm, a rapidly expanding tropical crop. We did so in the Colombian Llanos, a region highlighted for the planting of sustainable oil palm, where plantations are currently replacing two main habitat types: forest remnants and improved cattle pasture. We found that levels of functional diversity (FD) and richness (FRic) were highest in remnant forests. Furthermore, levels of functional diversity and richness in oil palm and improved pasture were positively related to the proportion of forest in a 250 m radius surrounding each sample point. Frugivorous and canopy foraging species were particularly associated with remnant forests, while aquatic and terrestrial foragers were associated with pasture. This suggests that retaining forest remnants in agricultural landscapes is important in preventing large losses of functional diversity, and might also play a role in maintaining avifaunal functional richness within farmland.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	birds,functional diversity,landscape configuration,oil palm,tropical agriculture expansion,sdg 15 - life on land ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_on_land
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 May 2016 15:00
Last Modified:	12 May 2023 00:08
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/58603
DOI:	10.1016/j.biocon.2016.02.013

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