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Moore, Jonathan H., Palmeirim, Ana Filipa, Peres, Carlos A. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-8765, Ngoprasert, Dusit and Gibson, Luke
(2022)
Invasive rat drives complete collapse of native small mammal communities in insular forest fragments.
Current Biology, 32 (13).
2997-3004.e2.
ISSN 0960-9822
Abstract
As tropical forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, understanding the magnitude and time frame of biodiversity declines is vital for 21st century sustainability goals. Over three decades, we monitored post-isolation changes in small mammal species richness and abundance within a forest landscape fragmented by the construction of a dam in Thailand.1,2 We observed the near-complete collapse of species richness within 33 years, with no evidence of a recolonization effect across repeatedly sampled islands. Our results further revealed a decline in species richness as island size decreased and isolation time increased, accelerated by the increasing dominance of the ubiquitous Malayan field rat, Rattus tiomanicus. This species was already hyper-abundant on smaller islands in the initial surveys (1992–1994, 66% of individuals) but became monodominant on all islands, regardless of island size, by the most recent survey (2020, 97%). Our results suggest that insular forest fragments are highly susceptible to rapid species loss, particularly due to the competitive nature of Rattus accelerating the rate at which extinction debts are paid. To mitigate these impacts, reducing the extent of habitat degradation, as triggered by fragmentation and exacerbated by isolation time, can help to sustain native biodiversity while averting Rattus hyper-abundance.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding Information: We thank three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Permission to conduct this research was obtained from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) with the consent of the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. L.G. was supported by the China Thousand Young Talents Program ( K18291101 ), as a Guangdong Government distinguished expert ( K20293101 ), and by the Shenzhen Government ( Y01296116 ). We are grateful to Saifon Sittimongkol and Phairote Rhittikun for valued help in the field and to Kriangsak Sribuarod and the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Research Center for logistical support. Funding Information: We thank three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Permission to conduct this research was obtained from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) with the consent of the Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. L.G. was supported by the China Thousand Young Talents Program (K18291101), as a Guangdong Government distinguished expert (K20293101), and by the Shenzhen Government (Y01296116). We are grateful to Saifon Sittimongkol and Phairote Rhittikun for valued help in the field and to Kriangsak Sribuarod and the Khlong Saeng Wildlife Research Center for logistical support. J.H.M. A.F.P. C.A.P. and L.G. designed the study. J.H.M. A.F.P. and L.G. conducted surveys. J.H.M. and A.F.P. analyzed the data. D.N. provided logistical support. J.H.M. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors contributed to the revision of the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Inc. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | extinction debt,forest fragmentation,habitat loss,invasive species,island biogeography,monodominance,rattus,species-area relationship,neuroscience(all),biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology(all),agricultural and biological sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2800 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Mar 2023 10:30 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Jul 2023 08:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/91629 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.053 |
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