Preprint
Variable responses of individual species to tropical forest degradation
bioRxiv, Vol.12 February 2024
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
2024
Abstract
The functional stability of ecosystems depends greatly on interspecific differences in responses to environmental perturbation. However, responses to perturbation are not necessarily invariant among populations of the same species, so intraspecific variation in responses might also contribute. Such inter-population response diversity has recently been shown to occur spatially across species ranges, but we lack estimates of the extent to which individual populations across an entire community might have perturbation responses that vary through time. We assess this using 524 taxa that have been repeatedly surveyed for the effects of tropical forest logging at a focal landscape in Sabah, Malaysia. Just 39 % of taxa – all with non-significant responses to forest degradation – had invariant responses. All other taxa (61 %) showed significantly different responses to the same forest degradation gradient across surveys, with 6 % of taxa responding to forest degradation in opposite directions across multiple surveys. Individual surveys had low power (< 80 %) to determine the correct direction of response to forest degradation for one-fifth of all taxa. Recurrent rounds of logging disturbance increased the prevalence of intra-population response diversity, while uncontrollable environmental variation and/or turnover of intraspecific phenotypes generated variable responses in at least 44 % of taxa. Our results show that the responses of individual species to local environmental perturbations are remarkably flexible, likely providing an unrealised boost to the stability of disturbed habitats such as logged tropical forests
Details
- Title
- Variable responses of individual species to tropical forest degradation
- Authors
- Robert M Ewers - Imperial College LondonWilliam D Pearse - Imperial College LondonC David L Orme - Imperial College LondonPriyanga Amarasekare - University of California, Los AngelesTijmen De Lorm - Imperial College LondonNatasha Granville - Imperial College LondonRahayu Adzhar - Imperial College LondonDavid C Aldridge - University of CambridgeMarc Ancrenaz (Author)Georgina Atton (Author) - University of BristolSee article text for complete list of authors (Author)Emma Mackintosh - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
- Publication details
- bioRxiv, Vol.12 February 2024
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
- DOI
- 10.1101/2024.02.09.576668
- ISSN
- 2692-8205
- Organisation Unit
- Indigenous Services - Legacy; Tropical Forests & People Research Centre; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991006998202621
- Output Type
- Preprint
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