Logging cuts the functional importance of invertebrates in tropical rainforest
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Boyle, Michael JW
Gleave, Rosalind A
Plowman, Nichola S
Benedick, Suzan
Bernard, Henry
Bishop, Tom R
Bakhtiar, Effendi Y
Vun, Khen Chey
Chung, Arthur YC
Davies, Richard G
Edwards, David P
Eggleton, Paul
Fayle, Tom M
Hardwick, Stephen R
Homathevi, Rahman
Kitching, Roger L
Khoo, Min Sheng
Luke, Sarah H
March, Joshua J
Nilus, Reuben
Pfeifer, Marion
Rao, Sri V
Sharp, Adam C
Snaddon, Jake L
Stork, Nigel E
Struebig, Matthew J
Wearn, Oliver R
Yusah, Kalsum M
Turner, Edgar C
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Abstract
Invertebrates are dominant species in primary tropical rainforests, where their abundance and diversity contributes to the functioning and resilience of these globally important ecosystems. However, more than one-third of tropical forests have been logged, with dramatic impacts on rainforest biodiversity that may disrupt key ecosystem processes. We find that the contribution of invertebrates to three ecosystem processes operating at three trophic levels (litter decomposition, seed predation and removal, and invertebrate predation) is reduced by up to one-half following logging. These changes are associated with decreased abundance of key functional groups of termites, ants, beetles and earthworms, and an increase in the abundance of small mammals, amphibians and insectivorous birds in logged relative to primary forest. Our results suggest that ecosystem processes themselves have considerable resilience to logging, but the consistent decline of invertebrate functional importance is indicative of a human-induced shift in how these ecological processes operate in tropical rainforests.
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Nature Communications
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6
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© The Author(s) 2015.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Ecosystem function