TY - JOUR
T1 - Warning signals of biodiversity collapse across gradients of tropical forest loss
AU - Roque, Fabio De Oliveira
AU - Menezes, Jorge F.S.
AU - Northfield, Tobin
AU - Ochoa-Quintero, Jose Manuel
AU - Campbell, Mason J.
AU - Laurance, William F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - We evaluate potential warning signals that may aid in identifying the proximity of ecological communities to biodiversity thresholds from habitat loss - often termed "tipping points" - in tropical forests. We used datasets from studies of Neotropical mammal, frog, bird, and insect communities. Our findings provide only limited evidence that an increase in the variance (heteroskedasticity) of biodiversity-related parameters can provide a general warning signal of impending threshold changes in communities, as forest loss increases. However, such an apparent effect was evident for amphibians in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Amazonian mammal and bird communities, suggesting that impending changes in some species assemblages might be predictable. We consider the potential of such warning signs to help forecast drastic changes in biodiversity.
AB - We evaluate potential warning signals that may aid in identifying the proximity of ecological communities to biodiversity thresholds from habitat loss - often termed "tipping points" - in tropical forests. We used datasets from studies of Neotropical mammal, frog, bird, and insect communities. Our findings provide only limited evidence that an increase in the variance (heteroskedasticity) of biodiversity-related parameters can provide a general warning signal of impending threshold changes in communities, as forest loss increases. However, such an apparent effect was evident for amphibians in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Amazonian mammal and bird communities, suggesting that impending changes in some species assemblages might be predictable. We consider the potential of such warning signs to help forecast drastic changes in biodiversity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041133818&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-19985-9
DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-19985-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 29374216
AN - SCOPUS:85041133818
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 8
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 1622
ER -