10.5061/DRYAD.F180J
Uezu, Alexandre
Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas
Metzger, Jean Paul
University of Sao Paulo
Data from: Time-lag in responses of birds to Atlantic Forest
fragmentation: restoration opportunity and urgency
Dryad
dataset
2016
landscape dynamics
Ecological debt
Extinction debt
2016-01-29T21:32:53Z
2016-01-29T21:32:53Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147909
890798 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
There are few opportunities to evaluate the relative importance of
landscape structure and dynamics upon biodiversity, especially in highly
fragmented tropical landscapes. Conservation strategies and species risk
evaluations often rely exclusively on current aspects of landscape
structure, although such limited assumptions are known to be misleading
when time-lag responses occur. By relating bird functional-group richness
to forest patch size and isolation in ten-year intervals (1956, 1965,
1978, 1984, 1993 and 2003), we revealed that birds with different
sensitivity to fragmentation display contrasting responses to landscape
dynamics in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. For non-sensitive groups, there
was no time-lag in response: the recent degree of isolation best explains
their variation in richness, which likely relates to these species’
flexibility to adapt to changes in landscape structure. However, for
sensitive bird groups, the 1978 patch area was the best explanatory
variable, providing evidence for a 25-year time-lag in response to habitat
reduction. Time-lag was more likely in landscapes that encompass large
patches, which can support temporarily the presence of some sensitive
species, even when habitat cover is relatively low. These landscapes
potentially support the most threatened populations and should be
priorities for restoration efforts to avoid further species loss. Although
time-lags provide an opportunity to counteract the negative consequences
of fragmentation, it also reinforces the urgency of restoration actions.
Fragmented landscapes will be depleted of biodiversity if landscape
structure is only maintained, and not improved. The urgency of restoration
action may be even higher in landscapes where habitat loss and
fragmentation history is older and where no large fragment remained to act
temporarily as a refuge.
Maps from Pontal do ParanapanemaThis file contains maps in shapefile
format from Pontal do Paranapanema from years 1956, 1965, 1978, 1984, 1993
and 2003.PontalMaps.zipBird data and Landscape metricsThis file contains
the dependent and independent data from the manuscript. The independent
data correspond to the landscape metrics (Area and degree of Proximity)
from the years 1978, 1984 and 2003 for each studied patch. And the
dependent data are the richness of bird groups observed in each patch.
Pontal do Paranapanema
Atlantic Forest