The road to functional recovery : temporal effects of matrix regeneration on Amazonian bats

Farneda, FZ; Rocha, R; Lopez-Baucells, A; Sampaio, EM; Palmeirim, JM; Bobrowiec, PED; Grelle, CEV; Meyer, CFJ

Abstract

Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on taxonomic diversity, little is known in this regard about the functional dimension of biodiversity. We took advantage of an ecosystem-wide fragmentation experiment to investigate longer term changes in functional diversity of a mega-diverse Amazonian bat assemblage associated with regrowth development in the matrix. We found that matrix regeneration affected several facets of bat functional diversity in secondary forest over time, increasing functional α diversity, species- and community-level functional uniqueness, altering functional trait composition, and resulting in functional β-diversity changes via trait gains. However, approximately 30 years of matrix regeneration were insufficient for functional diversity to recover to the same levels as in continuous forest. Our results suggest that a combination of natural, human-assisted, and active restoration is likely to be the most successful strategy for restoring functional biodiversity of bats in human-modified tropical landscapes, a finding that most likely also applies to many other taxa.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 25, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 24, 2018
• Publication Date: May 24, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 29, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: May 29, 2018
• Journal: Tropical Conservation Science
• Electronic ISSN: 1940-0829
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082918777185
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082918777185
• Additional Information: Funders : Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT);Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES);Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq);INCT in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation; Grant Number: PTDC/BIA-BIC/111184/2009; Grant Number: SFRH/BD/80488/2011; Grant Number: MCTIC/CNPq/FAPEG/465610/2014-5