Do riparian reserves support dung beetle biodiversity and ecosystem services in oil palm-dominated tropical landscapes?

Gray, Claudia L. and Slade, Eleanor M. and Mann, Darren J. and Lewis, Owen T. (2014) Do riparian reserves support dung beetle biodiversity and ecosystem services in oil palm-dominated tropical landscapes? Ecology and Evolution, 4 (7). pp. 1049-1060. ISSN 2045-7758

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Abstract

Agricultural expansion and intensification are major threats to global biodiversity, ecological functions, and ecosystem services. The rapid expansion of oil palm in forested tropical landscapes is of particular concern given their high biodiversity. Identifying management approaches that maintain native species and associated ecological processes within oil palm plantations is therefore a priority. Riparian reserves are strips of forest retained alongside rivers in cultivated areas, primarily for their positive hydrological impact. However, they can also support a range of forest-dependent species or ecosystem services. We surveyed communities of dung beetles and measured dung removal activity in an oil palm-dominated landscape in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The species richness, diversity, and functional group richness of dung beetles in riparian reserves were significantly higher than in oil palm, but lower than in adjacent logged forests. The community composition of the riparian reserves was more similar to logged forest than oil palm. Despite the pronounced differences in biodiversity, we did not find significant differences in dung removal rates among land uses. We also found no evidence that riparian reserves enhance dung removal rates within surrounding oil palm. These results contrast previous studies showing positive relationships between dung beetle species richness and dung removal in tropical forests. We found weak but significant positive relationships between riparian reserve width and dung beetle diversity, and between reserve vegetation complexity and dung beetle abundance, suggesting that these features may increase the conservation value of riparian reserves. Synthesis and applications: The similarity between riparian reserves and logged forest demonstrates that retaining riparian reserves increases biodiversity within oil palm landscapes. However, the lack of correlation between dung beetle community characteristics and dung removal highlights the need for further research into spatial variation in biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships and how the results of such studies are affected by methodological choices.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Ecology and Evolution
Additional Information:
© 2014 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2309
Subjects:
?? AGRICULTUREBORNEOCONSERVATIONINSECT DIVERSITYRAINFORESTRIPARIAN BUFFERECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, BEHAVIOR AND SYSTEMATICSECOLOGYNATURE AND LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION ??
ID Code:
69158
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
09 Apr 2014 08:59
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Sep 2023 01:04