Dharmesh Singh1,2, J W Ferry Slik3, Yoon-Seong Jeon4, Kyle W Tomlinson1, Xiaodong Yang5, Jin Wang5, Dorsaf Kerfahi6, Dorota L Porazinska7, Jonathan M Adams8. 1. Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China. 2. Environmental Biotechnology & Genomics Division, CSIR-NEERI, Nehru Marg, Nagpur, MH, 440020, India. 3. Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku, BE1410, Brunei Darussalam. 4. ChunLab Inc., Bldg. 105-1, Suite #307, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea. 5. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan, 666303, China. 6. Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-Gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea. 7. Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, IFAS, 1881 Natural Area Drive, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA. 8. School of Geography and Ocean Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu Province, China. geograph.ecol@gmail.com.
Abstract
Tropical rainforests play important roles in carbon sequestration and are hot spots for biodiversity. Tropical forests are being replaced by rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations, causing widespread concern of a crash in biodiversity. Such changes in aboveground vegetation might have stronger impacts on belowground biodiversity. We studied tropical rainforest fragments and derived rubber plantations at a network of sites in Xishuangbanna, China, hypothesizing a major decrease in diversity with conversion to plantations. We used metabarcoding of the 18S rRNA gene and recovered 2313 OTUs, with a total of 449 OTUs shared between the two land-use types. The most abundant phyla detected were Annelida (66.4% reads) followed by arthropods (15.5% reads) and nematodes (8.9% reads). Of these, only annelids were significantly more abundant in rubber plantation. Taken together, α- and β-diversity were significantly higher in forest than rubber plantation. Soil pH and spatial distance explained a significant portion of the variability in phylogenetic community structure for both land-use types. Community assembly was primarily influenced by stochastic processes. Overall it appears that forest replacement by rubber plantation results in an overall loss and extensive replacement of soil micro- and mesofaunal biodiversity, which should be regarded as an additional aspect of the impact of forest conversion.
Tropical rainforests play important roles in class="Chemical">carbon sequestration and are hot sclass="Chemical">pots for biodiversity. Troclass="Chemical">pical forests are being reclass="Chemical">placed by rubber (class="Chemical">pan class="Species">Hevea brasiliensis) plantations, causing widespread concern of a crash in biodiversity. Such changes in aboveground vegetation might have stronger impacts on belowground biodiversity. We studied tropical rainforest fragments and derived rubber plantations at a network of sites in Xishuangbanna, China, hypothesizing a major decrease in diversity with conversion to plantations. We used metabarcoding of the 18S rRNA gene and recovered 2313 OTUs, with a total of 449 OTUs shared between the two land-use types. The most abundant phyla detected were Annelida (66.4% reads) followed by arthropods (15.5% reads) and nematodes (8.9% reads). Of these, only annelids were significantly more abundant in rubber plantation. Taken together, α- and β-diversity were significantly higher in forest than rubber plantation. Soil pH and spatial distance explained a significant portion of the variability in phylogenetic community structure for both land-use types. Community assembly was primarily influenced by stochastic processes. Overall it appears that forest replacement by rubber plantation results in an overall loss and extensive replacement of soil micro- and mesofaunal biodiversity, which should be regarded as an additional aspect of the impact of forest conversion.
Authors: Luke Gibson; Tien Ming Lee; Lian Pin Koh; Barry W Brook; Toby A Gardner; Jos Barlow; Carlos A Peres; Corey J A Bradshaw; William F Laurance; Thomas E Lovejoy; Navjot S Sodhi Journal: Nature Date: 2011-09-14 Impact factor: 49.962