title: Does logging and forest conversion to oil palm agriculture alter functional diversity in a biodiversity hotspot?
abstract: Forests in Southeast Asia are rapidly being logged and converted to oil palm. These changes in land-use are known to affect species diversity but consequences for the functional diversity of species assemblages are poorly understood. Environmental filtering of species with similar traits could lead to disproportionate reductions in trait diversity in degraded habitats. Here, we focus on dung beetles, which play a key role in ecosystem processes such as nutrient recycling and seed dispersal. We use morphological and behavioural traits to calculate a variety of functional diversity measures across a gradient of disturbance from primary forest through intensively logged forest to oil palm. Logging caused significant shifts in community composition but had very little effect on functional diversity, even after a repeated timber harvest. These data provide evidence for functional redundancy of dung beetles within primary forest and emphasize the high value of logged forests as refugia for biodiversity. In contrast, conversion of forest to oil palm greatly reduced taxonomic and functional diversity, with a marked decrease in the abundance of nocturnal foragers, a higher proportion of species with small body sizes and the complete loss of telecoprid species (dung-rollers), all indicating a decrease in the functional capacity of dung beetles within plantations. These changes also highlight the vulnerability of community functioning within logged forests in the event of further environmental degradation.
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Leeds Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield Sheffield, UK ; School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University Cairns, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Science and Knowledge Division, Conservation International Arlington, VA, USA.
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: School of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benedick
authors.affiliation: Sepilok Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Sepilok Forest Research Centre, Sabah Forestry Department Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vun Khen
authors.affiliation: Woodrow Wilson School and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Wilcove
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, University of Leeds Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Hamer
keywords: Borneo; deforestation; ecosystem services; habitat change; palm oil; tropical forest
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