Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T20:43:39.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Selective logging does not alter termite response to soil gradients in Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2021

Renato Almeida de Azevedo Open the ORCID record for Renato Almeida de Azevedo [Opens in a new window] ,
Quézia Cristina Lima Santos ,
Isadora Essig Fluck ,
Domingos J. Rodrigues Open the ORCID record for Domingos J. Rodrigues [Opens in a new window] ,
Leandro D. Battirola  and
Cristian de Sales Dambros Open the ORCID record for Cristian de Sales Dambros [Opens in a new window]
Renato Almeida de Azevedo*
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia - INPA, Coordenação de Biodiversidade - COBIO, Av. André Araújo, 2936, Petrópolis, Manaus, AM, Brazil
Quézia Cristina Lima Santos
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade (PPGECB), Instituto de Biociência, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Isadora Essig Fluck
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil
Domingos J. Rodrigues
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade (PPGECB), Instituto de Biociência, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Leandro D. Battirola
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Campus Universitário de Sinop, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Ambientais (PPGCAM), Instituto de Ciências Naturais, Humanas e Sociais, Sinop, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Cristian de Sales Dambros
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil
*
Author for correspondence:*Renato Almeida de Azevedo, Email: azevedo.inpa@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Selective logging has been widely employed as a management practice in tropical forests due to its reduced impact on biodiversity. However, by altering microclimatic conditions, logging could affect soil fauna responsible for nutrient cycling and the long-term dynamic of the forest. We investigated how selective logging affected termite species richness, composition, and the distribution of species in trophic groups, as well as the natural response of termites to gradients of soil conditions. Termites and edaphic variables were sampled in 32 permanent plots in southern Amazonia. Plots were subject to selective logging for 10–31 years before termite sampling. Time post-management was associated with changes in termite species composition, and wood-feeding termites were more abundant in recently logged areas. Nevertheless, most of the variation in termite species richness and composition can be attributed to the natural variation in soil clay content. Moreover, soil-dweller species, a vulnerable group strongly linked to soil decomposition, were present in all plots. These results suggest that the impact of selective logging on termite communities might be milder compared with other types of disturbance. It is likely that the decomposition process performed by termites, and consequently long-term ecosystem functioning, is preserved under selective logging.

Keywords

Amazonian ForestDisturbanceTermite compositionTrophic groupSoil Fauna
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 43 - 49
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, IL, Constantino, R, Gauch, HG Jr, Lehmann, J, Riha, SJ and Fernandes, ECM (2009) Termite (Insecta: Isoptera) species composition in a primary rain forest and agroforests in central Amazonia. Biotropica 41, 226–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandeira, AG and Vasconcellos, A (2002) A quantitative survey of termites in a gradient of disturbed highland forest in northeastern Brazil (Isoptera). Sociobiology 39, 429–439.Google Scholar
Baselga, A, Orme, D, Villeger, S, et al. (2017) betapart: Partitioning Beta Diversity into Turnover and Nestedness Components. – R package ver. 1, 4–1. Available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=betapart Google Scholar
Blanc, L, Echard, M, Herault, B, Bonal, D, Marcon, E, Chave, J and Baraloto, C (2009) Dynamics of aboveground carbon stocks in a selectively logged tropical forest. Ecological Applications 19, 1397–1404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brasil (1979) Departamento Nacional da Produção Mineral. Projeto RADAM. Folha SC21. Juruena. Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Costa, FRC, Guillaumet, JL, Lima, AP and Pereira, OS (2009) Gradients within gradients: the mesoscale distribution patterns of palms in a central Amazonian forest. Journal of Vegetation Science 20, 69–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constantino, R (1999) Chave ilustrada para a identificação dos gêneros de cupins (Insecta: Isoptera) que ocorrem no Brasil. Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 40, 387–448.Google Scholar
Dambros, CdS, da Silva, VNV, Azevedo, R and de Morais, JW (2013) Road-associated edge effects in Amazonia change termite community composition by modifying environmental conditions. Journal for Nature Conservation 21, 279–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dambros, CS, Morais, JW, Azevedo, RA and Gotelli, NJ (2017) Isolation by distance, not rivers, control the distribution of termite species in the Amazonian rain forest. Ecography 40, 1242–1250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dambros, CS, Morais, JW, Vasconcellos, A and Franklin, E (2020) Defining a termite sampling protocol for ecological studies: An effective method to increase statistical power. European Journal of Soil Biology 96, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawes-Gromadzki, TZ (2007) Short-term effects of low intensity fire on soil macroinvertebrate assemblages in different vegetation patch types in an Australian tropical savanna. Austral Ecology 32, 663–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dibog, L, Eggleton, P, Norgrove, L, Bignell, DE and Hauser, S (1999) Impacts of canopy cover on soil termite assemblages in an agrisilvicultural system in southern Cameroon. Bulletin of Entomological Research 89, 125–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donovan, SE, Eggleton, P and Bignell, DE (2001) Gut content analysis and a new feeding group classification of termites. Ecological Entomology 26, 356–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggleton, P, Bignell, DE, Sands, WA, Mawdsley, NA, Lawton, JH, Wood, TG and Bignell, NC (1996). The diversity, abundance and biomass of termites under differeing levels of disturbance in the Mbalmayo Forest Reserve, southern Cameroon. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 351, 51–68.Google Scholar
Eggleton, P, Bignell, DE, Hauser, S, Dibog, L, Norgrove, L and Madong, B (2002) Termite 327 diversity across an anthropogenic disturbance gradient in the humid forest zone of West Africa. 328 Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 90, 189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferreira, LV, Sá, R, Buschbacher, R, Batmanian, G, Silva, JMC and Moretti, E (1999) Identificação de áreas prioritárias para a Conservação da Biodiversidade através da Representatividade das Unidades de Conservação e Tipos de Vegetação nas Ecorregiões da Amazônia Brasileira. Ações Prioritárias para a Conservação da Biodiversidade da Amazônia. Programa Nacional da Diversidade Biológica, PROBIO. Ministério do Meio Ambiente. Instituto Sócio Ambiental.Google Scholar
Fittkau, EJ and Klinge, H (1973) On biomass and trophic structure of the central Amazonian rain forest ecosystem. Biotropica 5, 2–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman, RTT and Alexander, LE (1998) Roads and their major ecological effects. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 8, 629–644.Google Scholar
Griffiths, HM, Ashton, LA, Evans, TA, Parr, CL and Eggleton, P (2019) Termites can decompose more than half of deadwood in tropical rainforest. Current Biology 29, 118–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, J, Neoh, K-B, Appel, AG and Lee, C-Y (2012) Subterranean termite open-air foraging and tolerance to desiccation: Comparative water relation of two sympatric Macrotermes spp. (Blattodea: Termitidae). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 161, 201–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, DT and Eggleton, P (2000) Sampling termite assemblages in tropical forests: testing a rapid biodiversity assessment protocol. Journal of Applied Ecology 37, 191–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouquet, P, Traoré, S, Choosai, C, Hartmann, C and Bignell, D (2011) Influence of termites on ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem services provided by termites. European Journal of Soil Biology 47, 215–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, L (2007) Partitioning diversity into independent alpha and beta components. Ecology 88, 2427–2439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunz, SH, Ivanauskas, NM, Martins, SV, Silva, E and Stefanello, D (2008) Aspectos florísticos e fitossociológicos de um trecho de Floresta Estacional Perenifólia na Fazenda Trairão, Bacia do rio das Pacas, Querência-MT. Acta Amazonica 38, 245–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurance, WF, Lovejoy, TE, Vasconcelos, HL, Bruna, EM, Didham, RK, Stouffer, PC, Gascon, C, Bierregaard, RO, Laurance, SG and Sampaio, E (2002) Ecosystem decay of Amazonian forest fragments: a 22-year investigation. Conservation Biology 16, 605–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavelle, P, Bignell, D and Lepage, M (1997) Soil function in a changing world: the role of invertebrate ecosystem engineers. European Journal of Soil Biology 33, 159–193.Google Scholar
Magnusson, WE, Lima, AP, Luizão, R, Luizão, F, Costa, FRC, Castilho, CV and Kinupp, VF (2005) RAPELD: a modification of the Gentry method for biodiversity surveys in long-term ecological research sites. Biota Neotropica 5, 19–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinney, ML and Lockwood, JL (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14, 450–453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moulatlet, G and Emilio, T (2011) Protocolo coleta de solos. Disponível em http://ppbio.inpa.gov.br/noticias/protocolo_solo.Google Scholar
Oberst, S, Lenz, MJ, Lai, CS and Evans, TA (2019) Termites manipulate moisture content of wood to maximize foraging resources. Biology Letters 15, 20190365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okwakol, MJN (2000) Changes in termite (Isoptera) communities due to the clearance and cultivation of tropical forest in Uganda. African Journal of Ecology 38, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oksanen, J, Blanchet, FG, Friendly, M, Kindt, R, Legendre, P, McGlinn, D, Minchin, PR, O’Hara, RB, Simpson, GL, Solymos, P, Henry, M, Stevens, H, Szoecs, E and Wagner, H (2018) R package version 2.5-1. Available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan.Google Scholar
Pie, MR, Rosengaus, RB and Traniello, JFA (2004) Nest architecture, activity pattern, worker density and the dynamics of disease transmission in social insects. Journal of Theoretical Biology 226, 45–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
R Core Team (2019) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Available at https://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar
Roisin, Y and Leponce, M (2004) Characterizing termite assemblages in fragmented forests: A test case in the Argentinean Chaco. Austral Ecology 2004, 637–646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabogal, C, Almeida, E, Marmillod, D and Carvalho, JOP (2006) Silvicultura na Amazônia Brasileira: avaliação de experiências e recomendações para implementação e melhoria dos sistemas. Belém: CIFOR, 190 pp.Google Scholar
Silva, JNM (1996) Manejo Florestal. Brasília: EMBRAPA-SPI.Google Scholar
Sizer, NC, Tanner, EVJ and Ferraz, IDK (2000) Edge effects on Litterfall mass and nutrient concentrations in forest fragments in central Amazonia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 16, 853–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunday, JM, Bates, AE and Dulvy, NK (2011) Global analysis of thermal tolerance and latitude in ectotherms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278, 1823–1830.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vourlitis, GL, Priante-Filho, N, Hayashi, MMS, Nogueira, JS, Caseiro, FT and Campelo, JH (2002) Seasonal variations in the evapotranspiration of the transitional tropical forest, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Water Resource Research 38, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walther, G-R, Post, E, Convey, P, Menzel, A, Parmesan, C, Beebee, TJC, Fromentin, J-M, Hoegh-Guldberg, O and Bairlein, F (2002) Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature 416, 389–395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Y, Ziv, G, Adami, M, Mitchard, E, Batterman, SA, Buermann, W, Schwantes Marimon, B, Marimon Junior, BH, Matias Reis, S, Rodrigues, D and Galbraith, D (2019) Mapping tropical disturbed forests using multi-decadal 30 m optical satellite imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment 221, 474–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Azevedo et al. supplementary material

Azevedo et al. supplementary material

Download Azevedo et al. supplementary material(File)
File 320.5 KB