Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions
Recent theoretical work suggests that rainforest biotas are not primarily structured by environmental determinism but rather by stochastic processes. We sampled butterflies from primary and disturbed (logged, and burnt) forest landscapes and compared diversity, examined geographic distance and dissi...
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Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425001623 |
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| author | Daniel F.R. Cleary Anna M. Bijlmer Dille Wielakker Nicole J. de Voogd |
| author_facet | Daniel F.R. Cleary Anna M. Bijlmer Dille Wielakker Nicole J. de Voogd |
| author_sort | Daniel F.R. Cleary |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent theoretical work suggests that rainforest biotas are not primarily structured by environmental determinism but rather by stochastic processes. We sampled butterflies from primary and disturbed (logged, and burnt) forest landscapes and compared diversity, examined geographic distance and dissimilarity relationships, and tested for deviations from neutral model predictions. Significant distance dependence was observed in all landscapes except one. All primary forest landscapes deviated significantly from neutral model predictions; in contrast, only one of the disturbed landscapes deviated significantly. Deviation from neutrality in primary forest suggests potentially important contributions of niche specialisation and/or competitive exclusion in structuring butterfly communities. Disturbances like logging or fires, which open up the forest, seem to push these communities toward neutrality with greater species richness and evenness than proximate primary forest. Multiple disturbance events, however, appear to lead to a loss of species while maintaining relatively high evenness and communities consistent with neutral model predictions. Furthermore, the butterfly communities of once- and twice-burnt landscapes appeared to consist of species with greater tolerances to disturbance or able to rebound following disturbance in addition to species, which entered from surrounding severely degraded habitat. Interestingly, a frequently-burnt landscape, now largely devoid of forest, aligned with neutral model predictions. This landscape contained a low-richness, highly impoverished fauna consisting of widespread generalists, but with relatively high evenness. We suggest that differentially disturbed habitats act as environmental filters to butterfly species, but that neutral processes dominate after environmental filtering. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-dc111e007f244c8b8bf539eb1875906a |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2351-9894 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
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| series | Global Ecology and Conservation |
| spelling | doaj-art-dc111e007f244c8b8bf539eb1875906a2025-08-20T02:09:51ZengElsevierGlobal Ecology and Conservation2351-98942025-06-0159e0356110.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03561Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictionsDaniel F.R. Cleary0Anna M. Bijlmer1Dille Wielakker2Nicole J. de Voogd3Department of Biology, CESAM, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal; Corresponding author.Provincie Noord-Holland, sector Natuur en Recreatie, postbus 3007, Haarlem 2001-DA, the NetherlandsProvincie Noord-Holland, sector Beheer en Uitvoering, Unit Ingenieursdiensten, postbus 3007, Haarlem 2001-DA, the NetherlandsNaturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; Institute of Biology (IBL), Leiden University, the Netherlands; Correspondence to: Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.Recent theoretical work suggests that rainforest biotas are not primarily structured by environmental determinism but rather by stochastic processes. We sampled butterflies from primary and disturbed (logged, and burnt) forest landscapes and compared diversity, examined geographic distance and dissimilarity relationships, and tested for deviations from neutral model predictions. Significant distance dependence was observed in all landscapes except one. All primary forest landscapes deviated significantly from neutral model predictions; in contrast, only one of the disturbed landscapes deviated significantly. Deviation from neutrality in primary forest suggests potentially important contributions of niche specialisation and/or competitive exclusion in structuring butterfly communities. Disturbances like logging or fires, which open up the forest, seem to push these communities toward neutrality with greater species richness and evenness than proximate primary forest. Multiple disturbance events, however, appear to lead to a loss of species while maintaining relatively high evenness and communities consistent with neutral model predictions. Furthermore, the butterfly communities of once- and twice-burnt landscapes appeared to consist of species with greater tolerances to disturbance or able to rebound following disturbance in addition to species, which entered from surrounding severely degraded habitat. Interestingly, a frequently-burnt landscape, now largely devoid of forest, aligned with neutral model predictions. This landscape contained a low-richness, highly impoverished fauna consisting of widespread generalists, but with relatively high evenness. We suggest that differentially disturbed habitats act as environmental filters to butterfly species, but that neutral processes dominate after environmental filtering.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425001623BorneoCommunity compositionIndonesiaNeutral model |
| spellingShingle | Daniel F.R. Cleary Anna M. Bijlmer Dille Wielakker Nicole J. de Voogd Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions Global Ecology and Conservation Borneo Community composition Indonesia Neutral model |
| title | Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions |
| title_full | Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions |
| title_fullStr | Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions |
| title_short | Impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities: Diversity, distance dependence, and neutral model predictions |
| title_sort | impact of landscape disturbance on butterfly communities diversity distance dependence and neutral model predictions |
| topic | Borneo Community composition Indonesia Neutral model |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989425001623 |
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