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Data from: Strong variation in land-use change impacts on tropical avian phylogenetic diversity between ecoregions highlights the need to sample large spatial scales

Pérez, Giovanny12; Mills, Simon3; Socolar, Jacob45; Edwards, David2

Published Jan 20, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6hdr7srcx

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Jan 20, 2026 version files 489.71 MB

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Abstract

Forest conversion for agriculture is a major cause of tropical biodiversity loss. Quantifying the biodiversity impacts of forest loss is challenging because the severity of outcomes is influenced by spatial scale, with the higher rate of species turnover in forests than in farmland increasing the severity of losses at larger relative to smaller scales. Conservation efforts increasingly prioritise phylogenetic diversity to preserve unique evolutionary history under global change, but how deforestation-driven changes in phylogenetic diversity vary across large spatial scales remains a key question. We compiled a large field database from across 13 biogeographically diverse regions affected by deforestation for cattle farming, covering most of Colombia, a megadiverse tropical country. We use occupancy models to estimate bird communities for 1,614 species across 13 ecoregions and nationally in both forest and pasture habitats. This dataset includes base information and scripts to quantify six different phylogenetic diversity metrics in forest and pasture habitats. and the process to compare changes between habitats and the differences from regional to national scales. It also includes data to estimate and plot changes in phylogenetic trees for bird communities across ecoregions and to replicate the study area map. We found that although single regional-scale loss of phylogenetic diversity was, on averag,e comparable to broader scales, there was high variability between regional units. Such underestimation of national-scale impacts highlights the importance of sampling across multiple regions.