Limited evidence of biodiversity spillover from forest fragments into oil palm plantations in the Amazon
Data files
Jun 03, 2025 version files 186.74 KB
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birds_data.csv
136.36 KB
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new_all_data.csv
47.40 KB
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README.md
2.98 KB
Abstract
Oil palm expansion is a major driver of the biodiversity extinction crisis. Emerging frontiers of oil palm development in the Amazon risk major biodiversity loss. Spillover of biodiversity from adjacent forest fragments into plantations may reduce the loss of functional and phylogenetic diversity, but the extent of this effect remains unclear.
We surveyed bird communities in large forest fragments and oil palm plantations in the Brazilian Amazon during the dry seasons of 2012 and 2016. We assessed the loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity due to forest conversion, its impact on community structure, and whether the percentage of forest and proximity to fragments in oil palm points mitigate losses.
Compared to forest fragments, oil palm plantations exhibited lower phylogenetic and functional diversity. Conversion had a strong negative effect on functional structure, shifting communities from overdispersed to clustered, while phylogenetic structure remained largely unchanged. Trait composition also differed significantly between habitats, with shifts in the distribution of traits related to foraging behaviour, movement, and flight efficiency.
Surrounding forest cover did not mitigate the loss of functional and phylogenetic diversity in plantations. Although bird communities closer to forest edges showed higher mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD) and its standardized value (sesMNTD), the spillover effect was weak, as indicated by the low R² in our models.
Synthesis and Applications: Converting primary forest into oil palm plantations results in substantial biodiversity losses, highlighting the urgent need to preserve the few remaining large forest fragments in the area. Measures that enhance matrix permeability are essential to conserving the evolutionary and functional integrity of Amazonian landscapes and mitigating the negative effects of oil palm expansion.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.c59zw3rm6
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset contains bird diversity data collected using point counts along 22 transects (11 in oil palm plantations and 11 in adjacent forest fragments) in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Surveys were conducted to assess avian community composition and richness across contrasting land-use types. The dataset includes species abundance information, as well as point-level values for six phylogenetic diversity and six functional diversity metrics. Transect-level metadata, including habitat type, geographic coordinates, and landscape variables, are also provided. These data support the analyses presented in Cardoso et al. (2025).
Files and variables
File: birds_data.csv
Description:
Variables
- site: ID code of the point count for which species have been registered.
- Habitat: The habitat in which species were recorded
- Column C to KB: species registered during the study (species names following Jetz et al. 2012) and their respective abundances.
File: new_all_data.csv
Description:
Variables
- n: number of observations
- Habitat.x: Habitat to which the point belongs to
- Year: the year when the data collection took place
- Transect.x: ID code to the transect to which the poin-count bellongs to
- point: observation number inside he transect
- code: ID code of the point-count
- long: Geographic coordinates Longitude (decimal format)
- lat: Geographic coordinates Latitude (decimal format)
- Dist_source: Linear distance (in meters) to the closest forest fragment larger than 1000 ha.
- Pland_forest: Proportion of forest cover in a 1km buffer.
- Area_for.ha.: Area of forest cover in a 1km buffer
- Sp_richness: total number of species registered in the point
- meanMPD: Mean Pairwise Distance (Phylogenetic diversity)
- meansesMPD: Standardised effect size of the Mean Pairwise distance (Phylogenetic diversity)
- meanMNTD: Mean Nearest Taxon Distance (Phylogenetic diversity)
- meansesMNTD: Standardised effect size of the Mean Nearest Taxon Distance (Phylogenetic diversity)
- meanPD: Mean Phylogenetic Diversity index
- meansesPD: Standardised effect size of the Phylogenetic Diversity index
- FD: Functional Diversity indx
- SES.FD: Standardised effect size of the Functional Diversity index
- MPD.func: Mean Pairwise Distance (Functional Diversity)
- SES.MPD: Standardised effect size of the Mean Pairwise distance (Functional Diversity)
- MNTD.func: Mean Nearest Taxon Distance (Functional Diversity)
- SES.MNTD: Standardised effect size of the Mean Nearest Taxon Distance (Functional Diversity)
Code/software
Phylogenetic Diversity and Functional Diversity metrics were calculated using the picante package within the R environment (R Core Team, 2020).